There are many PC to DMX products out there, some using freeware interfaces and other using their own software. Visual DMX comes bundled with its own software. The real question is, is this a suitable replacement for a lighting desk?

There are literally thousands of combinations you can choose from when going down the PC DMX route and VisualDMX is one of many.  In essence there are 2 different routes you can take when choosing a PC DMX solution: You can choose the software and find an interface or you can buy an all in one solution. The latter tend to be a little bit more expensive but on the whole are much more reliable. An all in one solution is offered by VisualDMX, costing a rather hefty £610.

 The price may immediately put some people off as it could turn out to be an expensive “experiment”, please read on to the end of the review as what follows may change your opinion completely.  Before I go into the review just think about the costs of a decent lighting desk that can control 512ch of DMX and that along with a PC fits in a 4u flight case. You can’t find anything can you? Ok let’s broaden the search a bit, can you find a decent DMX board that makes controlling matrixes easy or has a 3D visualizer? There is nothing that comes close. Alright maybe there are other PC solutions out there, but each one I have tried apart from Martin Light Jockey fails to live up to expectations.

If like me you are put off by the price then there is really one defining reason why all in one solutions cost more, they just work. The software is compatible with the hardware and you can install both the VisualDMX unit and software within 10 minutes. Give it another 10 minutes after installing and reading the manual a bit and you will be able to control your whole lighting rig. That’s the one thing I really love about VisualDMX, you do not have to update anything or do this, then press that, then re-boot etc. Plug the USB cable in and put the CD in the drive and you are off.

Appearance, I must admit I was quite surprised when the unit arrived all neatly boxed and packaged and upon opening I was even more impressed. All the VisualDMX circuitry is hidden inside a nice little black box. What’s even better is the fact that there is nothing to the box, just a USB in and a DMX out. No fiddly little buttons for on and off or suchlike. This means that you can tuck the unit out of harms reach and just drill a nice 5pin XLR hole into the front of your rack mount PC. Not terribly exciting but never the less well thought out.

Now for the software review, being an all in one package I was expecting the software to be top notch, especially considering the slightly higher price than other products in the same league. My expectations were completely blown out of the water…. The VisualDMX software along with the 3D visualizer is everything I could have asked for and more. What’s best is the fact that it is child’s play to use. Within 4 hours of receiving the unit I was already programming chases and controlling my whole rig. What about larger theatre rigs? The good news is that it controls those with ease too. Weather you are controlling 4 parcans or 400 parcans VisualDMX never fails to impress. It takes around 30mins to set up your rig in VisualDMX and around another few hours to set up the visualization. The program even tells you how to set the dip-switches on each fixture, again a fairly simple task made easier by the fact that it works them out for you.

After inputting your fixtures into VisualDMX then you are ready to go, I must admit if you busk most of the time then VisualDMX will not really fit your requirements. However for a theatre environment where all cues are pre-programmed, VisualDMX will fit your needs perfectly. The interface will take quite some time to get used to but as soon as you know your way around the program you will be amazed at how powerful it is.

Within the cue editor there are a few small features that would usually get skimmed over but I feel that their usefulness must be mentioned. Cues can be triggered via a keyboard both the musical type (via midi) and the computer type. In addition keys can also be assigned from a joystick doing away with a keyboard and mouse completely. I found this feature really useful when doing live events, being able to change states just by pressing a button on my X-Keys controller really did make the operation of the lighting fun.

Another quite useful feature is the teams option; this allows you to group fixtures / conventionals into “teams”. The teams can then be fader up, for instance my “Blue Parcan Team” contains 8 of the blue parcans on stage that I use for a wash. I can bring up all 8 blue parcans just by clicking on its team name and then bring up the intensity. The teams can also be used when programming cutting down on programming time considerably.

Ok so let’s look at the chases/sequences capability of the software; well VisualDMX comes preload with lots of chasers for both conventionals and moving fixtures. This means that you can even start doing events without having to program anything, not something I would recommend but still possible.  The program features both a conventionals editor and a moving fixture editor allowing for much more flexibility.

When it comes to playing back chases both speed and also phase shift can be adjusted on the fly allowing you to get the perfect effect every time. The chases can also be controlled via an audio signal; changing speed to suit a particular song’s BPM. Another little feature that I find handy is the on the fly movement editor meaning you can adjust the bounds of how far a moving head can move and the chase will automatically be adapted. A very small thing to be included in the software but it saves hours of re-programming when arriving at a venue.

When it comes to busking I wouldn’t recommend using PC DMX software at all as you have no actual control of faders making it much harder to get a decent effect. However if you feel confident with doing this then there are a few inclusions in VisualDMX that make your life a little bit easier. One of these is the fact that moving head fixtures can be controlled via a joystick, meaning you can position the moving heads by moving your joystick. I did have a quick experiment with this feature and was able to get a moving head to function almost as a follow spot. I managed to just about follow someone walking around the stage at a normal pace. Again I wouldn’t recommend doing this as it does take quite some practice but again the feature is there should you ever need it.  The software features a visual representation of the gobo, so if you need a star gobo then clicking on the star gobo will give you exactly that. The same with colour, you can tell VisualDMX which colour to change, colour wheel, RGB mixing or choosing from the colour spectrum.

VisualDMX has a huge number of fixture profiles included with the software and hence you will always be able to see which feature available with which light. If that feature is not available for a certain light then it will be greyed out but on selection of a different fixture with these properties then it lights back up again. If you happen to have a light that there is no fixture for then just contact Maarten at VisualDMX and he will be only too happy to make one up for you.

So I have been through most of the main features and it seems like there could be no more to add to this review. However there are more features to talk about so on with the review.

Another feature that I believe is unique to VisualDMX is the Matrix Editor; it allows you to control a matrix with relative ease Again having the ease of use that the rest of the package has, there are already chases in the matrix editor and it is stupidly easy to create your own. Configuring the matrix to get it to work properly is also child’s play. Set the matrix size and then assign the fixtures, if you feel the need to program some chases but I have found the pre-programmed ones to fulfil all of my needs.

If the above has not convinced you to go PC DMX then I do not think anything will as VisualDMX is simply the most powerful piece of software available. There are many other programs out there that do have similar function but none have such a simple interface.

All in all VisualDMX is a must have for any light-jockey as it allows anyone to be able to own a desk. All you need is a computer with a USB port and you can control as many universes as you can afford.