Bought 1st ILDA Projector, shopping for controller software

[JaseFOS]

Howdy Laserists,

Bear with me I'm new here however have been lurking for a couple of years now.

Now that my hobby (electronic dance music production, synth sound design and DJing) has become a day job, I decided I needed a new hobby. It was either Hang-gliding or lasering!
The decision was easy of course!

So I took the plunge earlier this year and, for some instant gratification, while visiting one of my DJ shop retailers, splurged on a Dune Systems Graphic Green II (LAS 180/G). The main reason I bought it over the rest of the DMX-only toys in the shop was its ILDA port. 100mW 532nM 20K Galvos ... OK it's nothing compared to the big boys toys however its fine for my large garage studio, house parties and small clubs.

To date I've been enjoying syncronising its sound-to-light auto show mode to my DJ sets by feeding it a dedicated metronome tick audio signal from a spare output on my Audio 8 DJ audio interface from Traktor Scratch Pro ... in fact I use the laser as a means to visually check the accuracy of the beat grids when doing preparation sessions in Traktor.

So now I have a ridiculously tightly syncronised single colour laser show for my DJ rig - but of course I'm bored of the inbuilt show and, being a graphic designer throughout most of the 90s, I'm compelled to create my own beam shows and aerials and make use of that ILDA port.

I've been pouring over the Pangolin site for quite a while now - and I *think* a good start for me will be FB3-XE with Quickshow (i'm about to place my order with Pangolin now) however I have some questions.

#1 Although I'm a PC head for many years, I use a Mac Book Pro for DJing and would prefer to not have to bring 2 laptops whenever I perform. Is Pangolin ever considering supporting OSX? It seems not at this stage so are others having success with QuickShow via VMware or other solutions? (i.e. Bootcamp is what I use normally at the office for office work however I want to run Traktor SCratch Pro simultaneously ...)

#2 Will Quickshow accept an audio input so that I can feed it a Metronome tick from Traktor for dead-accurately syncronised shows?

#3 I have a large collection of different MIDI control surfaces in my music studio - some even with motorised faders (Mackie Control Universal Pro plus two extender modules - 24 faders with displays above each fader) ... I'm not counting on MCU protocol to be supported in QuickShow (parameters being displayed above faders is great with my music software) so I have other generic controllers I can use (Behringer BCR2000 and BCF2000). Has MIDI controller functionality been clipped out of LivePro for the entry level Quickshow application?

#4 I like the look of some of the other packages out there which give Open GL rendered simulations of beamshow output - I couldn't see this on QuickShow.

#5 Is there an upgrade path for Quickshow owners to LivePro? If so will FB3 work with Quickshow or will I need LD2000 hardware?

#6 I see FB3 will accept up to 128Mb XD format picture card - are larger capacities unofficially supported?

#7 I plan to eventually buy another Green projector (maybe the Dune Graphic Green 2 again if that works out well - time will tell) and then, gasp, take the plunge and build a RGB laser ... Can I run multiple FB3's on the one system OK?

#8 Is there other software I should be considering instead of Quickshow? Others which will support FB3?


Cheers and thanks in advance to the kind souls who spend the time answering my questions. I hope to be contributing and helping others on this forum as my knowledge grows just as I have done for years on other music production forums.

I have an itchy finger on the "order" button at Pangolin so by the time others answer I may just have gone ahead anyway ...

Cheers and Beers!

JaseFOS from the land of Oz.

[mikkojay]

Hey JaseFOS,
That's a pretty diverse block of questions there- you might be best off picking up the phone and giving Pangolin a call. That would be the fastest, most accurate route to gather your answers. I am sure many here will agree that the FB3 would work great for you. It sounds like LivePro would suit you too. I believe there is an FB3 version, as well as a QM version of LivePro. Also, if you get an FB3 now and decide to go the full QM route someday, you would have no problem recovering the vast majority of your initial investment. All Pangolin gear holds its value extremely well. Good luck with whichever way you go- it sounds like you have a great background for this stuff.
-Mike