Frequently Asked Questions

DMXDesktop is here to fill the gaps between highly programmed software requiring extensive upfront investment in configuration, and basic DMX Controllers requiring a lot of manual work.

DMXDesktop has been designed to try to give you great shows with as little effort as possible, whilst having extensive enough configuration that you can make it yours.

DMXDesktop relies heavily on automation and pre-programmed effects, which you can customise in various ways such as through color palettes, timing and combining effects in different ways to create a show that is unique to you.

You can specify entirely different effects for different groups of fixtures giving you tons of flexibility but still keeping it simple.

Getting an awesome show up and running within 1 hour of starting the app is not unusual!

Effect Cue's are like bundles of effects. You can setup different movement or light(beam) effects for all your different fixture groups and then save all those effects to a Cue.

A Cue can be replayed at any time, starting all the effects automatically in sync across the different fixture groups.

You may for example, wish to have simple color rotation and movement effects on one group with your moving heads, whilst having pulsating or swapping effects running on your top pars, and yet another effect entirely on another group.

You have the flexibility to preconfigure a Cue as simple or as complex as you wish, you can also set the Cue to be timed so it will run for a specified period before skipping to the next Cue (a bit like a track on a cd).

You can also specify some switches on a Cue, such as Dark On Silence, or Dynamic Energy so the Cue can adjust its speed and intensity automatically based on the music being listened to (subject to having Direct Audio Detection enabled).

Depending on the subscription you choose, the number of universes and channels may vary.

There is no practical limit to the number of universes(subject to a valid subscription granting access to unlimited universes & channels), beyond the physical capabilities of your hardware.

You can broadcast the same universes on any combination of driver too, so if you need universe 1 to output to both sACN, ArtNET and USB DMX you can.

The only limitation will be the capabilities of the computer your using to run the software. Newer generation Apple Silicon Macs are particularly good and fast for example.

Because the effects are real time, it does take a little bit more power to run, although they have been highly optimised for speed, in our testing we have successfully run 100 universes with 512 channels each on an M2 Macbook Pro whilst using less than 10% of CPU and under 1Gb of memory.

The subscription package offering and pricing may be updated from time to time, please check the Subscription page accessible from Settings, My Account in the DMXDesktop app to view the current offers.

Yes! From the Beam Effects or Move Effects tabs on the Console you can specify specific static effects for 1 or many groups.

So you can setup an on-the-fly static scene, or just test out different effects.

Please note: activating the manual effects will disable any currently running Effect Cue - and vice versa.

If you choose a color palette which is blended, some of the colours will be simulated by mixing RGBWAUV values.

Sometimes, this can give a color not quite as specified, and its worth trying to test different palettes until you find the one that best represents the color you want.

It is also important to remember, that if your using a fixture with a color wheel then it can usually only display a fixed color, and if the palette you selected does not include any color available from the color wheel then we attempt to find the closest color, this may also give you a different output than expected. However, this is the nature of how the devices work and there is no simple solution, hence it is better to try to choose a color palette that fits well to your fixtures.

1. Check you have not set a min/max value in the Pan or Tilt channel for the fixture which is restricting the movement.

2. Check that you have not specified a channel width or size that is not too restrictive.

3. Check you have not set in the Cue the Movement setting to a very low value.

By default the Strobe will trigger RGB channels, and Strobe channels if they are set as type Strobe.

Some fixtures which do not have a dedicated Strobe channel, may work if you enable "Strobe Dimmers", which will trigger fluctuating the Dimmer in sync with the Strobe.

You can modify the setting via the "General" tab, on the Settings page.

The order of the fixtures is based on the arrangement, not the dmx addressing, which is not relevant to the order in which lights will be activated.

You can modify the layout via the "Arrangement Tab", there is a detailed walkthrough in our help guides here.

If you want to capture audio into the Direct Audio Detection from the same computer as DMXDesktop is running on instead of via an audio input:

On Windows:
Open the windows sound Settings, then enable the Stereo Mix Output. This device will playback the sound from the computer to a virtual output.

On MacOs:
You can accomplish this by installing a piece of software called Blackhole, from https://existential.audio/blackhole/

You can also install it using Brew:
"brew install blackhole-2ch"

Once installed you can create a virtual audio device which is a combo of multiple audio devices via the "Audio Midi Setup" app, usually found in Applications -> Utilities.

Once you have the output device active, Stereo Mix on windows or a Blackhole device on MacOS, you can simply select this device from the Audio Device list on the Audio Settings tab in DMXDesktop

Currently, DMXDesktop offers the following subscription plans:

Free Plan:

Limited to 1 universe and up to 128 DMX channels.

No access to cloud features, such as Cloud Backups.

Standard Plan:

Access to 2 universes and up to 1024 DMX channels.

Full access to the Fixture Profile Library (limited to 10 downloads per 30 minutes).

Cloud Backups and other cloud services.

Unlimited use by 1 user on 1 device.

Pro Plan:

Unlimited universes and channels (subject to hardware performance).

Full access to the Fixture Profile Library (limited to 10 downloads per 30 minutes).

Cloud Backups and other cloud services.

Unlimited use by 1 user on 1 device.

Additional Information:

The subscription is assigned to the purchaser and linked to 1 device. It cannot be shared with another individual. If you wish to use DMXDesktop on multiple devices, you will need to purchase a separate subscription for each device.

You can migrate your subscription to another device once per rolling 30-day period by unassigning it from the current device and assigning it to the new one.

Please note: The number of universes and DMX channels may impact performance, which can vary depending on your computer's hardware capabilities.

Yes, you can purchase as many licences as you wish via the My Account tab in the settings page.

Each licence can be used to unlock functionality on one device.

Yes! You can purchase a licence on either a monthly rolling subscription, or annually. The choice is yours, but the Annual subscription usually offers some discount.

Generally, you must be connected to the internet to activate the software and log in, access Cloud features (such as Fixture Profile Library, Cloud Backups, Cloud Backup Restore, and Profile Sharing)

However, once this process has been completed, with the exception of Online Only features as mentioned above, you are free to use the software offline for a period of up to 7 days, after which you will be required to log in again if you do not reconnect to the internet during this time to refresh your login token.

Otherwise, your login is automatically renewed frequently to ensure you always have as much time available - more than in most scenarios would be required.

All login providers, such as Google, Facebook etc only provide login tokens that are valid for a short period, we automatically renew these tokens frequently when you're online. However, despite this after some extended period (subject to the login providers service conditions) you may from time to time be asked to login again, but this will only ever happen when your online and connected to the internet and should be infrequent. For example each 6 months or so.

You can always revoke the login via the Providers website, should you for example have your computer lost, damaged or stolen.

Unless cancelled, your subscription should automatically renew every month and so long as you connect to the internet from time to time the licence will be updated.

Even so, if your licence expires during the renewal phase there is always a grace period and you will be informed that your licence needs to be renewed, and you will usually have several days to connect to the internet to receive a renewed licence.

We have taken great steps to ensure that the licencing system whilst robust should never impede your ability to use the software even if your offline for several days, which would be highly unusual in the modern internet world in any case.

We chose a subscription model to make DMXDesktop accessible and continuously innovative. For a low monthly price, you get professional-grade features comparable to often very expensive hardware, without the risk of hardware failures or obsolescence.

Subscriptions include regular updates, ensuring your software evolves with industry trends, unlike hardware that often becomes outdated when new models are released, or can suffer failures.

Over five years, the cost of a subscription is still substantially less than that of comparable solutions, but with DMXDesktop, your investment grows with continuous improvements.

While we're exploring options for perpetual licenses in the future, subscriptions remain the best way to provide maximum value and flexibility to our users today. However, keep in mind that perpetual licenses often come with upgrade costs when new versions are released, something our subscription already includes at no additional charge.

On windows, If you start the Direct Audio capture and it stops with an error, it might be that your missing some standard Microsoft C++ libraries.

These are usually already available, as they come bundled with many applications, especially games, but if your not sure there is no harm installing them.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-microsoft-visual-c-redistributable-version

To remove your account, please send an email to help@dmxdesktop with your request. We typically respond within two business days, and upon confirmation, your account and associated data will be permanently deleted. In accordance with GDPR, some data (including financial records) may be retained strictly for legal compliance.

Every time a payment is made or is pending you will be sent an email in advance by our payment provide Stripe. These emails contain a special link to update your subscription, where you can make changes.

If your having any difficulty then please send an email to [email protected] and we can support you directly.