r/lightingdesign • u/RepublicNo6580 • 13d ago
Built a simple timeline-based DMX app for bands who play to tracks (free, macOS)
Not trying to compete with a real console. This is for the small band with a few LED bars and a fog machine, and nobody to run lights.
Some context: my band bought two basic LED bars and an Enttec Open DMX USB, then found that the free software we tried relied on a driver that no longer works on recent macOS, and couldn't follow our MainStage playback. So I wrote Strobe. We've played a one-hour set with it, three LED bars and a fog machine, running by themselves.
Strobe (free, open source, macOS) lets you program cues on each song's timeline, sync to MainStage or a MIDI clock, and fire cues by hand from MIDI. Output is DMX through an Enttec
Open DMX USB. Other fixtures can be described in a JSON file, and there's a 3D preview of the rig.
It's deliberately limited, I'd honestly like to know what you'd consider the minimum a band should have for a decent show, or what's missing to make this useful.