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Why didn’t they use MIDI as the stage lighting standard?
The answer is “CABLE Length”. The official maximum SAFE length of cable for MIDI is only 20 feet. In the
real world you can get 40, possibly 50 feet if you are really lucky, but that’s it. That simply is too short
for stage lighting needs. DMX512 maximum cable length is rated at a maximum length of 546.8 yards or
1640.419 feet. This is over a ¼ mile in length. You can see why they used a different protocol.
Automating your Stage Lights
The Skutch EX-100 is a MIDI to DMX512 converter. This unit allows you to control your DMX Stage
lighting via MIDI messages. If you are using a MIDI sequencer for your performances, you can
completely automate your stage lighting using your existing MIDI sequencer. Your lighting changes will
always be in perfect sync with your sequenced songs. You now have the ability to create your own mini
light show for each individual song. Just think, during the lead solo, you could kill all the lights and have
just the solo musician illuminated. The EX-100 gives you total control over your stage lighting via MIDI.
Since the EX-100 works with standard MIDI messages, any device that outputs MIDI messages can be
used to control your stage lights; ie keyboards, footswitches, and sequencers.
More about DMX512 and fixtures
With the DMX512 protocol you have 512 different light channels that can be individually controlled.
They are numbered 1 through 512. Each of these channels you can control the brightness from 0 to 255.
0 being OFF, and 255 is full ON. Many DMX light fixtures use multiple DMX channels for the same
fixture. The cool thing about LED light fixtures is that they do not require a DMX DIMMER unit, and they
use about 1/10
th
of the power that of an incandescing light uses. That’s right, no more annoying circuit
breaker problems. They also can have multiple colors in one fixture, while an incandescent light only has
one color.
A RGB PAR 64 LED Fixture might use 6 DMX channels for one fixture. All DMX devices have either a DIP
switch, or programmable means, to set the DMX starting channel on the device. Each additional channel
is in sequence from the starting channel. The following shows a typical channel allocation for a 6 channel
DMX light.
Channel----Usage
1- Red
2- Green
3- Blue
4- Color Macro
5- Strobe
6- Sound Activated/ Auto color shift
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