LightKey: A Good Lighting Program? Learn Stage Lighting Review
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- čas přidán 21. 08. 2024
- LightKey has been around for a while but has recently caught my eye and proven itself. Watch my review for the good, the bad, and the frustrating, and whether it's the right lighting software for you.
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Comments Policy: Be nice, and treat others well. While my focus is on creating great videos and articles, I do reply to comments about once per week.
Remember, creating these videos takes a TON of time and effort, and I am not always available to answer questions here personally.
However, if you do want more help and assistance, check out Learn Stage Lighting Labs, where I do exactly that and more: lp.learnstagel...
Lightkey is incredible! Its design is modern, unlike any other desktop lighting software. It's easier to program than any other software. It's more user-friendly for training volunteers and staff. It simply is the best out there right now for a majority of users.
Exactly my point - while I talk to people that use all sorts of different size rigs, you are clearly right in the "sweet spot" for LightKey!
I love light key, I am a mobile DJ and with my set up it works perfectly! I have a laserworld, 2 moving heads and pat washes. Definitely the best and easiest software for me. Although, I don’t recommend it for stage shows, for those I use Magic q or MA pc.
Chamsys is best for me
Now this is pretty sweet! Thanks for the video!
Apart from Lightkey only being buyable for one year at a time it seems quite interesting. Have'nt got a Mac though and hardly going to swap out Onyx anytime soon.
I completely bailed on them because of the "subscription".
I believe if you change the short name to represent a sub group of lights fixtures it will allow you to select parts of groups
I wonder if this could be used for a smallish to medium mobile theater show? I heard you say "not for theater." but theater is just following a number of sequential pre-set cues. Even the simplest DMX boards can be used for that if you have the time and expertise. Of course, I'm not talking about Broadway.
It's funny - about a week after I made this video, LightKey issued an update with a true "cuelist" functionality. So, that statement is now a bit out of date.... :( It is now reasonable to use for theatre!
@@LearnStageLighting Ah, OK I thought so. I came to the video late, so by time I was looking at it I had heard that some smaller productions were already using it.
If you didn’t know, the MacBooks with the touchbar- lightkey also makes use of the touchbar for control as well
Handy tip! Thanks!
I like it. It’s got a great effects section.
Positioning is a bit clunky though.
And the preset system is not as versatile, you can’t select a few heads and apply a preset to just those heads afaik.
Still; really like it’s simplicity, works well with external triggers and midi (paired with QLab for example)
Hey David! So one of the big selling points about Lightkey that I hear a lot about is the power of its presets functionality which allows you to quickly stack presets into a single button on your control panel. Does this modularity make it easy to retain effects and control panel functions if/when my stage expands with more lights? For example, imagine I’ve got four LED sticks or pars going left to right across my stage and I then create a color fanning effect in the control panel using dimmer and fanning effect presets. If I doubled my pars to 8 I don’t see an easy way to update the control panel beyond going into both the color fanning and dimmer presets and manually adding the new lights to each of those foundational elements. This I would have to go and do for all my presets which could be a pain. Is there not a way to create a foundational preset that has only the lights with no overrides? That way I could grab my no override ALL pars preset, add a stand alone dimmer value, add a color fanning effect and bam. Id only be updating my stage changes in one preset and it would cascade into the rest. Hopefully I’m missing something because I don’t see how to do that. If so it seems like a big UX oversight. You’re the pro though. Eager to here your thoughts. Thx.
". Does this modularity make it easy to retain effects and control panel functions if/when my stage expands with more lights?" - No, this is one of the issues with LightKey - you can't really "clone" a new light to copy everything that an older light is programmed to do. It's meant to keep the interface simpler, but it means you also hit a "ceiling" of what you can do more quickly.
Thanks for the informative videos. I am a mobile DJ and I think that LightKey would be the perfect addition for my setup. However, after the software license expires and say you don't renew, do you lose the software? Or does the software just not update after that point?
I believe it stops working completely. I haven't tested it, but that is my assumption based on the way they describe it.
hello....our church is doing several av upgrades.....one is lighting....im seriously thinking aobut lightkey and apleton....NEITHER have i used before.... do you guys do any zoom trainings etc??
Will you be able to use an LEDMX4 Pro with this? Led Strips? Thanks David. You're videos are great!
You could, but it would eat up at lot of channels quickly, which is $$$ and slower to program in LightKey. You may want to look at a triggering a pixel-mapping software like ELM from lightkey for more control and less cost.
Learn Stage Lighting .com ok thanks!
What are your thoughts on Depence2 Control module? Looking to get a pro solution without needing a big expensive board. Makes more since to use a midi controller in my mind. Want to get a pre visualizer eventually also but a Visualizer/DMX controller combo would be rad!
Hi Hal - I'm not familair with the Depence2 Control module - where do I find more info on it? I didn't realize they had a hardware controller, and I can't seem to find anything about it online?
Do something about ETC - EOS :)
Can this software control Bluethooth LED lights?
I don't believe so (nor do I know of any stage-oriented app that can)
Will Lightkey work with myDMX-RM controller?
No, that unit is locked down to MyDMX...
Will you review Daslight?
Probably not. I'm not a big Daslight fan. Unless the software convinces me otherwise, I just don't think it's a great value.
if anything was the mac of the lighting world its onyx
except they dont charge 1000$ for a monitor stand
This is the comment of the day :)