Wedding DJ here, first time touching DMX — what's the smallest learning curve?
OK don't laugh. 7 years of mobile work, mostly weddings + the occasional school dance. My lighting has always been "plug in the GigBar, hit auto, pray." This past spring I picked up 4 cheaper movers because the fixed lighting was getting embarrassing on dance-floor video clips and clients started asking.
Now I have movers that absolutely do not look right in auto mode and I need to actually run DMX. Problem is every time I open a tutorial it's some lighting designer with a 64-channel grandMA console explaining cross-fade timing. I do not have a grandMA. I have a laptop and a USB DMX dongle.
What's the path of least resistance for someone like me? Specifically:
— I don't need to design 90-minute concert shows. I need 4 cues: dim wash for ceremony / warm wash for dinner / dance-floor chase 1 / dance-floor chase 2.
— I want to trigger them from my DJ software (Virtual DJ / Serato) ideally on song change, but manual button is fine.
— Free or cheap is good. I am not buying an Eos console for 6 weddings a year.
I've seen QLC+ mentioned a lot. Also SoundSwitch. Also some people say just buy a Behringer DMX controller and forget software. What actually works for the Wedding DJ use case where I need to be fast at 11pm?
Roast me if this question has been answered 100x, just point me to the answer.