LiveTraker is a program I’ve been using more of lately to output MIDI, audio, and even videos. Up until now, it’s been hard to find a solid program that is able to manage all of that and do it well.
A great introductory lighting console I recommend often is DMXis. So, how can you be able to use LiveTraker with DMXis to control lights from the stage? I’ll show you how to do that in this tutorial.
Getting Started
When getting started with LiveTraker, the company does recommend installing the program on a USB Drive. Then from there, you can run the program on as many computers as you need to from that thumb drive.
You can try the demo version of LiveTraker or buy it here!
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To read more on how to get started with LiveTraker, be sure to check my review: LiveTraker Review
Setting Up MIDI Tracks
As I shared in my LiveTraker review, there is currently no way to edit a MIDI track inside of LiveTraker so you will need to use an 3rd party source to do this this.
In the tutorial, I had found the program Reaper to help edit MIDI tracks. It is free to evaluate but does have some great upgrades and pricing points if you’re interested. There are also other programs that you can use.
How to use the MIDI Editor in Reaper
Once you have your MIDI track ready and saved to your computer, you can then upload that track to LiveTraker. To do this, go to LiveTraker, select “Track View”, on the bottom menu select ” MIDI Track”, then click the “+” and select your MIDI track that you want to upload.
If you need you MIDI track to play during a certain point of your song, you can just drag and move the MIDI track inside of LiveTraker where you need it to play.
Using LoopMIDI
If you are using the same computer for LiveTraker, DMXis, and your MIDI tracks you want to use the tool, LoopMIDI. This is a free tool that can loop your MIDI between multiple programs and acts as a virtual MIDI cable.
If you don’t have this downloaded on your computer, you want to go ahead and get it downloaded. Then, you will want to launch LiveTraker and DMXis after so that the programs will recognize it.
Once you have LoopMIDI set up, inside of LiveTraker, go to “Preferences”, click MIDI, and on the bottom set your output to “LoopMIDI”.
Then, you’ll need to pull up DMXis, click “Preferences”, and under Active MIDI Inputs select “LoopMIDI”.
After you set these up- LiveTraker and DMXis, you should be good to go.
LiveTraker and DMXis
Update: DMXIS is now discontinued, and ENTTEC now has created “EMU”, and we’ve got a program to get EMU in your hands – Click here for more!
Now that your programs are connected together you’re ready to use LiveTraker and DMXis together. Inside of LiveTraker, just click the “Play” on the bottom of the screen.
When you hop over to DMXis, you should see it going through the different cues.
The downside is needing to use a 3rd party application for your MIDI tracks but once you have the programs set up you’re good to go. This really makes LiveTraker a powerful tool and gives you the capability to have video, MIDI, and lights all in one program.
For this tutorial, you can also pair up LiveTraker with other consoles such as LightKey, Onyx, D-Pro, and others. LiveTraker works on both Windows and MAC computers.
