Controlling DMX lights via Elektron gear

I’ve been thinking about getting some DMX lights and control them via one of my Elektron devices, but I’m not quite clear on whether this is achievable or not.

As a reference, I know that the OP-Z from Teenage Engineering can sent midi data that is translated to DMX instructions. However, even after trying to read up on this, I haven’t figured out to what extent you need a device that explicitly has been tailored for this purpose or if you just can use the midi out function on whichever device you want.

Is there anyone who’ve been able to do this with one of Elektron’s boxes? In that case, what’s your setup and what steps do you need to go through to make it work?

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You will always need something in between that translates the MIDI signal into DMX, just plugging the MIDI out of a box directly to a light won’t work. There is hardware and software solutions for this so it depends on what you prefer. Software solutions will give you more flexibility in terms of programming. From first glimpse this might do everything you need (and a lot more):

https://www.lightjams.com/midiDMX.html

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Many options to go about this, but as said, you’ll always need a device in between to translate MIDI to DMX or another light control protocol.

I personally do this kind of thing using Max/MSP running on a computer and output either using an Enttec USBDMXPRO or an ArtNet node. The latter is the more flexible and scalable solution.

Usine Hollyhock has tons of dedicated tools for DMX lights if that can be of some help.

So, is the OP-Z sending out some kind of DMX messages rather than a set of midi commands that are translated to DMX messages according to some standard transforming procedure in the MIDI to DMX box? If it’s the former, you should in theory be able to achieve something similar on an Elektron device, but if it’s the latter, it’s a non-starter and you will have to introduce some computer in between that you program.

So, anybody know the answer?

https://teenage.engineering/guides/op-z/lights

What it says here is that the OP-Z has functionality to translate sequencer data into DMX (which really just is a kind of MIDI for lighting equipment). So the OP-Z is sending the DMX messages and no Elektron box will do that. You need something to translate MIDI to DMX.

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What If we connect an Obey 40 ? (just for saying) It has midi IN

Elektron Box > Obey 40 > Lights

Would it be able to sequence tracks?

You tell us. What did you find out in the manual?