This guide serves to outline the best strategies to locate your lighting fixtures in the SoundSwitch DMX Library, with a particular focus on 'Generic' brand fixtures. When searching for fixtures in the SoundSwitch Fixture Library, follow these steps to locate the most accurate and reliable information:



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Prior to Searching


To ensure you are best equipped to make use of the SoundSwitch DMX Library and Fixture Manager, please consider the following measures prior to beginning your search:


Download the SoundSwitch Fixture Manager: The Fixture Manager is a powerful tool that, while primarily useful for creating your own fixture profiles, is also incredibly useful to search for existing profiles. Since the Fixture Manager allows you to view the specific DMX information for each fixture profile, you can use it to cross-reference with your user manual and confirm selection of the correct profile.


The Fixture Manager can be downloaded here: Downloading SoundSwitch


The complete user manual and tutorials for the Fixture Manager can be viewed here: SoundSwitch Fixture Manager User Guide


Confirm desired DMX Library settings: SoundSwitch's DMX library allows you to filter between three key profile categories:

  • Production: Profiles created by the SoundSwitch team. 
  • Public: Fixtures created by users that have been added to the public server.
  • Local: Profiles created and stored on your own computer.

These settings can be toggled at the bottom-left of the DMX Library interface:


Familiarize yourself with your fixture: Check your fixture's user manual to get acquainted with the following key information to best position yourself for a successful search:

  • What is the name of the fixture as listed on the manual's cover page?
  • How many DMX modes does this fixture offer? How many channels are in each?
  • Is this fixture produced by a known brand, or a generic brand? Known brands will typically be listed prominently on the manual's cover page, whereas generic brands may not list a manufacturer at all.


If you're new to DMX lighting: Please check out the tutorial and video guide linked below to get acquainted with the basics of DMX lighting and configuration. Understanding these fundamentals will be massively helpful in getting the most out of SoundSwitch and is recommended for any and all users.


This guide can be found via the following link: What is DMX?



Searching by Name


The first criterion to use when searching for your fixtures will be the fixture's model name. Specifically, the model name as listed on the user manual cover page is the correct search term here. Avoid third-party seller descriptions, Fixture labels in the library may not correspond to descriptions from third-party sellers like Amazon, as these can be incorrect or frequently changing. Instead, rely on the information found on the cover page of the provided fixture manual.


With this in mind, follow the below steps to execute a name-based search for your fixture:


  1. Check your fixture's user manual for a manufacturer name. This will be prominently featured on the cover page if the manufacturer is a known brand. If none is present, use the 'Generic' manufacturer category.

  2. Input the fixture's model name exactly as it appears on the cover page. For more well-known fixture brands, this may be a traditionally branded product name, such as the Chauvet (manufacturer) GigBar 2 (model). For Generic fixtures, this is likely to be a more basic name, such as "LED Moving Head Beam" or similar.

  3. Now that the results have been narrowed down, refer to your fixture's user manual to confirm the correct number of DMX channels for the mode in which you're currently using the fixture. Often, there are multiple profiles per-fixture model which correspond to different modes featured by the fixture. As such, if you're using your LED Moving Head Beam in 8-channel mode, be sure that the profile you've selected contains 8 channels.

  4. To further confirm the correctness of the profile, open the profile within the SoundSwitch Fixture Manager to view the exact DMX information configured for the profile. If this matches the contents of your fixture's user manual, you have selected the correct profile.
     


Searching by Channel Count


In some cases, it may be difficult to isolate the correct fixture profile based on model name alone. This is especially true for generic fixtures, as many share very similar names and configurations. In cases like this, you are best served by employing the SoundSwitch Fixture Manager to execute a channel-based search, enabling you to cross reference a possible profile match against the DMX information listed in your fixture's user manual. Here's the steps:


  1. Open the SoundSwitch Fixture Manager. As above, check your fixture's user manual for a manufacturer name. If one is not prominently listed on the cover page, use the "Generic" manufacturer name.


  2. Confirm the number of DMX channels your fixture requires in the user manual. There may be multiple modes listed, so you can execute this search again using the alternative channel counts stipulated by those modes.


  3. In the Fixture Manager, input the channel count via the following formula: (Chn = X), where X = the number of channels for this fixture mode. See below; Using this search term, we can narrow our results to all profiles under the 'Generic' manufacturer category that contain 13 DMX channels



  4. To further confirm the correctness of the profile, open the profile within the SoundSwitch Fixture Manager to view the exact DMX information configured for the profile. If this matches the contents of your fixture's user manual, you have selected the correct profile. See below, where an example fixture profile's DMX chart has been revealed.





I Still Can't Find my Fixture... Help!


If your lighting fixture is not listed in the SoundSwitch Fixture Library, you have two options:


  1. Request a Fixture Profile: You can contact the SoundSwitch team and ask them to create a profile for your fixture. To do this, send an email to [email protected] and make sure to include the complete fixture manual, including the cover page.

    Please note: Your submission MUST include the entire user manual, cover page included, for the fixture request to be processed.


  2. Create Your Own Fixture Profile: Alternatively, you can create a fixture profile yourself using the SoundSwitch Fixture Manager. There's a guide available for this process, which you can check out for more information.

    SoundSwitch Fixture Manager User Guide



Please note: Accounting for volume, fixture requests can take up to 1-2 weeks to process and be added to the DMX library. For additional assistance regarding fixture profiles and the fixture manager, consider joining the SoundSwitch Fixture Group to learn and share your profiles with other users who may own the same fixtures as you do.