# X-Keys & Chamsys MagicQ PC



## jonliles (Jan 14, 2014)

Who uses it?
What Model do you use?
Do you have any tips, tricks, or other tidbits that may be worth sharing?


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## len (Jan 14, 2014)

jonliles said:


> Who uses it?
> What Model do you use?
> Do you have any tips, tricks, or other tidbits that may be worth sharing?
> 
> ...


X-keys are cool, but maybe consider a touch screen monitor?? I don't know Chamsys, but I wonder if you can set up multiple pages on a touch screen and use those instead of an x-key, which has a finite number of buttons.


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## jonliles (Jan 14, 2014)

X-keys are still cheaper than touch screens. Several of the local groups use chamsys, just trying to make programming a bit quicker. I am still the tactile type of person. I like the feeling of a ten-key under my finger tips.


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## wolfman005 (Nov 17, 2014)

I know this is an oldish thread, but did you ever try an X-keys with Chamsys? I'd like to see about getting an X-keys since I've been abusing my laptops keyboard at gigs when I get excited... 

If you did get an X-keys, does it compare at all to a wing? At least in the sense that both have buttons and make a more functional piece of hardware than the keyboard alone.


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## then3rdman (Nov 18, 2014)

Check this out, well worth watching all the way through. Shows how far you can go with Chamsys PC and some time (oh and x-keys)


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## jonliles (Nov 18, 2014)

wolfman005 said:


> I know this is an oldish thread, but did you ever try an X-keys with Chamsys? I'd like to see about getting an X-keys since I've been abusing my laptops keyboard at gigs when I get excited...
> 
> If you did get an X-keys, does it compare at all to a wing? At least in the sense that both have buttons and make a more functional piece of hardware than the keyboard alone.




I never acquired the X-Keys. The primary space I program in is 24 dimmers and minimal extras are used for DMX accesories.. I've done all of my programmer through the standard interface and a good mouse. Going to a facilty that has a higher channel count would certainly be too cumbersome to rely on this method.


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## wolfman005 (Nov 18, 2014)

That's a pretty sick custom build. Wonder how much that cost...

That's actually the same position I'm in. A church wants to add some movers (a story for another thread) and they already have 24 dimmers installed. I will probably be doing the programming for their shows and they will have a church member run the shows. I was thinking a X-keys that was assigned to the go buttons might be better than having the members use a mouse. 

Now for my personal rig which mostly does small bands and homecomings, I might look to an X-keys and a touchscreen for a better control method than the mouse during playback. So far I've found running 4 scanners, 4 LED pars, a laser, and some cheap DJ effects to be fine with just the mouse when it comes to programming. It's playback that I want more control over.


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## MarfaLights (Nov 18, 2014)

I've been using the XK-60 with my PC Wing and a touch screen. I use it mostly to map the buttons that are missing from the PC Wing. The touch screen is fine, but I really like hitting physical buttons when programming.


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## Tech_Geek97 (Nov 17, 2015)

Can you have the X-Keys be the programing buttons and use a normal keyboard for typing without having to manually switch modes?


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## MarfaLights (Nov 17, 2015)

It's a bit confusing. Most of the time the keyboard works fine. There are some situations when I am trying to label a cue or stack or something where the keyboard operates in programming mode and I need to enter the label on the screen. Some situations it works fine. I should track this down and see if it is a bug. I'm usually so busy programming that I just work around it. I also get better results on a PC than a Mac. 

I know it is not ideal, but I could not afford more console than the PC Wing Compact, and the X-Keys add all these buttons that make it MUCH easier to use.


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## Tech_Geek97 (Nov 17, 2015)

MarfaLights said:


> It's a bit confusing. Most of the time the keyboard works fine. There are some situations when I am trying to label a cue or stack or something where the keyboard operates in programming mode and I need to enter the label on the screen. Some situations it works fine. I should track this down and see if it is a bug. I'm usually so busy programming that I just work around it. I also get better results on a PC than a Mac.
> 
> I know it is not ideal, but I could not afford more console than the PC Wing Compact, and the X-Keys add all these buttons that make it MUCH easier to use.


So, do you have a macro on each key to switch to programming,, press the button, and switch back to normal, or something else. Also, does it have all of the programming buttons mapped?


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## MarfaLights (Nov 17, 2015)

Oh that's a great idea! I did not think about making a macro to switch keyboard modes and then assigning that to a key. It's only in one situation that the keyboard does not act as expected. I forget when. When it happens, I just type on the screen with cursor or touchscreen using the on-screen keypad. In most cases it works flawlessly. The numeric keypad is great to have. Hardware buttons for Patch and Programmer and Copy and Include and Update are great to have.


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## Tech_Geek97 (Nov 17, 2015)

MarfaLights said:


> Oh that's a great idea! I did not think about making a macro to switch keyboard modes and then assigning that to a key. It's only in one situation that the keyboard does not act as expected. I forget when. When it happens, I just type on the screen with cursor or touchscreen using the on-screen keypad. In most cases it works flawlessly. The numeric keypad is great to have. Hardware buttons for Patch and Programmer and Copy and Include and Update are great to have.


if you can assign multiple keypresses per key you dont need a seperate button, it will do it automatically. For example, to record, key would ->switch to programming mode->press 'R'->switch back to normal.


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## Jammer (Nov 18, 2015)

I use the XK-24 and have similar issue. Works great, but as said above the keyboard mode has to be in "programmer" mode. I'll try the switch mode idea.


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## dthomas32308 (Jan 3, 2016)

I know this is an older thread but for the problems in programmer mode since your using an xkeys couldn't you just clear the functions off the keyboard keys and have them do text input?


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## Tech_Geek97 (Jan 4, 2016)

dthomas32308 said:


> I know this is an older thread but for the problems in programmer mode since your using an xkeys couldn't you just clear the functions off the keyboard keys and have them do text input?


Huh, that seems like a good idea, i wonder if there might be issues with contextual menus.


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## Tech_Geek97 (Jan 10, 2016)

Has anyone had any luck with this? I am holding off on buying one myself due to fears that I won't be able to use my keyboard at the same time.


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## Tech_Geek97 (Jan 19, 2016)

I finally caved and opted for a cherry POS keyboard as it costed about half as much as the X-Keys. However there doesn't seem to be a way to assign all of the programming keys whilst still being able to use a normal keyboard. I have tried everything i could think of from alt codes (MagicQ only recognizes the alt key) to key combinations (MagicQ, contrary to the manual, does not accept key combination macros). I am very dissapointed as this expensive keyboard doesn't do anything more for programming than the touch screen I bought. The only thing I could get working were the window buttons, but not the layout buttons. So be warned, a good touch screen is probably a better investment than a programmable keyboard due to the limitations of MagicQ. Sadly, there does not seem to be an alternative as Chamsys doesn't even sell the maxi-wing any more.


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## jamesh (Jan 19, 2016)

MagicQ gives users the option to use Programming shortcuts keyboard mode which gives you access to the programming commands using a PC keybaord, you can switch to and from this mode at any point. 
We also allow windows to be opened using the CNTRL + X key combinations. 

Hardware wise our PC Wing compact hardware gives you the physical faders/encoders along with the commonly used Rec/Clear etc commands. 
The MQ60/70/80 consoles have a 'net wing' mode allowing these consoles to be networked to a PC system, allowing these consoles to control the PC Software giving you all 64 universes. 

One of the main reasons for limiting some functionality allowing all buttons available on custom keybaords etc is that we give away our software for free with no restriction on its output (all 64 universes fully enabled), so we make our money via hardware sales of our products which allow us to continue developing both our software and hardware. 

Any other questions do let me know.

James
ChamSys Ltd


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## Tech_Geek97 (Jan 19, 2016)

jamesh said:


> MagicQ gives users the option to use Programming shortcuts keyboard mode which gives you access to the programming commands using a PC keybaord, you can switch to and from this mode at any point.
> We also allow windows to be opened using the CNTRL + X key combinations.
> 
> Hardware wise our PC Wing compact hardware gives you the physical faders/encoders along with the commonly used Rec/Clear etc commands.
> ...



Sorry for the somewhat harsh critique. The real place I take issue is that this limitation is not documented in the manual and in fact the opposite is stated in 21.4. However it would also be nice for this limitation to be removed when Chamsys hardware is connected and demo mode is exited.


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## Jammer (Jan 19, 2016)

As mentioned above I always had some problems using the XK-24 and should have taken a closer look sooner. The main problem I had with MagicQ is that the keyboard had to be in programmer mode in order to access the include and update functions. 
Of this means the keyboard can't be used to type in text. As I think someone mentioned above you can assign things to macro's and assign the macro's to a key, so when I looked closer in normal keyboard mode everything I needed
was available to program on the XK-24 except for "include" and "update". I created a macro and assigned them to keys I don't use often "`" and "\" , then assigned those keys to the XK-24 buttons and now I have the XK-24 working 
very well with the keyboard in normal mode. The other previous problem was when in programmer mode, select fixtures (e.g. [email protected]@) the display would not persist on the input display, but now with keyboard in normal mode the display is correct.
My set up is PC with MagicQ, Compact PC Wing, XK-24.


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## jamesh (Jan 20, 2016)

Thanks for mentioning that, I've just updated the manual section 21.4 to make it a little clearer on the multiple key macro assigning.
You can use CNTL and SHIFT + keyboard keys, e.g CNTRL + N or something to assign a keyboard macro on MagicQ PC based systems.


Tech_Geek97 said:


> Sorry for the somewhat harsh critique. The real place I take issue is that this limitation is not documented in the manual and in fact the opposite is stated in 21.4. However it would also be nice for this limitation to be removed when Chamsys hardware is connected and demo mode is exited.


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## dthomas32308 (Jan 21, 2016)

Ahh now to write a macro for switching keyboard modes


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## Tech_Geek97 (Mar 29, 2016)

dthomas32308 said:


> Ahh now to write a macro for switching keyboard modes


Tried that, it takes at least one second for such a macro to be executed. Alternatively try using the SET button before typing. This temporarily exits programming mode (however i often manage to do this wrong and end up pressing many random buttons, luckily no words i use begin with 2 "d"s.

Attached are the pictures of the layout that I configured. All of the keys work with the exception of the following:

The window manipulation keys in the middle in a vertical row MIN through SIZE, I simply ran out of non common keyboard keys to use for macros and the SET key does not disable macros.

The DBO key does not entirely work and causes flashing, this is due to macros not being compatible with pressing and holding.
Additionally pressing and holding keys such as ALL cause the same issues as the DBO button with the menu flashing on and off the screen, however it it still usable.

Edit: It is worth mentioning that I managed to do this for around $120 US. If anyone wants help setting one up feel free to message me or post here.


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## Tech_Geek97 (Mar 29, 2016)

Tech_Geek97 said:


> Tried that, it takes at least one second for such a macro to be executed. Alternatively try using the SET button before typing. This temporarily exits programming mode (however i often manage to do this wrong and end up pressing many random buttons, luckily no words i use begin with 2 "d"s.
> 
> Attached are the pictures of the layout that I configured. All of the keys work with the exception of the following:
> 
> ...


Forgot to mention, the PAGE LEFT and PAGE RIGHT buttons do not work either for the same reason as the window location buttons.


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## Mark Mealy (Feb 4, 2018)

Tech_Geek97 said:


> Forgot to mention, the PAGE LEFT and PAGE RIGHT buttons do not work either for the same reason as the window location buttons.


Can you list the process you used to set this up and possibly list the keys you assign them to? I'm try to setup a Cherry SPOS keyboard .


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