How to
From cable to first look, step by step.
The full manual, a quick start, and the six first steps.
The complete manual
Every window in the app, explained in order - fixtures, faders, palettes, effects, pixel strips, timeline, MIDI, remote. Good for reading offline or printing.
Download manualJust the essentials
Install SDC, add a fixture, connect your interface and get your first light on. A few pages, just the basics.
Download quick startYour first light, in four steps.
You can do steps 1 and 2 with no hardware plugged in at all - handy if your interface has not arrived yet.
Install and open SDC
Run the installer - no admin rights needed - and start the app.
Add your fixtures
Load the GDTF file for your light. No GDTF file? Load the manufacturer's PDF manual and let SDC build one, or type the channels in with the Simple GDTF Maker.
Connect your output
In Settings, pick your USB interface and click Connect, or turn on Art-Net and choose your node. USB interfaces need their own drivers installed first.
Check the rig
Open the fixture faders, raise the Grand Master, then raise each fixture's faders to confirm the address and the cabling. With a full GDTF file each fader shows its channel name, such as Dimmer, Pan, Tilt or Color.
Build it once, then just play it.
Take your time. Pick colors, shape an effect, set pan and tilt, get the look exactly right. Then record it into a palette or onto a Scene Fader.
You only touch palettes and faders. One click for a look, one fader for a scene. Nothing on screen asks you to think about channels while people are watching.
Recall a running effect back into its editor, adjust it, and update the palette or fader it came from. The change is there next time too.
Common jobs
Make a GDTF file from a manual
Manual To GDTF reads the DMX chart out of the fixture's PDF and writes a standard .gdtf file you can also use elsewhere.
Spread a color across a group
Select the fixtures, pick a color, then use the spread option so the group fades across a range instead of matching exactly.
Get the levels right
Set intensity per fixture on the fixture faders, or ride the whole rig with the grand master. Dimmer effects give you pulses, fades and chases without recording anything by hand.
Recall a look in one click
SDC builds color and gobo palettes from the GDTF file, and you save your own on top, sorted into categories. Color palettes show the output color and gobo palettes the gobo shape, so you pick by eye instead of by channel number.
Make moving heads move together
Set pan and tilt by hand or let an effect drive them. Offsets and inverted pan or tilt make fixtures on opposite sides of the stage mirror each other instead of all sweeping the same way.
Set up a pixel strip
Map the strip in the pixel section, then use the built-in effects, or drive individual pixels when you need something specific.
Hand control to someone else
Start the remote, then open it in a phone browser or the SDC Remote app on the same network. Set a password if the network is not yours alone, and choose what the remote shows before you hand a phone to someone else.
Map an APC Mini
Select the button or fader you want to control, press Assign, then press the matching control on the APC Mini.
Stuck on something?
Check What's New first - if the behavior looks like a bug, a newer version may already fix it. If not, email us and we will answer.