Fixtures and rigs

Types and rigs

PitchControl keeps two things apart:

• A fixture type describes one light model: its channel layout, number of pixels, output, gamma and strobo colour. You set it up once on the Fixtures page (3).
• A rig lists the lights at one event: which type each one is, its DMX address, group and place in the scene, and anything you want to change for that one light. You build it on the Rig page (4). To switch venues, switch rigs.

PitchControl comes with these fixture types:

Type	What it is
Generic 1xRGB Fixture	Any light with three channels: red, green, blue
Cameo Q-Spot 15	An RGBW pinspot in its 4-channel mode
PitchPls v3	PitchPlease v3 LED poles over DMX: 24 RGB pixels plus control channels
PitchPls v2	PitchPlease v2 LED strips over USB serial

Fixture types

Manage types

The Fixture types panel lists every type with its channel count (or serial). A dot marks a type with unsaved changes. Hover over a type to see which rigs use it.

• New creates a type with one RGB pixel on DMX.
• Duplicate copies the selected type under a new name.
• Rename renames the type and updates every rig that uses it.
• Delete removes the type. It's only possible when no rig uses it.

Type names can use letters, digits, spaces, -, _ and ..

The type editor

Field	Meaning
Description	Your notes, for example the fixture's DMX mode
Output	DMX (sent by the Enttec or Art-Net) or PitchPlease v2 serial
Pixels	How many separately coloured pixels the light has: 1 for a par or pinspot, more for a bar or strip
Gamma	The device's brightness curve (see below)
Strobo colour (HSB)	The colour of the strobo flash: hue, saturation and brightness, each from 0 to 1
Used in	The rigs that use this type

Your edits apply to the lights straight away and mark the type unsaved. Save writes the type file; Revert goes back to the saved version.

Gamma. PitchControl works with perceptual brightness, where equal steps look equally bright. Gamma converts that for the device: the value sent is the value raised to the power of gamma.

• 1 sends the values unchanged. Use it for PitchPlease v2 and v3, which apply their own curve.
• About 2.2 suits LED fixtures without their own curve. Fine-tune it by eye.

Channel layout

The channel layout lists the fixture's DMX channels in order, starting at its address. Each row has a kind, an optional name and its settings:

Kind	What it sends	Example
constant	A fixed value from 0 to 255	A master channel at 255, or a mode channel
macro	A macro's value, scaled to 0–255	A fixture's own dimmer channel following "Dimmer 01"
shutter	An open value normally, and a strobe value on each peak (for fixtures with Real strobo on)	A strobe/shutter channel
pixels	The colour of every pixel: R, RGB or RGBW per pixel, repeated for the pixel count	The colour channels

• RGBW sends the white part of the colour on the W channel.
• R sends one brightness channel per pixel.
• Named constants can be changed per fixture in the rig, for example to set a different mode on one light.

Use ↑ and ↓ to move a channel, ✕ to remove it and Add channel to add a constant at the end.

A type with the PitchPlease v2 serial output has no channel layout: it sends three bytes (RGB) per pixel.

Channel map

The Channel map shows the resulting channels, numbered from the fixture's first channel, with the total. It also tells you how many fixtures of this type fit in one universe of 512 channels.

Rigs

Rig files

The Rig panel manages the rig as a whole:

• The dropdown loads another rig.
• The description field holds your notes about the event.
• Save writes your changes to the rig file; Revert goes back to the saved version.
• Rename renames the rig.
• Duplicate works like "Save as": it saves the current state, unsaved changes included, as a new rig and switches to it. The original rig keeps what was last saved.
• New creates an empty rig.
• Delete removes the active rig and loads the next one. You can't delete the last rig.

Every change applies to the lights right away; only Save writes the file. The panel shows unsaved while there are changes, and loading or creating another rig asks whether to Save, Discard or Cancel.

After you save, the panel lists any problems, such as two fixtures using the same channels, channels beyond 512, or a fixture type that doesn't exist.

The fixture list

The Fixtures panel lists the lights in the rig, each with its group and universe:address (or serial). Disabled fixtures are dimmed.

• Add adds a new fixture.
• Duplicate copies the selected fixture.
• Remove deletes the selected fixture.

Edit several fixtures at once

Shift + click adds a fixture to the selection or removes it. A field shows a value only if all the selected fixtures share it; otherwise it says multiple. A value you enter applies to all of them.

While several fixtures are selected, Name, Duplicate and Remove are disabled, because fixture names must stay unique.

Fixture settings

Field	Meaning
Name	The fixture's name, unique within the rig
Type	Its fixture type, with a short summary. edit type › opens the type on the Fixtures page
Enabled	Switched off, the fixture is left out and its channels send 0
Group	A or B: which group colour and brightness it follows
Universe / address	The DMX universe (counted from 0) and the start address (1–512) set on the fixture
Position (u, v)	Where it sits in the scene (see below)
Rotation (°)	The direction its pixels run, clockwise: 90 points down, 270 runs vertically with the first pixel at the bottom
Length	How far its pixels spread along that direction
Dimmer	The dimmer fader it follows on the Dimmers page, or none
Reacts to strobo	Whether it flashes on strobo peaks
Real strobo	Uses the fixture's own shutter channel on peaks. Only shown for types with a shutter channel

Placement in the scene

The scene is a square. Positions run from 0 to 1: u from left to right, v from top to bottom. Each pixel takes its brightness from the mask at its position.

• A single-pixel light such as a par sits at its position.
• A light with several pixels such as a bar or strip is centred on its position. Its pixels spread over its Length in the direction set by Rotation.

Tip: Place your lights in the scene the way they stand in the room. Then the patterns move across the room the way you see them in the preview.

The Placement panel highlights the selected fixtures in the scene preview, with their first pixel outlined. Below it, you see their live output colours. Switch on show channel values to see the DMX values they're sending.

Colour sources

By default a fixture takes its hue and saturation from its own group, and its brightness from the strobo and idle phases. You can change that:

• Hue source and Saturation source: own group, group A, group B or constant (a fixed value from 0 to 1).
• Brightness source: strobo / idle pipeline (the normal behaviour) or constant. A constant brightness ignores the strobo and the mask; the fixture's dimmer still applies. The Default rig uses this for a chill-out area that glows steadily in the group A colour.

Idle remap

The idle remap changes how a fixture reads the mask:

• Idle remap min / max map the mask's dark parts to min and its bright parts to max. If min is greater than max, the pattern is inverted.
• Idle remap curve bends the response: 0 is linear, negative values lift the darker parts, positive values push them down.
• Remap only when applies the remap always, or only while an on/off function such as Invert Discoball is switched on.

In the Default rig, the pinspots use an inverted, curved remap that only applies while Invert disco is on.

Overriding type values

Some values come from the fixture type, but you can change them for one fixture: Gamma, Strobo colour (HSB) and every named constant channel.

• Tick the checkbox to override the value for this fixture.
• Untick it to use the type's value again. The field is greyed out but keeps your value, so ticking it again brings it back.
• default shows the type's value, and ↺ removes your override.

Example: an RGB par

Say you have an RGB par in a 5-channel mode. Its manual lists: 1 dimmer, 2 red, 3 green, 4 blue, 5 strobe (0 = open). Check your own fixture's manual, since layouts vary between models and modes.

Create the type:

1. Press 3 for the Fixtures page, click New, enter RGB Par 5ch and click Create. The new type has one RGB pixel block.
2. Leave Output on DMX and Pixels on 1. Set Gamma to 2.2.
3. Click Add channel, move the new channel to the top with ↑, name it dimmer and set its value to 255. PitchControl dims the colour itself, so the fixture's own dimmer stays fully open.
4. Click Add channel again for the strobe channel. Set its kind to shutter, name it strobe, and enter the open and strobe values from the manual.
5. Check the Channel map: 1 dimmer, 2–4 RGB pixels, 5 strobe, 5 channels in total. Click Save.

The saved type file looks like this:

{
  "description": "RGB par, 5-channel mode",
  "transport": "dmx",
  "pixels": 1,
  "channels": [
    { "name": "dimmer", "value": 255 },
    { "pixels": "RGB" },
    { "name": "strobe", "shutter": { "open": 0, "strobo": 200 } }
  ],
  "gamma": 2.2,
  "strobo_color": { "h": 0, "s": 0, "b": 1 }
}

Add the pars to the rig:

1. Press 4 for the Rig page and click Add.
2. Choose RGB Par 5ch as the Type and enter its Universe / address, for example 0 and 1.
3. Choose its Group, Position and Dimmer, and switch on Reacts to strobo if it should flash.
4. Click Duplicate for the next par and change its address to 6.
5. Click Save in the Rig panel.