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
Connect your interface, add a fixture, get your first light on screen. A few pages, no detours.
Download quick startYour first light, in six 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. Free mode gives you the whole thing for two hours at a time.
Add your first fixture
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.
Check the fixture faders
Open the fixture faders and move a channel. With a full GDTF file each fader is labelled, so you can see dimmer, color, gobo and movement for what they are.
Choose your output device
In Settings, pick your USB interface from the dropdown, and set the universe. Art-Net nodes on the same network are found automatically and listed the same way - or type the IP yourself if you prefer. USB interfaces need their own drivers installed first.
Set a look and save it
Pick a color, position the fixture, add an effect if you want one. Then save it as a palette, or onto a scene fader.
Build the show
Stack scene faders for bigger looks, drop palettes onto the timeline for automated playback, and map the lot to an APC Mini, or hand control to one of the remotes.
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.