SoundSwitch Control One, 1-Year Long Term Review - SoundFire DJ

In this video we answer the question, "Is the SoundSwitch Control One still worth it one year later?"
Buy a SoundSwitch Control One Here:
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SoundSwitch's Website: www.soundswitch.com
Equipment I use to Record Audio/Video
Insta360 Link Webcam: amzn.to/40xC3CU
Shure SM7B Microphone: amzn.to/3JOIiv8
Microphone Arm: amzn.to/3LOkhqZ
Mic Pre-Amp: amzn.to/3ZjcNiT
Audio Interface: amzn.to/3lDRQ4q
Key Light: amzn.to/40iG2Dt
Fill Light: amzn.to/40i1skm
Nanoleaf: amzn.to/40fV3pS
Streamdeck: amzn.to/3z8r5bu
Speakers: amzn.to/3no5g57
Sub: amzn.to/3no5g57
Index
00:00 Intro
00:36 Disclaimer
01:02 Recap
01:29 Too Long Didn't Watch
02:13 Addressing Comments from our First Review
04:19 "Sqwidgy" Buttons
06:30 Moving Head Override
14:00 Static Scenes
19:05 The Play/Pause Button is more important than you think
21:26 Conclusion
21:45 Thoughts on Improvement
24:35 Outro

[@soundswitch4427]

Appreciate the review DJ Altimate glad you are still enjoying the Control One a year on. All really great suggestions for a potential MK2 let's see what the future holds. P.S removing the LED Screen protection has been known to increase Strobe Rate Speeds by up to 50% 😄

[@soundcentral]

I didn’t know about the movement feature, thank you!

[@lgovantes1]

Great tutorial! This is a great control unit. I really enjoyed your practical DJ experience interjected. It would be great to have a tutorial on just the practical uses of Control One, using real live examples of specific situations that you mentioned... first dance, dinner uplighting, slow vs fast dance music, lighting direction and use of Gobos, Derbys, Moving Heads, lasers, wash, etc. Lighting is as important as the music to set the mood and enjoyment of the experience.

[@Ziggy_v2]

Very accurate long term review of the Control One 👌

[@BretGashDJBFG]

Great review and I fo. Thank you

[@arthureschner9319]

Thanks for your video & input. The Control one is a great controller (a bit over priced maybe), but there are a few things that could make it so much better than it is right now. Static scenes - when you turn on a static scene, it turns off any other that was on before. This is a massive problem for me (and others too) & should be easy enough for SS to solve. Just allow us to switch any scene on & off as we want. But alas, we wait & wait & wait... Also having 32 static scene buttons is great... if you can actually remember which scene is on which button. I often forget which button I've assigned to what. A simple solution would be for SS to quickly (like maybe 2secs) show the name of that static scene you pressed on the display, then return to what is was showing before..... The same thing for the positions. When it comes to movement, I honestly feel they should allow us to set & save positions on the fly using the 2 rotary enders, assigned to X & Y. There are often times when the positions you've saved don't correspond with the venue (sometimes you're on stage or on the floor in the corner of the room). Then you need to pull out the laptop & reconfigure the positions, save it, then export it to the drive you're using. It's such a hassle. Using the encoders would be a God send! The speed of the movement also needs some work. Even on it's slowest setting, it still moves too fast. This could also be easily remedied within the firmware as well. Regarding the play/pause button, I've honestly never used it. I don't quite get it. When you pause it, do the lights actually pause (stop on the place exactly where it was, with the lights on) or do they continue running the same scene it was on (kinda like it just disables any other input) or do they just all turn off?

[@soundfiredj1]

Wow Arthur! These are all great insights. I think a toggle on the static scenes would be the best, that way you can decide if you want them to stack like they currently do, or cancel out the previously selected like you're wanting. The moving heads do still need work, especially on the slower end as you put it. That is completely a software thing, and soundswitch could update this. What I do as part of my setup when I get to a venue is I readjust my moving head positions to the venue. I keep the moving head positions limited to about 10 or so cues. It takes all of 10 minutes to do this prior to the event starting, so it's not too bad, and then the software takes over based on those cues. With any DMX software you'd need to "recalibrate" based on the venue you're in, so I don't see this as a challenge unique to soundswitch. What I do when setting up my moving head cues is label them architecturally or by a Point of Interest - i.e. Down, Up, Stage Left, Stage Right, Center dance floor, X Dance Floor, Disco Ball, X Disco Ball, Straight Overhead, X Overhead, DJ Booth. These cues give lots of movement to the show, and keep the lights out toward the dance floor. I'll program some of the cues that they make the lights do a full 360 pan, or 180 pan and 180 tilt to give the lights a little more movement, but this works very well for me. I totally get what you're saying about being able to adjust them on the fly with the encoders on the device, but then I think you get into how do you select which moving head you're changing in the software/hardware. I love the idea that SoundSwitch could have a splash notification on the screen when you select a scene or moving head position similar to how Mix Emergency does when you select video effects. That would be awesome!! When using the play/pause button it freezes the current lighting state. Everything freezes in place just like a pause button would pause a music track. Your lights will stay on or off depending on what state they were in when you pressed pause, and your moving heads will stay in place. As I stated in the video, the best use I've found for this is during cocktail, dinner, and spotlight dances when you want your lighting to stay static in case of any accidental button pushes. Another useful function I found for it is I can hold the blackout button, and press the play/pause button to keep everything blacked out too. Hope that helps!

[@arthureschner9319]

@@soundfiredj1 Thanks for explaining the play/pause. I understand it better now. Something you said above "you can decide if you want them to stack like they currently do"

[@soundfiredj1]

@@arthureschner9319 Oh ok, that's what I thought too, that they currently cancelled each other out. No, the option to stack static scenes doesn't exist yet that I'm aware of . . .

[@arthureschner9319]

@@soundfiredj1 Ah sorry, I re-read & realise that I totally misunderstood what you said. I agree with you. An option to select between the 2 modes would be great.

[@dancarthen3634]

on sale for $229 at a few retailers including Amazon

[@Dyerdrummer]

Thanks for the review! I currently use the MyDMX Go. I have had several issues and it doesn't have as much controlability as I would like Thinking I'm going to order one today!

[@soundfiredj1]

If you do, please use the link in the description!

[@BlueHawk80]

Valuable review! Afaik nobody else mentioned the improved slider response - glad to hear! I agree about the soft touch surface and some crucial buttons being too small. But overall it's a cool device which also dropped in price. Oh and the Play/Pause button also doubles as reset ph(r)ase when using Auto Loops with Link I believe? When pressed with Shift.

[@jasonparker1454]

is it still the best controller? yes - as its the only one existing made for SS. but the build quality is meeeh not nice at all.... Function A Grade Built D-E. lets hope next one will be a better build quality. Nice Video all in all. thumbs up!

[@kassiedallah4577]

love the content do you do tech support on how to set this up. I know very little about sound switch or dmx

[@djmomomixtv8776]

Hi please I have a problem with my SoundSwitch Control one I can't download the driver software for Macbook Pro if you can help me download the software and send it to me thank you in advance

[@EnormeSounds]

What lights do you normally take to your wedding events?

[@mrlaleezy]

Can someone here help me? My control one doesn't light up at all the only thing that lights up is the SS in the center of the hardware.I tried different cables and a different laptop

[@chvydrptop]

Thanks for sharing all this info. I'm personally disappointed with unit. Did you learn everything on this unit by trial and error? The controller came with a quick start 1 page drawing. So I'm thinking ok I'll look online at the url they mentioned, well links dead and there is no real manual. it's a quick start guide no instructions on how to setup custom buttons to the unit. Your idea for the wall lighting is exactly what I have trying to do, no clue how to get it done. It would be awesome if you could share a video on how you were able to get that done. Thanks for the review, honestly the software still feels like it's in beta. lots of fixtures aren't really supported. Moving head fixtures do the basics with the auto programs but don't turn custom things like gobos on and off etc.

[@soundfiredj1]

Thanks for the questions! I learned a lot by both trial & error (toying with the software), but also by going to the video tutorials that SoundSwitch has made on their KZbin Channel. For the wall lighting, I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Do you mean the uplighting and the static scenes? If so here's the video tutorial from sound switch on how to do that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gV7agp2VpLuKqposi=l2u5jlzyjYTtI9e6 For moving heads, you absolutely can control gobos, prisms, etc. You have to go into the auto loop scripts and tell sound switch to use them. Here's the tutorial on that as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqjIZ5pjpsitoKssi=lEcHEDvfUY--5dD0 Here's another video from them: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4S1hXuYibmGl7Msi=8tvp3lDoXSBhqgJq In the editor you'll see flags in the timeline. Those are attribute cues that can be assigned to activate gobos, prisms, etc. with moving heads. The software is really advanced, especially since its beginning. That being said there is more of a learning curve when compared to simpler programs like Light Rider. However, SoundSwitch is WAY more powerful. I hope this helps!!

[@chvydrptop]

@@soundfiredj1Thank you for the links, I see a new one that I hadn't come across yet. I was hoping there was more of a real manual but it is what it is. As far as the upwall lighting, I guess setting them up as a static scene makes sense. Then when the dancing starts, turn off the static scene so they can autosync to the music. I have had my eye on SoundSwitch since the start, but didn't want to beta the build as I call it lol. I remember when I started with ScratchLive, the crashes etc. Stability for events is everything. Took the plunge on this but so far I have had a few software issues right out of the gate. I am on a high end windows laptop and pretty tech savvy. The SoundSwitch app got hoses a couple of days after building all my light profiles and moving head movements. Corrupt profile. That's software not hardware. Couple of days later after reinstalling and starting to test the One controller, it just froze. Took a full reboot including VDJ to make it work again. That's the kind of software behavior that would difficult to deal with at a large venue. The autoscripting is nice. The only downfall I see so far is if you have fixtures like derbys, the autoscripting on turns them on, it doesn't take advantage of rotating them etc. Thanks for the videos! The newer vids went up in quality very nice.

[@bks252]

Sorry to sound stupid but can you use this control one by itself without a computer? I’m just getting into lighting for my band. I have 16 par led cans, 3 light bars and 2 movers. I’m trying to stay away from having to program on a computer. Thanks in advance to any help!

[@MacGyverGear]

​ @soundfiredj1 Why do you delete my message about the Control One @bryansimpson8625 all the time? Just reply to him Control One is not a standalone controller.

[@Partyatmosphere]

No. You'll need a gaming laptop.

[@TheLabMBLLC]

your audio track is out of sync