Test Driving the NX4 - Elation's Flagship Lighting Console - Full Review
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- Опубліковано 13 лип 2024
- The Elation NX4 is the latest and greatest console for lighting programmers to leverage the features of the powerful Onyx lighting software. In this video, I'll talk about my experiences and impressions of the console's features, strengths, and shortcomings. This console offers a huge value with its motorized faders, high-spec computer components, ultra-responsive touch screen, powerful DYLOS engine, and easy to learn interface.
For more information about the NX4 -
obsidiancontrol.com/nx4
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obsidiancontrol.com/
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Video Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
0:18 Video disclosure
0:46 Boot Time Test
2:00 Why I’m trying the NX4
4:10 Hardware specifications
5:20 Touch screen
6:20 Physical layout
6:45 Responsiveness
7:40 Playback arrangement
8:50 Grandmaster
10:10 Main playback sections
12:05 Center playback bank
14:25 Assignable function buttons
17:04 Programmer keypad
17:15 Encoder wheels
17:40 Mini touch screen
20:00 Trackball
20:55 Gooseneck LED lamps
21:48 USB Ports and power button?
22:48 Onyx software introduction
23:51 Patch, menu, and fixture profiles
28:30 CITP linking and patch import
29:57 Cloning part 1
31:00 Onyx user interface and playback options
36:58 Q-Blender
37:41 Workspaces and views
40:15 Macros
43:22 Licensing and outputs
45:08 Programmer popup and effects
49:18 DYLOS media engine
55:02 Cloning part 2 - REAL TALK
57:00 Who is this console for?
58:02 Onyx strengths and weaknesses
1:03:08 Conclusions and recommendations for Elation
1:06:45 Thank you to Patreon supporters
Thank you to James Graham and Elation for lending this console for our project at Supernova in Seattle.
Make sure to check out Learn Stage Lighting .com for more Onyx videos:
/ @learnstagelighting
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Great video mate! Here’s a couple of hints:
For the text area (release cue time) you have to simple click on the text zone then enter the value. Don’t try to highlight it with your mouse. It’s working this way! I’m not behind my board at the moment but I think you have to use the keyboard instead of the keypad
The FX generator of Onyx is cancer. Many of users complaining on the forum and the Facebook page but they never updated it and it’s is still outdated vs other consoles. They focused on the Dylos software as a FX generator instead fixing the original effect generator. Leaving older consoles users like the M1 behind. I’m glad you speak about it, now they might listen.
There is in fact a custom macro system, you have to create an empty cue then you can add multiples macros in the Active cue windows. At the top of it, there are a couple of option (Edit, Link, Add macros etc)
I have watched many of your video with GMA and learned a lot, improving my workflow. I would love a video about how would you work and operate a show with Onyx! Great video man!
1+ the FX engine is cancer. (from a onyx user)
LD quits after show * slams screen closed. Stage goes black. (It's like the mic drop of the lighting world)
literally the Motorola flip phone "end call" of Onyx LD's
You made an hour long video that I watched without ever really feeling board or like it was dry :) Give yourself a good pat on the back. I would also love to see stuff like this going over other consoles (avo/titan, quickQ magicQ, hog ect) this is really good stuff.
Great Video! Regarding the Desk lamps... you can actually record them into a cue, so one of the ideas I had for them was (in a production show, or timecoded environment) you can utilize them for cue lights for yourself... for instance for followspot cues, right a cue list of dummy cues for your follow spot standbys and goes, and use one of the desk lamps to give you a cue for your standby and go calls. You can also use them to cue you for different things you might need to do within your show, etc. As far as power is concerned, you are absolutely correct, just turn it off! Because of the use of Windows IOT as the backbone, there is no need to go through a "shutdown" sequence, and Onyx saves the show every time you enter something.
Awesome info, thanks for writing your comment :)
Great timing with this video as I'm currently looking into Onyx. Thank you for all the work you put in these cool and informative videos!
@@alienencore3848 What do you mean by that?
Christian Jackson, the guy working on Elation gear.. wearing a ClayPaky t-shirt :p
Thanks for a great revue. I am using Onyx with the NX Wing and it is basically my first "proper" console. From what you have said I can see why I have struggled with a few things I want to do, but do really enjoy DYLOS and it's opened up a whole new avenue for me (which is certainly needed through these hard times).
Thoroughly enjoy all your videos - thanks for the amazing effort and helping make lighting more understandable for me.
Been using obsidian in a local club since it was Martin M series. Absolutely love it.
49:00 For position FXs, there are pan 'invert' (PI) and tilt 'invert' (TI) features that basically reverses the waveform (somewhere on the second page of the FX section if the position parameter is selected). Because this is a separate parameter, I made a cuelist with these options applied to different fixture selections. This way I could use this single cuelist to make all my position FX look symmetrical or asymmetrical.
YAY.. you're back!!!!
Thanks for the good review!
can you please do a whole video about: how to program a (busking) show within Onyx? Would be so interesting
Can't think of why that rubber piece would hit the blackout button - maybe they just thought nobody would ever close the screen while the console was running a show..? Odd.
Great video Christian!
Even if the console is running or not, i would not want something pushing a button down (un)intentionally... ever.
Great quality as usual, Chameleon Jackson!
YOU FINALLY UPLOADED
Nice video on SuperNova! Loved the peek at the rig.
Editing cues/cuelist: I select the cue or cuelist and press Loadx2. This bring up everything my board is outputing in to the programmer and I make my change and roecord it again to the same cue.
Regarding the lack of combined presets: I save good looks and FX i want to re-use into a cuelist and use them as presets. Say I have a good pan tilt/fx in Cue1. In cue2 I have som good color fx whit timing etc. I play them both Pres Load+Load and edeting och adding what i want. Record the final look to a new Cue/Cuelist.
I love watching the MA videos, but I also enjoy videos like this with you reviewing and walking through other consoles. Would love to see one Chamsys, maybe even a Hog4 or whatever else is out there.
I worked on the M1 for 4 years and this console is the post acquisition version obsidian realeased. Its not a bad console but the oversight on the blackout button is probably not intentional as the layout is almost identical to the M1 (granted they added a few small screens). For the club I worked at we had a huge issue with the left playback section, theres some connector issue that would constantly bug out and fire off cues when you didn't want them to. At one point we had the CO2 programmed on the top left button as a flash and guess which button got stuck and fired off half the tank before I pulled the DMX cable out to kill the solenoids. Also the encoders were useless as they would just fly when touched. Granted there was a second LD that didn't care for the console and would regularly eat drink over the thing but the support for the thing meant we would either be out a console for 3 months or fix it ourselves. Great video on the NX4!
Great Video
Finally ur backkk pls upload more it doesnt matter what ur vids are just so fun and interesting!
Just remembered, if you are ever in a bind with a fixture profile, most of the time its an XML file and you can grab another fixture that is multi instance and follow its structure to edit your own. I had to make one with a 3x3 moving head that had a grid rgbw front. Quite simple to peice together from the files as reference!
Thanks for a really thorough review.
I have been using the software version of Onyx for some time now and considering a hardware console.
I think it is certainly an affordable solution compared to the GrandMA/Hog desks.
Finally new video
Be on the lookout tomorrow as well ;)
I don't know if anyone mentioned it yet, but you can actually record a multiple values in a single preset to act like the "All preset" in MA. Like, you can have Intensity, Color, Pantilt, Beam and Gobo information all in one preset. That was a huuge mindblown when I found out about it and I've been using it since.
But those effects man... I'm dreaming about the some kind of "effects pool" in Onyx.
Great video tho, I enjoyed watching it! 🤘🏽
I just saw this comment, how the heck can you do that? I've been working with onyx for years and never seen that
@@JoshuaSurufka basically, when you have the look you want to save in a preset, after pressing "record" button, in that pop-out window just choose/mark all the parameters you want to save and tap any empty preset tile in any parameter section, or you can merge it into already existing preset
@@blackbeamlighting awesome, thanks!
Love it
AYE!! My dude!
He's backkkk
Thank you
Hey everyone just a little note on the Macros part, as pinned comment says there are some macro functions within Onyx but there is a better way (imo) though it cost money ShowCockpit allows for Lua Script integration. Because cloning is an issue before i switched to MA2 i used scripts to delete and rewrite what i wanted with 1 button, this isn't cloning but it helped ALOT, having the LUA script functionality really made working with the console much faster.
The video is awsome.
You should be able to edit those function keys also by hitting Edit + the button
This Console is so Familiar to Me because I usually use Martin M1 Console and the layout of the Console is very similar, except the System is different. Interesting Console NX4😍👍
Love the NFG hoodie :D
If I'm doing onyx....this video was awesome
Very nice
OG Lighthouse Goat McNasty has returned!
Great video like others have said. One question I had was whether you'd ever messed with Chroma-Q Vista (formerly Jands Vista). I know that with the change in owners, the large-format consoles are missing, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that versus Onyx (I know it sucks in relation to MA).
I know this video is pretty old now so people probably aren't looking at the comments, but you can make presets with more than one parameter, you can select multiple parameters in the record popup. Also if you record your normal presets in the FX Macros pool, they will act as universal presets for any other fixture with the same parameters, just make sure you filter JUST the parameters you want recorded in the record popup.
I'm curious on other consoles do you use the ability to put HTP and LTP on the same playback? I used this feature frequently on Hog consoles to allow i.e. blinder bumps on the HTP and then maybe a movement chase on the LTP but I can't find any way to combine both LTP & HTP to reside on the same playback simultaneously
You can do q-blender on MA2 using bitmaps in preset mode! It's actually pretty cool, but it's nice to see onyx has made it simpler!
Great video!
Well yes, regular FX engine might not be top of the art but DYLOS is :) and you can generate amazing and unique effects by applying a Dylos zone to any parameter, have you tried it with Pan/Tilt?
I see Christian Jackson video, I click.
Awesome video! I haven't heard about elation a ton of time
Great Video Christian! Would love to see you do one on the Avolites D9 and hear your opinion!
Hopefully I can get my hands on one. They are hard to come by it seems.
@@christianjackson Kade Behm or Brad White with Group One should be able to help you out. Brad showed me one down in Orlando and I must say I was very impressed by it. Hope you can get one to try out! Again, would love to hear your thoughts!
Yeah I have reached out, but it’s hard to get manufacturers to let me have their new gear for weeks at a time. Usually they are cool with demos and presentations, but getting my hands on gear to give a complete story over a longer period is hard sometimes.
What specs were you looking for when choosing a laptop for your work?
I’m looking for a solid VJ laptop, seeing that you have razer makes me think I need a gaming laptop.
i wish it had magnetic strips to lay around the function faders and buttons, that way you could write somethiing on the strip without needing to write on the console
Is the q-blender functions same like avolites when playbacks recorded in mode 2 & in overlap ? I feel like the same on what u are referring to.
I think that bumpers of the screen press the Blackout button is an unintentional feature^^
Love from India
In any case these a superb console that you have just made me discover, these good to broaden this knowledge and not to stay only on the same console. Even if she will not exceed the grandma LOL
Hey christian.
Are you gonna review the new avolites diamond 9 ass well.
Would be nice to see iff you like it.
I know avo isn't very populair in the us, but it is a very nice console
It looks very cool indeed. I sent them a message about it but I don't know if they will send me one to play with.
New timeline option in vs 15 of Titan , out in april , look so easy going ... AVO make the workflow so natural and intuitive.
Hi Christian, I'm an SFX guy how's looking in to doing LD work. What's your opinion on the NX4 console to control fixtures like Flame Projectors, CO2 Jets, Confetti Cannons, Spark Machines, etc. via DMX? I like the idea of using modern lighting consoles for this kind of work that could transition into LD work when that starts to come along.
The F-Keys are for me always the same fonction, on everything show I program. Its not a problem for myself.
For the Patch you can use the fixture ID @ adress/universe ex: fixture 1 @ 200/3 to patch the fixture.
Hit the nail on the head. I have been running onyx on my m6. I like the flow more on the m6 rather then the nx gear. The fx do suck.
YYYEEEERRRRR
Maybe to shutdown just close the Screen. Pressing the blackout Button a longer time May shut it down?
Thank you for the thorough review - very helpful. I'm an engineer at a House of Worship, I'm currently have a Strand NEO (with a VL2600) to demo for a few weeks. Now that I'm getting familiar with larger more capable consoles, I've discovered the NX4 and the ETC Ion XE 20. Since my budget cannot afford a Grand MA2 Light - do you think the NX4 is a more capable console than the Strand NEO???
Honestly, I do not know the ETC console. Nevertheless I would suggest you to get your hands on a Onyx console. Christian already mentioned the drawbacks. If it is ok for you, give it a try.
What I like about Onyx is the very active and quite large community here on UA-cam, Facebook and on the Onyx forum. The Onyx support is great too.
Onyx is an excellent value for money. You get that unique Dylos functionallity, get a free license of Caputre 3D and a modern powerfull Hardware for future upgrades and since Elation bought the software from Martin, they improved the software a lot and I believe they will not stop making the software even more competitive.
They did not really update the core functionality for like 10 years. Although i like the user interface in general, its easy to get started
i have no idea what you're talking about (i barely understand a MA2 is lol) but the way you explain is so comforting i just play this on the background while im designing
I’ll be curious to see if Elation takes any cues from your review and makes corresponding updates and or improvements. Great review.
Now I see why the footage was over 350 gb :D
Regarding effects - there is NO natural looking ballyhoo / random pan & tilt function.... something I desperately wish it had
we are still using martin mpc ☺️
Anyone have any questions about onyx ask here!
Why is onyx on pc such an extreme pain in the ass?
@@papierbak i find it good as long as you have a touch screen and more than 1 screen apart from that patience is key
@@rjc358 i don't have a touchscreen and am often in situations where I have about 20 seconds to program a cue
@@papierbak go download onyx remote on App Store or google play store to improve your workflow with a touch keypad
This looks like the win.10 version of Martin M6. The design is almost the same.
Chamsys has a similar thing going with the media sever and built in content.
Yes, but their demo mode is more restrictive when it comes to external inputs for things like timecode or external controllers. Also DYLOS is vastly easier to learn. I do love the chamsys system as well, though.
@@christianjackson Chamsys only admits inputs with (at least) Rack Dongle (same as Onyx Dongle), but outputs 64 universes for free.
@@Koitz yes that is correct. I use it in demo mode quite frequently
Does Onyx has something like Speed Masters?
Set the FX speed to a over ride cue
I like have one does
You can already combine presets just save the parameters and save where ever you want
Curious on your thoughts on onyx vs chamsys
They are almost completely opposite in terms of complexity and programming style. I’m no chamsys expert by any means though.
every time he says onyx I think of the preamps.
my inner sound nerd is showing
Come to brasil
Either way those rubber bumpers on the display are a terrible idea, especially on a house desk
I’ve worked small venues a lot over the last few years and when table space is limited even just closing the display and throwing a laptop on for programming vision cues or whatever helps a lot with space, seems like a bad idea to blackout whenever that gets closed...
Then again that venue has an Ion in it with the fader wing and we managed with the amount of space we had so it all depends I guess, definitely got cramped though
So it's basically Elation's version of a Martin M1HD...
Elation bought the old martin system and blew new life into it. So yes, it's closely related to the M1HD but upgraded on pretty much all aspects.
Hi Christian, really enjoyed your video but wanted to pick your brain more about cloning. For me, (NX4, MX Wing, M1)ownerI find the cloning feature very useful. I’m hoping you can go jnto more details about how it doesn’t work for you.
Also, the Preset pages aren’t ‘locked’, you can record any preset on any page; so my ‘Intensity’ page also has Colour, Beam and Gobo presets that I use all the time, with more detailed specific, presets on the individual pages
Lastly, the FX Engine isn’t it’s greatest strength, but since all Fx are created by parameter manipulation, you can create fixture specific Fx Presets or global Fx Macros which can then be recalled at will.
It’s a bit of work to build a good base showfile, but once you’ve got the basics dialled in, t’s easy!!
6:40 cough *ETC*
I would love to take a work vacation and check out your world
Preció?
Hey are you selling your nx4 console?
哇！这是什么控台啊？
ok. a 20 year old strand 300 console allowed you to assign anything anywhere and that ran off of an i486 processor....
damnn
I own a NX4 and my Screen-Support does not hit the Button, maby, a Demo-Product-Thing?
Interesting... the plot thickens
@@christianjackson or is there an US - EU difference? I live in Germany.
Sounds like it is a demo version thing. Production units had this fixed
Best Marketing...
Hello I am from Germany and would like to study as a light designer is it a save job would you like to have a job in the future
software installation on pc is a pain in the ass :(
"lets dive into the quarks are features of this system" Omg you are sounding like doug Demuro
You are the first one to point that out haha. I’ve been waiting
Oh shoot 👀 now you got me curious, you a car guy?
Sir, I want to work with you.
I am from Bangladesh
I will love to work with you
у него цена как крыло от боинга
Hog 4 is definitely much more powerful than Onyx.
You touched on most of my gripes , Cloning is indeed its biggest downfall along with no pan/tilt offsets in the patch
Ah!!! I forgot to include the offset thing in the video. Shoot. Yes you are totally right.
@@christianjackson nobody’s perfect :)
@@christianjackson also check your discord, tagged you about the onyx macro thing, i guess you overlooked it / didnt find it
@@christianjackson you can set an offset by recording to the default preset. I use that all the time. Cloning works fine for me except not being able to clone multi part fixtures is a huge pain.
@@ZTTowell they are apparently fixing that for the next release version.