ToskLight Control

The industry-standard consoles are excellent and worth every penny. If you can afford one, buy one. The difficulty sits below that budget: smaller productions fall back on open or low-cost software built on entirely different concepts, so the workflow does not carry over. You learn a model that stops applying the day you decide to take this seriously.

ToskLight bridges that gap: professional concepts, free to use, running on macOS, Windows and Linux. It follows the conventions established by industry-standard desks, including full tracking and proper referencing of groups and presets, so the hours you put in here carry over to the craft you want to practise. The entry point is different: point at things to get a show running, then grow into the command line and the deeper structure as you need them.

The Fixture Sheet lists every patched fixture with its live dimmer, colour, position, beam and focus values, and marks whether each one comes from the Programmer, playback or the default. It answers the operator's real question: what is this light doing, and who told it to?

Built-in views cover the work most shows need, while Desktops let you arrange your own. The lower section switches between the Programmer and freely configurable playbacks, reshaping itself when a hardware surface is connected.

Intensity, colour, position, beam, shapers, focus, control and media sit in familiar attribute banks. Everything is reachable through the touch surface or typed on the command line, which becomes the faster path once it is in your fingers.

Values stay in the Programmer until they are recorded. Blind, preview and highlight let you build the next look while the current one remains live.

Groups collect the fixtures you actually talk about during a show and presets hold the looks those groups take. Cues reference those objects instead of storing a fixed value on every fixture.

Change the house warm preset once and every cue that used it follows. Repatch a group after a fixture fails and the cues keep working.

Each cue stores only what it changes and everything else tracks through from the cues before it. A cue list reads as a sequence of intentions rather than a series of complete stage states.

That saves the afternoon when a lamp is missing from a look: add it once and it stays in every cue that follows, instead of being pasted into each of them.

Place Cue triggers, edit Cue fade points, and arrange audio and Speed Groups on the timeline. The overview keeps navigation close while you work on an individual Cue.

Still in development — use with caution. Test your show thoroughly before relying on Timecode for a live performance.

Send DMX through Art-Net, sACN, or supported USB DMX interfaces. Explicit output routes keep the show independent of the network or adapter used at tonight’s venue.

Frames go out on a fixed schedule, keeping the output rate consistent while you program and run the show.

Build effects for intensity, color, position, and other supported parameters using functions or editable keyframes. Distribute them across the rig in 3D, then shape their ordering and phase to create coordinated movement.

Like working the sync controls on a DJ desk, five Speed Groups keep chases and Dynamics on a shared beat: tap the tempo, enter BPM, or follow the music through Sound to Light. Choose whether a Dynamic starts immediately, joins the running sync phase, or waits for the next beat or four-beat bar.

Browse media and control layers from a compatible media server in your Control workspace. CITP/MSEX supplies names, thumbnails, and previews where supported.

Use Pixel or another compatible server, and arrange the Media pane alongside your fixtures, presets, and playbacks.

Run the desk from its software playbacks or connect an OSC control surface. The attached surface shares Control’s Programmer, command line, and playback pages.

Custom hardware bridges can use the documented OSC controls and feedback. The UI adapts when hardware connects: a compact playback view frees room when the controller supplies buttons and faders you no longer need at full touchscreen size.