Chauvet Freedom Sticks/D-Fi Hub

Hi Showsync! I’ve been using a Chauvet D-Fi Hub to wirelessly run my Chauvet Freedom Sticks in 50ch. mode for the past couple years. I updated from Beam 1.x to Beam 2 (for Live) this week and the sticks are now exhibiting a behavioral issue: https://app.box.com/shared/static/he613u17ddmauc0x1rrpafkkls9eovuk.mp4

Can y’all help? (I’m trying to affix a HELP-NEEDED tag but can’t find where to add that.) The lights turn completely off when I send my custom ‘all off’ MIDI signals to them, but any scene that involves the lights turning on at any point is causing all 16 pixels to turn on in the way shown in that video, right from the beginning of the scene.

Chauvet DJ Freedom Stick - 50ch.sbf (1.2 KB)

It’s also not letting me add a link to the DMX channel list to this post, so hopefully I can do so in a reply.

Here is the Freedom Sticks’ DMX channel list.

Hey Michael, good to hear from you!

The Beam 1.x fixture profile you shared also requires the additional Chauvet DJ Freedom Stick (total dim and stroberate).sbf to be present in the fixture profiles folder. I believe you must already have this file there, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to open your fixture patch using this fixture. I don’t think this is an issue here, but mentioning this just in case anyone else looks into this.

I just tested this profile in Beam 2.0.5 and wasn’t able to recreate the issue you describe. It would be great if you could share a fixture patch and a minimal Live Set that demonstrates the issue.

While fixture profiles v1 (from the Beam 1.x era) should still work in Beam 2 and I am curious to understand what is at play here, I would recommend using the new fixture profiles format (v3) for any new projects, as it brings some improvements to the way intensity and color-mixing are handled. It also adds a better support for fixtures with cells, which means you no longer need to have multiple files to support fixtures like yours.

Here is the updated fixture profile for your fixture: Chauvet DJ Freedom Stick.sbf

When using 50-channel mode, assign separate tags to the main/fixture base section and the individual pixels:

In Live, use separate devices to control the main intensity (can always be at 100%) and strobe rate, and individual pixels’ color & intensity:

Hi Luka,

Thank you for your quick reply, and sorry it took me a few days to get back to you. I’m attaching a minimal Live Set that demonstrates the issue along with a new video of me documenting the behavior in this very same Set: https://youtube.com/shorts/EEQg3-STxFU

I’d love your eagle-eyed input on this, as I cannot figure out what its behaving that way. The only difference seems to be Beam 2 vs. Beam 1.

Showing Luka what’s up.als (356.4 KB)
Chauvet DJ Freedom Stick - 50ch.sbf (1.2 KB)
Chauvet DJ Freedom Stick (total dim and stroberate).sbf (446 Bytes)

Hi Luka! Wanted to make sure you saw my reply/info here.

During summer time our response time can be a little longer due to holidays and such. Rest assured we see all messages and will reply when we are able :slight_smile:

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Roger that! This is not yet urgent as I believe I can run my August shows using Beam 1.

Hey @mmkohl, could you please also share your .sbp file?

Howdy Luka,

I attached both .sbp files in my reply to your last comment: Chauvet Freedom Sticks/D-Fi Hub - #5 by mmkohl

Are those what you’re looking for? If so, did you catch my reply (July 23rd)?

Hey Michael! Luka was referring to the .sbp (Showsync Beam Patch) file, not the .sbf (Showsync Beam Fixture) files you attached earlier. We couldn’t spot anything out of place with the fixture files, so we’d like to take a look at your patch for further context.

I apologize, you’re right:

Extra Lives March 23rd, 2025.sbp (118.5 KB)

I sent .sbfs but not an .sbp. Attached! Please let me know what you find.

Howdy Luka! Just wanted to let you know that we tested all the same ingredients (same Beam sbf+sbp files, same Ableton Live session, Beam 2, etc.) except on a completely different MacBook on the other side of the ocean… and the issue shows up the exact same way.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for sharing the fixture patch. When you trigger the TETRIS scene, the MultiMap device in the ALL DIM/STROBE track sets dim on the Scale device on the LIGHT MAGIC group track that contains all the Beam devices to 96%.


This sets intensity/dim of all the fixtures controlled by the devices in the group track to 96%, which results in fixtures lighting up in white.

The reason why you are not experiencing with Beam 1.x has to do with changes to the way color and intensity are handled in Beam 2, especially when it comes to fixtures with cells or children, such as your Freedom Sticks. While it’s great that you’ve been able to make things work this way, it is actually by luck and Beam 1.x’s inconsistent color handling that this worked :smiley:

The way this fixture profile was intended to be used (made for Beam 1.x, where creating fixture profiles for aggregate fixtures was a bit more hacky than in Beam 2) was to have a dedicated tag assigned just on the Total Dim and Stroberate sections of the fixtures in the fixture patch, and use a dedicated device/track just to control that tag, where Intensity can just be set to 100% at all times, with actual intensities set via the tags assigned only to the fixture children/cells:

When setting main intensity this way and removing the Scale device from the group track, you should see the expected result.

Note: it is important that the RGB 1-16 fixture children/cells and the Total Dim and Stroberate don’t both have the same tag assigned to them, as that may result in inconsistent behavior.

When using the new (v3) version of the fixture profile for this fixture, which I shared in the post above, you still need a dedicated tag & device to control the main/total section of the fixture, as shown in the post and screenshots. The difference is just that rather than Total Dim and Stroberate being a separate child/cell, as is the case in the old “hacky” fixture profile…

…the main/total intensity and strobe rate are now controlled through the tag assigned to the fixture base:

When you create new fixture patches that use this fixture I suggest just using the newer version of the fixture profile and the configuration as shown in my post above.

When encountering any such issues in the future I would also recommend creating a new simplified fixture patch and a Live Set from scratch, as that makes it easier to debug things and find where the issues lie.


By the way, while opening your fixture patch and Live Set I noticed 2 unrelated things that you might want to be aware of:

  • The last 3 fixtures in your patch have overlapping DMX channels/addresses, which may result in unexpected behavior - the last channel of SYNTH (#2) "Freedom Stick - 50ch" is 298, while the starting address of DRUMS (#3) "Freedom Stick - 50ch" is 297, etc.:

  • Your Live Set is referencing multiple different versions of the same Beam devices with different filenames. This implies that you probably used Collect All & Save, which created local copies of the Beam devices in your project. This can be problematic, so it is best to make sure your Live Set references Beam devices in the User Library.

Hope this helps!