Music-Triggered Playbacks on ChamSys MagicQ
MagicQ's OSC surface takes playback activation and fader levels with no console-side scripting. What to send, and where the free PC version fits.
CueSync TeamShow Control Engineers
Why MagicQ Is Worth Covering Separately
MagicQ occupies a position nothing else quite does: a fully capable console platform whose PC/Mac version is free. That single fact changes what is possible for education, small theatre, and anyone who wants to prove a design before committing budget.
It also means the entire automation chain can be validated on one laptop, with no console in the room and no hire cost — and because the OSC surface is the same on the free version as on an MQ-series console apart from the playback range (on PC/Mac, keep to playbacks 1-10 over OSC), that bench test predicts the venue for everything inside that range.
The Control Surface
MagicQ exposes a remote-control OSC surface that CueSync targets directly. Two capabilities carry almost everything:
Playback activation and cue stepping. Activate a playback, step a cue stack. Discrete events — the console owns the look, automation decides the instant.
Playback fader levels. A Level % action sets a playback fader to a value from 0 to 100, so a trigger can lift or settle a layer between moments.
No console-side scripting is required for either. That is worth stating plainly, because a rig whose automation depends on bespoke console scripts is fragile in a specific and predictable way: it breaks when someone loads a different show file, and the person who wrote the script is rarely in the building when it happens.
Discrete and Continuous Are Different Tools
The most common mistake is building a whole show from one of these.
Only cue steps produces a slideshow. The rig snaps between states on section boundaries and does nothing in between, which reads as mechanical no matter how good the individual looks are.
Only fader levels produces something that breathes but never lands. Layers rise and fall convincingly and no moment ever arrives.
The combination is what reads as designed: levels carry the motion between moments, cue steps deliver the moments themselves. Put two or three playback faders on Level % actions fired by phrase and energy triggers, and reserve cue steps for the handful of instants that actually matter.
Beat Phase, Not Just BPM
A cue that fires on the correct beat but the wrong position in the bar looks like a mistake rather than a decision.
CueSync locks to beat phase rather than tempo alone, so a cue mapped to a downbeat lands on the downbeat rather than merely somewhere in the right tempo neighbourhood. On a rig where the console is doing the fade, that timing is the whole difference between automation that looks intentional and automation that looks approximate.
Setup
- Enable the remote-control OSC surface on MagicQ and note the IP and port.
- In CueSync: Network → Outputs → Add Output → Lighting → ChamSys MagicQ, with that IP (the UDP port fills in as 6171; match the one you noted if it differs), then Test Connection.
- On Cues, pick a discrete trigger — beat, phrase, energy — then Add Action → your MagicQ output → ChamSys MagicQ: tick Go with a Playback number to activate it, or untick Go and set a Cue number to step it.
- Add Level % actions with a Playback number for one or two playback faders, fired by an energy or phrase trigger.
- Prove the chain on MagicQ PC/Mac before the console is in the building. Plan the first live cue on the free MagicQ PC/Mac version, and on PC/Mac keep to playbacks 1-10 over OSC.
Built for: MagicQ MQ-series consoles, MagicQ Stadium, MagicQ Compact, MagicQ PC/Mac (free). CueSync's MagicQ output speaks ChamSys's OSC interface, which all of them share.
What Stays With the Desk
None of this programs the desk. Every playback fired here was built by someone in MagicQ, and the console remains the source of truth for what a look is. Automation decides when, never what.
That boundary is what makes it usable on a real production: because MagicQ is receiving ordinary OSC rather than being remote-controlled at a lower level, the operator keeps full control at the desk.
Further Reading
- How to Trigger ETC Eos Cues from the Music — the same pattern on Eos
- Audio-Reactive Cues Over OSC — the QLab equivalent
- What Is Music-Driven Lighting Automation? — the category
- ChamSys MagicQ Integration — protocols, compatibility, setup
Frequently Asked Questions
No. MagicQ's remote-control OSC surface is built in and accepts playback activation and cue stepping directly, so there is no console-side scripting layer to write or maintain. That matters more than it sounds: a rig whose automation depends on bespoke console scripts becomes fragile the moment someone loads a different show file, and the person who wrote the script is rarely the person in the building at the time.
Keep Reading
How to Trigger ETC Eos Cues from the Music
Eos speaks OSC out of the box. The exact command surface, why the Go key is not a cue fire, and how to drive the desk from music without an operator.
ReadAudio-Reactive Cues Over OSC: What QLab Can and Cannot Do
Reacting to live audio usually gets built from QLab network cues, OSC queries and patience. What that does, where it stops, and what analysis adds.
ReadWhat Is Music-Driven Lighting Automation? A Definition
Music-driven lighting automation is lighting control that follows the music's beat and structure, from analysed tracks or live deck data. How it works.
Read