Systems, interfaces, and methods for controlling a luminaire. The luminaire includes a plurality of light sources or emitters corresponding to different characteristics of light. Color controls corresponding to pre-defined characteristics are set or modified by one or more dials, faders, or similar interface devices. Each of the color controls correspondingly controls the output of one or more of the light sources. A separation between the preset characteristic for each color control and the actual characteristic of each light source is calculated. An output value for each light source that is required to generate the selected characteristic is then calculated and stored in memory. When one or more color controls are selected, the output values of each light source required to reproduce the desired characteristic is determined, and the light sources in the luminaire are driven at the corresponding output values.