Do you use lights when gigging?

SongCarver · Post by **SongCarver** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:17 pm

wow, cooll stuff.

DeadlyKungFu, what sort of laser can one use? a little 'slideshow pointer'?

D K · Post by **D K** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:39 pm

[/quote]

Cool, how do you project the video from your computer though? What hardware is necessary?

Also saw that other VJ program, Livid I think it's called...anyone like that one any better?[/quote]

short answer-mac with an svhs cable to projector. live midi clips/simultaneous commands to modul8.
modul8 is completely midi assignable, just like live.
i can have specific images/vid fx trigger with specific auio/fx from the same controller. rad!

DeadlyKungFu · Post by **DeadlyKungFu** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:46 pm

SongCarver wrote:what sort of laser can one use? a little 'slideshow pointer'?

Any laser will work, the beam only gets slightly dimmer from the movement.

samiam · Post by **samiam** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:13 pm

hambone1 wrote:Now that you mention it...

I run lasers, scanners, washes, floods, strobes and video from Live via MIDI-DMX. It works great!

howarye, i'm in the process of learning how to synchronise lighting to our music setup. the plan was to upgrade to ableton live, but use a seperate dmx lighting sequencing program on a seperate laptop. do you think this is necesssary or could we really run the whole show (our visual effects, video and music) from just one laptop, ableton and a midi-dmx converter. if i'm completely off the ball here could anyone suggest an alternative. heres a list of what we are/hope to be using. any suggestions or advice re this is greatly appreciated

music:

toshiba portege a200 (x2)
ableton live
reason 3
korg esx1 (x2)
access virus (x2)

lights:

martin wizard extreme (x2)
martin atomic 3000 strobe
medialas moving head laser
martin magnum 2000 smoke machine
Chauvet Legend 250RT - DMX512 Moving Head (x2)

thanks for your help.

sam.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:31 pm

Running your audio and lights on the same computer shouldn't be a problem. as long as you're not maxxing out the computer with audio. Using your external synths will help a lot. I run all of my lighting in Live through a MIDI>DMX converter. There are 59 lighting tracks for 19 lighting fixtures in Live, but they only use a 3-4% CPU when maxxed out with pans/tilts/fades, et, and that's on an iBook.

Video, on the other hand, is different. Depending on what you're trying to do, it can get pretty demanding on your system. If you just want to throw up some blocky abstract stuff, you can probably get away with it. You'll be far better off with a second computer, though.

I run my audio and video on a G5 2 x 2GHz, the lighting and a visualizer on an iBook, and controls for the remote pan/tilt/zoom cameras on a little Pee Cee. It's all MIDIed together and under Live control.

The great thing about doing everything in Live is that it's all sequenced and choreographed together. For example, if I have a scene or IAC clip that launches the live feed from the dance floor, I have the color washes in the same scene or IAC clip that flood the floor with plenty of light for a good image on the screens. Also, all of your lighting and video effects will always be beatmatched, regardless of tempo.

Manually programming lighting isn't for the faint of heart! If I had to do it again and I was using a Pee Cee, I'd use http://206.188.195.38/index.asp?PageAct ... dID=4&HS=1. Your lighting is still under Live control, but BlueLite makes the programming infinitely easier.

And the things you can do with the IAC driver and follow actions, and the interplay between audio, video, and lighting are incredible.

Coenie · Post by **Coenie** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:07 am

Can anyone suggest some cheap/affordable midi-dmx converters?

samiam · Post by **samiam** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:16 am

cheers mate... its a relief to know it can be done this way. still scratchin me head about a few particulars tho...

hambone1 wrote:There are 59 lighting tracks for 19 lighting fixtures in Live, but they only use a 3-4% CPU when maxxed out with pans/tilts/fades, et, and that's on an iBook.

so is there actually a section in live dedicated to controlling light fixtures? if so, how precise is it? could these be used to trigger a dmx smoke machine also? can you draw in sequences like you could draw in notes on a music sequencer for example?

hambone1 wrote:I run my audio and video on a G5 2 x 2GHz, the lighting and a visualizer on an iBook, and controls for the remote pan/tilt/zoom cameras on a little Pee Cee. It's all MIDIed together and under Live control.

this might sound like a stupid question, but does that mean you have ableton running on your G5, ibook and pc, or only your G5? or do you have some other light sequencing software on your ibook that responds to midi from ableton. i suppose what i'm getting at is how capable is ableton as a stand alone program for taking care of audio, midi and lighting control? and what sort of other software is necessary to sequence and control lighting.

hambone1 wrote:Manually programming lighting isn't for the faint of heart!

i checked out that bluelite thing and it seems pretty friendly. but would it not be possible to program lighting in ableton in the same way one would program midi on/off notes and control change messages for music, drawing in automated sweeps, pressing keys and using a standard midi controller? can this sort of stuff be done on live or do i need to get extra software... we'd like to minimize purchases but at the same time we're not gona skip out on anything essential.

the other issue is that there are 2 of us in it using seperate laptops (we'll both be using live as our main sequencers and would like to share control of the lighting and smoke etc) so would it make more sense to have one midi-dmx converter per laptop to divide up the lighting rig, or just use a midi merge box to split the signal between us?

i'm truly sorry about all the '?'s mate... this whole thing is an absolute fooker t get me head around. i'd love to know more about your setup, it seems like ye'v got the whole thing sussed out pretty nicely.

thanks again for your time,

sam.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:02 am

I'm crap at explaining these things, but here goes...

Live is running on the G5 doing quad audio, video Rewired to Arkaos on the same G5, and lighting MIDIed out to Live running on the iBook, which has the MIDI>DMX converter MIDIed to it. The Pee Cee just has camera control software on it, that I can either work manually, or sequenced from Live on the G5.

You don't need a separate lighting program. MIDI>DMX converters can either translate note-ons/-offs, or continuous controllers to DMX. CCs are much more flexible. My iBook has hundreds of lighting CC values, curves, and patterns that I drew in Live that are triggered from the G5 with MIDI remote from Live, often with Follow Actions.

So each of my scenes has the main FOH audio track, rear audio track, Arkaos VJ clips and CCs controlling the Arkaos parameters for the video, lighting tracks that are notes and chords that "play" the CC clips on the iBook via MIDI, and control tracks to let me select different Impulse patches to play live. I also use lots of Follow Actions to mix up the video and lighting so it's different every time, but within the constraints I set up. It takes far too long to write custom lighting and video tracks for every song, and by using follow actions and a bit of randomization, I can play requests with quasi-custom lighting and video that is always beatmatched.

I did have my haze machine under Live control, but found that the amount of haze needed varied with venue, people moving through, doors open, not pissing people off with too much, etc. It was a lot easier to just put the wired remote on the desk and control it manually. Sometimes there can be too much automation!

I know it's confusing... I confuse myself all the time!

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:04 am

Coenie wrote:Can anyone suggest some cheap/affordable midi-dmx converters?

I use http://www.jpleisure.co.uk/item117.htm

Don't let the ugly case or website put you off.

It does exactly what it says on the box!

samiam · Post by **samiam** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:07 pm

mate yer a gem for the help.

the brain still boggles, but the creases are getting ironed out to be sure.

cheers.

mrweasel · Post by **mrweasel** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:52 pm

I use Super 8 projections and it just looks fantastic.

I use several film projectors + some with different loops in them and get someone to take charge of the projections.

I also use slide projectors.

The key is to find something nice to do your projections on. It really makes a difference.

The really good thing about this is that bulbs for 8mm projectors don't cost you hundreds so using it costs next to nothing.

The biggest thing is the film but there's loads of really cool used film out there.

Ok, I'll stop ranting about super8 now (I also specialize in selling super8 equipment so I could talk about it for hours...)

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:41 pm

A keyring flashlight

Coenie · Post by **Coenie** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:55 am

hambone1 wrote:
Coenie wrote:Can anyone suggest some cheap/affordable midi-dmx converters?
I use http://www.jpleisure.co.uk/item117.htm

Don't let the ugly case or website put you off.

It does exactly what it says on the box!

Thanx Dude!

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:54 am

mrweasel wrote: The key is to find something nice to do your projections on. It really makes a difference.

My bandmate and I specialise in purchasing a brand-new white cotton king size sheet at the start of each tour. First out-of-town stop of each tour it's off the Warehouse (NZ's wal-mart) for a fresh one.

Sure, it ain't proper front-projection material, but being able to rig it tidily on a wall with just black gaffa tape means we get a decent screen exactly where we want it, not just where some club owner thought it best for big screen sports.

If the venue has decent video system, we turn our projector forwards and shoot thru smoke and us. We have midi'ed video so it all adds up.