MIDI Tempo Light?

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 7:14 am

Hey, I'm trying to find info on MIDI synced strobes or such that you can use to allow a live drummer to not deal with headphones, and deal with things like the bass dropping out in parts of a song etc.

The original drummer from Ministry is from Seattle and a friend of mine who chatted him up a few times said that's what they used, basically a strobe type light that flashed the tempo at the drummer.
My searches for something like this are futile.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:38 am

Bump, with the hopes that someone can answer this... blah.

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:42 am

you could probably make something like this pretty easy in Quartz composer. I did a really basic flashing cube for a midi sync thing a while back..

i can post it if you're on a mac..

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:54 am

This is the homemade midi clock counter i did a while back in quartz composer:

http://homepage.mac.com/bighairmusic/ab ... unter2.zip

there was a few other solutions on this thread below..

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... z+composer

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:23 am

Thanks for the reply, I'm on a Mac, and it might end up being the solution. I was hoping that a basic strobe type light could be found, as that way the drummer isn't straining to see the laptop screen.

Haven't messed with Quartz Composer, how do you get MIDI clock from Live to it?

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:24 pm

just use an IAC bus to send from Live internally to QC, or if you're using two machines just send it out over a midi out, to a midi in on another machine..

A strobe would be very easy, as long as its on a screen of some description, based on my little app. Its basically just a flashing square. I can knock one up if you want something on a screen.

If you want to control external lights then i'm sure you could get a DMX powered light to sync from Midi Clock.

Or even some kind of xmas lights might do it..

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Christ ... h-to-Music

timeline85 · Post by **timeline85** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:50 pm

www.colorsynth.com

I should have 50 of these for sale in about 2-3 months, $150 each is my current estimated sell price.

Stan_T · Post by **Stan_T** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:36 am

Machinesworking wrote:I was hoping that a basic strobe type light could be found, as that way the drummer isn't straining to see the laptop screen.

Do you by chance have an extra channel on your soundcard? I set up a click track (a midi clip triggering percussion sounds in drum rack) and route it out a spare channel to my headphone amp (I am the drummer). It works great as long as the mix is fairly consistent.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:40 am

Stan_T wrote:
Machinesworking wrote:I was hoping that a basic strobe type light could be found, as that way the drummer isn't straining to see the laptop screen.
Do you by chance have an extra channel on your soundcard? I set up a click track (a midi clip triggering percussion sounds in drum rack) and route it out a spare channel to my headphone amp (I am the drummer). It works great as long as the mix is fairly consistent.

Yeah, I use a Fireface 800, has a discrete headphone out. Getting him to wear headphones is another story. One Problem I believe is that my headphones are all monitoring style, and cut out the PA, so it's like playing quieter I think.

outershpongolia · Post by **outershpongolia** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:23 am

Idk if you've already found your solution but here's what I experimented with..

I found this program called Resolume, it's a VJ program. You can set different clips to be triggered by different midi notes, in this case I used a green, blue, red, and yellow Image on each note, something kinda psychadelic but something completely different from the previous image.

So lets say they are on the notes C1, D1, E1, F1... (just examples)

(now I can't remember how I sent midi from Ableton to Resolume so you'd have to find that out)

but I made a seperate midi track, and created a clip that has C1, D1, E1, F1 on each 1/4 note or however far apart the click would be..

Then I used an external monitor to display Resolume.. So when I started my Live Set the clip would start and the display would change the picture every beat, or 2 beats whatever you'd like..

Never used this, just an experiment incase I needed to get rid of that annoying click sound, or someone didn't want to wear headphones, but still keep a "visual click track" going so they can keep on track.

Seems easier than the DMX lighting stuff cause all you need is a seperate monitor or you could just use the one you have, but then of course you couldn't see what was going on with your set.

Hope this helps.. Look on YouTube for Tutorials.. I found it very interesting that you could perhaps set a blur effect on your visual loops that corresponds with a Reverb, or any other effect.. So when you twist your knob to jack up the Reverb on your synth line the video clip you are playing Blurs right along with it..

(first post on this forum so I went a little crazy SORRy!)

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 3:08 am

Just to update, thanks for the suggestions. What ended up working for me was this free application for the Korg PadKontrol called Farmpad! Farmpad allows you to use the lights on the PadKontrol as on off switches, so you just set them to switch every quarter note, and you have a tempo light.

Since I'm using a live drummer I haven't really had much use for the PadKontrol, but this works great!

MIDI Tempo Light?

MIDI Tempo Light?

Tempo BLINK