midi lighting from ableton

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
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rubber chicken
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midi lighting from ableton

Post by rubber chicken » Sun May 24, 2009 11:38 am

hi. I'm wondering if anyone knows how to control lights from Live (MIDI clips)?
I don't know much about lighting, I just saw this and wonder how to do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EziZbp5n ... re=related

Tone Deft
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Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:19 pm

Re: midi lighting from ableton

Post by Tone Deft » Sun May 24, 2009 5:42 pm

search the forum for posts made by hambone about 'lighting control'.
http://forum.ableton.com/search.php?key ... mit=Search

it's midi's sister protocol called DMX. DMX is used for lighting and stage stuff that can hurt/mame/kill people (like lasers.) reason being DMX constantly sends commands to devices, keeping them under tight control. whereas midi only sends commands as needed.

hambone has been the main lighting user on this forum, he doesn't post much anymore. he hung it up and moved to Dubai.
In my life
Why do I smile
At people who I'd much rather kick in the eye?
-Moz

dbaudioware
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Re: midi lighting from ableton

Post by dbaudioware » Sun May 24, 2009 10:23 pm

If you just want to drive a couple of regular lamps using Live MIDI clips (like the YouTube video above) grab one of these and stick a MIDI cable into it.

If you want to control some DMX lights (LED spots, intelligent scanners, moonflowers etc) then use something like DMXIS - it's a VST/AU plugin that directly controls DMX lights through a USB interface. (Disclaimer: I am the designer of DMXIS)

Here is a clip of DMXIS driving a small lighting rig from Logic Studio. In Live, you would just create MIDI clips to switch looks, and/or control the lights directly from standard Live automation.

Dave.

rubber chicken
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Re: midi lighting from ableton

Post by rubber chicken » Tue May 26, 2009 1:07 pm

Thanks, guys. This was just what I was looking for; some small, affordable gadgets that does the trick. :D

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