Flickering light sound effect

[lukew]

Hello, hoping someone can help me? Next week I am performing my AS drama piece with my role of LX Designer/Op. Reading the mark scheme there is extra marks for combing one effect you are trying to achieve with another department in this case sound. Basically this scene is set in a dingy prison room and I had the idea of down lighting the table where the talking is taking place. But in the background there will be a flickering light. So I have tried to find this sound effect on many websites and c.ds but to no avail. The sound I would like is the sound a fluorescent tube makes towards the end of its life when its flickering. I hope this description is adequate. Thanks in advance Luke

[Just Some Bloke]

Just a thought - find one and record it?

[Bobbsy]

....like the one currently under my kitchen cabinets?

 

Seriously, that'll be your best bet. However, the technical challenge will be to trigger the sound effect exactly in time with the flickering light. Unless you have a rig that can handle that, you may be better off without the sound effect.

 

Bob

 

PS, IF you still want to do this and IF you're really stuck, PM me. I was serious about having a flickery fluorescent in my kitchen (and the house is sold!) so could likely do a quick recording for you.

[dbuckley]

Record it anyway, and put it up on Freesound!

[paulears]

One thing that does strike me is nothing at all to do with the ptactical aspects - it's more an educational issue. You are hoping to get more marks by integrating sound with the lighting. This is great - my real worry is that of the teacher who has to give these marks. I'm assuming this is an internally marked examnination that is externally verified - usually by sampling?

 

Most people have already expressed concern that synchronising the light and sound will be very difficult. Is the person who will mark it competent to judge this difficulty? If they are the typical drama teacher, then they may well assume that the click and flash are really easy (we know this isn't the case). If they can't appreciate the difficulty level, what extra marks will you actually get? Perhaps you might find it simply not worth it - or even just too risky for an exam of this type?

 

 

What you MUST do is get hold of the rules that will be used, and you work out what you will get. Don't be fobbed off by vagueness - you need to make sure that the marks available for clever stuff (if they really exist) can be awarded. If I was to be honest, I feel that the technical option is rarely used to it's full potential - very often because the teacher has no idea what is really going on. Some, fearing scrutiny from the powers that be, err on the side of caution and don't feel able to give all the marks they could - after all, if they get it wrong, this makes them look pretty bad. The exam boards don't subscribe to this at all, aiming to be as fair as they can - but it is true to say that for many people on the 'technical' pathway, this is because they can't or won't act - and that is a real shame, lowering the level of the technical role!

 

 

Get the rules and make sure you head for the bits that count.

[Ynot]

However, the technical challenge will be to trigger the sound effect exactly in time with the flickering light. Unless you have a rig that can handle that, you may be better off without the sound effect.

easy way to synch the lighting effect with the sound?

Use the audio feed of a simple strobe controller to fire a strobe that's been masked/gelled/frosted.

Have some ambient lighting up on your table permanently, but run the SFX into the strobe unit which should give you a co-ordinated flicker. Ok -it will be flicker ON , not OFF, but you should be able to work around that.

[Frag_Me]

My way to tackle this would be to learn the effect inside out and just have a submaster with a flash function which I would manaully trigger to make an increase in light suitable for the flicker.

[Ynot]

My way to tackle this would be to learn the effect inside out and just have a submaster with a flash function which I would manaully trigger to make an increase in light suitable for the flicker.

Which would be fine if the effect were a one-off, but rather tedious if the scene were longer than a few seconds.

Can you imagine hitting that flash button in sequence with the SFX precisely enough for the overall effect for a scene lasting 5 minutes, or ten...??

[Dj Dunc]

What I did, (in reply to ynots post) is put a splitter out from the cd player that I was using. I routed the output one to the mixer, and routed it to FOH. I then took the next one, put it in another channel, took all routings to speakers off, patched an aux send into the sound to sh**e, and turned up the mid slightly, the bass up to full, treble down to minimum and the mid down a tad (on the E.Q). This was for a thunder effect, so the audience heard the full sound, whereas the sound to sh**e just got the bass, as it was running on bass chase mode, between four strobes. This could be adapted to yours, by using the lighting set to a treble or bass chase depending on what the sound was like.

 

ramble over

and now im off to bed

dunc

[Ynot]

What I did, (in reply to ynots post) is put a splitter out from the cd player that I was using. I routed the output one to the mixer, and routed it to FOH. I then took the next one, put it in another channel, took all routings to speakers off, patched an aux send into the sound to sh**e, and turned up the mid slightly, the bass up to full, treble down to minimum and the mid down a tad (on the E.Q). This was for a thunder effect, so the audience heard the full sound, whereas the sound to sh**e just got the bass, as it was running on bass chase mode, between four strobes. This could be adapted to yours, by using the lighting set to a treble or bass chase depending on what the sound was like.

This is basically the principle I've always used to simulate lightning keyed to the SFX (let's not get into the whole realism debate over this) though I'd use an aux feed from the main CD/MD channel as reqd instead of splitting it at source.

[JimWebber]

Just thinking aloud here...

 

Would it be possible to sample the effect (Recorded) on to a MIDI keyboard, then with a MIDI connected LX desk, trigger the flicker cue? - It strikes me, that it doesn't need to be a regular flicker. - In fact when tubes go, they often flicker fairly randomly...

 

I realise that I've made a lot of assumptions here, do you have a MIDI capable desk, do you have a sampling keyboard, and, more pertinently in my case, do you know how it all works??? (Music, keyboards and MIDI all g{r}eek to me!!!)

 

Jim

[mackerr]

Hello, hoping someone can help me? Next week I am performing my AS drama piece with my role of LX Designer/Op. Reading the mark scheme there is extra marks for combing one effect you are trying to achieve with another department in this case sound.

Might not the point of this exercise be to engender cooperation and coordination between departments? Why are you dealing with the sound effect? That is the sound designer's job. There is no cooperation or coordination between departments if you do the other department's job. The exercise in learning to work together is lost if you take over the sound designer's job.

 

Mac

[lukew]

Right a lot of questions so I'll try and answer them all:

 

Firstly the question many have asked about sequencing the two together. I am intending to program this in the same way as I have previously programmed lightning in the sound of music. Our desk the zero 88 Illusion an old school best has a rather handy function called the ripple (which I originally asked about on her a few years ago), anyway this has four steps to it and stays on step one still it receives a peak sound input, and then drops back to step 1. So I will program light that will flicker on on steps 2 and 4, with the desired normal state for the scene programmed into every step. So for most part of the scene it will be in step 1 normal state and every time the flickering occurs which will hopefully be random the desk the audio input on the desk will trigger the flash. Basically on the smaller flickers the steps will go to step 2 then back to 1, or could go step 2 then 3 then back to 1 which will have the same effect. For bigger flickers it will go 2, 3, 4 then back to 1 essentially flickering twice. (Sorry about my poor explanation but it does work promise)

 

Secondly recording I don't actually have any fluorescent tubes at home and school has just had all theres replaced and had a few perfect ones I could have recorded so if anyone could record it that would be great thanks.

 

Thirdly Paulears question the examination is being marked by an external examiner and I have to do a presentation to them before the presentation starts tell them difficulties I've had to overcome, design stages etc so they know what to look out for during the show. You are awarded marks for difficulty but can loose marks for trying to over complicate things. And yes my teachers brilliant as they are cant help me, they like the test buttons on the beta packs. Although one did a theatre design course in set so can help me design but doesn't understand how it works as it were.

 

Finally Mackerr's to answer that there is no sound department or designer as I am the only one doing drama tech on my course. My mate who is doing music technology is coming in to op and rig sound for me as I don't have a clue about sound (I'm prepared to admit it). But they don't want to find the effects themselves fair enough as they are doing me a favor.

[peternewman]

I was serious about having a flickery fluorescent in my kitchen (and the house is sold!) so could likely do a quick recording for you.

Record it anyway, and put it up on Freesound!

Secondly recording I don't actually have any fluorescent tubes at home and school has just had all theres replaced and had a few perfect ones I could have recorded so if anyone could record it that would be great thanks.

I assume you didn't get round to it before you moved Bobbsy? I guess it will be too late for you Luke, but I've got a CFL that flickers wonderfully, which I could put up on Freesound, however I think my main issue may be recording it successfully, I've only got a cheap and nasty PC mic myself, although might be able to borrow a proper one to hook into my PC, but it may still be a bit rough. Anyway if it's of interest I'll try and give it a go if I get a chance.

[wako_jacko]

if you're doing an edexcel exam - my take on it is that you give the presentation and then most of the marks come from the actual performance.

 

w.