Triggering a strobe light from an audio/midi signal

[MetalMan99]

Hey, I am fairly new to lighting... I've been predominately working with sound for the last few years, but I am having trouble finding a solution to this problem:

 

I play in a band and we are planning on using strobe lights in a couple of places during our set. I'm planning on purchasing 2 1500W strobes (Prolight Firecracker 1500w), which the description states are linkable and can be controlled by DMX.

 

Our drummer uses a drum trigger on the bass drum and a module to produce the sound out to the PA. I was wondering if it would be possible to take a signal feed from the module (either audio or MIDI) and use some kind of DMX controller to tell the strobes to flash each time the bass drum is hit?

 

I am on quite a tight budget so is there a relatively cheap device that can do this / is it possible at all? All the strobe controllers I can find seem to only have built in mics which wouldn't give an accurate result.

 

Thanks in advance for any help,

Tom

[Ynot]

Optikinetics have a number of analogue strobe controllers which will take an audio input to trigger an analogue strobe flash.

 

In the situation as I see you describe it, analogue MAY be the best way to go - I wouldn't necessarily go down the DMX route for this.

 

Also are you SURE you want 2 1500W strobes? These are going to be a HUGE overkill in anything but a reasonably sized venue - pubs and clubs, you're probably going to be over the top. And if you only use analogue strobes, these may be cheaper.

[Guest joewhite903]

Last time I did something like what you’re trying I use two analogue strobes and built a simple circuit to operate of a separate drum trigger so that every time the kick drum was hit the strobe would light. As far as I remember the trigger is just a quartz switch, build a board that operates a transistor with 0-10v output plug your strobe in and it works a treat. I will see if I can find my drawings then I will pm You, Ta Joe

[dbuckley]

It's certainly possible; PCStage can do it, but what I'd actually recommend you do is fit a microswitch on the bass drum pedal and use strobes with an analogue input. Make the microswitch generate a 10V-ish pulse and the jobs done.

[Jamtastic3]

Do you know where you are going to place the strobes? I'd agree with Ynot and say that having 2 x 1500W strobes would be an overkill and certainly sore on the old eyes!

[Ynot]

Do you know where you are going to place the strobes? I'd agree with Ynot and say that having 2 x 1500W strobes would be an overkill and certainly sore on the old eyes!

And of course the other thing I meant to mention is that you would need to be VERY careful how you cabled two such high powered beasts...

Together they would take up OVER 13A at 230v, so you'd not be able to run them from the same 13A line. (Especially as they can often pull more than your expected 6 or 7 amps in peak current ...) And that's a hefty chunk of available power from your average pub stage supply, esp if they don't have house lighting rig - that means you'll be fighting twixt the sound gear, whatever LX you have plus these two monster flashers!

[David Buffham]

I wouldn't agree with the comments that 1500W is overkill for a strobe, particularly in this application. If the strobe is being triggered on drum-beats rather than run continously, then high power would be good otherwise it is likely to look a little feeble. The strobe being talked about is approx. the same rating as High End AF1000s, and these aren't exactly 'monsters'.

 

Even Martin Atomics, at 3000W, aren't massively bright. I programmed a theatre show for someone recently who had a Martin Atomic at stage level on the pros-boom pointing into the audience, with single flashes in time to some music. That worked fine; didn't blind anyone. Even with the 3000W strobes the intensity had to be set to full and the duration channel had to have some value (like 100ms) in order for the single flashes to really register.

[MetalMan99]

Hey, thanks for getting back to me. We've decided to go for a single 1500W analogue strobe for the time being and if needs be add another one later. Our band is a kind of fusion of metal and trance so we're trying to give our gigs a club-like feel, hence the strobes. They will only flash on the kick drums but we do have quite a bit of fast double bass so at some points they will behave like normal strobes!

I like the idea of fitting a microswitch with a 10v pulse to the bass drum, however I know very little about electronics. Can I buy one of these ready made? If not, how could I go about making one? I will also need some kind of switch further down the cable so the effect can be turned on and off by our keyboard player, but if they just use 1/4 inch jacks to connect together I'm sure I could sort something out.

Thanks

Tom