Cueing lights and music?

[Andy!]

Can you set up a cue to automaticaly change on the certain tiems of the music. Would you just have to set the timming with the song?

Thanks

[Just Some Bloke]

Depends. If the music is electronic and running using MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) there are a lot of lighting boards that can interface with this so the cues can be recorded onto a sequencer (MIDI software) and played back exactly with the music. If there is a delay in the lights coming on this can be incorporated into the sequencer file.

 

If it's live music you'd have to be using a click track (drummer and MD - possibly others too - listen to a click in their headphones and play to that speed). this would allow you to programme in real time using wait times etc.

 

If you're not using either you'd just have to use your ears.

[peter]

Then again you could just take a feed off the sound desk and use a lighting desk with a bass trigger function? This listens to the sound and advances a step when it hears a heavy bass. Some even have sensitivity levels (Pearl2k, for example).

[sticks]

if you have a cd backing track that you want to sync up to your lighting desk import it as a wave file into a software sequencer such as cubase or logic then connect the midi output of your computer to the lx board and the audio outputs the sound desk, you can then use the midi data to trigger the lx board (assuming it is midi compatible) alternatively stage research's sfx and other show control software allows midi data to be sent which can be tied into the cd track.

 

It takes a lot of preparation, (and funds) to get this working well and unless you are single manning a really complicated show with a big budget I would recommend learning the track well and manually cueing!

 

sticks

[Andy!]

Ok Cool Thanks Guys... If you was just using a Strand 300 what u just have to do all the timming?