MIDI controlling domestic lights

[summerghost]

Hi,

 

I'm looking to set up a DIY lighting rig for a live show that's MIDI controlled so that the lights activate in time with the music at specific cues. I'm interested in controlling domestic lights, like living room & desk lamps, the kind you'd just find in a standard home.

 

How would I go about this? I'm pretty new to this so from googling around I've got a theory of how this would work so let me know if I'm on the right track or completely wrong.

 

So my theory is: I would use a standard music production DAW like Logic Pro or Ableton to send the MIDI signal, then would I need a MIDI USB to DMX converter? And after that I think I would need something that converts the DMX signal into "voltage" (no idea here) so that you could dim/activate the lights? Would it be something like THIS?

 

Any help would be much appreciated. I'm looking for the cheapest solution possible! Thanks!

[timsabre]

Never mind DMX, just use a MIDI dimmer like this one

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/botex_mpx405v.htm

[paulears]

We don't generally do this kind of stuff for two reasons, mainly because to do it with our usual kind of kit is very expensive, and secondly because as a general rule, we get inundated with similar requests once google spiders it! That said, I personally didn't know that midi dimmer existed (thanks Tim).

 

I'd think for your needs, it will be ideal. There are a number of issues that could pop up. The kinds of dimmers we use can be temperamental with practical lights - we might in a play, for example, need a table lamp to suddenly come on, and because some dimmers respond badly to very low wattage loads, and they can flicker or even refuse to come on - we often hang a bigger load on the circuit and hide it. This is an old bit of advice, and my own dimmer packs, bar one, all work fine.

 

The idea to not do a midi to DMX conversion is a good one because it's always a fiddle getting midi to run other protocols. MIDI has 16 channels and a multitude of ways to activate a distant device. Program and cc messages, or individual note ons and offs. The bites seems to be able to be set to many different modes, so you will just assemble whatever commands it needs on the time line, and edit them like you would a synth.

 

If you need more than four dimmers, buy another.

[timsabre]

That said, I personally didn't know that midi dimmer existed (thanks Tim).

 

NJD used to do a MIDI dimmer as well but it seems not to exist any more.

 

Note to original poster, the dimmer will only dim old-fashioned tungsten lamps. "The type of light that exists in a standard home" is mostly compact fluorescents these days and you cannot dim them. So you will need to pick your lights carefully and/or fit tungsten bulbs to them.

[alistermorton]

It's not going to be very successful with standard domestic LEDs, either. Even if they do say they're dimmable, it's still not perfect.