use laptop to program lights/music?

[monk82]

Hello from Canada!
I am a magician putting together an illusion show that involves lighting and music.
Is there a way to choreograph my lighting with my music and have it play for each of my acts?

Also...I am very new to DMX lighting --- I was thinking of setting up a set of lights on the left and right side of my stage ... not sure really what I should look for or into.

Thanks,

Jay

[DMX Will]

Hi Jay!

First of all, welcome to the forum. Why don't you start a new thread in the newbies section telling us a bit more about yourself?

Secondly, sorry for the late reply, it seems everyone has left this one for me!

Right, there are DMX programs that allow you to set of cues using MIDI. Personally I know absolutely jack about MIDI, and wouldn't know where to begin.

Depending on what your budget is, you could quite easily get a lighting desk, which would allow you to plug in a foot pedal for example, to trigger the next cue. Failing that, do you have a mate that could click a button every now and then in exchange for a few pints an evening? This might be a safer route, as I would never rely on a computer based or console based DMX package to know exactly when to go to a cue, as things can change on stage etc.

Regarding the music, and something I saw an LD do just on Thursday is, have your entire set's music as one track on a CD. When you start the show hit play, then the guy whos clicking the mouse, should have a sheet saying when he should go to each cue in relation to how many minutes/secs the track is in.

As we are a disco forum, in general we are unable to help much further, however there is a very good forum (which due to rules I cannot mention here - but if you PM me or E-mail me, I will be happy to share it with you), where the members will be able to help you loads about lights, but don't know the first thing about discos! - Infact there was a post about lighting a magic set on this forum just the other day!

Hope this helps.

Software to have a look at is:

Daslight (my favourite) (£100-350 - depending on which package you buy)
Martin LightJockey (Quite Expensive around £900)
Freestyler (Personally I hate it, but the software is free, you just need to buy a USB "BOX" or cable to connect it to DMX

Have a search of the forum to find out some of the other computer based controllers out there.

If you wanted to go down the foot-pedal route, and your just running (Up to 24 dimmer channels) then perhaps a Zero88 Alcora would be a good solution (RRP @ about £350-400)

If you need any more help, feel free to ask :)

[pagan_flame]

... however, the thing to watch with doing a live act to a machine is that if there is any holdup or error in the performance, the machine will just carry on oblivious to that and throw out the timing for the rest of that part of the performance.