> Ethan, > > This may be slightly off topic and slightly on at the same time, but > one which is nevertheless completely doable with MacPerl. > > Why not have the music cue the lights? Build (copy/steal) a DSP > routine and look for certain sequences of signals. When that signal > is found by the DSP, have the lights kicked off then. If it's all > midi, that's even better and would be a snap. I imagine with midi, > you can trigger the lights by assigning a voice. > > Later, > Bill > > (Sometimes I get to rambling. Sorry)
Well, there's probably some potential along these lines (especially since my DMX controller also talks MIDI). However, I do know that most of the software and hardware I've seen that purports to sense the beat doesn't really work as well as advertised. And even if it did, a large part of the impact of good dance lighting comes, not simply from being in sync, but from changing the patterns according to events that software can't possibly sense, such as transitions into the next verse/chorus/bridge. That's why most clubs have a live person working the lights. I had no intention of being trapped in front of a screen for the whole party, though, so a little more advance effort paid off. Worked pretty well, too. There were a few panics and a few MacPerl crashes, at which point the lights stopped moving until I resynced them at the beginning of the next song. Still, I got plenty of comments along the lines of "How did you *do* that?"...at which point, of course, I got to spread the gospel of Perl. :) Ethan
