Live concert....got a question

[lkcubsrule]

Well, as some of you may know, I've been asked to do 5 Christmas Concerts for our friend, who is recording CDs...and now is going to tackle 5 concerts. So, we have decided to get the DMX box for 2 Q-Spots, and we have some more lights (controlled with my 2 controllers).

The problem is...the concert is lead by her and a pianist, and the other instrumentalists follow. She has a piano recording for all the songs (just like they are going to be played at the concerts) on a CD, which I have. The only thing I can think of is to just have the SE open, and click play for the next song she sings and play it off of there. BUT, since no one is perfect...I'm worried the pianist and her will be out of sync, and then the whole thing will blow...b/c the lights will be off...and the Q-Spots will be off...

Any suggestions on how to keep in sync with the piano?


Thanks

BTW, for those of you in the area if you are at all interested...here's her website www.sarahvandrunenmusic.com

[Kaeleb]

You might be better served using a DMX controller for a live setting. As you said "no one is perfect", so unless there is a timecode to keep everything in sync, it would be difficult to program in advance.

Not to mention the fact that DMX/LOR2 will probably not be ready for this Christmas.

~K

[CUTTHEMUSIC]

I agree with Kaeleb. Keeping the lights synced with the live music is going to be hard in my opinion. One thing you could do is create a music sequence with a tick track. Then the musicians can listen to the track via headphones or their monitors and use the tick track to keep them on beat. It will probably be quite difficult for them if they have never done it before and might take away from the artistic aspect. Or maybe you want to make your sequences a little loose so that they can still appear to be in sync with the music even if the timing changes a little.

[Donald Puryear]

Would WMP LORvis do the job for you?

[lkcubsrule]

Tim...that's what I was thinking...make it so there is a little time if they do slow down or speed up.

I don't think the WMP plugin will work...because I would need a live feed to WMP...which...I don't know where I could get it from.

A DMX board is not in our budget....and I don't think I would get one just because of the small scale we're doing...only 2 DMX lights.

One song she is singing is Believe by Josh Groban...and we're copying MikeZ's snowflake projection idea and using that during the beginning of the song, which should be more in sync than the middle or w/e. Then, the light is just going to move to her and stay there for the rest of the song.

Most of the songs we will use the DMX light as a spotlight...but theres a few times that it won't be...I have to figure out some more stuff. But for the Par Cans, that shouldn't really be problem...I'll just loosely syncronize them.

On Wednesday (next) I go to her house and listen to the practice with everybody (instrumentalists and her singing)...then I'll take a laptop and listen while they perform....see how well we can sync it.

[tsrail]

lkcubsrule wrote:

Tim...that's what I was thinking...make it so there is a little time if they do slow down or speed up.

I don't think the WMP plugin will work...because I would need a live feed to WMP...which...I don't know where I could get it from.

A DMX board is not in our budget....and I don't think I would get one just because of the small scale we're doing...only 2 DMX lights.

One song she is singing is Believe by Josh Groban...and we're copying MikeZ's snowflake projection idea and using that during the beginning of the song, which should be more in sync than the middle or w/e. Then, the light is just going to move to her and stay there for the rest of the song.

Most of the songs we will use the DMX light as a spotlight...but theres a few times that it won't be...I have to figure out some more stuff. But for the Par Cans, that shouldn't really be problem...I'll just loosely syncronize them.

On Wednesday (next) I go to her house and listen to the practice with everybody (instrumentalists and her singing)...then I'll take a laptop and listen while they perform....see how well we can sync it.

There is a "LineIn" plug-in utility for Windows MediaPlayer that I used last year, along with the LORvis, for a live Church Organ performance last year. It mostly worked.

There was a half-second delay or so that I couldn't overcome. (Delay seemed to be with the LineIn plugin) But the show was pretty good. (I had to severely customize all of the LORvis settings)

PM me if you'd like more info...I'd have to figure out again what I used and where I found it.



If anyone would like my complete respect and admiration, please feel free to write a software program that will control the LOR box with a DMXish "sound-activated" type of feature. If I could program worth a darn, I'd try to do it.

I've seen simple light systems with 4, 6, 8 or more channels (plugs) that are sound/beat activated, and will dance (chase, be-bop) your connected light elements. It seems to be a cheap and simple technology that DJs often use.

Why can't we get a software program, with a line or mic input from a PC, to send commands in realtime to the LOR boxes? Is there something very different about their innerworkings that wouldn't allow for this?

That would allow lkcubsrule and the rest of us who would like to use the LOR boxes for parties, concerts, or other live events to get even more out of our investments.



I'll kick in $5 if anyone develops such a program! :-)

OK, maybe even $7.50

Thanks!
Tom

[Randy]

Here's an idea that Marty Slack uses that I saw on his website...

If there's a way you can devote 1 LOR channel to a "beat" or "click" track and somehow connect it to either a string of lights dimmed down or perhaps a few C7s, etc. just so the singer and pianist can see them. Maybe along the stage floor by the audio monitors, etc. They can keep time to the click lights and keep the music going with the lights...

Marty does it with bulbs on the stands that hold the sheet music that his musicians sit in front of....

Does that help?

Randy

[lkcubsrule]

I was thinking something like that to start...but I didn't think of doing it ALL the way through the music...that's not a bad idea.

I would only have to do it fo the pianist because she plays in every song except 2 (see below)...and she's like the leader. All the rest of the instrumentalists follow her. I do have a few spare channels...that might work.

That doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'll discuss it with her Friday

BTW, for those of you thinking this is a HUGE concert...it's not. It's in an average sized church (none with stage lighting...a traditional church).

So, they don't have any thing really fancy...except a sound booth...that's about the only 'fancy' thing they all have in common!

And, these "musicians" are a few really good high school instrumentalists or friends of Sarah. They are in no way associated with professional....! So we don't use 'monitors' (don't really know what you're referring to Cutthemusic...) or headphones....only maybe the sound dude.


Sarah is also singing 2 songs from her CD...she's singing it straight from an audio track...that I hope to play from the SE. I can get really precise on these songs...they're not a problem....it's the live ones!