VU Wizard

[Denny]

I haven't seen anyone post tutorials with the VU Wizard, so, thought I would post a little of my experiences here. This is an easy way to make chases, especially for the fountain type displays.

1. Open the Vu Wizard, then in the Attack and Decay box, change the Preset to Peak Meter.

2. In the What to do with Peaks box, designate a Track in the Using this Track field.

3. Click the radio button in the same box next to Turn a Channel on when above the Threshold and off when Below.

4. In the box below the radio button, select a Channel

5. Click Apply.

You willl see that LOR inserts a bunch of timings.

Now, move the Peak Threshold slider a little to the left, not a lot.

Select a new channel as in step 4 above and click Apply again. A bunch of new timings will be inserted into the new channel.

Keep repeating this procedure, slightly moving the Peak Threshold slider to the left each time.

Voila, Bellagio Fountain.

If you have dedicated a controller to each "Fountain Spray," you can get fancy and copy the sequence you just did for a single fountain spray and paste it in a different position for the next spray, for example, the "spray" would go a little higher on each pole so that it might start low on one side and progressively get higher on each "fountain spray." (A "fountain spray" is my term for a leaping arch standing straight up into the air rather than having each end on the ground.)

Also, I have found that it is best not to adjust the Peak Threshold slider all the way to the left, but have the lowest setting no more than about 1/3 the way from the end on the left.

[Dennis Cherry]

Thanks for this tutorial. I love it.

Now I have to rethink my entire display, buy a million more lights, keep LOR busy for 6 months fill my controller order, have the power utility build a power generating station next to my home, buy the house on each side of me and clear the land, and hire 12 people to help me put it all together. :shock:



Dennis:dude:

[Denny]

Dennis Cherry wrote:

Thanks for this tutorial. I love it.

Now I have to rethink my entire display, buy a million more lights, keep LOR busy for 6 months fill my controller order, have the power utility build a power generating station next to my home, buy the house on each side of me and clear the land, and hire 12 people to help me put it all together. :shock:



Dennis:dude:

Can I be your contractor?

[tpooler]

I filled in the gaps on my 16 channel adaptation of Little Drummer Boy (David Bowie, Bing Crosby) yesterday and it worked great. I started another with the Coca Cola Christmas Song (Melanie Thorton). It does make identifying the beat easy. Then you can go back in and make changes/adjustments like twinkles, shimmers, etc. Way cool.

[Ed Slonka Jr]

I have a problem witht the VU tool. I get a message on some songs that says

"Can't init conversiion"

What is the problem with the audio file? Can anyone shed some light?

Thanks!

[Guest wbottomley]

Ed Slonka Jr wrote:

I have a problem witht the VU tool. I get a message on some songs that says

"Can't init conversiion"

What is the problem with the audio file? Can anyone shed some light?

Thanks!

It is a .wav or an .mp3 file?

[Ed Slonka Jr]

It's a .wma file. Do I need to convert it to an .mp3 or .wav?

[Guest wbottomley]

That would be better.

Make it a .wav.

[paulanator]

Denny,

it never ceases to amaze me how many resources are on this board, even from 2008.

Your VU meter technique is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

[jimswinder]

Hey Denny...

Could you attach a screen shot of the Sequence Editor showing a portin of your finished product?

I'm a visual guy and I think that would help me grasp what you said and what you were trying to achieve...

Thanks...

[MikeH]

Denny wrote:

I haven't seen anyone post tutorials with the VU Wizard, so, thought I would post a little of my experiences here. This is an easy way to make chases, especially for the fountain type displays.

1. Open the Vu Wizard, then in the Attack and Decay box, change the Preset to Peak Meter.

2. In the What to do with Peaks box, designate a Track in the Using this Track field.

3. Click the radio button in the same box next to Turn a Channel on when above the Threshold and off when Below.

4. In the box below the radio button, select a Channel

5. Click Apply.

You willl see that LOR inserts a bunch of timings.

Now, move the Peak Threshold slider a little to the left, not a lot.

Select a new channel as in step 4 above and click Apply again. A bunch of new timings will be inserted into the new channel.

Keep repeating this procedure, slightly moving the Peak Threshold slider to the left each time.

Voila, Bellagio Fountain.

If you have dedicated a controller to each "Fountain Spray," you can get fancy and copy the sequence you just did for a single fountain spray and paste it in a different position for the next spray, for example, the "spray" would go a little higher on each pole so that it might start low on one side and progressively get higher on each "fountain spray." (A "fountain spray" is my term for a leaping arch standing straight up into the air rather than having each end on the ground.)

Also, I have found that it is best not to adjust the Peak Threshold slider all the way to the left, but have the lowest setting no more than about 1/3 the way from the end on the left.

Denny,


Be sure to add this to "Sequencing Tips, Tricks and Secrets" in the newbies forum.

http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum80/26004.html

MikeH

[paulanator]

Hey Jim & folks,

I followed his directions, and it works fantastic. I am doing a 4th of July with a poem by Johnny Cash, and I have two 8 channel columns that I am going to use like a vu meter while he is talking, and of course other channels will have the drums & other music.

Here is what I got, and it was darn near perfect. The only thing I had to do, was go in and remove a few low areas where he was not talking, but an instrument was at that level. It was easy to find and the whole thing took about 20 minutes.

The thing that took the longest, was figuring the first "level" to start at. What is nice about the vu meter is that you can test it and see where the level is going to hit, and I put it just a tiny bit below some of the higher readings. Then moved it down 8 times for my 8 channels, trying to be fairly accurate. I found you don't want to go too low or too high. It just took about 3 times, then I got it.


All of the timing grids were put in on each pass with the Vu meter, that is why all the odd spacing. I just did the one pole (8 channels), then copied to the other once I was done with the clean up. I wanted them to be exactly the same on both sides.


I have a video capture of the sequence you see here. Honestly, the voice matches much better in S2, than on the video (bit of a delay), but you get the idea.

http://www.vimeo.com/22380093



Attached files

[Geoff Harvey]

See also the "tips & tricks" bottom of the second page. http://forums.lightorama.com/forum80/26004-2.html

I also used the VU wizard for last years display - I think it works very well. See my intro at

Regards Geoff

[paulanator]

Geoff,

wow, what a great display, and I love the use of the VU meter.

Guess I need to look at the Tips/Tricks every day, I missed that!

Thanks,

Paul

[ItsMeBobO]

Love the VU wizard. Using it to create a VU meter is a great effect.

A few times I have posted an improvement request. One more try.

The area to apply the VU wizard on is too hard to select. Cant the time selected on the sequence be pulled in? Button for that or pull that into the from and too instead of 0 & end.

Can we select multiple levels and associated channels at once?

Can we get a ramp or intensity in addition to 100% on?

Can we filter the frequency to listen for?

[CKSedg]

Geoff Harvey wrote:

See also the "tips & tricks" bottom of the second page. http://forums.lightorama.com/forum80/26004-2.html

I also used the VU wizard for last years display - I think it works very well. See my intro at

Regards Geoff

Great job, Geoff. That looks really cool.

[rodman1369]

I am new to LOR and I just want to say THANKS! I saw results of the vu tool, but never could figure out how to use till I searched and found this tutorial! Thanks Again!