Vu Meter

[jerry72]

I have a prop, 2 totem poles made from 8 pumpkins each, these are incandescent. I have them mounted in front of the columns of my porch. I am trying to sequence  them, and them alone for the first 29 seconds of Thunderstruck,  where you hear the guitar. Quite some time ago, i had them sequenced looking like they were vu meters, i am sure i did this using the Vu meter setting in instant sequence, but now i can not get the same effect again. I know it has to be something simple. 

[BrianBruderer]

In the instant sequence dialog box there is a "VU meter"option, it is the last selection in the list of "movement" options. Do the following:

For TCM 1 select "vu meter"

For TCM 1 select "rapid fire" for the trigger type

In the "Row Assignments to TCM (Theme, Color, Movement)" section, select TCM 1 for each row that you want to use as part of the VU meter. For any other rows, select "none"

Click on the "timing map" button. In the timing map dialog box, select at least 3 "freqs" for each row that is being used as a VU meter.

Instant sequence should now make the rows you have selected look like a VU meter

 

Sorry that it is sort of complicated to get things set up. But it does give you flexibility in how it works. The more "freqs" you select for each row, the more active that row will be to responding to the music.

If you have further questions let me know

[jerry72]

What frequency would the guitar be? I know one of the things i would like to work on is assigning certain frequencies to certain props. Like high for the roof, low for say the fence, alwasy wondered how that would work out.,

[whitebuck]

Is there a VU Meter how to video?

[k6ccc]

12 hours ago, BrianBruderer said:

In the instant sequence dialog box there is a "VU meter"option, it is the last selection in the list of "movement" options. Do the following:

For TCM 1 select "vu meter"

For TCM 1 select "rapid fire" for the trigger type

In the "Row Assignments to TCM (Theme, Color, Movement)" section, select TCM 1 for each row that you want to use as part of the VU meter. For any other rows, select "none"

Click on the "timing map" button. In the timing map dialog box, select at least 3 "freqs" for each row that is being used as a VU meter.

Instant sequence should now make the rows you have selected look like a VU meter

Is there a recommended theme to use for this?  I have tried at least a dozen different ones and nothing comes close to what I expect for a VU meter.  The closest I could come to was a theme of 5 pixels, but that made only the top few pixels function as the VU meter, and it was inverted (the very top pixel was on at the lowest volume, and the louder it got, the more lower pixels came on).  It also appeared to no update a leg if the volume changed like I would expect a VU meter to do.

OK, truth in advertising, I pretty much don't use the Instant Sequence function, but after reading this thread I wanted to play with it a little. 

 

[jerry72]

2 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Is there a recommended theme to use for this?  I have tried at least a dozen different ones and nothing comes close to what I expect for a VU meter.  The closest I could come to was a theme of 5 pixels, but that made only the top few pixels function as the VU meter, and it was inverted (the very top pixel was on at the lowest volume, and the louder it got, the more lower pixels came on).  It also appeared to no update a leg if the volume changed like I would expect a VU meter to do.

OK, truth in advertising, I pretty much don't use the Instant Sequence function, but after reading this thread I wanted to play with it a little. 

 

I have figured it out a little, bit i am having the same issue with the VU meter being inverted. Starting at the top of the totem and going down.

[jerry72]

I don't know what i did, i tried reversing the order of the fixtures in my totem props, now i got one totem that goes up and the other goes down on the Vu meter setting.

[BrianBruderer]

Yes, you are correct. It currently always appears at the top. The theme that you should use is "1 pixel", "2 pixels", "3 pixels", "4 pixels", or "5 pixels".

If you use "1 pixel" then you should use a speed of 1.0

If you use "2 pixels" you should use a speed of 2.1

if you use "3 pixels" you should use a speed of 3.1, etc.

[jerry72]

Why do i now have one Vu going up and the other going down?

[BrianBruderer]

For a vertical layout Superstar puts the effects at the top of the sequencing grid, for a horizontal layout it puts it at the left end of the sequencing grid. It could be that you have the sequencing grid for some of the rows mapped to the actual lights in the opposite direction of some of the other rows.

To check things, bring up the scene dialog box so that you are in scene mode. Then click on the squares of the sequencing grid along the end that you are interested in. And observe what lights light up in the visualization.

[jerry72]

So when i click on the bottom light of the right Totem, which is the one that is working top to bottom, the first square on the far right for that prop lights up, but when i press on the bottom light of the left totem which is working properly, bottom to top, the first square on the left of that prop lights up, so some how the right totem is backwards in the sequencing grid.

[BrianBruderer]

In the visualizer, there is a list on the right side. Select "fixtures" so the list is a list of fixtures. Double click on the totem that is reversed. In the "fixture properties" dialog box, click on the superstar button and select 'reverse order'

click on ok, save the visualization

in superstar click on the file menu and select "import visualization"

The totem should be reversed on the sequencing grid.

[jerry72]

1 hour ago, BrianBruderer said:

In the visualizer, there is a list on the right side. Select "fixtures" so the list is a list of fixtures. Double click on the totem that is reversed. In the "fixture properties" dialog box, click on the superstar button and select 'reverse order'

click on ok, save the visualization

in superstar click on the file menu and select "import visualization"

The totem should be reversed on the sequencing grid.

Bingo. Looks freaking awesome now. VU meter is awesome with my totems. Thank you Brian.

[jerry72]

On my 24x50 matrix, the VU is only playing from the side, not the bottom.

[BrianBruderer]

With a vertical display VU meter will play from the top

With a horizontal display VU meter will play from the left

[jerry72]

On 10/16/2017 at 1:10 AM, BrianBruderer said:

With a vertical display VU meter will play from the top

With a horizontal display VU meter will play from the left

Well that sucks.

[kevinob]

This may not help you in your exact scenario but in case someone else is hunting on this topic:  I wanted a VU Meter to go from bottom also.  But as posted above, "With a vertical display VU meter will play from the top" 

I did find a workaround to make it go from bottom:

My matrix that starts bottom left (and has snake pattern). So I created a visualization of the matrix instead defining it as starting Top Left (with snake pattern).  When sequenced with the adjusted prop settings, that effectively reverses the light assignment.... and when running makes my actual prop VU meter lights go up from bottom.

This was an extra step for me but it allowed me to have the VU meter I wanted... 

Kevin

Edited December 9, 2017 by kevinob