simultaneous sound and light cues

[brookedavis]

I need to work a sound and lighting dance recital on my own and I have been trying to find a simple mac based software that will allow me to set lighting cues to the music. I would prefer not to be trying to run between the lighting board and computer... I am new at this and can barley work the lighting and sound boards on their own, much less at the same time. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[David Ashton]

"I am new at this and can barley work the lighting and sound boards on their own"[sic]
There is no simple way, if you are that inexperienced, the only practical answer is some person to help, preferably a dancer, there's usually an injured one around.

[Grommet]

If all of their music is on CDs you could rip those on to your computer plugging that into the mixer.
Set the computer volume to 50% and set the levels on the mixer before hand.
That way if there are numbers that need a boost in volume that can be adjusted via laptop.

this will give you the familiar interface where you can start and stop music leaving your mind to figure the light board.

I have done a show where i rearranged the booth in order to do sound and lights at once. I wish i had a picture. Lighting board on top of sound rack next to mixer...cables all over.

[NickJones]

Check out Qlabs, it lets you control everything, and may be of some use to you if you rip your music off the CD's and have a DMX-USB controler. It's Mac software and can be found here.
Nick

[zac850]

QLab + MIDI would solve your problem. QLab starts playing the music, and then will send a MIDI-GO command to your light board. You would need QLab, the QLab MIDI License, a USB-MIDI adaptor (I got one for around $35 off Amazon), a light board that will take MIDI in, and the ability to figure out both QLab (fairly simple program, if you give yourself the time to learn it, I'm sure you could) and how to make your console listen to MIDI commands.

What kind of lighting console is it?

(This is what NickJones suggested above me, I think he mis-typed and meant to say USB-MIDI controller, not USB-DMX)

[brookedavis]

Thanks for the suggestion. I had looked at QLabs, but was not sure if I could control the lights with it; I figured I would download it and play around with it, but my computer wont let me unarchived it.

Also, as far as I can tell our lighting board is called "Strand Lighting." It connects to a computer via CAT 5.

[soundlight]

Strand Lighting is the brand name of the light board, not the model.

Qlab will connect via a MIDI connection, and you need the Pro MIDI license in order to trigger lighting cues from a computer. You'll also need a USB>MIDI interface in order to use Qlab to get your computer to output MIDI.

The network jack on the lighting board is for connection to a proprietary lighting control network.

[brookedavis]

I did manage to download QLabs, now I just need to figure out how it works. I have my computer hooked up to the sound board. I will continue to play around with the program, but can anyone explain how to hook up the lighting board?

[David Ashton]

For this to work you'll need a compatable lighting board but more crucially you will need to plot each cue into it, assuming that you have time to do this and assuming you only want one state per dance, you are still leaving yourself vulnerable to a change in the programme on the night, dancer falls on stairs, that dance is cancelled/postponed but you are locked in to your plot, not to forget how boring is 1 state per dance.
I strongly recomend you don't do it this way, you're adding complexity to a situation that you are inexperienced in.

[gafftaper]

Have to agree with David. It's clear you have VERY little experience setting up lights. Combined with learning new software in Q-lab... that's too much. Find someone who knows how to program the light board and you'll be much happier. This isn't just a matter of hooking the two up together and the lights will magically dance to the music.

If you have to do this on your own then yes Q-lab and midi are your best bet. Find out the model number of the light board and we can help you figure out if it will take midi and perhaps help you set it up. You will have to learn to program a series of looks into the light board. Q-lab will send a signal via Midi when you start a song and the light board will give you the next lighting look in the cue stack. It'll work. When do you need to do this show? How much time do you have to learn to do it right?