audio snyc for lights

[MRlettherebelight]

at my church we do seasonal musicals and have full audio/lighting production. i was wondering if there is a way to sync my etc express 24/48 to start cues somehow from a cd, or audio from a computer. and is this easy, and easy to change cues and where they happen?

[koncept]

i think this is possible if the cd/computer supports midi out and the console you have supports midi in

[JSFox]

If it has MIDI it shouldn't be a problem. Get an audio app like Vegas or ProTools, put your music on a track or two and then put MIDI (or Midi Show Control (MSC)) on a track to give your board go commands.

We produce stuff in Vegas with multiple video and audio tracks (going to multiple projectors and speaker locations) along with a click track for a live band drummer and a MSC track for cueing lights/effects. Works really well.

[fosstech]

You could also program timecode in the board. Express consoles allow programming to timecode. Just feed it a timecode and it will do what you want at what times you specify. This eliminates the possibility of getting out of order with your cues. If something happens and the board skips a cue, then your sequence will be all messed up throughout the rest of the show if you were just feeding the board GO commands through MIDI. If the cues are programmed to go at specific times, then there isn't any chance of getting out of sync.

Consult your manual on how to do it.

[Footer]

Originally Posted by fosstech

You could also program timecode in the board. Express consoles allow programming to timecode. Just feed it a timecode and it will do what you want at what times you specify. This eliminates the possibility of getting out of order with your cues. If something happens and the board skips a cue, then your sequence will be all messed up throughout the rest of the show if you were just feeding the board GO commands through MIDI. If the cues are programmed to go at specific times, then there isn't any chance of getting out of sync.
Consult your manual on how to do it.

You have a few options on the express. First, see if your CD player has a contact closure play control (most denons do). If it does you can use the built in relay in the board to star/stop your player. You can also using MIDI TC (the express will not accept regular smtp). First however, what kind of CD player do you have?

[MRlettherebelight]

i have vegas 6.0 and an aardvark direct pro q10 that has midi. i want to play video that will play on screens, audio that the choir will sing to and control the lights , and maybe even play audio cues to the follow spot operators. i pretty much know how to do everything but control the express with this setup, and im sure when i get into the manual i can figure it out. is this hard to setup and can the cues be easily moved around, switch order, add cues, delete cues and all that. also has anybody had problems with computer crashes with this setup. any recomendations about what i need in a computer ( ram, video card)

[JSFox]

The most critical thing is to be VERY organized. We alot 20 cues per song so songs generally start on 300, 320, 340, etc. If a song needs more than 20 cues we just keep track of that so 380-439 could be one song (reality is it might be 380-428 or something). All songs start above 300 so cues below that can be used for other purposes.

Someone in Madison told us the trick for inserting MSC commands in the timeline (I think they only officially support MTC). I'll see if I can find the instructions and post them if you get stuck.

Good luck,

[MRlettherebelight]

would it be better to use msc or time code, and which is easier to set up, also during the programs we stop the music during drama, would using this setup be a problem with having to run some cues when the music is stopped

[Footer]

Originally Posted by MRlettherebelight

would it be better to use msc or time code, and which is easier to set up, also during the programs we stop the music during drama, would using this setup be a problem with having to run some cues when the music is stopped

You will have to program the TC to stop instself, run the cues in the drama manualy, then restart the TC. You can do this by doing macros pretty easily. TC can be a bit more forgiving in programming, but then again MSC also has its benefits. Personaly, with the express, it will prob be easier to do TC.

[MRlettherebelight]

if i run the tc from a computer with vegas, and pause the music in vegas would that stop the tc