Outboard Gear - Looking for a Click Track Solution

[jhdesynz]

I have a question that I am hoping there may be a simple answer to. My TD is looking for a visual device that can be located on stage that will blink when it receives an incoming beat from an audio click track.

We perform mostly everything to click tracks and all the musicians have in-ears, but its not feasible for all the singers to have them and we're looking for an inexpensive way to help them keep the tempo during numbers where the drum beat isn't pronounced (Yes we've already thought of get better singers, but we're a mostly volunteer group).

The click track is a stereo MP3 with practice track on Left and click on Right. Its played back by Pro Presenter off a Mac Pro.

Any ideas?

[Jescalese]

i dont really know if this will help, but in my theater we use a video camera on the conductor and a video monitor back stage for singers, we also have a light that can be switched on from the sound board to tell singers the mic is live. if the singers are backstage that might work, but if they are on stage thats a different issue, good luck hope this might help

[coldnorth57]

check this out it might work for you
TimeStream Visual Conductor

[mixmaster]

Originally Posted by jhdesynz

I have a question that I am hoping there may be a simple answer to. My TD is looking for a visual device that can be located on stage that will blink when it receives an incoming beat from an audio click track.

We perform mostly everything to click tracks and all the musicians have in-ears, but its not feasible for all the singers to have them and we're looking for an inexpensive way to help them keep the tempo during numbers where the drum beat isn't pronounced (Yes we've already thought of get better singers, but we're a mostly volunteer group).

The click track is a stereo MP3 with practice track on Left and click on Right. Its played back by Pro Presenter off a Mac Pro.

Any ideas?

strobe light with a speed control maybe? multlply BPM of the song by 60 to get beats per second, set the same rate on the strobe, mask apropriatly so that only the singer can see it.

[AlexD]

Like the strobe idea, But you would have to be very good with electronics to do this. Take a metronome and take it apart take out the speaker that makes the clicking sound and attach a series of led lights on to it, set the metronome to the beat and the LEDs should flash to the beat. If you got a long wire you could send the metronome to the conductor or DSM so he/she could change it depending on the tempo of the next song. I have no idea how this would be done but I think it would work. If I was to do this I would just take the speaker off and connect the speaker wires to a single amplifier if needed and then to the LEDs form the amplifier.
Hope this helps

[Chris15]

I'd think you should be able to isolate the clicks reasonably easily. You should be able to get it out as an audio feed by some means.

If you then feed that into a comparator set appropriately, then the you get a trigger when the clicks come through. Basically it's the principle of noise gates. But in this case you're not opening the audio channel but triggering a light or some other device...

[derekleffew]

jhdesynz, do some Googling for "audio controlled relay." My first thought was this RDL unit, but the minimum release time of 0.5s is too long. Chris15 is on the right track with the noise gate concept. Ohhh--another thought: search for external VU meter, LED style. Given variable gain, the click track can light all LED segments. Most seem to be DIY kits or instruction form, so a good project for an electronics enthusiast.

[AlexD]

Originally Posted by AlexD

Like the strobe idea, But you would have to be very good with electronics to do this. Take a metronome and take it apart take out the speaker that makes the clicking sound and attach a series of led lights on to it, set the metronome to the beat and the LEDs should flash to the beat. If you got a long wire you could send the metronome to the conductor or DSM so he/she could change it depending on the tempo of the next song. I have no idea how this would be done but I think it would work. If I was to do this I would just take the speaker off and connect the speaker wires to a single amplifier if needed and then to the LEDs form the amplifier.
Hope this helps

I can not remember what way this is but I think it is, an LED needs a direct current but the speaker wire that you would connect the LED to is an alternating current. So if you were to do this then you would have to have an AC to DC convertor at some point.

[Garfunky]

I highly recommend just splitting the audio signal from the click track, and sending it to a Db meter that the performers can see. American audio makes one that you can pick up for less than $100.
L.E.D. decibel display (Black) - dB-Display Black - American Audio
The inputs on this model are unbalanced, so I wouldn't recommend looping the audio through the meter, but rather sending a separate signal from the mixer if you have an extra output.

[Chris15]

Just one thing to be careful with; because we are talking about the click track, you need to mindful of the effects of latency. If you can avoid digitisation that is good.

Ideally you want to feed the Right output of the computer into an iso split and feed the indicator off that to avoid introducing delay via the console, admittedly it will only be a few op amps worth, but better to get rid of it where you can...

This is where a number of the VU ideas will face issues, there is a few fractions of a second of delay. If it gets above about 3 milliseconds you will have sync issues...

I don't think anything stand alone is wise (metronomes etc.), they just won't get the sync right and things will be worse than nothing...