Live cue matching to music running off another computer?

[J_lucDeveau]

Hey guys! First off im new to this forum so if this thread is in the wrong section please let me know and i'l move it!

Im the head tech at my high school and our dances are run by me/student dj. What i'd like to do is be able to do is have cues go off to specific parts of a song without the need of someone at a console hitting go when cues are wanted. I want to be able to program cues to go off to specific parts of a song, i.e. when the base drops a black out or something like that. My biggest problem at the moment is I've been wanting to still have control of the lights off of my computer or lighting board, meaning that the cues cant be fired off of the dj's computer.
What i have at my disposal is :
2 laptops, one running windows 7 and the other windows 8
a mac mini
Enttec open dmx-usb
Enttec DMX USB pro
Philips preset pallet II (lighting board)

I was thinking either running MIDI show control off of the dj's computer and into either mine or our lighting board but cant find a program to do so.

i'm open to try anything you guys recommend, only limitation is since im at a school we don't have a big budget. Any info is good info.
thanks guys!

 

[Joshualangman]

If your light board accepts MIDI or OSC, you can run your music from QLab and program either MIDI or OSC cues to fire at specific parts of the song.

You would run QLab on your Mac Mini. You can rent a license for $3 a day (actually, I think it's $1 a day since you're a school, though it depends what features you need).

You'll also need a USB to MIDI converter, but you can get basic ones for less than $50. Use that to connect a MIDI cable to your light board. If you're connecting the Mac to another computer running lighting software, you would need a second MIDI interface on that end.

If your board accepts OSC, which is doubtful, you just need an ethernet cable from the Mac to the board. If you're running from a Mac to a PC, and if your lighting software takes OSC, you don't need any interfaces; you just run an ethernet cable.

 

[J_lucDeveau]

Does Qlab have a djing interface to it?

 

[museav]

So you want the music to trigger cues but can't actually assign cues to the music? Are you essentially looking for specific levels, frequencies, etc. to trigger a specific cue or the next cue in a queue? And what are you tring to trigger, is it lighting cues programmed on a board or PC, video cues or what?

 

[J_lucDeveau]

So you want the music to trigger cues but can't actually assign cues to the music? Are you essentially looking for specific levels, frequencies, etc. to trigger a specific cue or the next cue in a queue? And what are you tring to trigger, is it lighting cues programmed on a board or PC, video cues or what?

I want to be able to trigger lighting cues. Doesnt matter how it's done, all i want to be able to do is assign cues to specific songs, if that even can be done.

 

[Amiers]

You would need a USB to MIDI converter and if you want 2 computers to be able to fire MIDI out you will need a 2 in 1 out box. I also don't understand why you don't just have the DJ computer fire everything having 2 computers one to cue and one to music seems like you would end up out of sync. Qlab is good Venue Magic is good both do a decent job with show control, lights sound and video(optional).

 

[djred2000]

If the DJ is using Virtual DJ you can have it output Midi Clock which is the beat of whichever song is playing. A lot of DMX software can read the Midi Clock and then sync lights to that. It's not timed cues, but the lights will "dance" to the music.

 

[museav]

I want to be able to trigger lighting cues. Doesnt matter how it's done, all i want to be able to do is assign cues to specific songs, if that even can be done.

It would be pretty simple if the cues could be associated directly with the music playback as you could add MIDI or other cues to trigger lighting presets and still do whatever you wanted otherwise. However, you mentioned that the cues can't be fired off the DJ's computer and if that is the music source then that seems to mean the cues can't be directly associated with the music itself and would have to be triggered in some other manner. At the same time, if you want the cues to be triggered by the music then whatever does trigger the cues apparently has to somehow be associated with or triggered by the music. That seems to mean the music playback triggering something that then triggers the lighting cues.

 

[J_lucDeveau]

Another way to think of what im trying to do is think of the Dj's computer as an instrument and my computer's reeving signal from it. Then at certain notes, specific cues go off.
Thanks for everyone's help so far!

 

[kyelewis]

Which DJ software were you thinking of using? VirtualDJ has a plugin available to interact with FreeStyler, so you could potentially send signals based on cue points from that. Most DJ software not so much (though you could also do something similar with video signals and Serato or other VJ compatible software)

What lighting console do you use? That will determine whether or not it can take an external signal at all

This is very possible- but the difficulty will depend on the answer to those questions.


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[Footer]

Another way to think of what im trying to do is think of the Dj's computer as an instrument and my computer's reeving signal from it. Then at certain notes, specific cues go off.
Thanks for everyone's help so far!

Here is the thing... it is really hard to analyze music in that manner. In order for a lighting console (or any other show control device) to do an action it needs to be sent a command to do so OR it needs to know when to do something. That can be done in a time stamp, it can be done with a midi note, or it can be via a button press by a human.

There is no magic "lightshow in a box" that is worth a crap. If you had a digital mixer you could set a gate to work on a specific frequency or range and whenever that gate opens it sends a note over midi that the lighting console takes as a go. Some digital mixers will do that. However, without putting some form of information with the music your not going to get anywhere.

If this is just for a one off running live with the DJ is going to be your best bet. You will put in 10x to 50x as much work getting this to work then you would just using a few playbacks and going at it night of.

If you want to learn how to actually do this, read this book:http://controlgeek.net/bookinfo/. If it won't help you figure out how to do it, odds are you can't do it.

 

[museav]

Footer covered it, if the DJ's computer behaves as an instrument like a keyboard or sampler, something that can provide the trigger itself as part of its output, that simplifies the recall side but means that you have to integrate the trigger information into the content. If what the DJ computer provides is only audio then for your computer to generate a trigger from that means it would have to analyze the audio signal in a manner that allows it to create some type of trigger (MIDI data, contact closure, etc.) that your lighting console recognizes and to do so when desired and in real time.

You might be able to use plug-ins to apply filters, gates, etc. on the audio signal to then trigger MIDI notes but that would simply respond based on frequency, amplitude and other basic characteristics of the audio signal. Without getting very complex and adding additional logic that approach would probably not be able to distinguish a bass drop from a microphone being dropped and could trigger the same scene for both. Maybe someone who does a lot of DJ work would know if there is some software like this already developed and available.