Control/Dimming Use My Expression 2x to Bump Lights Automatically with Beat of Kick Drum

ksfindley

Member
I am using an ETC Expression 2x with 24 ETC Smartpack Dimmers for our summer camp. We want to get more involved in our light show. Our opening song involves down lighting on the band really dim and once they take their place on stage a lead guitar starts then the drums hit. All still very dimly lit. I want to aim lights at the crowd and have them fire when the drummer hits the kick or the toms.

What do I need to make this happen?

Does someone have some recommendations on what lights to use for the crowd? I was thinking some type of crowd blinders... And how do I interface this with the control console? Any help in this would be great!
 
the bumping can be done by programming the lights you want on a submaster and hitting the bump button.

the audience lights you are looking for are called a mole, or 8-light.
 
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You can point any kind of light you want at the audience and it will be blinding! My suggestion would be to use the largest faced unit you have, like a par or a larger fresnel. The only downside to the fresnel is that it is a little slow to heat up, but the punch is great.

And as far as doing it automatically, just cue it out and learn the music!
 
I am using an ETC Expression 2x with 24 ETC Smartpack Dimmers for our summer camp. We want to get more involved in our light show. Our opening song involves down lighting on the band really dim and once they take their place on stage a lead guitar starts then the drums hit. All still very dimly lit. I want to aim lights at the crowd and have them fire when the drummer hits the kick or the toms.

What do I need to make this happen?

Does someone have some recommendations on what lights to use for the crowd? I was thinking some type of crowd blinders... And how do I interface this with the control console? Any help in this would be great!

As another poster posited you may program a submaster with the lights you want. I however would then use a macro interface and provide a switch closure at the pedal and have the drum fire the macro. The macro bumps the sub. Specific macros 1001-1010 I think. DB25 pin out available at ETC.
 
As another poster posited you may program a submaster with the lights you want. I however would then use a macro interface and provide a switch closure at the pedal and have the drum fire the macro. The macro bumps the sub. Specific macros 1001-1010 I think. DB25 pin out available at ETC.

If something is worth doing its worth overdoing right? :mrgreen:

but if you did that wouldn't it flash the blinders EVERY time the drummer hit the kick drum?
 
... Specific macros 1001-1010 I think. DB25 pin out available at ETC.
M*1901-1908. See this post.

As for crowd blinding, see http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/15762-blinder-basics.html , http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/6911-striplights-audience-blinders.html , http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/17383-audience-lighting-not-house.html .

...but if you did that wouldn't it flash the blinders EVERY time the drummer hit the kick drum?
PARK the blinder channel(s) at zero or level when you don't want the macro to fire them.
 
Depending on how creative you are, you could build some circuitry to extract the beat from an audio feed and trigger the contact closure that way. That's how the theater here does there closing night parties with an Express 48/96. I don't have the schematics, and its hooked into the audio system in a rather interesting way, so probably better to suggest Google. As for blinding, ACLs can work wonders for that, assuming one wires them correctly. 600W ACLs have a pretty powerful punch. Regardless of the blinder instrument, a little preheat either on the dimmer or the channel profile goes a long way towards making them flash on quickly. 5-7% tends to work for me, depending on fixtures and gels.
 
And more importantly why would you ever want to hand control over to a drummer of all things.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Agreed...

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As an old analog guy I woldn't consider anything but a bump button. To me that is part of being as board op. A board op can often just push go but to me that would be boring. In the area I learned in the SM did not call tech cues, the board op ran a two scene preset, called followspots and sound cues.
 

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