How To Create A Project
To begin, you need to have the
program (sound card) configured and to familiarize yourself with the program.
1. Sound Card Configuration
Press F3 key (or go to Audio Setting in Configuration
menu). Here, in Select sound card
section, either pick specific sound card or leave the default one selected. In Select record input pick the source of
the music you want to have analyzed. That can be one of the following examples:
Line In – Select this in case you want to do analysis
of an external source (e.g. mixing desk). For this you will most likely use
cable with 3,5mm jack (notebook input) – cinch (mixing desk master output). You
might need cinch adaptor as well.
Microphone – Music analysis will be done by
microphone. It is a very basic option that does not involve any extra wiring,
but the quality of the analysis may not be very high and the microphone will
pick up ambient noise.
Stereo Mix – It is a PC output. This option is
for running analysis on the same computer that is also the source of the
music. There are options like Stereo Mix, Mono Mix and Wave. In this case,
no wiring is needed.
There is a possibility that there will be no
sound card inputs to choose from. There will be only one called Universal input. If that is the case, you
need to select the input for recording
in the drivers provided by the sound card manufacturer or in the Windows Mixer. This setting is shared
by all programs. That means that if you set the recording correctly for any
other program, Music Visualization
will work as well.
2. Basic Information
In the main dialog of Music Visualization, there is a list
called Modification of Music Attributes.
It contains attributes that react to music. These attributes can be inserted
into the list of active attributes repeatedly with different configuration of their
parameters. Attributes can be assigned scenes or chases (i.e. a flow of
scenes), which control connected devices. These scenes and chases can be
created in Scene Setting dialog (F4
key). Completed scenes and chases are saved into separate files. Double
clicking an attribute in the list of active attributes or clicking the Setup button brings up Attribute Setting dialog for
configuring individual attributes, which will also show list of these files
(scenes and chases) called Select Scene
or Chase. After clicking OK or Apply, selected attribute will start
controlling the chosen scene or a chase.
Important: Attribute inserted lower in the
list of active attributes has a higher priority than attributes that are above it.
If there are identical or similar scenes/chases controlled from this list
(their DMX channels overlap), DMX channels of the lowest placed attribute will
be used. Because of this, it is better to place lower in the list attributes
like BMP III (activated in case
rhythm is identified), Silence Detection
(detects silence or a gap between songs), Strobo
Enabler (detects sudden start of beats after a specific pause).
3.
Example
of a Project for RGB LED Reflector
There are many LED type reflectors
with wide variety of functions of DMX channels and premade macros. However they
all have the same three consecutive channels that represent intensity of red,
green and blue. These three channels are all we need for our project and it
will be compatible with most LED reflectors. We assume that the reflector has
starting address 1 and following functions:
Address:
DMX functions:
3.1 Rock Music Variant
Default control of the reflector can be set up
by inserting these attributes:
Average Bass, DMX channel: 1
Average Mid, DMX channel: 2
Average High, DMX
channel: 3
(Threshold set to 60%)
This will give us background, where the hue
will be mixed according to the proportional representation of three frequency
bands. Then we will create a scene with red light only like this:
Fig. 1: Creation of scene file LED-red.sc
We need the active scene to give us only red
color. Setting value 1 for the green and blue will prevent these colors from
acquiring values from attributes inserted higher in the list. This scene will
be assigned to the Beat Detection II
attribute, which will, when active, light up only the red color:
Beat Detection II LED-red.sc
Then we will create a chase consisting of a
flow of different colors. When creating a hue, all the colors (red, green and
blue) need to have non-zero value (at least 1) to prevent mixing of colors
generated by attributes higher in the list. Fade Time is set to 0. This means that activating the attribute
will switch the colors (see the manual, chapter 4. How an attribute affects a
scene or a chase).
Fig. 2: Creation of chase file LED-colors1.ch
This chase will be assigned to the BPM III attribute. The configured
colors will keep switching according to the identified rhythm:
BPM III LED-colors1.ch
Then we can create a scene or a chase, where
the LED reflector will shine with low intensity or will slowly fade in different
colors (Fade Time 2 or more seconds)
and assign this to the Silence Detection
attribute. This effect will be activated, when the music stops playing.
Fig. 3: Creation of chase file LED-silent.ch
If we create a chase consisting of different
colors with zero fade time, each Silence
Detection attribute activation will light up a different color out of the
colors in our chase. Let’s insert Silent
Detection attribute into our project and assign it the chase:
Silent Detection LED-silent.ch
Finally we can insert a popular Strobo Enabler attribute and assign to
it for example full lighting up (white color), white stroboscopic flashes or
flashes of a specific color. Let’s create for example blue stroboscopic effect
in such a way that it will not affect the remaining two colors controlled by
other attributes placed higher in the list. Stroboscopic effect can usually be
turned on by simple DMX channels activation (depends on the type of light).
However we will create a universal effect using a chase. It can be done with
these four scenes:
Fig. 4: Creation of chase file LED-blueStrobo.ch
We will assign this chase to the Strobo Enable attribute:
Strobo Enabler LED-blueStrobo.ch (Threshold set to 35%)
Finished project will look something like this:
Fig. 5: Finished sample project for LED reflector
To enable colored icons in the Scene Setting dialog open Tool Tips (in Windows menu) and insert names of the colors into the first three
channels. This will color the progress bars in DMX512 Output as well.
Fig. 6: Tool Tips setting and
colored output in DMX512 Output
dialog
Complete projects can be downloaded from www.soh.cz.
I wish you success using Music Visualization
software
Ing. Jaroslav Nušl
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SOH Sound & Lights
Let Lights Feel the Music
http://www.soh.cz
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