What is needed to synchronize christmas lights to music

[random]

Just playing on you tube and decided these were very cool!!

 

this one starts lame and then becomes amazing!!!

[CaptainPanic]

LOL

 

To have that as a neighbor... I'd immediately run off to buy curtains that completely block out all light from outside

 

I believe that commercial gadgets exist that listen to sound, and then give several outputs (like 3-5 on/off switches)... I think it's called "sound reactive". But to get as many different signals as in that movie, you need an expensive set... that's made with a professional lightshow setup for clubs and discos.

[Externet]

Think of a light dimmer... turning the knob varies a tiny amount of current fed to a device called triac, similar to a transistor, it allows the mains power to flow accordingly.

The triac conducts the household electricity more or less according to that small amount of current driving it.

If instead of a potentiometer on a knob, you use an audio amplifier and its output levels variation is properly fed to control that triac, the result is electrical power modulated by sound intensity.

 

The gadget to modulate lights to music is just a little more elaborated than a plain dimmer.

[tomgwyther]

You'll need a lot of money and a fair bit of expertise in lighting rigs. Looks like the person who build this works with theatre/stage lighting for a living.

basically, you'll need a set of DMX compatible lighting and a DMX lighting controller. DMX is a system which tells lights what colour to be, and how bright to be.

The controller here is most likely a DMX computer program like this cheap one.

each light has an XLR plug on the back which receives a signal from the DMX controller.

The lights (Or lamps/lanterns to be precise) are then programmed to fire at specific times. lets say there is a drum sound 1min 23.567 sec into the music, you can set a DMX channel or channels to switch on at that exact time. The software can also be programmed to respond to MIDI (Musical instrument digital interface) signals, so that when a specific note is pressed; a specific light comes on.

 

If you go and see a big live concert and you notice the drummer has an ear-peice in. it's likely that the lights will be set perfectly in time with the music. The drummer is listening to a click track sourced from the same SMPTE time code or MIDI code as the lighting rig.

[random]

Ahhh o.k. I kinda get it. I remember as a kid wiring x-mas lights in to a speaker terminal (bout 1 light per watt of output) and the lights would flash according to the beat so that explains why i couldn't find anything like that. I was hoping it would be some sort of crossover that would work the same way but input the sound and convert it to AC to run the huge amounts of lights neccessary. Yeah I'll just use my method on a christmas tree rather than go so huge I guess. Even that will be pretty cool

 

Thanks though guy's I appreciate it

[tomgwyther]

That's not to say that the lights in the video were done the way I suggested. The light show may have been achieved some other way.

It's just the way I would have done it. Probably the most likely way, without having to design a whole system from scratch.

The company which create these displays is called Holdman. I found lots more videos like this on their website holdman.com

[Aladdin's]

You'll need a lot of money and a fair bit of expertise in lighting rigs. Looks like the person who build this works with theatre/stage lighting for a living.

basically, you'll need a set of DMX compatible lighting and a DMX lighting controller. DMX is a system which tells lights what colour to be, and how bright to be.

The controller here is most likely a DMX computer program like this cheap one.

each light has an XLR plug on the back which receives a signal from the DMX controller.

The lights (Or lamps/lanterns to be precise) are then programmed to fire at specific times. lets say there is a drum sound 1min 23.567 sec into the music, you can set a DMX channel or channels to switch on at that exact time. The software can also be programmed to respond to MIDI (Musical instrument digital interface) signals, so that when a specific note is pressed; a specific light comes on.

 

Is this similar to the way fire cracks work with musical instruments.

 

By the way nice topic.

[tomgwyther]

I believe it is similar, although I don't know that much about it. I don't work with pyro-technics; I don't have a pyro license.

I've seen it done though, they use a computer program plus some other hardware to send signals to pyrotechnic devices (Fireworks) and have them set off in time to music etc.