I'm working on a project where I want to have christmas lights (or LED strips if needed) react to music. In this case, the end goal is to have them pulse to the beats/bass of the music. There's a lot of LED strips that come in kits where there's a microphone that listens to the music but this doesnt work for me for a few reasons- 1) seems cheesy 2) doesnt give me just the bass and 3) I'd prefer a hard-wired solution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzoMfBazU1o
There's a lot of solutions on youtube where people hack in to their speakers and simply power the lights from the signal being sent to the subwoofer in the speaker. This works, but I can only drive a small number of lights this way AND this is also highly dependent on the volume of the music. Another approach is to build a SSR (solid state relay) based circuit like this but the problem here is that i'm not looking to do any high voltage wiring myself (Just an EE student here) due to the fact im not comfortable with it and I don't know anyone who really is.
I thought of the idea to purchase an audio amplifier ( http://www.kynix.com/Product/Cate/423.html ) that would normally drive a set of speakers and instead have it drive my lights. I know it would put out a lot of power I wouldnt need, but I can adjust this using the gain controllers on the amp (power efficiency isnt the goal here- overkill is acceptable). Would this even work? Fundamentally I think this would work, but am I missing something? -perhaps resistive load issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzoMfBazU1o
There's a lot of solutions on youtube where people hack in to their speakers and simply power the lights from the signal being sent to the subwoofer in the speaker. This works, but I can only drive a small number of lights this way AND this is also highly dependent on the volume of the music. Another approach is to build a SSR (solid state relay) based circuit like this but the problem here is that i'm not looking to do any high voltage wiring myself (Just an EE student here) due to the fact im not comfortable with it and I don't know anyone who really is.
I thought of the idea to purchase an audio amplifier ( http://www.kynix.com/Product/Cate/423.html ) that would normally drive a set of speakers and instead have it drive my lights. I know it would put out a lot of power I wouldnt need, but I can adjust this using the gain controllers on the amp (power efficiency isnt the goal here- overkill is acceptable). Would this even work? Fundamentally I think this would work, but am I missing something? -perhaps resistive load issues
Inviato Fri 13 Apr 18 @ 7:24 am
vlnjacki
Think the Best for this is with a activated Midiclock Output from VDJ send to a Free DMX Lightsoftware and the USB to DMX Interface send in the DMX RGBW Led Controller.
Another Idea:
Grab the Bass / Subsignal from a Active Crossover (Sub) to your DMX Hardwarepult (Audio in) from there per DMX Cable in a DMX RGB LED Controller.
Think There gives many DMX Led Controller Modells with varius RGB-RGBW-RGBWA-RGBWAUV
Greatings Dirk
Another Idea:
Grab the Bass / Subsignal from a Active Crossover (Sub) to your DMX Hardwarepult (Audio in) from there per DMX Cable in a DMX RGB LED Controller.
Think There gives many DMX Led Controller Modells with varius RGB-RGBW-RGBWA-RGBWAUV
Greatings Dirk
Inviato Sun 15 Apr 18 @ 12:51 pm
Olduffer
Depends on how much programming you would want to get into. Look up Light O Rama. http://www1.lightorama.com/
It controls the big Christmas displays that you see on youtube. You could also look into controllers like sandevice which uses an E131 protocol. http://sandevices.com/
It takes hours of programming to get lights to display complex patterns, however, I would think that to just program lights flashing to a certain beat in a song would not be that difficult.
For an example, here is my display I put on every year. https://www.facebook.com/tim.mosher.5/videos/1565267260227378/
Not sure this is going to be what you're looking for, but it is just a thought you might be interested in.
It controls the big Christmas displays that you see on youtube. You could also look into controllers like sandevice which uses an E131 protocol. http://sandevices.com/
It takes hours of programming to get lights to display complex patterns, however, I would think that to just program lights flashing to a certain beat in a song would not be that difficult.
For an example, here is my display I put on every year. https://www.facebook.com/tim.mosher.5/videos/1565267260227378/
Not sure this is going to be what you're looking for, but it is just a thought you might be interested in.
Inviato Sat 21 Apr 18 @ 11:58 am
Olduffer
There is one thing I forgot to mention. There is an add on program you can get for the LOR software. It is called Superstar Sequencer. All you have to do is to first define your pixel matrix, then load in your audio file. Then click "Instant Sequence" and it will generate a lighting sequence to that audio file. There are tons of videos on youtube that will give you more info.
Inviato Sat 21 Apr 18 @ 12:52 pm