To get the trick going, you need Lumidesk Ultimate, a good ASIO sound card (I used a Focusrite Saffire PRO 40), the MaxMSP software (DL possible for a demo period of 31 days @ http://www.cycling74.com and a MIDI program called loopbe1 (DL for free from http://www.nerds.de), and optionally a second screen , that helps.
The idea is to create a MAX patcher to analyse the audio input of the soundcard and generate real time MIDI messages. These messages are sent to LD via the MIDI loop created by loopbe1. These MIDI messages are interpreted by LD to output scenes and finally send DMX signals to our beloved fixtures ...
In the following example, the audio analyser creates a MIDI note every kick of the music... this note triggers a scene in Lumidesk in Live mode, in this particular case just a general white flash.
That sounds convoluted and useless at first sight, but the result is nice. A lot of modifications have to be done to get a rock solid result. The main thing is that it works just as an additional layer, all your LD sequencing is kept intact.
On the MAX side, you need to spend 3 hours doing the tuts to get a rough idea of how the software works. I'll try a make an EXE when I'll get my patch ironed off.
Copy the code at the end of the post and paste it in the Patcher widow ...
Except the following steps, do not touch anything yet .
Adjust the adc~ block to you audio input (click), and the noteout block to the loopbe1 MIDI port. The midiin and midiout block at the bottom left are here to connect a MIDI device and merge the signal to the patcher output (useful if you have a MIDI controller).
From there on, in Lumidesk , switch the MIDI input to loopbe1. In Live mode right click on a scene and set the MIDI note (MIDI learn) by sending a message from MAX (ctrl click on the "50" message box in the patcher window (that's the time you appreciate the second screen) to send one note. Tick the Flash mode box once Lumidesk has "learned" the note.
In MAX, lock the patcher and switch to presentation mode. The setup is complete.
Here comes the fun :
You've got a spectrum display of the input signal in the top of the window.
The second display is a multifilter that can be operated by clicking on it !
You can play with the graphical filter, set the mode to anything (LP HP BP etc) and see the soundwave affected by the filter. The level graph displays the average output of the filtered signal, and a slider adjusts the detection threshold level.
I haven't implemented yet a MIDI clock signal, but we can easily imagine that the behaviour of the tempo can be adjusted to whatever suits you...
The possibilities are limitless : I'm gonna try and make a level graph out of 8 par cans
, and a small sequencer to vary the effects !!! Enjoy your geeking ...
To the developpers. The message box "set shortucut" every time I use the CTRL key in other softwares (pretty often), how can I deactivate the function ???
<pre><code>
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-----------end_max5_patcher-----------
</code></pre>
21 days left on my DEMO !!!