Saturday, November 8, 2014

Music into Light Epiphany

There is no need to wait for the cable for the guitar to drive the MIDI as that can be done already from the Korg synth.

The question immediately goes to what lights go with what notes.

This involves a lot of MIDI geekery so save yourself now if you like.

Light controller MIDI Map

Notes 0-31 all map the same to light patches from 1 to 8 on Bank 1.
Notes 104-119 all map as above but to Bank 14.

Notes 32-103 map to individual patches on Banks 2-13.

Notes 120-125 map to Chases (I don't use)

Note 126 is Blackout All


Possible model:  make twelve patches to correspond to twelve tones and repeat them to populate all of the banks such that every octave the original light patch comes back.  Propagating the patches will be a hassle as there are eight patches in a Bank but twelve notes in an octave.  It's possible to copy Banks but I don't think multiple selected notes.

The above seems like a workable solution except, even playing at my turgid pace, the requests will be going out for a change to the light patch a whole lot more frequently than I probably want.  It may even be possible to overwhelm the controller.  I don't think it's likely but it's conceivable.

The study blew the vampire hours but it was worth it as this gives a plan for trying it and sets things up for the guitar on Monday or Tuesday.


The reason I write so voluminously on this is it is only one of a billion ways this could be exploited and hopefully some other nutjobs will play with it in their own demented ways.  Since I was a kid I wanted to be able to play music in light, to see music, something that doesn't even have words.  OK, so what does it look like.

Visualizers present intricate and explicit images of their representations of music and they're hypnotic but, for me, they exist on their own; they're cool to watch but they're not the music.  The mistake, I believe, is the thinking music should be anything more than a feeling.  Making it explicit is likely a mistake as one of the most important things in music is people bring their own stories.  If I make note 64 paint a duck on a wall with a laser, how should this be music ... unless you really, really love ducks.  Therefore, the lights should be a feeling more than an explicit thing as that leaves it to listeners / watchers to write the story as it goes.

Keep in mind that if you are using a looper the lights won't respond to it as that's not MIDI information.  The lights will only change based on what you are actively playing.


To start your own fires with this, search DMX stage light control.  The cables look like XLR but they're not.  As with MIDI daisy-chaining synthesizers, DMX daisy-chains light / laser fixtures and transmits control information that way.

(Ed: wasn't there a way to make this any more difficult?)

When I started with this type of thing I was using an Echoplex tape-loop echo unit and that was high-tech.  For me the equipment now is miraculous ... even if it is a pain in the ass to program it.

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