I’ve been learning how to program lights using DMXIS, a $300 box that enables you to control lights from a computer (or a program like Ableton on a computer.) I don’t think it’s mandatory that a solo performer have a “light show,” but if you want to step up your live game and be able to charge more money, adding lights is a great idea.
If you already have a computer in your live rig, you can really go nuts. That’s what I’m currently doing. Here’s an overview…
These days, pretty much all stage lighting uses a protocol called DMX. It’s like MIDI for lights, kind of. So you have your lights connected to a lighting console or computer using DMX. In some cases, you can buy a lighting tree with four lights and a footswitch for control, and you can control your lights with your foot. No computer necessary. But it’s one more thing to do while you perform. If you are using backing tracks on a computer, you could automate your lights to go along with your backing tracks. This is being done more and more by solo performers as well as duos and even full bands. Many churches are doing it, too.
Most people running backing tracks on a computer use Ableton Live, or Ableton Live Intro. It’s the best software for the job. Ableton also has built-in instruments, or you can use it with something like MainStage (Mac only.)
So let’s say you spend $300 on a light stand and some inexpensive DMX lights, and you spend $300 on the DMXIS box, which is the best way to control your lights from your laptop. Let’s say you’re running backing tracks in Ableton. Learning how to automate your lights is a whole nuther world. I’m in that world currently.
There are two main ways to control lights using the above setup. You can automate every parameter of every light in Ableton (so, control the red fader, the blue fader, etc, with individual automation lines.) OR you can set up a bunch of presets in the DMXIS software and change between the presets using MIDI notes. OR, you can do both in the same song.
How do you learn to do all this stuff? If you’re pretty good with a computer, it’s not hard. If you struggle with your web browser, it’s almost impossible. But in addition, you need to learn what colors to use, when to change them, etc, to match your music. For God’s sake, don’t just buy lights and use the sound activation features. People will have a migraine within three songs.
Is it worth the effort? Well, for $600, you can have a totally computer automated light show. That’s crazy cheap. If you’re a solo performer, this $600 investment means you can charge more per gig, and you’ll make the $600 back in no time. Uh, that is, once we’re all doing gigs again. Whenever that is. In the meantime, this is the perfect time for all of us solo performers to work on our shows.
I don’t think my audience wants to read about the nerdy computer stuff, so I probably will only be blogging general information. But if you really ARE interested, email me. If a lot of people are interested, I’ll do some step by step posts and maybe put it on my YouTube channel.
