So today we got some time to experiment with Ableton Live controlling our lighting console. Basically the goal was to find a way to have Ableton control the lighting cues and trigger everything. This way we have everything in sync and it’s all automated.
Today was time well spent. We figured out all kinds of cool stuff that has really opened the doors wide open to all sorts of possibilities. Basically we can now have Ableton be the center of control for the entire show, lights, media servers, lyrics, anything that can see MIDI!
The best part is that since it’s through Ableton we can still have the creative freedom to change tempos or repeat sections and everything will follow along. So everything can be programmed but we can still be flexible, pretty rad! This is a lot better than the other way around where Ableton chases another source and the performer can’t change anything on the fly. Locked into a timecode that can’t speed up, slow down, or jump around.
For now here are just a couple of teaser videos. Ableton was on one laptop outputting MIDI commands to our ETC ION console. The the ION was outputting DMX over ARTnet to another laptop running Light Converse visualization software. We’ll make another video explaining things in more detail at some point. For now this shows a couple of lighting looks mapped to MIDI notes that could be played live or played from the timeline. You can just imagine where this could lead with some more time to plan out looks!