Disco Party lights (Increasing ROI for WAF)

daunce

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Jun 9, 2010
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Ferntree Gully, VIC
The wife has suggested we have a disco party for our kids’ parties. She’s excited about that, and also about the possibility of using the pixels from Christmas.
Here’s a great chance to buy more things for the disco party, that, wow what a coincidence, I can use at Christmas.

How have others used their lights for parties?

I’d like to just have random sequences or activate based on the music playing. There’s a few articles on the net using an Arduino with sound sensor. I’m just wondering if I can use my Falcon controller too.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for this sort of thing.
Cheers.
 

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
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I setup my P10 matrix in our garage for my daughter's 5th disco party. Just created a 2min sequence with bright colours of random effects, including text (happy birthday <name>) and some images with rotoshake effects aswell.
Just looped it all party
 

Katekate

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Portland, Vic
plug everything in as normal, string up the lights wherever, and run a whole house butterfly effect all night
 

daunce

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Thanks for the suggestions. The P10 will go down well... and naturally the kids would love the butterfly effect. haha.

Maybe I'm reaching too far, but I'd love to have the lights react to the sound of the music, and not run a sequence, but maybe looping some random sequences will be a lot simpler for now.

Now to see what I've got that I can string up.
 

Mark_M

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Dec 30, 2018
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Christmas Light world
Worst video award to me for this one....

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p-5K80heiI



I had an F48 through the Ethernet cables (reserved for future HDMI over IP) to stage from the tech both.
I had a repeat of twinkling the lights between (as best the pixels could produce) yellow and purple.

Maybe I'm reaching too far, but I'd love to have the lights react to the sound of the music, and not run a sequence.
There is simple sketches to make lights flash to music with Arduino. Alternatively (and a big learning curve) is to have MIDI used (keyboard, etc) and go down pixel, xLights route.
I think an arduino with a microphone to hear the speakers near would be perfectly fine.
I don't know about beat timed pixel related sketches for Arduino. Might need to write your own code for that.

I setup my P10 matrix in our garage for my daughter's 5th disco party. Just created a 2min sequence with bright colours of random effects, including text (happy birthday <name>) and some images with rotoshake effects aswell.
Just looped it all party
Agree with you @djgra79, simple works well. Like the video above, twinkle worked well.


Maybe looping some random sequences will be a lot simpler for now.
That's all that's needed. :thumbsup:



I would like to have lights flashing to music but I think it's easier and would look better having patterns cycle.
Simple sequence on loop; done.
 

Bigwillystyle

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Dec 14, 2016
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Gold Coast
I'd suggest using your pixels a little more static, and using some DJ style lights to do the music sense.. Some Gobos and a laser?? maybe a smoke machine?? All of these things can be purposed into your show.. I'm looking at some programmable lasers at the moment.. I can use them to draw designs on the wall for example.. Can do whatever you wish..
 

Mark_M

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Dec 30, 2018
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Christmas Light world
I'm looking at some programmable lasers at the moment.. I can use them to draw designs on the wall for example..
You're wallet's going to enjoy that.
DMX units with wide beams are fairly expensive. My generic RGB one was $300.
Some allow for an SD card with patterns and they're assigned to a DMX channels. That would be the most budget friendly with reasonable customisation of patterns.

Then there's the thousand dollar and more lasers with ILDA for control.


Be aware that even cheap lasers (like mine) are a pretty high power.. Mine's 300mW which is a lot of laser power to have accidentally shone in someones eye. It's something not to be left outside without supervision and immediate shut off.

Once you go to bigger lasers with ILDA, you're going to need all the safety stop buttons around the area.
Crowd scanning diffraction or blocking lenses won't be needed for an installation pointing only at your house (provided it's not a walk through display).

And do be very aware not to shine lasers in the sky during a display, even if you're not in a flight path.
 
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