Synchronisation with music

[rtrigg]

Hi all,

Firstly, I am so grateful to have come across this software - it certainly seems more intuitive than some of the other free DMX controllers.

This is my first post and I am a complete beginner to DMX software, so my question is very basic, though I expect the solution will not be...

I have a 'bedroom' set up of 8 U'King LED PARs and I have created a series of RGB matrices. Is it possible for me to synchronise the transitions within these matrices to the beat of any song? If not, can I do it by importing the mp3 files into the Shows feature? I fiddled around with the Audio Trigger widget in Virtual Console but found it a bit confusing. Ideally I would like to be able to set up something that recognises the beat organically rather than having to programme each song specifically.

I did look through the help guides but got a bit stuck. Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers,
Ricky

[GGGss]

Welcome to the forum,

The Audio Widget on VC is the only tool we have inside QLC+ to do some kind of beat detection. On Windows, it's far from ideal, since the audio levels aren't high enough for a usable trigger level.
Even if you import your .mp3's, QLC+ has no beat detection.
The paid-for solution I use is Lightjams, which does excellent beat detection but the program itself has a very steep learning curve.

[rtrigg]

Thanks for that advice. I will look elsewhere for a program with better beat detection, as I am using WIndows and can't get reliable beat detection with the Audio Widget despite trying to optimise the thresholds.

[kenact]

The Audio Widget on VC is the only tool we have inside QLC+ to do some kind of beat detection. On Windows, it's far from ideal, since the audio levels aren't high enough for a usable trigger level.

I'm curious about this statement. I haven't used Beat Detection in QLC+, but I've never had an issue with audio levels on Windows. Can you provide more details?

[GGGss]

I'm curious about this statement. I haven't used Beat Detection in QLC+, but I've never had an issue with audio levels on Windows. Can you provide more details?

Thanks, Ken reminding me again... this is a long-standing issue. The latest try from Massimo was with a Linux-driven computer, using the inbuilt microphone.
With Windows thou, the input levels are interpreted way too low for level detection to be effective.

[edit] - I tried to build a basic environment to work on - no more energy to fulfill today [/edit]

Again thx reminding me - I really should invest a 3 hours setup to point out what's wrong - if someone is interested to do so, please?
* Create a click-track with a snare drum tapping the rhythm and a base bass line playing on tap but bass-levels above said snare taps.
* in the mix: do not add kick drums because ...
* a real BPM detection should work on the rising edges of the spikes it gets -> detection of the spike in snare-hits
* a false positive is what people tap with their feet -> kick drum bumps... not precise enough to reconstruct BPM.
* normalize the audio to get max spikes
* do feedback audio to QLC+ audio input (consider a 2nd computer, because the audio will be fed to you by the FOH desk)
- and here I'm stuck without proof: last attempt showed me an input level of 30-40%, whatever I did -even over disturbing the level applied

[kenact]

Thanks GGGss. I suppose the level also depends on what you're using as your input device, internal mic, audio interface, etc. and what you're using to record the input, Windows Sound Record, Audacity or some other DAW.

Most of my Windows recordings are done with a Steinberg UR44C into Cubase 12 Pro. I can make my audio files as loud as I want.

[prophy17]

Excuse my mind... But why you don't speak anything about os2l or dmxartnet plugins of the Virtual Dj. Both can send beat to the qlc+ 4 version

[prophy17]

https://www.virtualdj.com/wiki/QLC%20with%20OS2L.html so
it is the ref. To: How to connect VDJ os2l and qlc+

[prophy17]

I think that to send a beat by plugins of the Virtual DJ to the QLC+ is the best way for the synchronization this dmx software with music. Maybe I am wrong, but It's my own opinion.

[GGGss]

Guys,

I'm talking about doing a busking show with a live audio signal input. The audio is fed from the FOH to the QLC+ computer.
This is what Ricky was asking about...
The external input on Windows is way too low a signal to be useful. (Ergo: if I use this signal to record something = no problem - enough signal to work with but not in QLC+)

Is it possible for me to synchronise the transitions within these matrices to the beat of any song? If not, can I do it by importing the mp3 files into the Shows feature? I fiddled around with the Audio Trigger widget in Virtual Console but found it a bit confusing. Ideally I would like to be able to set up something that recognises the beat organically rather than having to programme each song specifically.

[rtrigg]

Thanks for the discussion, guys. @prophy17 - I followed the link you gave for linking VirtualDJ with QLC+ and managed to get beat detection working. It would be good, in the future, for me to figure out a way to reliably detect beats in live music, but for now I am happy with the beat detection from VDJ - many thanks

I'd be interested to know how DJs use chases in QLC+. At the moment, I have set up a series of buttons in Virtual Console where each button is linked to a chase and is beat-synchronised from VDJ. It allows me to pick a chase for a particular song, and if I want to mix things up a bit, I can click around the different chases in real-time, e.g. one chase for a verse, another chase for a chorus... this is the closest I can get to an automated light show.

[prophy17]

Dear rtrigg. I am happy too, if I could help you with OS2L from VDJ. I only can write that there is an opportunity to connect by OS2L commands the buttons of the VDJ with the buttons, sliders, chasers from the Virtual console of the QLC+. And so user can manage light show from the VDJ without going every time between the VDJ and the QLC+ Virtual console. And to cooperate os2l with the poi editor of the VDJ too. With help of which user can connect some light effect, what he want, with the particular place of the music composition

[prophy17]

By the way. There is another plugin https://www.virtualdj.com/plugins/index ... onid=81220
https://www.virtualdj.com/forums/237980 ... tml?page=1

[prophy17]

This plugin can use VDJ script commands and so has some more opportunities. For example: by some script command user can activate the particular widget of the QLC+ Virtual console or the button(preset) of speed in a Speed Dial (it is good for moving heads) if a song: has tempo 120bpm or bigger than 120bpm, or has E-major key, or has some symbol in the mp3 tag(for slow or much quick melody ), or is bigger then 2 minutes long))). And etc. So many VDJ script commands can be used in this plugin. This plugin can be connect with poi editor of the VDJ too as OS2L. It is very good , I think so

[prophy17]

Link for the forum about script commands with DmxArtnetNtx plugin https://www.virtualdj.com/forums/237916 ... -bit_.html

[prophy17]

I don't know if it is interesting for anybody. But I decided to write about DMxArtnet here too, not only about OS2L. For example, I personally use DmxArtnet for the synchronization QLC+ with music and for the connection the buttons of the VDJ with the widgets of the QLC+ Virtual and with VDJ poi editor instead of OS2L. It is better for me. But another guys I think like OS2L.
Best regards for all.

[gmint]

Following. This is something that is so seemingly easy but frustratingly difficult to do. I have a very good solution for doing this when I have a direct MIDI input from a DJ software (in this case Traktor) but I am finding it very difficult to come up with a good solution to do this AUTOMATICALLY for live music. Let me say that I'm not looking for 100% accuracy, but there was a time (before everyone DJed on computers) that DJ mixer on earth had an automatic BPM sensing engine. I'd love to just have something where QLC could just get an even kind of accurate BPM from a live source. Right now I've got a hacked together solution using Live's follow function that sends taps to QLC+ but this seems like enormous waste just for something that should be a really simple feature.

[prophy17]

With live music, maybe you are right. I don't now, I haven't any practice. But why Do you think, that's right for discotheque with virtual DJ automix , synchronized with QLC+ by os2l beat signal or some presets of the Artnet plugin, for example? I can't agree, in such situation I have any practice. It's work nice in my mind. Maybe only for me, but....))). Yes, there are some music compositions, which have difficulties in synchronization. For example, if they have too slow or too fast tempo. In such situation I use different settings of Speed Dial and fade in/fade out in the scenes and sequences for these compositions. Best regards

[prophy17]

PS https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jOux-FIM6Us Not QlC+, but very good (for me) auto Synchronization by dmx controller. And , yes it's not bpm, it's real beat synchronization or maybe there were MIDI signals ( I think so, it's not my experiment).
By the way, I think that synchronization sound and light is the good place for the Artificial Intelligence ))))

[prophy17]

viewtopic.php?t=12303 it's about DMXArtnet plugin. Maybe is will be interesting for users of the QLC+