Hi there everybody!
First post and im hoping to get some helpful insight.
I've been drafted by my band to be in charge of getting a simple, but effective lighting setup going for our live shows. We already run some percussion and little things audio wise on a backtrack live through ableton live, and id like to run preprogrammed lighting off a midi channel while we play. Im including a screen shot of our live set to help paint the picture below. We've got an audio track sending the backing track to front of house, and audio track sending a different mix to our drummer drew, a midi channel utilizing clyphx to change tempo on the metronome for each song, and a place holder midi channel where i want a midi clip for each song with the custom light show.
Im looking at these led rgb lighting stips you can buy on ebay or anywhere really.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-5M-SMD-RGB-5050-Waterproof-LED-Strip-light-300-44-Key-Remote-12V-Supply-Power-/381465433704?hash=item58d11c9668:g:kOYAAOSwqfNXjlgGMy end goal is something to this extent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhOxCGzSEYwSomething custom and interesting. Granted i know a light show of that caliber will take some sitting down and time to make.
We're looking at having 4 strips mounted vertically, about 4 or 5 ft long on poles on stage. 2 on either side of the drum riser, and 2 on either corner of the stage closest to the crowd.
My questions here are what are the things needed to hook the strips up to the macbook? Im assuming DMX is needed here, but what units are available that will act as a box between the lights and the macbook. so that its receiving the lights on on side, and like a usb out on the other to go to ableton.
Any experience with this? Im searching all over and can't find too much to get me started.
Thanks everyone!