I’ve spent the last couple of weeks working on figuring out a way to control lights via MIDI. That means I want to be able to control lights with Ableton Live, the music program I use to create and play. Most lights are controlled via DMX, not MIDI, so it was a tricky situation. Of course there are some conversion modules I could have purchased to handle this, but it would have run me into the thousands of dollars to do so. As a person that makes basically no money off of my music so far, I wasn’t about to invest that much into something that MIGHT work…maybe.
Being a bit of a DIYer, I decided there had to be a simpler way to make this happen. I decided to give Arduino a try. Granted, I’ve never worked with Arduino, nor did I know C++ at all, but I figured it couldn’t be THAT hard. So I picked up an Arduino UNO, wired it to an 8-relay module, then messed around with code for too many days until I got the Arduino triggering the relays via MIDI notes from the MIDI interface I made.
wiring for just the relays
Once that was done, I had to decide what I actually wanted the light show to look like. I settled on 8 panels. 4 blue, 4 pink. I made those out of some wood, those plastic sheets that go over fluorescent lights, some aluminum foil, and a bunch of Christmas lights.
Frames of the panels with black paint on the front.
Now I know this post isn’t terribly detailed, but since I don’t have many readers, and the ones that probably read it probably don’t care about the specifics, I didn’t write it all up.
And what you’ve all been waiting for: A test of the final product.
