MOTUnation.com

WOW!
So many excellent solutions.
Adriano's recording lamp is ultra cool.
FMiguelez got it right with the on/off/on/off problem too.
That would be very annoying for the wife.

It's funny how just posting a problem can lead to other solutions.

I'm thinking that a motion sensor in the vocal booth could switch the light on or off.
That way if somebody is in the booth, the recording light would turn on.
Like the bathroom at Burger King. (sorry for that reference)
I'm going to order a motion sensing switch and wire a nice light for her.

Thanks to all for the great input.

waterstrum wrote:That would be very annoying for the wife...

I'm going to order a motion sensing switch and wire a nice light for her.

It seems to me that your best option would be to simply create a switch which you would flick when you are actually recording a take. Your wife probably doesn't need to be handcuffed by a red light when someone is just rehearsing, tuning their guitar or only preparing for a take. It seems like a motion sensor will just give a lot of "false" readings and have the red light going when it isn't necessary.

But then again, if the only time you go into the vocal booth is when you are recording a take, I suppose that would work. Just make sure you keep moving while you sing.

daniel.sneed wrote:Just in case you're after some heavy solution :
http://www.midisolutions.com/prodrel.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'

Those MIDI Solutions boxes, and the wide variety of functions for which they make them, have the vague aroma of MIDI Show Control. I wonder if that's Charlie Richmond's company. He's from Vancouver, BC, and so are MIDI Solutions. I'll bet he's the guy behind it. I went looking through the stuff, and there was one interesting clue: they offer no programming software for the Mac. Charlie was an Amiga guy, and hated the Mac. I think he believed that the Mac stole people away from his Amiga-based MIDI Show Control commercial setups, and his "retaliation" is to have nothing to do with the Mac. Thus, his software is Windows only, and the "Mac workaround" for programming his boxes is to program it on Windows, save it to a Standard MIDI File, then play the SMF on a Mac. He avoids mentioning Logic or DP as potential solutions, and recommends some little free MIDI player instead.

In reality, anyone who knows the MIDI Show Control spec can program his boxes from Digital Performer's SysEx Editor. Funny he doesn't tell you that. Ol' Charlie... hehehe... he didn't like Macs.

Shooshie

Thanks for posting, Shooshie, and turning some *red* light on down here!

I found this one:

http://www.metrolosys.com/index.html

It's MIDI (shout out to James) controlled and called the Merlin 1 and it is available through guitar center by special order.

I forgot one important piece of information, or rather, I assumed that it was widely known: Charlie Richmond is the creator of MIDI Show Control, the MIDI protocol that is used to run stage lighting, pyrotechnics, MIDI Machines, and even "NOW RECORDING" lights. He then devised software and hardware packages which he sold for lighting control, based on the Amiga. The few times I talked to him, he was only interested in selling me some of his stuff (can you blame him?), but when I'd tell him that I could control everything directly from Digital Performer, via the MIDI Time Piece and the MSC protocol in all the lighting controllers being built at that time, he didn't have much more to say. He did fax me the MSC specs, to his credit. Geez, those Amiga systems with his software and hardware were expensive! And they did nothing that I could tell that couldn't be done with a Mac running DP.

Anyway, that's why I was curious if MIDI Solutions might be either Charlie's or a derivative of his old company. They make expensive hardware that basically receives hexadecimal commands and acts upon them -- as all MIDI devices do. But their boxes are each programmed for one specific command or function. Very useful, and I commend them for cornering that niche of the market, but I think their stuff is very overpriced. The box for converting the Yamaha Breath Control headset (BC3a) from analog voltage to MIDI costs double what the BC3a costs, and has to be programmed with hexadecimal code!

I'm just sayin'...

Shooshie

Well, Shooshie, thanks for *sayin'*!

http://www.adhocelectronics.com/Product ... ng-Control" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

wireless lightswitch (also avail on tv for 19.95). put a lamp in her office hooked up to this switch.

noah330 wrote:http://www.adhocelectronics.com/Product ... ng-Control

That's brilliant! I had to dig a little deeper to find out that how it is able to be battery-free is that the energy captured by flicking the switch is used to send the wireless signal to the light source. What a cool concept.

This thread is fairly old, but the recording light thing has been one of those items I've wanted for who knows how long. The new version of Logic has a "recording light control surface" built in but Dp doesn't. That did slow me down for a while...

Being an electronics buff, software programmer and retired can be a dangerous combination...

I was going to try a MIDI solutions switch but I happened across a better, more powerful and cheaper solution.

Highly Liquid makes an eight channel MIDI decoder switch in "kit" form for about $60. It's a MSA-R and it can be programmed to respond to note, cc's, or pc's. The relays will run up to 500ma (.5A) but if you need that high a current you can always add an additional relay.

I built the MSA-R in a small utility box and used a regulated 12VDC supply (that means it ONLY gives out 12V, not like the typical wall wart). I got an eBay seller to make a vinyl sign for me that I stuck to the drum head and made a shallow drum housing out of foam board and heavy cardboard.



For lights, I used 12V LED lights that I normally use on my RC helicopters for night flying. They are cheap and plenty bright. I get them from Asia from Hobby King. They run off 12VDC and a full 36 inch strip of 60 LED's uses 400ma. And yes, that means you could use these in your car/truck as interior lighting (I've used them as under counter lighting; they are that bright).

I put the drum head with the LED's up on the wall in the studio:


I used a MIDI interface to connect the MSA-R to the Mac, and then programmed the MSA-R with the software that I wrote for it. It gets triggered by NOTE ON/OFF and the values are 5F, 78, 5E and 5D (hex). I used the Control Surface setup in DP to add a "surface" and I set the OUPUT to the MIDI interface that the MSA is connected to. There is NO input for that surface because the MSA is read only.

Stop = 5D
Play = 5E
Record = 5F
Punch = 78

There are a lot of other note values you can use if you want as well, solo, loop, mute...etc.

My sign lights up as soon as DP starts (with the "stop"):


Play is a full blue, and for recording, it's red. When I am doing punch in's, it actually flashes the red and goes solid for the record at punch in, goes back to flashing at punch out. Works very nicely.

Recording:


So there it is, a DIY recording light...

Mel

The easyest way would be to get a red low voltage light, then run the wire to a switch from your studio to the light in her office. When you want the wife not to make noise flick the switch on.

What is her chair on?
How much does it have to move around?
Can you make an isolating platform for her to move around on (chair, carpet, padding, plywood, padding, original floor, etc, you) ?

What is her chair on?
How much does it have to move around?
Can you make an isolating platform for her to move around on (chair, carpet, padding, plywood, padding, original floor, etc, you) ?

RadioGal just posted this:
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... 26&t=44509
It's an USB lamp that's supposed to work with DP etc...