Another song (w/video!)

Programming is going slowly, it's been hard to find time to sit down and do it.  Same deal last year, so I'm sure this year at the last minute I'll sit down and be very productive and get done.  Still no word on the LOR dimmer I ordered, the response I got from them is "we're still on target to ship at some indeterminate time".  Not exactly helpful.  If their original estimate is correct (2-3 weeks) then it should have shipped last Friday.  Still no update to my order status online.  This Friday will mark 4 weeks.

I do have the first half of the finale done though, and the second half written out on paper so I at least know what I'm going to do.  Enjoy the video.  Watch the bottom of the screen to see the all the cues firing.


Sneak peak of christmas lights 2011 from Landy Bible on Vimeo.

One down, six to go.

It's been a while since the last update.  A few days ago I got the first song in the show programmed.  Of course, it was an easy one, just recreating the song from last year.  The creative bit starts for the next one.  Today I stopped by Garden Ridge and purchased the lights and frames needed to build the 10 mini trees.  I also just ordered a pile of SPT1 wire online.  I still haven't heard anything about the Light O Rama dimmer I ordered.  I'm getting worried that it may not show up in time.  Without it, all the extras like the mini trees and strobe lights will have to be cut.

First light!

My power supply showed up today so I was finally able to power up my new controller and lights.  I also reloaded my macbook with windows 7 and the input delay has vanished!  So far I'm impressed with the responsiveness of sending commands back and forth via midi.  The in video the white bursts of light are controlled by midi notes, not timecode like the rest of the cues.  Things are finally starting to play nice together. If I keep up this rate of progress I'll be ready to program this weekend.

Speaking of videos... I created a quick demo just to test the equipment...

I also revised the song list... I took out Good King Joy. As much as I love that song I've decided to wait until next year to do it because budget constraints kept me from adding the special effects I wanted for that one.  Next year though!  To make up the time I added Jesus Freak by DC Talk and the rockin' bit of A Last Illusion by TSO in between Boughs of Holly and Tracers.

Yesterday my new motherboard showed up so that computer is also up and running.  It was the computer running MagicQ in the video.

Moving forward

With the project anyways.  I'm sick today... possibly a stomach virus.  Not fun.  However, my new MIDI interface showed up.  It's an M-Audio Midisport 2x2.  Timecode out of it works just fine.  On the macbook I seem to have a rather horrible delay for input, but since all the important traffic is output, it isn't an issue.  This worked fine on my PC, so I may end up installing Windows on the macbook.  Apparently the delay is driver related.

I should get my new motherboard today, hopefully that also works.

Yet another step back

Seems I just can't win.  I got my replacement heat sink and fan today.  While replacing it I decided to follow the instructions and clean off the existing heat sink goo.  In doing so I got a dab of it on the bottom of the processor and got it between the CPU and the socket.  The processor cleaned up pretty well, but LGA 1155 sockets are rather fragile!  I ended up tearing up a couple of the "pins" in the socket, and now have an unusable board.  I've ordered a replacement board, luckily they aren't too expensive.  I'm hoping that I didn't damage the processor though... that will be a bit more costly to replace.

I should get my new MIDI interface on Monday, so hopefully that will bring good news.

One step forward, two steps back

Got home today and found a pile of boxes.  The parts for my main control computer had finally all arrived.  The system is based on a mini-itx motherboard with an i3 processor, 4gb ram, and a solid state drive.  The blue box in the foreground is a midi interface for the lighting software.

The case company told me that a stock i3 heatsink/fan would fit inside their case.  They left out the fact that the harddrive wouldn't fit with the fan.  So, I ordered a low-profile fan which will fit, it should be here Saturday.

Here's the case on the back of the monitor.  I mounted the harddrive on the back of the plate just to get it up and running.  Once I get the new fan I'll flip the drive around and be able to put the cover on the case.

I also ran into an issue with my midi setup.  On the other side of the connection I'm going to use an old macbook running Reaper to play the music and generate timecode.  I have an M-Audio UNO hooked up over there.  I can pass midi notes back and forth between the two computers, but not timecode.  Google seems to indicate that the UNO may not be able to do timecode correctly, so now I'm looking for a different interface.

Tentative Song List

Like last year, it's all music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

1. The March of Kings / Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
2. Good King Joy
3. Siberian Sleigh Ride
4. A Mad Russian's Christmas
5. Boughs of Holly
6. Tracers

I'm currently debating what do with the extra dimmer channels.  I have a couple of options, one of which is to wait until next year for those, or to use half of them for a nativity sequence to use during Good King Joy.  I found out some of my budget may be cut because the folks I worked for the last two months didn't do their budgets correctly and now can't pay me all they were supposed to.  (grumble grumble)  It's still going to be an awesome show regardless!

Speaking of last year, check out the video from last year here: http://vimeo.com/album/1494137