# Strobe light control



## anonymous6366 (Feb 14, 2013)

So my frat is having this part on saturday and we have a nice strobe light and mixer:  behringer pro mixer dx 1000. We wanted to have the mixer connected to the strobe because I'm pretty sure that it can but I can't figure out how to make it work.
What I tried was the 1/4" "light" output on the back of the mixer to the 1/4" controller in on the strobe. Maybe I just don't know how to tell the mixer to output a signal a strobe understands?

Anyway anyone with experience with pro dj equipment should help me out 

Thanks in advance!


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## anonymous6366 (Feb 16, 2013)

no one out there knows? party is tonight and I kinda want to have the stobe for it haha


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## sneekypeet (Feb 16, 2013)

I just grabbed the pdf and read the instructions. Seems the light needs to have sound to light capability as well, but if your does, it says to adjust the mixer until it works. Too little and the light may not flash or be dim, too much and the light will stay on. I also assume you had music playing during this testing?


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## anonymous6366 (Feb 16, 2013)

sneekypeet said:


> I just grabbed the pdf and read the instructions. Seems the light needs to have sound to light capability as well, but if your does, it says to adjust the mixer until it works. Too little and the light may not flash or be dim, too much and the light will stay on. I also assume you had music playing during this testing?



i think it has the sound to light? I mean its got the 1/4" audio in for it. And yeah music was going during the testing is there something that needs to be turned on/up you think?


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## sneekypeet (Feb 16, 2013)

This is all I found and was going by...

9.3 Sound-to-light
A mono audio output [60] is provided for connection to lighting controllers with a sound-to-light facility. Connection is via a standard 1/4" jack on the back panel. Sensitivity is conveniently adjustable from the DX1000 by the LIGHT LEVEL knob [40] to the left of the bargraph meters. Too high, and the lights will stay on, too low and they won’t flash at all. Adjust LIGHT LEVEL until lights flash in time with the music.


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## McSteel (Feb 16, 2013)

Basic principle says you have an amplifier that takes, say, 1-5 mV signals of the non-amplified music and boosts it up to 30, 50, 100V, whatever - depending on the gain you set it to. If your light comes on at it's most dimmed at  ~50V and achieves full brightness at ~120V, then that's your working dynamic range. You'd then want to map 1mV of music to 50V of light, and 5 mV of music to 120V of light.

The kicker is, it would probably be too much to ask of the mixer to actually deliver power to the lights, so instead, it will pass on an amplified control signal (of the order of 1-5 V) to the lights, where it will be interpreted by the strobe's controller and translated into working voltage levels (50-120V).

Now, regarding translation of this theory into practice, I'm afraid it's beyond my knowledge at the moment. Look for a "gain" setting related to lights, and start from there...

## EDIT ##

sneekypeet Posted after I started my reply... The "LIGHT LEVEL" he mentions is the "gain" setting that I'm referring to. Assuming that the output range of the mixer's "Sound-to-light" is withing the expected input range of the strobe controller, it's all a matter of manually finding the right amount of gain for the strobe to turn on and off at the correct music level. Just fiddle with the mixer a bit, I don't really see how it could do any harm.


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## anonymous6366 (Feb 16, 2013)

I looked and its a remote in, im guessing its not the same then. Is there any other way I could get it to work you think?


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## 1freedude (Feb 16, 2013)

does it have a built in mic?


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## McSteel (Feb 17, 2013)

anonymous6366 said:


> I looked and its a remote in, im guessing its not the same then. Is there any other way I could get it to work you think?



Perhaps you could split off the audio output with a Y-splitter, and run one of the outputs straight to the strobe. That's provided that the strobe's signal input is capable of handling the (pre-)amplified signal coming out of the mixer.

As to how you'd actually control the output/input levels, well, you'd be stuck with volume control on the mixer itself. If you put an amp after the mixer, and before the speakers, you can volume up/down the music there, leaving the split-off signal from the mixer going into the strobe undisturbed.

A hackjob for sure, but it just might work.


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## anonymous6366 (Feb 17, 2013)

1freedude said:


> does it have a built in mic?



no unfortunately not...



McSteel said:


> Perhaps you could split off the audio output with a Y-splitter, and run one of the outputs straight to the strobe. That's provided that the strobe's signal input is capable of handling the (pre-)amplified signal coming out of the mixer.
> 
> As to how you'd actually control the output/input levels, well, you'd be stuck with volume control on the mixer itself. If you put an amp after the mixer, and before the speakers, you can volume up/down the music there, leaving the split-off signal from the mixer going into the strobe undisturbed.
> 
> A hackjob for sure, but it just might work.



ok, we dont have 3.5 to 1/4 converters though only the other way around. and the amps are after the mixer so i guess i could conect it directly to that?


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## McSteel (Feb 17, 2013)

Doesn't matter, use 2x 1/4 -> 3.5 connectors and a male <-> male 3.5 cable. Yes, it should be alright if the amps are after the mixer (as they should be). The signal going to the mixer will be pre-amped, but shouldn't leave the single digit voltages... It should work fine. Just find the right output level.


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## anonymous6366 (Feb 17, 2013)

McSteel said:


> Doesn't matter, use 2x 1/4 -> 3.5 connectors and a male <-> male 3.5 cable. Yes, it should be alright if the amps are after the mixer (as they should be). The signal going to the mixer will be pre-amped, but shouldn't leave the single digit voltages... It should work fine. Just find the right output level.



oh i misunderstood you we have an actual 1/4" audio cable now, so you think it should just get plugged into the light effect out or whatever?


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## McSteel (Feb 17, 2013)

Right, I see some crude mspaint visuals are in order...







If you can't get the "sound-to-light" output to work, you can try the above.
Outside of those two options, I'm out of ideas.


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## anonymous6366 (Feb 17, 2013)

McSteel said:


> Right, I see some crude mspaint visuals are in order...
> 
> http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/2619/200hrsinmspaint.png
> 
> ...



we don't have any sort of controller for it is the problem, only the mixer itself..


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## McSteel (Feb 17, 2013)

Then you need an amplifier that will boost the audio output voltage range (which is of the order of one volt) to the strobe light's working voltage range (one to two orders of magnitude above that, depending on the lamp(s), 50, 100, 200V?). That's assuming your lights aren't LED-based. You could, in theory, use a guitar amp for that, if you'd turn it to the required level.


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## anonymous6366 (Feb 17, 2013)

McSteel said:


> Then you need an amplifier that will boost the audio output voltage range (which is of the order of one volt) to the strobe light's working voltage range (one to two orders of magnitude above that, depending on the lamp(s), 50, 100, 200V?). That's assuming your lights aren't LED-based. You could, in theory, use a guitar amp for that, if you'd turn it to the required level.



oh well we had fun at the party no strobe, whatever haha ill have to try to get it working for the next one though!


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## ste2425 (Feb 19, 2013)

is it dmx controllable?  the strobes ive worked that had sound to light capability  had to be configured to use it. however  if it is dmx then get your self a little lightning controller cheap ones can be had that turns it on and off. bigger ones can adjust strobe speed etc. Some  allow  for  presets and have sound to light built in plus then you can  control any lantern with a dmx input. dmx is a 5 pin xlr, cheaper models use a standard 3 pin xlr. to be truthful the extra two pins arn't used by most desk's. were meant to  be for return info from things like moving heads for lamp temperature, running hours etc

ranging from this
http://www.pmtonline.co.uk/stagg-4-channel-dmx-light-controller.html

to this 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 thats quite  old now though


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