Amazing Piano Choreography

crees said:
I live just over the hill from you. PM me your address... would love to see others creations in this group that live close by.


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I'm south in Springville (just south of Provo). Where are you guys???

Jimboha
 
Well, my wife and I drove up to Sandy to see this show.

WOW.​

(Note, size of font is NOT representative of my true reaction.)

Ask anyone who knows me - I am NOT easily impressed. Words like 'awesome' or 'amazing' do not fall easily from my lips. I thought we had a good show - but ours is not even in the same WORLD as their's. Without hyperbole I can unequivocally state that this display is amazingly awesome. If you live within 1,000 miles, I think it is EASILY worth the drive to come see.

The piano man video does not even do the display justice!! All those large trees - think they are LED strings? Nope - they are all PIXELS, smart pixels. They probably have more pixels in ONE tree than I have lights in my entire display. There are 1,000s of pixels in each tree. There are 100's (300?) of the meteor lights in two trees. There are 100's (probably 200-250) in of xenon strobes in the one tree, and almost that many on a patch of the grass. The 12ft pixel mega tree is dwarfed and swamped by the other lights.They must have bought their neighbors shades for all the windows - it is so bright.

I have a couple photos and some video of the show that I'll try to post later.

IMG_2225.jpg. . .IMG_2402.jpg. . .IMG_20427.jpg

https://youtu.be/9CN4C0TmJiE

https://youtu.be/Fif0xScM4eA


And the sequencing is very good with about 1/2 hr before the songs repeat.

Wow. WOW. WOWWWW!!!

Jimboha
 
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Recognized him as soon as I saw him! Love the Piano Guys! Awesome music!

I could turn the volume up enough for this one!
 
deonb said:
Wow, so how does this work? Is the Piano man there every night, or is it played from recording?
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No, it's a recording. Jon Schmidt does not show up and there is not even a piano out front. They have sequenced perhaps 7-10 songs (I didn't count, but they repeated at 30 minutes), and "I saw Three Ships" was only one of them. That sequence was probably the same one on the other video, but I didn't try to compare it.

The scale of this show suggested that they either put on such shows professionally, or at least have some serious connections. I'd guess they somehow got hooked up with the Piano Guys and just went from there.

I might even go back up to watch it again.

Jimboha
 
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jnealand said:
I suspect the light show was completed without the piano player and the good timing and editing made it look like the piano was actually controlling the lights. Just my skeptical 2 pennies.
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Well, I actually ran into Jon Schmidt today... Really nice guy.

I told him I was really into Christmas lights and wanted to ask him one question about the lights in that video: "What was the connection? Or, how did they get YOU to do that video of their show?" He told met that one of the (Piano) Guys knew one of the families, that they had performed (for wedding reception?) there about ten years ago and that they asked him if he would do it. He further volunteered that he gave them the MIDI file from the piano (that he played). They actually arranged the sequencing from his MIDI playing. So he did not actually control the lights that night of the recording, but it was as if he had.

I still say that their video did not really do justice for their display. I ALMOST went back to watch it again, but failed to.

Jimboha
 
CaptainMurdoch said:
OK, I have this partway done with proof of concept code working. I have a patch to fppd which reads from a MIDI input and turns on/off FPP Pixel Overlay models based on the notes coming in on the MIDI port. I tested it with a virtual MIDI device, but it should work the same when I get a chance to test with a USB MIDI adapter after it arrives in the mail from Amazon.

Tonight, I went to our Yamaha YDP-181 and had my son play one of his Christmas recital songs so I could record it. I saved the MIDI recording to a USB stick and copied it to the FPP system and then played the .MID file on the virtual MIDI device using ALSA's 'aplaymidi'. fppd read the data from the virtual MIDI input and I was able to show my son that FPP was making my arches light up to match the notes he had just played on the keyboard. Once I get the USB cable, I should be able to hook the keyboard up sending live data to FPP. Our indoor tree with 200 pixels on it is about 5 feet away from the Yamaha, so I plan on testing the code live there first.

I still need to add some more enhancements and some form of UI. Currently, each note pertains to a single Pixel Overlay model and the code requires pixels. The pixel colors and brightness are determined by the velocity from the MIDI data. I want to set it up so that you can have multiple Pixel Overlay models per note as well as allow single-channel models in addition to pixel models. For pixel models, I'd like to have a few options such as whether to hard code a color or intensity or determine those using the velocity or perhaps by the note.
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CaptainMurdoch,
I was wondering how your efforts are coming along and if you were able to come up with some form of UI?
 
BobBee said:
CaptainMurdoch,
I was wondering how your efforts are coming along and if you were able to come up with some form of UI?
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I haven't finished converting the code from Proof Of Concept to production worthy code. I have the USB MIDI dongle sitting here so I can test it with our Yamaha but I haven't hooked it to the BBB running our indoor tree yet. I have been using the indoor tree to test the new playlist code for the past couple weeks prior to running that code on my external display. I am still thinking through parts of how I want to add the MIDI input to FPP. I think I want it to be part of a larger input framework but I am still tossing around ideas. Part of the idea is that you could use GPIO inputs to accomplish the same thing is they are part of an input framework.
 
I just noticed this thread. It's not really at all related to what Chris is doing, but we've had this project on the Vixen radar for a while. As Chris mentions, it's really a pretty trivial task of mapping inputs to models/elements. For us, it's never been a high priority item because there's only one or two people that ask for it each year. But it does seem to be picking up steam this year. We plan on implementing it in a few different ways. First would be as a live input to the system. This would allow you to play your lights live. Next would be capturing that input into a sequence. The idea is that you'd play your midi keyboard while your sequence is playing in the editor and it will create effects based on the midi input. The last mechanism we'd consider is the ability to import a midi file into the sequence, or to play that file live.
All of these methods would rely on a midi input stream, whether it be from a port or a file. And it would need a mapping system to connect midi messages to effects targeted on elements and groups. We've got another thread here seeking input on how you'd use it if we create it. We really would like to hear the use case ideas so we can make sure we build a system that would be flexible enough to suit all of those needs.
 
jchuchla said:
I just noticed this thread. It's not really at all related to what Chris is doing, but we've had this project on the Vixen radar for a while. As Chris mentions, it's really a pretty trivial task of mapping inputs to models/elements.
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The power of doing this inside a real sequencer is the ability to run the effects Jon mentions. One of the reasons I haven't yet finished the code in FPP is that I want the ability to have The MIDI input trigger .eseq files as an option. The idea is that the config screen would let you pick either a FPP Pixel Overlay model to turn on/off along with a color or you could select an existing .eseq file to play for the selected MIDI note.
 
DANG!! I just found this thread also... I live just a few minutes away and i didn't even know it existed!!! Hopefully, they do it next year :(
 
Just found this thread. I am curious if anyone is familiar wit Lightshow Pro from around 2009 or 2010. They allowed use of bluetooth Wii guitar for Live input. You were able to 1) record a sequence using Wii guitar as input. 2) You could establish control points the would be available to activate live while sequence is playing. in other words you could have a guitar hero video play as a guide and play the wii guitar live as a performance. or 3) you could have competition on accuracy. Again the video would play and the lights would be keyed by the bluetooth input off the guitar but the software could score you and give a result. I am interested in the use of live performance in conjunction with pre sequenced events as in the old lightship pro. I have been looking and this seemed to die in 2011 or 2012 . There ws a vix2n 2.5 version that attempted live input as well. I still have lightshow pro somewhere . Didn't like having to pay for upgrades every year.
 
I can see where this could be used for other than Christmas displays. For instance, I DJ from time to time. I don't have the funds to purchase, nor the time to learn live software (such as Madrix), but I could take the time to create a bunch of sequence parts and then activate them on an as needed basis from a small keyboard, or other MIDI device.

To say the least, I'm watching with a very keen interest.
 
Yeah, everyone is going to have a pianist sitting in front of their house when it's below freezing! it's a great demonstration of the potential of light shows, but practically it seems to be ridiculous!
 
danozfw said:
Yeah, everyone is going to have a pianist sitting in front of their house when it's below freezing! it's a great demonstration of the potential of light shows, but practically it seems to be ridiculous!
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Since I write the (FPP) software, the interest for me is in giving my 7 year old son the ability to "play" the Christmas lights on our house with his keyboard. :) That's enough interest for me, but if it benefits anyone else, then that's just an added benefit. :) We already have a sequence with audio of him playing Jingle Bells on the piano when he was 6, including his own voiceover announcement, "my name is Logan and I am going to be playing Jingle Bells." The intro includes a lip synced talking snowman on our P10 panels.
 
danozfw said:
Yeah, everyone is going to have a pianist sitting in front of their house when it's below freezing! it's a great demonstration of the potential of light shows, but practically it seems to be ridiculous!
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I think it has potential beyond just someone sitting at a piano. Connect this to some type of pad (Dance-Dance Revolution, Tom Hank's movie Big) and I would think kids* would have a lot of fun jumping around making the lights blink all over.
 
Yes- use your imagination. How many concerts has Judy Pencoast done in front of light displays in Northern climate? Bentleyville MN is a static walk thru display near Duluth. DOn't get much colder than that. I did Wii guitar using a video of frets on fire as a guide. Cars honked horns as approval. Captain I remain interested. For me it has potential as fundraiser for Parkinson's disease.
 
LOL..... N.E. Iowa's temps got your Duluth's beat ..... ( lower that is ) :freak:
And sorry .... I am also not thinking this piano thingy is all that great either ..:blush:

Different ? Yes ....
Great ? no...
And as was already said ....
the WII had something like this already , so , not entirely a new idea /concept
 
Several programs have already had the feature and you can already do something similar with FPP using the GPIO inputs. The main advantage is just taking MIDI in instead of having to hookup a bunch of switches to GPIO inputs.

I will be thinking about it and will email myself a link to the thread so I can remember to post back once I have something that can be tested.
 
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