Strobe Effect

[AndreH]

Hi Guys

I want to create a strobe effect that is on a beat (for example, I want to tap the tempo, and the lights strobe to that tempo). I know this is a very simple question, but I can not find how to do this, I have tried creating a chase, but that does not give me that cool strobe effect (and it also strobe more than once per beat). I tried Keyframe, but then I can not tap the tempo. I tried the strobe shape, but that seems to be only a very fast pulse..... I know there is a LD here that achieved this before, so please help a fellow LD out here


Thanks in Advance

[kimwida]

1. Record strobe a cue.
2. Go to playback options. Change the key profile of the cue to "flash".
3. Set release mask to "I" and make the release time of the cue to "0"

I don't know this is what you want.
But it is favorite one of my "Instant strobe" buttons.

[AndreH]

Thanx Kimwida

Yes this is also cool, but I want that effect without tapping the flash button (in other words, I want it similar to a chase, where you tap the BPM, and the strobe follows the BPM).

But thanx for this though

[niclights]

There is currently no way to link strobe speeds to tap. This would be quite difficult as the strobe speeds in a typical standard strobe range are different for every fixture and manufacturer's don't always provide the information. You would also need to determine how that relates to the tap as you can only tap so fast.

If it was a very slow strobe and you were using something like an atomic then a 2-step chase of single flash/nothing would probably work fine. But for anything fast you are quickly going to hit the limitations of DMX in terms of how fast these commands can be send. Even worse, if you want to achieve this with a normal shutter or dimmer channel then you need to include extra empty steps in a chase to try and make the on/off ratio such that it looks like a strobe which means running the chase even faster overall.

However, in my experience you can often get away with just one or two strobe speeds that will work for everything. One option might be to create a strobe playback as a keyframe shape and set the size to be controlled by a size master. You can then make adjustments to the speed by varying the level of the size master. It's not a tap but it would give you a way of having a variable strobe speed.

[AndreH]

Hi Guys

Thanx for the response....I semi achieved this, but with a little bit of a problem, maybe Nick can help me here:

So here is how I manage to get this done:

Select lights-
Dimmer on-
Record chase as step 1-
Dimmer off-
Record chase step 2-
Record Chase step 3 (So that chase 2 and 3 are exactly the same)-
Delay time of step one is 0.05 - (to try and replicate the strobe)
Delay time of step two is 0- (to Go off as quickly as possible)
Delay Time of step 3 stay Global- (my BMP time as I tap it)


This worked perfectly....the problem is that the strobing starts off beautifully, but then slowly go out of sync....I do amuse it is the delay time's i have put in...but how do I fix it?