Dubspot Tutorial: How to MIDI Map LED Lights w/ Ableton Live + DMXis

More info: bit.ly/115yDmS
In this new video tutorial, Dubspot instructor Josh Bess goes under the hood of his live performance setup and shows you how to control visual lighting with Ableton Live by using a MIDI to DMX connection.
I like to do more than just music with my live shows, specifically by adding live visuals and lighting performance that is synced to my music. The way I achieve this is by sending Ableton Live's MIDI out data to DMXis, which controls LED lighting that I have set up on stage. I think it's great that one person can now perform live on stage with one computer to control both their music and visual lighting in one compact system. In this video I will explain how to manually edit your lighting movement within Ableton Live, as well as recording lighting movement in real time to create your own audio / visual performances. - Josh Bess
Check out our channel page for more tutorials, reviews, recaps, interviews, see what our partners are up to and more! And stay up to date with our latest videos by subscribing! www.youtube.com...
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions from this video please share them with us in the comments section below :)
Never miss a beat by following us here!
Facebook: / dubspot
Instagram: statigr.am/dubspot
Twitter: / dubspot
Vine: @Dubspot

[@yassinerochdy8163]

not know , but just know you've affected my life, and apparently tens of thousands of others, in an imnsely positive way. Thank you

[@ronaldraygunpew]

Dubspot was the coolest school ever. So glad these amazing teachers have this content out!

[@manojbeastboy5619]

TNice tutorials tutorial is so useful,I tried tons of other tutorials but tNice tutorials was the best one

[@pmon9255]

Oh my god. this is amazing. I've been looking everywhere for a solution like this. THANK YOU! I've been struggling like crazy with soundswitch. This is the technique I'm really looking for. I wanted to be able to perform my lights to the music. boom.

[@ThePrimateFiasco]

Dude. Thank you. Primate Fiasco is DIYing our own fixtures and this was the finishing touch.

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

2023, more relevant than ever…couple components been swapped out but thanks for the run down 🖤😎🙌🐇

[@Castrouk_]

this just answered so many of my unanswered questions. hats off to you sir.

[@LunarExGames]

Fantastic - so many questions answered

[@cherjuns3766]

very nice...i startes soft soft learning.thank you so much....

[@RheyneMusic]

That was excellent, thank you. Definitely going to try this soon.

[@CarlosOrtiz-ht6rn]

Man, thank you for this! I'm trying to setup a led lighting synchronization with my music in my car, and I was trying to figure out how to open the asd tempo sync file that ableton live generates. This is by far a much simple and elegant approach to get timing data. Thank you.

[@db-audioware]

DMXIS has a 4 band audio tracker for creating sound-activated lighting. You don't see it in this video because Josh is programming DMXIS in a very "low level" manner, manually automating individual lighting channels. Josh's approach gives you great control over the exact patterns and timing, but it's sometimes easier to design a bunch of lighting presets in the DMXIS plugin itself, then simply switch between those presets using Ableton automation or MIDI control.

[@nickpelkey]

going straight into straight into straight in straight in. Got a lot out of this but had to comment on that.

[@TheCrazyMaster2010]

I´m in love with tNice tutorials tutorial!!!!

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

Bit of a time capsule too, funny how slow the tech actually evolves, party on freaks🖤😎🙌🐇

[@ManaMachines]

Awesome. I've been wanting to add Ableton based lighting automation for AGES, this is the best quick and easy demo I've ever seen. And I've been Looking :)

[@jolieuke]

WOW! Thanks! Great tutorial, clear, simple and very useful !

[@jonnyweston]

Thats very cool - I am actually a dealer for Avolites (google equip audiovisual) - and for most applications I have been pushing the Titan One, as its probably the most comprehensive option out there for the money - but it lacks any sort of external control option such as this. For the lighting that I would be selling to solo entertainers with backup lighting etc etc - this is incredible. I now just have to determine an easy way of triggering the songs in an order. I would typically say using something like the APC40, but its a bit to specific for solo entertainers playing to backing tracks - so actually something like a little MPD18 or MPD24 with the scene trigger buttons assigned to each pad on the MPD. Or maybe even a little Novation Launch Pad setup might be nice. This is VERY cool guys - thanks for the efforts to create this tutorial! JW

[@legorigplaysmc]

jonnyweston to be fair a if you have a titan you probably have a dedicated LD

[@mciuan]

this gets nuts and CPU intensive if you have like a moving head or two. i had to go to DMXis presets and channel 15/16 midi

[@MrSkylightOffical]

Can you explain this? Were you able to relieve some of the CPU stress? I'm having the same problem.

[@thecolorfactory2299]

Great tutorial! This guy is very good.

[@sanjeevrverma74]

Indeed, it is!

[@omnifluxofficial7015]

Great thorough tutorial. Thanks for sharing!

[@Camilobarbosatv]

wow great info!!!!!

[@ManaMachines]

Absolutely. If you can recommend any other Resources on Ableton Lighting options I'd LOVE to see them.

[@TheLiquidCanvas]

well done guys... So excited for Push and Live 9! Brilliant!

[@mattj1559]

Can any of this be done using the Open DMX USB from Enttec and some type of vst or other method?

[@robinteselle1394]

Awesome! I'm studying for sound & light-engineer, and I'm also a dj, definitely going to play around with this!

[@sespool3588]

Great video bro. Thank you!

[@Gregoroth]

Yes, via the enable all lights macro's, if you create seperate banks per light

[@voltapix]

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP. Can I program a lightshow for when I play a song in user 1 mode, the lights would go to the launchpad AND the DMX?

[@visualmars]

+Voltapix You've probably gotten this answer by now, but just put them on separate Ableton tracks.

[@fictionalpublicfigure4279]

lol when I saw "massive, kontact, sylenth demo" i thought we were the same alien species, but I have no idea about this DXM stuff, so you're definitely a more superior strain of alien

[@sellomogano3986]

TNice tutorials is exactly about everytNice tutorialng that you'll ever need to do to make soft on soft soft

[@sapiputih]

Now, my dreams become reality !! awesome :) thank you for tutorial

[@mohamedabuseif8499]

Man thank you your a great teACHER, curious I noticed you used the sequencer for drums, but can't I just play those softs via the

[@alessandroscaccianoce.as84]

Respect bro

[@djkoopz]

Great tutorial

[@KAIVILI-FIJI]

Youre a legend .Thankyou

[@timepassesbyasalways]

thank you bro thank you

[@justinepacia4997]

Thank you

[@regeta2003]

AMAZING VIDEO! i wish I could do this in Logic! Very Difficult to move from Logic to Ablton! ://

[@martinsigamoney7215]

Brilliant

[@atulmalhotra305]

In soft One, there is relatively little although I will say soft One has so fantastic features and I tNice tutorialnk it is going places (Rated No 2

[@igorsim8170]

Great video. What is the shortcut to draw automation the way you do it in here? I ussualy have to insert points and then drag them where I need them. Thanks.

[@TroubleinZION]

So cool.

[@MegaChristale]

Great video, Is there a way to save the automations into a folder to so I can reload them into other projects?

[@thetylersherman]

If you make your automations into a MIDI clip, you can drag them into your Ableton User Library and save them as a reusable preset.

[@dronesim]

Hi, this video is finally the answer to my questions. Thanks to you. I am wondering though, is there any chance or any technology (interface) available that you can use to map MIDI/DMX to visual effects in software like 3ds Max or any kind of engine (unity/unreal)? That would be awesome. You could create scenes of lights and map them to those MIDI/DMX data and create stunning visual effects :)

[@leocasagrande]

Great! Congrats!

[@dubspot]

Thanks for watching!

[@leonarda1973]

Amazing tutorial!!! Unfortunately the ENTTEC DMXIS midi to DMX device is not for sale anymore, at least in Europe as far as I know. Any other option? I want to make my own system using Ableton to use it on the stage with my students.

[@mosalama4311]

weeks and i've managed to put so pretty basic soft together. They're not great and they still have a ways to go before being

[@mynmyself]

mmm it would be cool to be able of controlling lights with an MPC, like having your kick on a pad where a specific light activates, therefore with every kick you will get this specific light, etc

[@Ozzidelic]

awesome!! man thank you!!

[@bassplayinggoalie]

This video is gold! Instead of using a separate MIDI track, could I just draw the envelopes straight into into the Audio clip and add the DMXIS VST to the Audio channel? It would allow me to save the Audio clip + automation to my User Library as one file, right? Does Ableton treat DMXIS as an Audio effect? I'd probably also save the DMXIS VST settings as a preset too.

[@joebanko310]

I've been doing this for almost 2 years now. I have a custom template for Live that I use with audio files. I have a Lemur app which I also wrote that writes to Live in 1/64 note increments. I found that with the DMXIS that the smallest interval that works remotely. If you would like to see a sample (excuse the poor quality, the site resizes video files) go to Gigmasters/MobileDJ/StoneAgeLighting/ look ->Media->Video. 3 song demo. Rush song has 400+ cues in it.

[@martynstar]

Helpful - thanks - new to all this so please forgive basic questions.. using DMXis with one light makes sense - what do you do with multiple DMX lights - are they linked so, for example, MIDI out of DAW into the blue interface box like yours, DMX cable OUT of the interface to light 1 (like yours in the video) Then is it DMX OUT of that 1st light to a 2nd light - does the software see which is light 1,2,3,4 etc? Thanks

[@vyompandit4921]

Super sick!

[@snarplaya]

This is badass! Can you do this with video clip triggering?

[@sagedrummer]

Did you use a wrapper to use the 32 bit VST in the 64 bit Live 9 or are you using a 32 bit version of Live 9. My 64 bit version of Live 9 can't use the DMXIS VST. Great video and would love to see more tutorials with DMXIS.

[@kezykarn4009]

starting the video). I'm looking forward to making soft in tNice tutorials software!

[@sapiputih]

of course :) you can use it

[@eTHERNALsTRAITS]

Nice lesson Thanks!!!. One question, in the knobs movement saving option, its possible to save the movement, and gradually add other movements to the saved midi clip?. Thanks for all!!

[@xoewise]

Thanks for this- great video. I looked around for more equipment specs but couldnt find them. My question is about how to make the lights setup compatible with shows venue to venue. Are you always plugging into your Colorstrip? Do you ever use venue lighting provided? In that case do you adjust accordingly? Im new to this! Thanks! Xoe

[@doughnutface]

such a good video.

[@PaulHandMusic]

Thank you for this video, this is just what I am looking into doing. How about incorporating video and projecting the images? How do you do that also. Thank you very much.

[@fullmetal-fred]

This is just stupid awesome.

[@ethantaylor9340]

question about the interface. does it have to be a DMXIS or could I use, for example, an Enttec DMX Open Usb?

[@djkadakamc1889]

If you don't want to buy a dmxis interface you can use a usb dmx dongle like lixada usb with loopbe, midimonster and artnet to dmx

[@djkadakamc1889]

@@Indoor-Cyling-Revolution with that usb dongle you can manage 512 channels

[@dcurry7287]

Cool idea, I've been controlling lights with Ableton for a bit but don't have the cash to blow on such a nice LED panel. I'm curious why he'd map the RGB to endless knobs rather than faders, seeing as those are much easier to visually determine their percentage levels. Is it just because his faders are already in use from his live setup?

[@MoistFireCracker]

I hope you get what you're looking for!

[@tamaldas381]

Good voice

[@malekales1986]

Nice!

[@comasoftinfo4862]

I saw a tutorial that had a Return and 2 MIDI tracks (The Return had DMXis VST loaded and the MIDI tracks were set as Bank and Preset so those would start when the track advanced to where the note was placed). I have Ableton Live 9 and the latest version of DMXis but i can't seem to get the MIDI notes function to work. I am able to see the draw in line when I use the pencil tool but i can never get to the place where you can see the MIDI keyboard across the left side (I'm a ProTools user so the MIDI keyboard just loads in along the left side automatically when you insert a new MIDI track), The clip I was watching was from 2013 so perhaps that isn't current any longer. Just thought i'd ask, i'm kind of stuck. Thanx in advance if I hear from you. :)

[@dudemanguy101]

Great tutorial! What if I want to control 16ch DMX light? More than just rgb Thanks!

[@MrRundas]

Is there a way to use a visualizer like realizzer while programming the automation?

[@Capykiller]

Great Tutorial, I was just wondering if it's possible to combine automation as shown in the video with triggering presets in the DMXIS on Return Channel. For that I don't have to program the whole song through but only certain parts. Thanks for any help

[@Hexspa]

Watching this like 5 times

[@devinjamal4728]

in the attempt to add the parameters after hitting the configure button, the parameters do not automatically appear. Is there a manual of doing this? Or am i missing a step that was not in this video?

[@elhipster1]

@ Joe Banko I've got the lemur app on my iPhone that I've been using to dj while dancing around for a few months now. I configured it largely myself too. Let me know if you'd like any tips or want to chat about Lemur, visuals, and ableton.

[@jasonsmith9560]

Hi Josh. I'm trying to create lighting shows for my band using DMXIS vst plugin and Cubase. I've been using Show Buddy and DMXIS for sometime now, and Cubase (for music production) for many years. So I'm familiar with them both individually, but not in the capacity of using them combined for lighting. I realize you are using Ableton, but wondered if you might have any experience with Cubase?... I'm really struggling to get an understanding of it.

[@benscotthollingsworth9926]

Anyone know the brand and model of lighting bar he is using?

[@AUDIOMUNKY1]

great stuff

[@clearthought9736]

Can you set macros to it so we can perform with nobs?

[@wafflestoast5228]

1. Download MPC (Martin professional software, it's great and free, all you need is a dmxking art net device, $100) 2. Make midi clips in ableton, assign to launchpad buttons (this is how you TRULY sync light sequences to your music) 3. Route the midi from ableton into MPC, so when you launch clips or trigger something with the launchpad it commands MPC to trigger a sequence 4. Now you have your very own personal lighting performance rig. You just need the money for a lot of crazy lights :)

[@OliverOliverio1]

I want to be able to control lighting live not by knobs that control the plugin DMXIS faders, but by certain notes I hit on a midi controller (either pads or keys). How would I go about doing this?

[@SteppingOnDragons]

Can I play lights and sound with my keyboard at the same time?

[@challengerband]

How did you mount your color strips like that in a diamond shape?

[@jackbriody7817]

i noticed you had your track selection flashing as well, is that something you can customize?

[@TheBigTimeMusic]

Are you running that with a solid state hard drive? & do you need the dmxis interface for the dmxis software or can you use any USB interface with the dmxis software?

[@TuomasEastonOfficial]

As I just found out from Enttec customer support, the DMXIS application is only compatible with the DMXIS box... so no other USB interfaces will work with it apparently.

[@frankyoualot]

Really cool! Thanks...but...I can't output that kind of cash to get here. Have been trying the Arduino route but after seeing this it's a longer road..

[@sefou519]

And he been in my sa situation obviously

[@bellyofJimbob]

Sweet vid :)

[@jorgec.belock8086]

The default tempo for the soft is 120 and when i set the tempo to 100 and played it again, the midi plays again in 120 bpm in tempo. Can

[@rubensteinhauer2442]

I did a right click and drag on the soft roll, now if I click Play the position clock starts but my ti cursor does not move and I cant

[@dawnsaviours5433]

Josh, thanks so much for sharing! Is it also possible to use Ableton to both trigger sound and lights at the same time with Ableton? For a long time I have been thinking about influencing lights, smoke and other effects with electronic drumset 2box..

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

2023, M1/2 macs save the day 😂🎉

[@BenjaminMyers]

Can you use the Intro version of Ableton for this or do you need Standard?

[@joshy5lo]

can you guys do a tutorial on playing visuals that are in sync with your tracks?

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

2023, see TouchDesigner and similar 🎉😂

[@kcrxkcrx2]

Are there any interfaces similar to this? Or any other AU/VSTs that are similar to this but can work on any interface? It's really restrictive that there only seems to be 1 option.

[@hamzachawi]

I feel ya. I've tried Ableton, Reaper, even shelled out for Cubase and I am no closer to understanding any of tNice tutorials than I was before. I don't

[@nathanredmon96]

I'm VERY new to the lighting world. Was that a dmx controller that you plugged the dmxis interface in to? Do I need both a dmx controller AND a dmxis interface to program my lighting with Ableton?

[@DopeShifty]

+Nathan Redmon nope, the DMXis interfaces with your computer (via usb) and your lighting fixture (via DMX cable). The DMX "controller" he is using is the DMXis plugin within Ableton Live, by automating the controls of the plugin to trigger certain lights. So there is no need for an external DMX controller, although you can totally use a standard MIDI controller to effect the parameters within the plugin with some simple MIDI mapping. I personally love to use the Push for that type of thing. Hope that helps

[@MikeD9311]

Does this not work on Live 8??? I did all of my automations like you did by config DMXIS and writing in timeline. But when i click/hold+tab and drag my lights over to Session view, it doesnt bring over the automations!!! Anyone?

[@elliott0]

i see a dmx out on your light bar can you run out of that to your next light and control each one individually from one vst or do you need one converter box and a separate vst running to control each light

[@andybarajas2696]

is there anyway you can consolidate the audio and midi file so when you pull up an audio file, it already has the midi on it