Which Instrument to Use for LED bars?

Beam for Live
1

Hello,
I am new to Beam and am wondering if it is possible to add more instruments to the Beam plugins on Ableton Live. I am trying to work with a LED Bar but want each led to work in separate times and can’t find how to do this.
Any leads?
thanks
Laima

2

I had some similar questions for controlling individual cells. There is a video link in the @Luka response which shows how to program after you have your beam patch profile tag’d correctly. Super fun once you get it going

2 Likes
3

Hi @laimacavalera, thanks for getting in touch!

  1. Your fixture needs to be set to a DMX mode that has dedicated channels for controlling individual LED cells of the bar.
  2. You need a Beam fixture profile that corresponds to the DMX layout of that mode. You can sometimes get by using a number of Generic RGB(W) in your Beam patch, one for each cell, as if they were individual fixtures. However, it is much more elegant to use an aggregate fixture profile which essentially makes every cell of the fixture known to Beam as a separate fixture, but with the convenience of only having to add one fixture to the patch.
    Creating aggregate fixture profiles is something that the Beam’s Fixture Editor doesn’t support yet, and while you can make one yourself using a text editor, we are happy to make a fixture profile for your fixtures. We just need the manual with the fixture’s DMX layout. You can always request fixture profiles here or at firstcontact@showsync.com.

Once you have the fixture profile, the steps described in the video that @SpaceDad mentions (thank you!) become relevant.

  1. Add the fixture to your Beam patch. If the fixture contains a Master or Total fixture component for controlling parameters that apply for all the fixture cells, assign a separate tag to that component and another tag to all the Cells components.
  2. In Live, add a separate device for controlling the modulations of the Master tag and another device for controlling the Cells. If you only need to control modulations such as dim, red, green and blue, the Par device will be enough. Otherwise you can use a Generic device.
  3. You can now use MIDI notes (corresponding to the notes set in the Beam patch) to trigger envelopes for intensity (or when using Generic - any modulation parameter) of individual LED cells. You can add any number of devices controlling the same tag if you want to simultaneously work with different colors and envelope settings for different cells. You can also use the LFO device with a Spread set to something else than 0% for simple chase effects with an LFO phase offset for every cell. Here is a short video demonstrating this workflow.
  4. If you want to program automation for every cell individually, add a separate tag for every LED cell in Beam and add a dedicated device for it.

If you share the exact model of your LED bar and the manual, I can add more specific instructions.

4

Hi Luka,

I came across this thread, and was wondering if the fixture editor will start support aggregate devices soon?

5

Hi Joran,

Support for aggregate fixtures in Fixture Editor will be added in Beam 2, which is under active development, please stay tuned.

In the meantime, you are always welcome to request fixture profiles here or via firstcontact@showsync.com.