Tips & Tricks #1: Synchronized Lighting Effects

The first video in our new series of Tips & Tricks demonstrates how to synchronize and layer 2D lighting effects style visuals to your music. This layered output works well with LED panels on stage or green screens in-stream to supplement traditional visual content.

The video shows the music in sync with Vidjam through Serato using Ableton Link. Any modern DJ software or digital audio workstation can be used - Traktor, Virtual DJ, Rekordbox, Cubase, Logic, Dennon Engine, etc.

The grid contains Lighting Effects Volume 1 & 2 set with the new autopilot to transition every 2 bars in sync. The new polyphony knob was set to 2 allowing two of the lighting effects videos to play simultaneously and both switch on the downbeat. Since these videos contain a beat grid, they automatically time-stretch to match the tempo of the music.

The final step in this workflow was adding traditional 3D visuals to the base layer. Mixing the grid and base layers using difference blending mode dramatically changes the look and feel of the final output. You can experiment with the other 30+ modes based on your personal taste.

Video Script:

Today I'm going to show you how to synchronize Lighting Effects to your music using Vidjam. You can find links to the videos in the description below.

Here I've already synchronized the music to Vidjam through Serato using Ableton Link. Any modern DJ software or digital audio workstation can be used - Traktor, Virtual DJ, Rekordbox, Cubase, Logic, Dennon Engine, etc.

I've loaded a grid with Lighting Effects Volume 1 and set the autopilot to transition to the next visual every 2 bars to stay in sync. These are excellent video collections used as an effect with LED panels on stage or green screens in-stream to supplement traditional visual content. Since these collections already contain a beatgrid, they automatically time-stretch to match the tempo in your music. You can see how I can adjust the speed in Serato and the visuals follow.

Let's mix this with traditional visuals to add some dimension to the mix. In the base layer, I've set the duration to 4 bars before mixing to the next visual in the playlist. You can experiment with any of the 34 blending modes to mix the grid layer and base layer in different ways. You can add more video grid layers, camera layers and effects layers then save the entire set-up using one of the Scene buttons at the top. Then you can hotkey those scenes to your keyboard, MIDI devices or a Stream Deck for instant recall during your next performance. More on that concept in my next video.

Lighting Effects collections used in this video: https://www.motionloops.com/en/artists/phil-bearman/?ref=8958194