Fat Cat Shuffle - a LED music light show on flickerSong by scotteffx.com

One of the ScottEffx.com NAMM 2023 flickerSong music light show collection.
This music light show has lights synced to music using 3 flickerSong units, and is one of 10 MIDI music light shows exhibited at our NAMM 2023 scottEffx.com booth. The music 'Fat Cat Shuffle' is from Epidemic Sound.
Designed for performing Christmas light shows, Halloween light shows and other venues, the flickerSong is a versatile device receiving WiFi from an iPhone or Macintosh and playing the music light show on LED string lights connected to its 8 - 110V outlets. You might call it the WiFi MIDI Music Light Show machine! And when it's not playing a music light show, the flickersong is a powerful dimmer controller and timer, with each of the 8 outlets individually scheduled to 'play' a particular dim setting anywhere from 'off' to full 'on', timed on a 24 hour clock with NIST precision.
Wondering how to make a light show to music with the flickerSong? The scottEffx company's website at scotteffx.com has all the tools for creators and musicians for a music light show. Musicians are generally familiar with digital audio workshops (DAW's) such as Pro Tools, Ableton Live, and Logic Pro for example, to create and edit music. Well, with the free scottEffx tools combined with one of the DAW's, the music light show is created as a series of MIDI tracks so that the light show content and timing can be created, edited, then bounced to a MIDI file. The final step in music light show creation uses scotteffx.com tools to combine the music tracks with the MIDI file, the MIDI is embedded in the ID3v2 tag using industry standard formats and the combination written as an .mp3 music file.
Then how do you play your Christmas light show or Halloween light show? Simple, download the free ScottEffx application for the iPhone, iPad, or Macintosh. All the apps include the music light show media player, which finds the music light show MIDI file in the ID3v2 tag, and plays the music while having the flickerSongs do the LED light show.
There’s more detail to the flickerSong music light show composition best left to the tutorials available on scotteffx.com. For example, when designing a music light show it absolutely does not matter which lights get plugged into which flickerSong or flickerSong outlet. Each outlet is assigned an address, like its own phone number, for receiving the music light show commands, and making that setting is easily done from the scottEffx application. Each flickerSong remembers its settings for the next time they are powered up.
What about the electronics? The flickerSong is a cool-running device using reliable high-voltage switching electronics along with protection from overload, short circuit, overheating and even the user trying to create effects which might exceed the connected LED light string ratings. In addition to that, a fuse in the power cord ultimately protects the flickerSong and connected LED string lights. All connectivity is done through WiFi, with both TCP and UDP protocols used as appropriate. So maybe this is still a DIY music light show, but all the electronics and software are done for you.
How do you use the flickerSong as a dimmer timer controller? Any time the flickerSong is not playing a music light show it is in dimmer controller mode, even if the mode is ‘lights off’. Indeed at both the beginning and end of this LED light show video you see all the banner LED’s turned on as was set when we played the music light show from an iPhone. In the dimmer controller mode, each flickerSong output is set to on, off, or any brightness in-between. In the timer controller mode, each flickerSong has 10 timer events per day, each event sets the 8 dimmer controller settings until the next timer event occurs. As a bonus, the timer event can actually play a short music light show segment saved by the user, without the music, at the specified time. Timer events occur whether connected to an iPhone or not, and each flickerSong keeps accurate time within 1 second by queries to the NIST Time Clock.
It is very interesting photographing music light shows by flickerSong in the dark, similar problem to photographing fireworks. Camera autofocus and auto exposure simply do not work, they require a manual focus and exposure, and for a video like this one, the banner requires just enough lighting to see it without washing out the music LED lights. The LED light shows always look better in person, but this movie does the best justice we can accomplish.
Scott Burkhart Effects LLC, creator of the flickerSong. September, 2023