Making lights automatically change during a song

[ehzool]

I'm new to lighting. I've watched a lot of videos but they're all more advanced then I need to know right now.
All I need to know is if it is possible to do this...

Lets say I have a red light and a blue light.
I want the blue light to go on during the verse of a song and the red light to go on during the chorus of a song.
Is there a way I can say, "Ok blue light... Stay on for 42 seconds. Then red light you stay on for 20 seconds... etc etc"

That way, when I'm playing a song (and staying on time with a metronome), once I start the song, I can flick the switch on the lights/controller so that when I'm 42 seconds into the song, the red light will appear. Is that how DMX controllers work?

It would be great if I could control lights with a program that sends MIDI signals or something.

[robdquick]

You need a DMX controller of some sort. First thing to check is that your lights support DMX (If there are XLR type connectors on them then they do).

Then you need to decide if you want to go with a hardware controller or computer based software. Hardware controllers are good if you want to do very basic programming (like in your example above, just turning one light off and one on, you would just set up 2 scenes, and then just press a button to switch between them). They can do more advanced stuff but they get quite difficult to program. They vary in price from about £50 up to hundreds of £.

A computer based software package will allow you to do a lot more, and it's a lot easier to program in scenes. I have only ever used a program called freestyler with an enntec open DMX USB dongle (http://www.enttec.com/?main_menu=Products&pn=70303). The freestyler software is free, and it allows oyu to create hundreds of pre-programmed shows, with the ability to change them on the fly either by clicking buttons on the screen or via midi (I use a Xone:K2 to control mine). Works wonderfully for the 10 or so different lights I use. There's also a small program that comes with it for syncing the sequences with a beat. I run a cable from my MC6000 back into the mic port of my laptop, the program picks up the beats from the music and syncs the lights to the music. It's not flawless, but it works for the majority of the stuff I need it to.