Tom Shani: 939 Lumens

This isn’t just some bass playing. This is a true performance.

Tom Shani is wrapping up his Electronic Production and Design at Berklee College of Music and decided to make his final project badass. In this video, Shani demonstrates his performance system that he built that gives a single performer complete control of the visuals and music.

“Using a cheap, programmable microprocessor called an Arduino, I connected my laptop/Arduino system to whatever lights I could find,” he explains. “I send messages to the lights using the graphical coding environment Max/MSP, sending DMX messages to control the lights, the industry standard lighting protocol for theaters and clubs. When I hit a note on my keyboard, it triggers a sample to be played, and simultaneously triggers a light to flash, allowing me to create new songs with reactive light right from the start. There are also pitch-tracking and volume/intensity modes, so the lights can directly follow my bass input, not necessarily just midi notes, but I’m saving those for the next demo.”

For this one, you’ve got to turn out your lights and turn up the speakers.