Patent ID: 8008561

Claim:
A method for controlling lighting effects using an audio file comprising: assigning an instrument definition associated with the audio file to each of one or more light groupings having one or more light sources, where each instrument definition assigned to a light grouping is exclusively assigned to a corresponding one of the one or more light groupings; receiving commands for one of the instrument definitions exclusively assigned to one of the one or more light groupings; and controlling the illumination of the one or more light sources within the respective light grouping in accordance with the commands received for the corresponding instrument definition, wherein receiving commands for the instrument definitions includes receiving one or more note definitions associated with an instrument definition assigned to one of the one or more light groupings, and wherein controlling the illumination of the one or more light sources includes controlling the color displayed by the one or more light sources within the light grouping in accordance with the value of the one or more note definitions; and wherein receiving commands for the instrument definitions additionally includes commands for receiving at least one of volume definitions, note velocity definitions and modulation definitions, associated with at least some of the one or more note definitions, and wherein controlling the illumination of the one or more light sources additionally includes controlling the light intensity of the color displayed by the one or more light sources within the light grouping in accordance with the at least one of volume definitions, note velocity definitions and modulation definitions.