Disappointed

[Leroy Thompson]

Last year I was very impressed with your hardware. I simply plugged it in, installed the software, and started playing sequences others has created.

Now I"m trying to program my own sequences and the program is very disappointing. I took a vacation to do this and have nothing done yet.

I have looked at the tutorial video's but they are way too fast. I need a book.

Help!

[scubado]

Don't panic, there is a learning curve to the software. This my first year doing this also. I've got the software and working on my fifth song without having any hardware yet. My hardware will arrive soon and get to learn more things. Don't be afraid to ask questions, the help on this forum is awesome.

[scubado]

A couple helpful hints for ya, go to View, then turn on waveform so you can 'see' the music. This was my biggest fustration on my first song. Another must is hook up a second monitor. Dual screen makes it so much easier. I have the sequence editor on my big monitor and on my cheap small monitor I have the visualizer, intensity menu and fade menu.

[Leroy Thompson]

Thanks for your encouraging words but I have this week to do this and that's about it. I work every day and 4 nights a week. I need to do this now while I'm on vacation, I used pre-designed sequences last year. The Hardware is a breeze to use. It really is plug and play. But programming makes no sense.

[jimswinder]

What exactly is the problem?

Kinda hard to help when we don't have a starting point.

[jem5136]

scubado wrote:

A couple helpful hints for ya, go to View, then turn on waveform so you can 'see' the music.  This was my biggest fustration on my first song.  Another must is hook up a second monitor.  Dual screen makes it so much easier.  I have the sequence editor on my big monitor and on my cheap small monitor I have the visualizer, intensity menu and fade menu.

I never sync anything without the waveform on. It is really helpful for beats. The dual screen really helps too, I personally do not have dual screen right now, but I have used it before and it works wonders.

Jesse

[jem5136]

If you need help syncing your lights, I will be happy to help. Check out my website.

http://lightsofthenight.weebly.com/sync-my-lights.html

[Greg]

I agree with the use of the waveform, it does make it easier. This helped when I fist started doing sequences, book up a few sets of lights to the controller while you are working on sequences seeing some lights actually made it easier for me to learn the programming part. Also start simple maybe do 3 or 4 channels at first, and work on the sequences for a shorter amount of time. It may keep your frustration level down

[Anthony in Houston]

thompsol wrote:

Last year I was very impressed with your hardware. I simply plugged it in, installed the software, and started playing sequences others has created.

Now I"m trying to program my own sequences and the program is very disappointing. I took a vacation to do this and have nothing done yet.

I have looked at the tutorial video's but they are way too fast. I need a book.

Help!

What area are you in. Maybe there are some people that can help you...need a city and state.

Anthony

[Guest wbottomley]

thompsol wrote:

Last year I was very impressed with your hardware.  I simply plugged it in, installed the software, and started playing sequences others has created.

Now I"m trying to program my own sequences and the program is very disappointing. I took a vacation to do this and have nothing done yet.

I have looked at the tutorial video's but they are way too fast.  I need a book.

Help!

Well... do you know how to create graphics in Adobe CS5? How about video editing on Avid? Or, write software to control all of the lights in my house?

As with any software program, sometimes there's a steep learning curve.

Buckle down and play away.

[Tim Fischer]

If you're really under that much time pressure, perhaps you should stick with pre-made sequences again. (I don't mean that to sound condescending - just making a point).

Like William pointed out, there are some things (like sequencing lights) that just take some time to learn, and even when you become "good" at it, it will take a ton of time. The software is getting better at adding tools, etc. to make things go quicker, but at the same time all of us are ramping up our displays to levels which have been unheard of before (which makes sequencing still take longer), so the quest continues

I remember in 2001 or so when I heard someone had a 150 channel display and it was just unreal to me. Now 150 would be considered pretty small

[Leroy Thompson]

You are certainly right that all software takes learning but those programs sort of made sense to me I guess. I was using Pinnacle software, Studio, M-powered tools, etc in a day and had created my first video clip for a choir in an afternoon. I learned desktop editing in a day and had a brochure done in a few hours. This stuff is very different. It's not like anything I've used before. I just can't figure out where I am in song and where to make the breaks for the various lighting functions. I thought this was supposed to be fun but it's really not...at least not yet. "Are we having fun yet?" I welcome any help you can offer.

[rstately]

Maybe there is someone in your area that can help get you started, when you see how it works. Then you spend time learning the short cuts and tricks to make it faster.

but a week or two is not enough time.


Ron

[Leroy Thompson]

I am in Muskogee, OK

[jimswinder]

thompsol wrote:

I just can't figure out where I am in song and where to make the breaks for the various lighting functions.

I think of it as being an artist, and the Sequencing cells are my canvas.

Can you visualize in your mind what you want the song to do, to look like?

I usually listen to a song at LEAST 25 - 50 times before I even start sequencing...I see it in my mind before I put it to "paper"...

[cmoore60]

I just checked this forum and there are 9 people listed in the Tulsa/Broken Arrow area. Not exactly sure how many miles that is. But I personally know in OK that would be willing to help you out with some hands on instruction.

As far as a manual. There technically is no manual. The help file has been available in PDF format in the past. I would not really consider that a manual that will show a how to.

Chuck

[Guest Don Gillespie]

Programing can take a long time I sit down every night after super for about half an hour all it takes is a little bit every now and then I now have thirty sequences done don,t panic once you play with the program everything will come together I know nothing about computers but I can tell you this if you have any problems this is the place to get the answers, ask, ask, ask that is the best way to learn remember a little goes a long way do not try to program all at once you have to walk not run when doing this I have been programing since Dec. of 09 couldn't grasp the concept then all of a sudden the lights came on and with many questions got to be pretty good at it chin good buddy remember this is supposed to be fun

[TJ Hvasta]

D&G Gillespie wrote:

...then all of a sudden the lights came on...

Hey, is that a LOR joke??

[Max-Paul]

jimswinder wrote:

I think of it as being an artist, and the Sequencing cells are my canvas.

Can you visualize in your mind what you want the song to do, to look like?

I usually listen to a song at LEAST 25 - 50 times before I even start sequencing...I see it in my mind before I put it to "paper"...

THIS, Jim is hitting it directly on the head. You have to be able to see what your lights are doing. And I have heard many people say to plan about 5 hrs per minute maybe more if you have a lot of lights. Your expectations far exceed your current ability. You are going to be greatly disappointed. It sounds like your life is already got a full plate of activities. Doing lights to music is NOT a wham-bam-thank-you-mam affair. You are an artist, and like most artist it takes time for things to come together and congeil into a work of art. Pushing yourself is not going to make you happy with the results.

[crackchecker]

Thompsol,



How many channels are you doing? What songs are you wanting sequenced? Do you have your .lms for your channel configuation done yet with visualization?

I did a sequence for a LOR friend in NM. I might be willing to do one of my songs for you too. It gives me a break from my sequences.