what do i need to start a LOR

[zachary]

What software do I need

[dusty72]

First off welcome!     A 16 channel starter package  is a good place to start. Or you can free download the demo and start on the learning curve of programming( it will not control a controller until you licensed it, but it will do everything you need to learn for basics)

 

 Also things to think about :  fm transmitter or speakers with amp,  led or incandescent lights,  spt wire and vampire plugs or lots of extension cords.

 

There are a lot of videos and information on the forum and a lot of  great people with neat ideals and experience here so hit the search button and have fun!  

[gc75067]

a lot of time.. sequencing for me is freaking hard.  not sure if its because if just that white or if its just that difficult

[caniac]

a lot of time.. sequencing for me is freaking hard.  not sure if its because if just that white or if its just that difficult

all starts with finding a song you like with a good beat, then figuring out for each beat what you would like to happen (mini tree chase, mega tree spin, house lights come on).  Start small then add.

[75redman]

 You will also need a loving wife because once you start you will not see much of her. LOL    

 

Welcome to the Addiction! 

[zeighty]

Here is my two cents worth. I am new this year too, but I have been working on sequencing since January. I have a couple of songs that are okay, but as I get more experience (and time) they will get better.  

Two things to keep in mind:

One is detailed below.

Two - learn to use the Visualizer early on and take a good photo of your house to import to it. Take the photo in daylight (you might assume that it would look better darker) as you can change the "brightness" of the photo to simulate it being dark in the Visualizer. 

 

One of the things I do not often, if ever, see posted to newbies is the arrangement of your lights. Here's what I mean. 

You have to decide where on your home and in your yard your lights will be, but you have to think first in channels and then in strings of lights.  Watch a lot of the videos for and observe the patterns you see. You may see rolling patterns, especially in songs like Christmas Eve/Sarajevo by TSO.  Or lots of flashing in the drum rolls in "Amazing Grace" by DJ Yule. 

LOR suggest you think in groups of 4 and this works well for their sequences. Perhaps your roof line, depending on your house type, can be broken up into the first 4 channels then four windows or 3 and a garage door, etc.  If you have a single 16 channel controller you will have 4 groups of 4.

 

I had a hard time finding the PDF below. You might want to save it for future reference. 

There is a chance that I am over complicating the process, but I want controlled patterns (and there are plenty of setups that don't appear to have any rhyme or reason to their patterns - I have seen a lot of videos with too many lights on at any given time and I just hope it looks better in person than the videos).  

 

This is from LOR. http://pinpoint.lor2013.com/siteimages/TypicalLayout48Channels.pdf 

 

By the way, I am having to redo my sequencing because I am changing my layout to the suggested groups of 4. 

 

I hope this helps. I would have appreciated this kind of advice earlier on, but the help that the LOR veterans have shared has more than made up for it. I don't think I have ever been involved with a hobby that has so many willing to help.  

[zeighty]

One more thing you will need is Audacity to make sure your MP3s files will work.  I copied the text below from another post in the Newbie section. 

 

We have instructions on how to convert your MP3 to CBR using 'Audacity' and the 'LAME MP3' encoder.  Both tools are free.  The instructions can be found on this page: http://www.lightorama.com/PDFs.html entitled 'Preparing MP3 Files for Sequencing'.

[Max-Paul]

What zeighty is referring to is that if you download or burn from one of your CD a song into your computer. The file might be variable bit rate. What will happen if you use this type of file is that at some point in your sequence that you are programming you will notice that the lights no longer are blinking with the music. Using Audacity program you can convert those VBR files to Constant Bit  Rate. Then your sequence will match up the lights with the beat of the music, just like you programmed it to do so. One thing also that many over look at first is that you want all of your music to maintain a constant volume level from one song to the next. Another free program is MP3Gain. With all of your music in one directory. You point MP3Gain to that directory and select all of your songs. They now will all be at the same level once the program is down scrubbing the files.

[mjdamico23]

Good luck! I'm a new user as well, just purchased the starter package yesterday and excited to get started but feeling like I might not figure it out

[mjdamico23]

Will the starter package be good for 14,000 lights? Or should I get a second controller?

[kevinob]

old thread but found this in search.... (and was useful so thanks to all posters of the past and present!). Bumping the thread just to note the link above to http://www.lightorama.com/PDFs.html no longer works and it appears that the content is now at http://www1.lightorama.com/documentation/   

Maybe an admin spots this and puts in a redirect.

 

Thanks all!