Next year will be my first year. Here is where I'm at:

[CoolPercussion]

See attached pic for my current static setup.  Thoughts/changes?  They are all incand bulbs but after reading I know I need to get LED (i just really hated how they looked on peoples houses around town: so cold and dim.)

 

I have more light that I'm not using right now, and I was planning on hitting up day-after-christmas sales at big box stores to stock up on lights, but after reading on here it seems it is more recommended to buy from HLE or other online vendors.  Thoughts?

 

I plan to start off with only 16 channels; probably do 4 windows, my 3 pillars+garage outline, 2-4 on the roof, and probably some candy canes or something on the lawn. Thoughs?

 

I have a very large yard with lots of potential for future years, but for the first year I will stay close to the house.

 

Question:  what is your system for labeling your strands/exension cords etc.  What do you actually write down?  The locataion? The channels they are assigned to?

 

Sequencing questions: 

1. For only 16 channels what is a good type of first song to choose? Those TSR arranements seem too busy, and orchestrations too thick for a 16 channel setup.  Plus, frankly, they seem a little overplayed/cliche. 

 

2. OR should I go with a pre-sequenced song first?  I have my doubts about that because my setup will be different and I'll have to edit the sequence to my setup anyway.  Plus, knowing my personallity, I would probably not be satisfied with it anyway.  Yeah, I think I just talked myself out of a pre-sequenced song.

 

3. Any tips for which musical elements to assign to which visual elements.  For example: Drums get candy canes.  Bass notes get sidewalks, fast note runs get the set of schirtmas trees... idk.  What should the windows be used for? The roof? Any suggestsion for a first-time 16-channel setup.

[bhunt240]

dont know if its much help but you can look at a few of my crappy videos being my first year this was 16ch and then i added another controller for the candy cane spinners and now have plans of over 100 channels for next year....

 

theres other videos on my channel 

[CoolPercussion]

Cool thanks for the video.  I checked out another on your chanel w/o the candy cane spinners--guessing that was one the 16ch ones.  T think i want to get me some of those little christmas trees.  There is a lot you can do with them.  DId you make them yourself?

[dgrant]

Truly its all in your own wishes and design of what you want to hear and see out there. You have plenty of room in your yard/house to there's a lot you can do. Of course it all takes money. Last year was my first. I bought two controllers and quickly ate those up with lights on the house but I got to "thinking"...lol, yeah, in this hobby, its dangerous...I wanted a megatree and arches. I bought more controllers, a single CCR mostly for one song, but it got used on several and so on. Arches and megatrees consume a lot of channels but they look great which is why so many of us have them. Megatrees, many are straight down strings, some are spiraled, some are combinations and of course, the color possibilities come into play. I'd love to do a CCR tree but 12 strings would be like $3000 alone. My megatrees each use 32 strings but the two are electrically identical so I'm only using 32 channels for two trees.

 

As for sequences, I believe most people in here usually do their own. This is because you design whatever you wish to see out in your yard. I do own a sequence that I bought and was very happy with it. Yes, I had to modify it to work with my yard. I have another sequence that was given too me and of course that one as well had to be modified to work for me, but it looked pretty good.

 

Start with a plan of your yard and what you wish to decorate out there and how. That will dictate the channel count. Decide if you are having speakers on in your yard or transmitt on FM radio or both, which will depend on your neighbors.

 

I see you live in Hesperia. I use to live there as well a few years ago '00-'02. Before that '74-'79, I was stationed at George AFB for 5 years so I know the whole area very well although its changed since those days. People normally don't like the desert for living in but truly its not that bad. Feel free to PM me about living there. Lots of stories...lol.

[BryanZ]

Visit yard sales, estate sales, and wait for sales by the companies. Don't wait until the last minute to purchase hardware items.

 

For sequencing, it depends upon what you like. TSO has a great mix and people are familiar with their music. However, you can add stuff from Bob Rivers, Straight No Chaser, movies, non-Christmas songs, etc. Whatever you would like. See if someone has already sequenced that song, which version they used and how many channels then customize it to your display. Then again, you may have to build a sequence entirely from scratch, much like I had to with Dropkick Murphy's song The Season's Upon Us or Merry New York Christmas. Know who your audience will likely be at a given time as certain songs you will want to play later rather than earlier.

 

Also consider how people will be listening to your songs. FM transmitter only with frequency sign or will you have outdoor

speakers in play or will it be a combination of both? If outdoor speakers, get the correct wire. Monoprice.com is an excellent company to work with.

 

For now, get the software and really play with it. You can add what you want the display to look like and change it if you need to. You can add the various effects to a song or eliminate them completely. 

 

Now to labeling. It can be your friend and worst enemy. If you use a high quality labeler, you should be able to print out the labels and attach them onto the lights, etc. What goes where. What I have done is used paper tags. I'll put them on the cords that I use

and what they go to. I.E. lower far left tree. The lights I will label the same way. Which strand and where. Top right icicle, right side, for example. This makes setting up for the following year that much easier, especially if you will using the same basic setup. Even on the storage bins I have labeled what is in them as some items you need sooner than others. For the controller, I'd get the PC-Complete kit and label the channels at the end of the extension cords using a silver sharpie. I cannot tell you how beneficial that will be when you go to plug things in and can't see what a given channel is.

 

For the last question, what looks good to you on a given song? I usually try to use one or two channels for vocals. In my display, that usually ends up being the lighted wreaths and middle tree. A great deal depends upon what is going on in the song. 

 

Take your time with the sequences but start very early. As a general rule of thumb, 8 hours sequencing to one minute of song. Plan accordingly. Welcome to the madness that is LOR.

[CoolPercussion]

 

I bought two controllers and quickly ate those up with lights on the house but I got to "thinking"...lol, yeah, in this hobby, its dangerous...I wanted a megatree and arches.

Once I had my own house, from the first time I saw someone's video on YouTube I was addicted.  I said, "One day I am going to do that."  I haven't even bought anything yet and I already want more haha!  I am seeing that this is going to be a very expensive hobby/addiction.  Maybe I should do couponing instead. It would take less time and actually SAVE money!  JK. No, I just plan to add a litttle at a time; my budget will determine how fast I add things. 

 

 

Also consider how people will be listening to your songs. FM transmitter only with frequency sign or will you have outdoor

speakers in play or will it be a combination of both?

Yeah still unsure about this.  In my neighborhood houses are pretty spread apart with 1/2 acre lots so I am leaning toward speakers, plus I already have all the equipment for that stuff.

 

Bryan, thanks for the labeling tips.  If I am going to be making extension cords custom lengths it is going to be essential to know where they were the year before. 

[dgrant]

SPT 1 or 2 wire and vampire plugs/sockets!!

[bhunt240]

SPT 1 or 2 wire and vampire plugs/sockets!!

And lots of it!! I thought 1000' would be way more than I needed and im out lol

Start off next years supply rte now during all these sales I just purchased 4000'

[dgrant]

I had to buy two thousand more feet this year but I was making (33) 50 foot cords. Certainly shop for prices on vampire plugs/sockets because the prices vary widely.

[Premier]

Cool:

 

1 year ago I was exactly where you are now. Before I made any decisons on controllers or lights I first downloaded the free software , took a picture of our building and began designing a light lay out using visualizer, Around march or so I finally decided that 16 channels wasn't gonna do it for me and changed my plan to 32 channels. I started with downloading short songs, under 2 minutes and began programming to those.  Watching the lights on the computer was good, and gave me a lot of time to play with the design and finalize it before I actually ordered any equipment ( I waited for the summer sale for all my LOR stuff ). I had to plan out where my power was going to come from, how long and how many extension cords, etc..  I hit a lot of garage sales throughout the year and got most of my cords, electrical tape, zip ties, inflatables, wire frames, etc..for cheap. I went ahead and bit the bullet getting LED's for most of the lighting as the power consumption on the circuits I had available was close to maxing out. Once I changed to LED i could add a whole lot more lights per channel without risking any tripped breakers. 

Spent a lot of time here on the forums gaining knowledge, watch a LOT of youtube light videos and how to videos so I could better plan my display and see what sort of effects I liked and which ones I didn;t like.

After that it was just hours and hours in front of the computer doing sequencing.

 

 

I have more light that I'm not using right now, and I was planning on hitting up day-after-christmas sales at big box stores to stock up on lights, but after reading on here it seems it is more recommended to buy from HLE or other online vendors.  Thoughts?

 

Get in on the after christmas sales first, then whatever else you need after that go ahead and order on-line

 

I plan to start off with only 16 channels; probably do 4 windows, my 3 pillars+garage outline, 2-4 on the roof, and probably some candy canes or something on the lawn. Thoughs?

 

Try a half mega tree, I did mine with 6 channels, one for the star and five legs. I raised a large pole, used 3 strands of white bulbs per leg running from about 1 foot up from the ground to the tip of the pole. The bottom foot I swept the legs inward, this allowed me to use one outside leg and an opposite inside leg and it formed a bell shape, this way I could have a great looking tree, a tree with motion and a bell that had motion ( rocking back and forth ) 

 

 

Question:  what is your system for labeling your strands/exension cords etc.  What do you actually write down?  The locataion? The channels they are assigned to?

 

I use a silver sharpie to label my controller IDS, outlet channels on controllers, and any extension cords going to the controllers, I leave pretty much everything else alone. I have a just a word document with what every channel ID is that matches my channel configuration so when I am outside hooking things up I know what goes where. Word of wisdom, once you set a channel configuration, save the file and label it and for every new sequence import that channel configuration. 

 

Sequencing questions: 

1. For only 16 channels what is a good type of first song to choose? Those TSR arranements seem too busy, and orchestrations too thick for a 16 channel setup.  Plus, frankly, they seem a little overplayed/cliche. 

 

First easy song to program is an intro, like the broken THX,  under a minute and fun to play with, also reccomend and 12 days of christmas song ( or 12 pains of christmas if you like comedy as the song repeats itself so much its easy to copy and paste the repetative sections over and over to get a full song sequenced in a short time.

 

2. OR should I go with a pre-sequenced song first?  I have my doubts about that because my setup will be different and I'll have to edit the sequence to my setup anyway.  Plus, knowing my personallity, I would probably not be satisfied with it anyway.  Yeah, I think I just talked myself out of a pre-sequenced song.

 

3. Any tips for which musical elements to assign to which visual elements.  For example: Drums get candy canes.  Bass notes get sidewalks, fast note runs get the set of schirtmas trees... idk.  What should the windows be used for? The roof? Any suggestsion for a first-time 16-channel setup.

 

Windows can be vocals, but mix it up, not candy cane drums for every song, maybe one song can be candy cane drums, another song can be pillars drums, and another song could be eave light drums.....keep things interesting.

 

Most importantly, just have fun with it, its a bit addicting and very time consuming, but after you see the first kids watch your lights next year you will know its all worth it and you will want more.

 

Definately look into a FM transmitter, I got the CZH-05b off of Amazon.com for cheap, works great and families can stay in their warm cars and watch our show.

 

Enjoy the madness

[HowardG]

Hey Neighbor.
Welcome to the madness.
We’re located in Apple Valley right next door and if you want to see LOR live
and in person come on by our show runs from 5:00 - 10:00 PM.
We're located on Apple Blossom Lane. And this time of year I’m home most days.
We have a bit of a head start on you since we started ours in 2009 but you can
see LEDs up close and in person and I’d be happy to show you how the
little trees and arches are made. And show you some of the options you have.
Like some of the others stated download the software and begin playing.
Here is a link if you'd like to see one of our Videos posted on Facebook by a viewer.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201126341785802
PM me and we can exchange Contact Information if you’d like.
Welcome and Merry Christmas.
Howard

[mjdamico23]

See attached pic for my current static setup.  Thoughts/changes?  They are all incand bulbs but after reading I know I need to get LED (i just really hated how they looked on peoples houses around town: so cold and dim.)

 

I have more light that I'm not using right now, and I was planning on hitting up day-after-christmas sales at big box stores to stock up on lights, but after reading on here it seems it is more recommended to buy from HLE or other online vendors.  Thoughts?

 

I plan to start off with only 16 channels; probably do 4 windows, my 3 pillars+garage outline, 2-4 on the roof, and probably some candy canes or something on the lawn. Thoughs?

 

I have a very large yard with lots of potential for future years, but for the first year I will stay close to the house.

 

Question:  what is your system for labeling your strands/exension cords etc.  What do you actually write down?  The locataion? The channels they are assigned to? As a previous user said, label your controllers if you get more then 1, which you might. I too started this year wanting to just 1' wound up with 3

 

Sequencing questions: 

1. For only 16 channels what is a good type of first song to choose? Those TSR arranements seem too busy, and orchestrations too thick for a 16 channel setup.  Plus, frankly, they seem a little overplayed/cliche. If you do your sequences right, almost any song will work. Using the beat wizard might be a useful tool.

 

2. OR should I go with a pre-sequenced song first?  I have my doubts about that because my setup will be different and I'll have to edit the sequence to my setup anyway.  Plus, knowing my personallity, I would probably not be satisfied with it anyway.  Yeah, I think I just talked myself out of a pre-sequenced song. It wouldn't hurt if you bought a pre-sequenced but if you do, make sure you purchase the ones you can modify (my first mistake). Some get too crazy, and some are fine. And if you stick with groups of 4, it won't look too bad.

 

3. Any tips for which musical elements to assign to which visual elements.  For example: Drums get candy canes.  Bass notes get sidewalks, fast note runs get the set of schirtmas trees... idk.  What should the windows be used for? The roof? Any suggestsion for a first-time 16-channel setup.

somewhere in here they have a sample layout of channel setups, but your house (windows, roof, etc) should be your main, then everything else as extras to fill in the blanks. But, also, it all depends on what you want as far as set-up

I wish you luck and welcome to the hobby that can consume you. I'm not sure if there is a point when everything is the way you want it. I'm outside watching as much as I can, taking notes, on what I don't like and do, what I can do better, etc. but what may bother us, people watching will probably not even notice. Just enjoy it whatever you do!