Lights don't match music

[Dan C]

I'm using a mDM-MP3 Mini director. -SD card provided by LOR.
I also had a CTB16PC hooked up that I used last year without problems.
Sound is broadcast over a Ramsey FM25B
New this year is a CMB16D controlling 5 RGB flood lights.
I'm using version 2.8.10 software by the way.

Here is my problem. Several of my sequence songs don't seem to match the audio. In the visualizer they seem to play just fine. But after hooking everything up. the lights seem to start before the audio by about 1 second, then as the music goes on certain lights hooked up the CTB16PC are ok, but the floods hooked up to the CMB16D are off. its like there is some sort of delay on the RGB lights or something but then as the song goes on, they seem to get back on track. Not sure whats going on.

Any ideas?

[pyrodigy]

Dan C wrote:

I'm using a mDM-MP3 Mini director. -SD card provided by LOR.
I also had a CTB16PC hooked up that I used last year without problems.
Sound is broadcast over a Ramsey FM25B
New this year is a CMB16D controlling 5 RGB flood lights.
I'm using version 2.8.10 software by the way.

Here is my problem. Several of my sequence songs don't seem to match the audio. In the visualizer they seem to play just fine. But after hooking everything up. the lights seem to start before the audio by about 1 second, then as the music goes on certain lights hooked up the CTB16PC are ok, but the floods hooked up to the CMB16D are off. its like there is some sort of delay on the RGB lights or something but then as the song goes on, they seem to get back on track. Not sure whats going on.

Any ideas?

Hello Dan C
If you have 5 - 6 seconds delay between after trigger and starting a show in the ''plays when triggered'' mode, read here
http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum25/23384.html
Best Regards
Volkan

[Dan C]

I don't have any triggers setup. when I plug it in. It just goes.

[pyrodigy]

Dan C wrote:

I don't have any triggers setup. when I plug it in. It just goes.

Which baud rate do you use?
Try 19.2k for com speed.

[LightORamaDan]

I would upgrade to the latest version of firmware in the miniDirector.

Dan

[Max-Paul]

Does this happen with all of your songs / seq.? Or are these new songs that you just seq. this year? If it is with new songs that you seq. this year. Then I have to ask are you sure that these songs are constant bit rate or by chance variable bit rate?

Never mind if I didn't understand the problem.

[Dan C]

Max-Paul wrote:

Does this happen with all of your songs / seq.? Or are these new songs that you just seq. this year? If it is with new songs that you seq. this year. Then I have to ask are you sure that these songs are constant bit rate or by chance variable bit rate?

Never mind if I didn't understand the problem.

I never really understood the Constant vs variable bitrate. How would I find out what the mp3's are? When I do a properties on them they say, 128 kbps or 192 kbps depending on the song. I don't see anywhere that says Constant or Variable.

As for if they are new sequences or not. These are all new this year. This is the first year I did a Halloween display.



Firmware upgrade? I'll have to try that out. I was reading a post that someone was having a problem with the firmware upgrade though. http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum76/23528.html

[Max-Paul]

Hehe, well I have to admit I have troubles with knowing that to at times. Do you have audacity? Or another program that allows you to convert your audio from MP3 to WAV or one of the other formats? If so, I would set it up to also save as a constant bit rate. I might be barking up the wrong tree, but from what I think you are describing is that your audio files are variable bit rate and that means that LOR is looking for a constant bit rate and the timing is based on that. a variable bit rate file will cause the timing to change and thus you lights will go in and out of sync with the music. Variable bit rate saves space. Making the file smaller.

This is what I do now days. Once I have selected a new song to seq. First thing I do is run it through Audacity and maybe even shorten the song and fade the end. Then I save it again. Using the save as constant bit rate.

Hope this is of some help.

[Dan C]

Yes that does help a little. I'll check my songs when I get home. I do have Audacity but never really used it.

I routed around in the export function and found where you can select Constant Bitrate.

This brings up a question then. If in fact my songs are at a variable rate and I sequenced them as such. when I save it as a constant rate, will that screw up my sequences?

Also, if I load one of my songs and its not a constant bit rate will it tell me? That way I would know if that was my problem.

[Max-Paul]

I am going to defer to those with more experience than I for your latest questions. as I said in my last. I have problems being sure unless I run the audio file through audacity and save it as a constant bit rate.