martinmc Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 OK, complete newbie question here, I downloaded the software and have been working on sequencing music for a halloween setup.My question is should i be creating the sequences in Musicial or Animation, i was looking at some help info the other night and noticed differences between the 2 like loops etc.So far i have created everything in Musical (because its the 1st option) and can i move it Animation if i need to. Have looked in help topics but couldn't find anything, that made sense anyhow .I guess my main question is what is the main difference between both !!!!!..... (got to be something major am missing otherwise why offer a option??) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimswinder Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 In "Musical" you are sequencing to a song (or other audio) where "Animation" has no MP3 attached to it...and does not give you an option to add one.Loops are parts of a sequence (or even the whole sequence) that you can "loop" or play over and over a set amount of times.If you are looping a portion of your sequence, you can have it repeat (for example) four times before playing the rest of the sequence. You can have many loops within a sequence.So if you want an hour of an Animated sequence, you could essentially sequence just 1 minute and then have it "loop" 60 times for a full hour of sequenced lights."Looping", I believe, only works for an animation sequence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmc Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 GREAT,Thanks Jim, at least i know all the work i have done so far has been in the right editor. What I need to do is start learning all the keyboard short cuts, am on a fast learning curve (finished my halloween Trunk or Treat sequences) and having constant help in the forum is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Jim is absolutely correct. Looping and some other features only work in the animation sequence. I will sometimes use an animation sequence for a filler between songs or between shows. The muscial and animation sequences ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE!The animation sequences are fantastic for between shows, especially if your show say runs 58 minutes, but you have it set to run every hour, so you make a 2 minute animation or a 1 minute animation and use the loop command to repeat it one time (therefore making it a 2 minute "silent" animation), so now your next show would start right on time.That is your first show would start say at 6pm, then you want the next show to start at 7pm, then 8pm until your last show would start at 10pm and end at 11pm. You would place the animation sequence to run at 6:58 for the two minute lag time before the next show starts.If using an SD card and a DC-MP3 Showtime Director, you could just make a new show for the animation, but isn't practical.Why?Because the only problem with this is the Showtime Director only supports a maximum of 9 shows (I wish it would support at least triple that...HINT HINT DAN!)So what I do in this case is I have the same animation sequence placed in my main show as the last sequence to run, this way if my musical portion of the show is 58 minutes, the 1 minute looped or 2 minute animation makes up for the end lag time before the next show and my shows always start right on the hour.Just either remember to set the MP3 SD card portion in the Hardware Utility to either ALL Sequences or after inserting your musical sequences go to the drop down box and change it to animation sequences. I use the default "musical sequences" and then select the "animation" sequence option, this way I know exactly which sequence type I'm looking at and can find the one I want to use. (That is if you use the Hardware Utility to set up your shows on an SD card).I use them after my show ends to turn on all my decor and lights on a slow fade at 50% at diiferent times in the animation sequence until 6:59am in the morning, then I run empty (no lights and use single channel that's empty on an active controller) and then run my blank sequences that only contain a music file for my daytime off-hours FM Radio transmission, then my show starts all over again at 6pm and cycles all over again with NO INTERVENTION from me! Only way the show wouldn't run is if I had a power failure!So I just set it and forget it, but do check on the display daily to make sure everything is working as it should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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