sequencing

[mastersnowdaddy]

Hi All,is it possible to sequence and play your own music,and what woud I need to purchase to do this ?? Thanks

[Don]

Very much possible. In fact, that's what this hobby is all about!

You would do well with a Starter Kit. The 16 channel residential series starter kit (http://store.lightorama.com/rese16chstpa.html) has everything you need (including the software.)

Do note that you can download the demo version of the software to get a feel for it, and see what it can do. You can download the software here:
http://www.lightorama.com/SoftwareDownloadPage.html

[bsmoore83]

On the "DEMO" mode I can only load limited songs from my computer is this because of demo mode?

[KenL_MCSE]

The software in demo mode does not care about how many songs you have or sequence. It limits the number of controllers you can control lights with; that is zero.

So sequence and learn, you just cannot see it live.

[shfr26]

mastersnowdaddy wrote:

Hi All,is it possible to sequence and play your own music,and what woud I need to purchase to do this ?? Thanks

I may be way off base here but, Do you mean "play your own music" as in like play an instrument and record your music or do you mean select the songs you like?

[bsmoore83]

Well it will let upload certain songs from iTunes but not others. Even if I try to get a song off of a cd it still won't let me upload. It says the file is empty.

[dgrant]

I'm a newbie here as well. I've had no issues as long as the files were MP3's. From CD, they'll ve CDA files and I'm not sure that LOR will see them. Look at the file type source pull down and see what it's got as options. I just looked and it'll see lots of file types but you need to "rip" the tune from the CD to a digital format and store it on the computer. Easy to do.

[thevikester]

There is music conversion programs out there, most use Audacity, google search...run your music through audacity and save it as an MP3, then upload it into your sequencer. I would give you the link, but its blocked at my workplace

[amcdonald307]

If you go here:
http://www.lightorama.com/PDFs.html
Look for the file at the bottom called "Preparing MP3 Files for Sequencing". It explains how to use Audacity to prepare sound files for use. Usually, just getting the song in mp3 format like from amazon or ripping from cd is not enough, it needs a 128kb format.
In iTunes there is even a way to have it saved as an mpg that will work assuming you want to use the full song as is ( see http://askbobrankin.com/convert_itunes_to_mp3.html )

[Paul Roberson]

bsmoore83 wrote:

Well it will let upload certain songs from iTunes but not others. Even if I try to get a song off of a cd it still won't let me upload. It says the file is empty.

What audio file format are you trying to use in the LOR sequence editor?

You can't use audio files straight from a CD. They have to be ripped from the CD onto your computer.

Note: LOR used windows media player to play the audio files.


Attached files

[Guest guest]

bsmoore83 wrote:

Well it will let upload certain songs from iTunes but not others. Even if I try to get a song off of a cd it still won't let me upload. It says the file is empty.

I use Windows own Media Player to rip my CD's. For each CD I am going to RIP I will set up a folder for that CD to be sent to. Then using the RIP tab in WMP (Windows Media Player will be WMP for the rest of this post) you can set your options. Many use 128kbps for their MP3's (I, myself use 192), leave the VBR UNCHECKED, if it is checked, clear the box, you DO NOT WANT VBR MP3 files, only CBR as they work best.

Now all you have to do once you have the options set, insert your music CD and rip the music from it. You may/may not have to rename the files that show in the window pane of the CD being ripped, the window pane in WMP may show something like:

Track 01 filename.MP3 and some additional info. Which may/may not match the CD info. So you can press F2 on any of these areas and change the name to the song name, eidt the CD info and pretty much all of the info to match the CD before ripping it.

Unfortunately, and I have not, as yet, figured out why WMP does this, but if the CD is an unknown artist, it tends to create not one, but TWO subfolders in the folder you told the CD to go into.

Example you set up a folder called "Bing Crosby Christmas Music", but WMP doesn't know or couldn't find it, it will create a sub folder called "unknown artist", then another folder under that subfolder called something like "unknown music", no matter what, the music (MP3 files) WILL ALWAYS be in the second subfolder, under the first subfolder, from the MAIN folder you created to place the music in. (Hope that isn't too confusing).

Then I just go and do a CTRL-A in the subfolder where the music was ripped and then cut it, then I paste it into the main folder I had initially created for it, this is so I can find the music much easier and not have to go through many folders to get to it. After I have cut and pasted the music to the main folder, I now delete those subfolders as they are empty and useless.



So you could easily create a main folder for say 2012 for Christmas, call it "2012 Christmas Songs", then have a subfolder under this one for each CD, that is say you have 3 Christmas CD's you want to rip to the computer.

You would set it up something similar to this (items in paranthese ARE NOT part of the folder name) :

2012 Christmas Music (MAIN folder)

ChristmasTime Wonders (subfolder for CD1)

Christmas Bells, Trees and Snowmen (subfolder for CD2)

Christmas Tunes for Children (subfolder for CD3)



Now in WMP, you'd have to go into the RIP tab and tell WMP what folder you want to place the CD in. I usually use the name of the CD itself for my subfolder names.

For example I have Trans-Siberian Orchestra CD "The Lost Christmas Eve", since I also have SEVERAL CD's by TSO, my folders for them are set as:

Christmas Music (main folder)

TSO (subfolder) --> The Lost Christmas Eve CD (subfolder)

And for any additional TSO CD's I acquire or have I put those under the TSO subfolder and create a folder for each CD. This now helps me to keep who the artist is of the music as well as all their music in one easy to find place.

Usually my subfolders under the main folder, depending on the type music, is always under the artists name, then subfolders for their CD. Now there are times I have mutli artist CD's, on those, I try and place those MP3 files under the artists name subfolder with a name such as Miscellaneous Music for the subfolder, this tells me that particular song came from an Multi-Artist/Singer CD in my collection.

I also use a program called MP3 tagger to add this information to the MP3 files. When I first started doing this, I didn't do any of this and my files were everywhere and then folks would ask what the artist was, CD title, etc. And I have no idea, so thanks to a lot of folks here, I learned it's best to take a little time and effort to put the info in the MP3 files. That way you and anyone else knows who did it and what CD it can be found on and if not on CD, where to get it.

Here are some great additional programs you're going to need to help improve and change your MP3 files:

MP3 Tag:

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

MP3 Gain:

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

These two programs have been invaluable in getting and keeping my MP3 files labeled and volume levels pretty much equal across the board.

[mastersnowdaddy]

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE INFORMATION !!I CAN NOT WAIT UNTIL OCTOBER TO START THE SET UP AND DECORATING.