Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

I am new and just bought 32 channels and the basic program need help


RickAbel43

Recommended Posts

Hi
I am new to LOR i just bought 2 16 channel systems and bought the basic LOR program to start with , I was using the last two years two mr christmas machines with 6 channels each...so this is a big jump for me...I have about 12000 Led Lights...a few questions i want to ask is.
I have tried to download a song and i keep on coming up with Errors. It keeps on popong up with Adobe Reader saying it cannot open this file...This PC i am using is only 3 months old very new...It says it is now a supported file or the file is damaged and i have tried atleast 10 downloads and they are all coming up the same ..can anybody help there?
What i was reading on here is to download a 32 channel music to just play with and get an ideal how to make my own but having troubles downloading it...
I was also wanting to ask someone if they can help me on how to upload my picture of my house onto LOR to work with it like i have seen on here....
Last Question
How many 35 and 50 sets of LED lights can you put onto each Channel i also have alot of 100 sets too most of my lights are all GE brand if that helps....thankyou Rick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Rick,

Welcome to LOR.

Where are you downloading the music from? I don't know off the top of my head any sites that would be trying to open a music file via Adobe Reader. (That, and I don't know of Adobe Reader being able to play music.) You might try saving the music file to your desktop (Right-click - Save as) and see if you can open the music file that way.

The LOR Visualizer has many features in it. Take a moment to look through the tutorial http://www.lightorama.com/help/tutorial.htm as it will help you get the picture into your visualization. (It does a very good job explaining many other aspects of the visualizer program.)

As for how many lights you can put on a channel - You will need to know two things.

  • How many amps the lights use. (Look on the label to see.)
  • How many amps your controller can handle.


http://www.lightorama.com/Documents/CTB16PCg3_UserMan_Web.pdf

Take a look at the last page of that PDF. If that's the controller that came with your starter kit, then this page spells out the electrical limitations of the controller. (And you most likely have the dual power and heat sinks.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rick,
Welcome. I am also a new LOR user, but have now succeed in setting up about 1 1/2 hours of music for Christmas.
A couple of key things I learned that may help -
Buy your music but before you use it, convert it to constant bit rate(CBR) using Audacity.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Once the music is CBR - then put that CBR copy in the media directory.
If the song is not CBR, it can/will drift on you after you build your show and drive you nuts.
There are many contributed examples on these forums, and other places. I found them helpful for ideas - but there are also great video's online for training LOR - spend the time to see how to handle the software.
Read the forums - and ask questions. I've found everyone here very helpful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RickAbel43 wrote:


I have tried to download a song and i keep on coming up with Errors. It keeps on popong up with Adobe Reader saying it cannot open this file...This PC i am using is only 3 months old very new...It says it is now a supported file or the file is damaged and i have tried atleast 10 downloads and they are all coming up the same ..can anybody help there?

I suspect that you somehow messed up your file associations (meaning the program assigned to open a certain file type). Are they mp3's? If so, open a mp3 on your computer that you know previously worked--I suspect that it will try to open in Adobe as well with the same error. The files are probably fine, but Windows is using a non-music program to try to play music.
Right click on the mp3 file on your computer and choose "Open with...". Then choose an audio program such as Media Player to open the file. Make sure you click the check mark to make it the default program for similar files. Now whenever you click on a mp3 it will open in Media Player rather than attempt to open in Adobe.

For downloading the file in the first place, right click on the online file link and choose "Save as..." so you can save the file to you computer rather than just opening it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you say you have downloaded a song, are you talking about just a song or somebodies sequence file?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Same thought...are trying to download a sequence or the music file itself? Keep in mind that if you download someone's sequence, it was one originally to a specific piece of music which means you need that same music file and need to set it up to start at the exact same place and so on. As Don mentioned, using the help functions in the software will help you a whole lot. I'm a newbie as well and have been learning a lot. Its pretty easy to catch on and the software is pretty powerful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi
Thankyou all for the help, I have finally got two Sequeces to open and when i go to play it now it comes up with Cannot find Media File...Am i still doing something wrong i am trying to follow directions and still goofing up somehow....If anyone can help please help
The two files i downloaded were
Oh Holy Night and Sequences comes up for 32 channels
and
Jingle Bell Rock

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The sequences do not include the .mp3 files themselves. They are separate, so you'll need them as well. Dgrant alludes to that in his post above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you download someone's sequence, it "does not" contain the music source file. That is something you have to find or purchase. Its loaded in via the "Edit" menu pulldown where you select the subtopic "Media File". The sequence itself is just the commands that will be sent to the LOR hardware but the sequencer will send the audio information from the audio file, to the speakers. So the song/tune you mention, "Oh Holy Night", there's only a ton of possible versions of that one song alone. Now a hint, select the "Media File" under the Edit menu pulldown and see what the original person used as a name of the file. Sometimes, you can find it via that name by searching online but again, its illegal to download the tune unless you are paying for it or buy the disk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi
I have the media file and the sequece file and i can upload the sequece file on the sequence program but then how do i load them both on there so the original media file and sequence is together ? thankyou for everyone's help
Rick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rick:

I'm not sure I understand your question but I think what you're asking is how to associate your media file with your music sequence. If I have it right, Open your music sequence in LOR Sequence Editor. Go to the Edit drop down and click on Media File. You should then be able to browse your directories for the media file.

Hope this helps

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RickAbel43 wrote:

Hi
I have the media file and the sequece file and i can upload the sequece file on the sequence program but then how do i load them both on there so the original media file and sequence is together ? thankyou for everyone's help
Rick


Rick,

Once you've loaded the sequence, go to the Edit menu, and select Media File. From there you can tell it what media file to use.

If the timings don't match up with the beat of the song, you could have one of a few problems. First, make sure you have a constant bit rate file. There are tons of threads on this forum on this topic. Search for the word Audacity and you'll find some. Second, you may have a different version of the song than the sequence was designed for. If that's the case, you may never get things lined up. Third, if you have the right version of the song, but things still aren't lining up, you may need to move the sequence forward or backward in time so you can get things to line up. If you go to the Edit menu, you'll see a Skew Track option. You can use that to skew the sequence back and forth to get things to line up with the music.

And a final suggestion... If you haven't already read the instruction manual for the software, take the time now to do so.. And then read it again. :) It's easy enough to use and understand once you've been through it a few times.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aaron Maue wrote:

And a final suggestion... If you haven't already read the instruction manual for the software, take the time now to do so.. And then read it again. :) It's easy enough to use and understand once you've been through it a few times.

And after you've read the manual twice and watched the tutorials, I recommend opening a sequence and going through each and every command to see exactly what they do. And I do mean every command. You'll be amazed at how much easier it makes your sequencing.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

George Simmons wrote:

Aaron Maue wrote:
And a final suggestion... If you haven't already read the instruction manual for the software, take the time now to do so.. And then read it again. :) It's easy enough to use and understand once you've been through it a few times.

And after you've read the manual twice and watched the tutorials, I recommend opening a sequence and going through each and every command to see exactly what they do. And I do mean every command. You'll be amazed at how much easier it makes your sequencing.
thats the truth,I went almost all last season not knowing how to use the chase tool fill tool and repeat tool
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...