Sequencing and Music doesn't match

[ynnej121]

So before I learned about the visualizer last week, I set up my lights in my backyard to match what it was going to do on the house. (It took days). When I am programming some of the songs, in order for the lights to match up perfectly to the music, I have to replay the song from the beginning. If I try to play it from a different place in the song, then the lights won't match up. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem?

[Don]

In almost every case this is a matter of the media file you are using not being a Constant Bit Rate MP3 file (or WAV file.)

See this PDF from LOR. It will show you how to use Audacity to make a Constant Bit Rate MP3 out of the file.

For a much more technical explanation of what's going on, see this post.

[Orville]

Have to agree with Don.

I had these same issues when I first started, I missed the part about the MP3 needing to be a Constant Bit Rate {CBR} and most of mine at the time were Variable Bit Rate {VBR} MP3 files. Went back and browsed through the LOR manuals and voila, checked my MP3 riles and sure enough that was the problem.

In 99% of the cases of music and lights getting out of synch when restarting a song anywhere but from the beginning in the sequencer is usually the MP3 file is in VBR. Also this can occur from the beginning as well, it may also play correctly the first run through, but successive runs will start getting it out of synch.

If you use a DC-MP3 or Mini Director, it may or may not play the MP3 file at all. Had shows shut down my first year because of incorrect format of the MP3 using the DC-MP3 Showtime Director I use to run my shows.

Now I have converted my entire MP3 collection to CBR format and have not had any problems. Occasionally when I download an MP3 and I forget to save it in CBR and see this happening in the sequencer, the MP3 is the first culprit I look at for the issue.

Edited October 6, 2012 by Orville

[T17443]

Had the exact same issue when using the "from selection" option on the play range. After starting a song over from the beginning about 100 time when sequencing I wanted to shoot myself. I them discovered an old posting that recommended using wav files instead of mp3. I converted and the timing is perfect. My sanity has returned.

[xrays911]

I have a similar issue with a bit of a twist I am looking for help with..........

This year I am incorporating video into my show. Therefore I have merged my MP3 files with my videos and have converted them into avi files. Is there any way to:

• Get waveforms to show up in the LOR sequence editor when sequencing from avi files
• Normalize the audio in an avi file so that I can have constant playback and not have to start from the beginning each time

I really appreciate any help/advice out there on this topic.