getting started early

[bdwillie]

Thanks George!  Learning Fast!

[zeighty]

and here's my 2 cents worth...

I have sequenced many and I have a few LOR purchased (you can modify) sequences.   Either way, I highly recommend that you follow the layout methodology of LOR. If you do, very little if any editing necessary of their sequences.  The 4 X 4 Decorating method has been awesome. Chases look amazing and you can scale it as you go (add more channels).

As for LOR sequences, some are awesome and whoever did them knows more about music than I ever will.  Others on this forum are just as good and may be the ones doing LOR sequences. Check out the demo reel of Pentatonix Little Drummer Boy. I have seen several sequences of this track and the LOR is, in my opinion it is one of the best (at least for up to 64 channels) thus far. 

I have been rather pleased with my own sequences, but I am still a rookie after 3 years; it takes me about 3 hours per minute of music.

I have some donated sequences that have bizarre controller / channel use. Example: Controller 3, channels 1,2,4,6 white mini trees, channels 3, 5, 7 arch segments 1, 2 and 4 in arch 2.  It appears to have no rhyme or reason.  I am sure it makes since to the author, but modifying that sequence will convince you to just start from scratch.  One really good use for a shared sequence is the work that goes in to beat / timing discovery.  The work may be already done for you. Often there will be a beat track (no controller assigned) and you can key off of it for your own light setup.  

 

In the end, there is nothing like the feeling of starting from scratch and seeing a wonderful result and knowing as my granddaughter says "do all by myself".  

Make sure you buy quality lights. LEDs need to be sealed and rectified. 

[Old Sarge]

On 3/1/2016 at 5:17 AM, zeighty said:

and here's my 2 cents worth...

I have sequenced many and I have a few LOR purchased (you can modify) sequences.   Either way, I highly recommend that you follow the layout methodology of LOR. If you do, very little if any editing necessary of their sequences.  The 4 X 4 Decorating method has been awesome. Chases look amazing and you can scale it as you go (add more channels).

As for LOR sequences, some are awesome and whoever did them knows more about music than I ever will.  Others on this forum are just as good and may be the ones doing LOR sequences. Check out the demo reel of Pentatonix Little Drummer Boy. I have seen several sequences of this track and the LOR is, in my opinion it is one of the best (at least for up to 64 channels) thus far. 

I have been rather pleased with my own sequences, but I am still a rookie after 3 years; it takes me about 3 hours per minute of music.

I have some donated sequences that have bizarre controller / channel use. Example: Controller 3, channels 1,2,4,6 white mini trees, channels 3, 5, 7 arch segments 1, 2 and 4 in arch 2.  It appears to have no rhyme or reason.  I am sure it makes since to the author, but modifying that sequence will convince you to just start from scratch.  One really good use for a shared sequence is the work that goes in to beat / timing discovery.  The work may be already done for you. Often there will be a beat track (no controller assigned) and you can key off of it for your own light setup.  

 

In the end, there is nothing like the feeling of starting from scratch and seeing a wonderful result and knowing as my granddaughter says "do all by myself".  

Make sure you buy quality lights. LEDs need to be sealed and rectified. 

Some do that just to make it very hard for you to use their shared stuff so you cant just copy and paste but so you have to do some work to get it to fit your display.

I have had a few that has been shared with me that was mixed up that way before they sent them. 

It is annoying when they do that and shows what I (not all on LOR do that) would call a selfish childness attitude about sharing like they were never taught to share their toys when growing up. Just take it with some salt and dont let them bother you because they are probably reading about your frustration now and laughing about how they really got you confused..

 

There are many of us who freely share things and we dont all try to make it hard for you to use them but even try to help you get them to fit your display if you ask us to try to help you with it.

[George Simmons]

On 3/1/2016 at 7:17 AM, zeighty said:

I have some donated sequences that have bizarre controller / channel use. Example: Controller 3, channels 1,2,4,6 white mini trees, channels 3, 5, 7 arch segments 1, 2 and 4 in arch 2.  It appears to have no rhyme or reason.  I am sure it makes since to the author, but modifying that sequence will convince you to just start from scratch.  One really good use for a shared sequence is the work that goes in to beat / timing discovery.

The channel configuration of a sequence has absolutely nothing to do with the sequencing itself.  Regardless of from where or from whom your sequence hails, you're almost always (like 99% of the time or more) going to have to make changes to the channel configuration according to where you physically locate your controller(s) and/or how you organize/number them.  Again, the channel assignments have nothing at all to do with the sequencing itself.

And yes, one of the things that ALL good sequences share is timing grids that are accurate to the beat/music.  As for the amount of work involved, well shucks - anyone (even a musical moron like me) can create world-class timing grids in less than half the time it took me to type this sentence.  It's called the Beat Wizard.  Don't leave the LOR software store without it. 

[zeighty]

4 hours ago, George Simmons said:

The channel configuration of a sequence has absolutely nothing to do with the sequencing itself.  Regardless of from where or from whom your sequence hails, you're almost always (like 99% of the time or more) going to have to make changes to the channel configuration according to where you physically locate your controller(s) and/or how you organize/number them.  Again, the channel assignments have nothing at all to do with the sequencing itself.

And yes, one of the things that ALL good sequences share is timing grids that are accurate to the beat/music.  As for the amount of work involved, well shucks - anyone (even a musical moron like me) can create world-class timing grids in less than half the time it took me to type this sentence.  It's called the Beat Wizard.  Don't leave the LOR software store without it. 

Thanks for pointing this out... I did not mean to imply that others' sequences will match your layout at all. Even if you use the 4 x 4 method, you will have to make changes. Some I that I have required little controller / channel jockeying. Perhaps their mini trees are my arches or they have 4 arches and I have only 2.  Then there are those that I described in my post. It almost seems intentional such as Old Sarge mentioned. It also sounds like "oh no I need another channel for this prop... oh yea I have two unused on control 37 and 21 and 10... that'l work".  

For me, I prefer to redo my channel assignments to keep it orderly. I have only "borrowed" channels when a triac has went kaput. Now if I were only skilled enough at sequencing I wouldn't mind sharing. Perhaps this year I will buckle down and do better.

I have used the beat wizard and stopped using it, but maybe I need to check it out again as I have had songs that it missed beats or ended up with weird timing. Again this may be my skills and not the s/w ability.   

Way too late for me to be up... 5 am will be here too soon. 

[Orville]

It's not that some do that to make the sequence harder to use, the reason it is set up that way is because of where the controller and item being controlled is placed within the display.

I'm sure the track I have set up for my Orange and Purple L.E.D. strands for Halloween 2016 might confuse someone because it's set up in a fashion that may not make sense to someone else or their set up, but it makes perfect sense to me because of how and where items are in my display.

But it's set up in a way where I can control all orange or all purple, even though the controller channels and the controller id's may not make sense to someone else looking at it.

 

I have 8 Orange and 8 Purple strands, which require 16 channels to control each strand individually, the first set of 4 Orange L.E.D.'s are on Controller #01, channels 1-4, the second set of 4 Orange L.E.D.'s are on Controller #02, Channels 1-4, below that are the Purple L.E.D.'s, first set of 4 Purple L.E.D.'s are on Controller #01, channels 5-8, second set of Purple L.E.D.'s controlled by Controller #02, Channels 5-8

Controller #01 will control most items on the left side of the front of the house, controller #02 the front right side of the house.   But looking at the actual channel descriptions in my sequence of where each item is to someone not familiar with how I have things set up in my display will find the layout very confusing, but I know exactly how I laid it out and the best way to connect each controller to it's element it controls.

 

So it's not because we want to make it harder for folks to use our sequence we may share, it's just how things worked out for how it all flows and works together in ones own display.   So what may not make sense to someone that gets a sequence shared, made perfect sense to the original sequencer that set it all up for their particular display setting.

Unfortunately it can be quite daunting to a new comer and maybe even others, but I was still able to copy and paste from sequences that seemed rather random, or no rhyme or reason for placement, after all, it's easy enough to move a channel around in a sequence to make copying and pasting simpler if you want things in a specific order.   I move channel buttons around all the time in shared sequences so I can copy items from that sequence into something similar into mine.   I just remember to NEVER re-save the original sequence I copy from, this is so it always stays in its original form when I close it after copying and pasting from it.