David Barnett Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 OK, Finally got all my test stuff hooked up. Got the show set up on the SD card for the 1602MP3...functions great.Now I'm watching my sequnces play.Uggh..in the begining for approx. the first min of the song, the lights and music are out of sync by aprox. .2-.3. Now as the sequences continues to play, everything syncs up the rest of the time!I verified in Sequncer, that the commands are spot on.Soooo, here is what I have accomlished.1. Updated the MP3 firmware to latest, reset 1602MP3. All went well on update.2. I d/l audacity,the lame thingy. Took all the MP3's I was suing and exported them as MP3's again.I was using the the Wowlights 128 MP3 that came with my presequenced stuff.When I zoomed into the sequnces, it looked like there was aprox. .2 of silience at the begining of the song. So I edited that portion out, to where the song has no dead space at the beginning. Then I exported as MP3.Associated the new MP3 with all my sequences, d/l to SD card. Played the show.Now, all of my sequences seem to be off by .1-.2. I'm so frustrated!Should I have just loaded the Original MP3's in Audacity; reexported; as opposed to the editing I did. Did that throw things off?I'm beat. Gotta get some shuteye. I'll see if any of you have any ideas this morn.I'll also just try and use the originals again,no edits,just export...see if that works.Any Help,thoughts appreciated.Night AllBest,David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale W Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Convert all your songs to wav format and verify that the timing is "spot-on". Then, after editing as required, convert back to MP-3. You should be good to go. This is how I program all my songs (in wav and convert to MP-3) and I have never had a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbth Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 I would have highlighted the section that was out of sequence, typed Control C, then moved the cursor back to the very beginning of where I highlighted, then moved the .1-.2 seconds to syncronize, then hit Control V. If I don't like where it landed, hit Control Z and move the cursor again.If you need to be exact, place a guide block exactly where the out of sync section should start, then copy and past on the guide block. This method works really well if you started with an equally spaced grid as the basis of your song. If you have a sparce grid then you will need to divide the existing grid to give you some working room.Why you would work with .wav files is a little confusing as I don't see how that provides you with any useful information during the sequencing process. Just make sure all your .mp3s are 128 and they should be fine.Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Hamilton Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 bigbth wrote: Why you would work with .wav files is a little confusing as I don't see how that provides you with any useful information during the sequencing process. Just make sure all your .mp3s are 128 and they should be fine.I do the same thing as Dale. I've had far too many problems with timing issues in the past couple years until I started editing everyting in wav format. I don't know if it is still an issue in version 2.0.16 because I don't have time to experiment, but in prior versions, I had trouble with mp3 trying to keep sync during editing. The issue has to do with inability of mp3 resyncing in the middle of a song. Even when I used 128 bit constant bit rate, it still was an issue.Everything works well by sequencing in wav and finally conveting to mp3 for the show director I do for other people. I just stick with what works. On my own system where I use a computer instead of a show director, I leave everything in wav format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westport Lights Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Richard Hamilton wrote: I don't know if it is still an issue in version 2.0.16 because I don't have time to experiment, but in prior versions, I had trouble with mp3 trying to keep sync during editing. The issue has to do with inability of mp3 resyncing in the middle of a song. Even when I used 128 bit constant bit rate, it still was an issue.The problem still exists in 2.0.16. I had the same problem last year and forgot about it starting out this year. I just finished re-ripping the songs to .wav and fixing the timing issues.Sequencing using a wav format is best. One thing that is worse than sequencing mp3 is when the mp3 is variable bit-rate. It's very frustrating making a sequence then having it out of time. fixing it, then it goes out of time again.There are other posts in these forums somewhere about it from last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbth Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 That's interesting. What happens to your sequence that tells you that there is a sync problem?The description Barnett gave was that he had deleted some of the sound file, the first .2 seconds, then discovered that the sequence was off by .2 seconds. Since I assume the sequence editor is not in any way analyzing the sound file this seems perfectly logical. If the sequence editor does not really know anything about the sound file and you delete .2 seconds from the front of the file I would expect the sequence to be off by .2 seconds. Copy the sequence and paste .2 seconds ahead. Problem solved.To my knowledge the sound file and the sequence are two separate and distinct files. The only way they are ever in alignment is if they are run at exactly the same time and you placed actions in the sequence at the same time as sound in the sound file, which you only know because the editor allows you to lay the wave form on your editor screen. I suppose it is possible that during play back in the editor the editor could lose track of the sound file position but I would think that could only occur if you have a sound file recorded at some odd frequency. By the same logic I suppose the editor could lose track of the sequence time also.I don't rely heavily on the wave form so it may be that it is happening to me and I just work around it. I always stop periodically and play the whole song or at least a large portion of it so maybe that keeps it in sequence.Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westport Lights Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 There's another post about this in a different section. It has a little more information for you.http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum72/17295.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 bigbth wrote: The description Barnett gave was that he had deleted some of the sound file, the first .2 seconds, then discovered that the sequence was off by .2 seconds. Brian,Please re-read the original problem. He states the sequence is off by .2 seconds and then he deleted that amound of silence from the beginning of the sound using Audacity. After the deletion discovered he was off still.Simply trying to clarify!Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbth Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 The animation window is dependent on the graphics driver and should never be used as the final word on the timings. I use a laptop and desktop to do sequencing and the animation is okay on the desktop but lags a lot on the laptop. I only use the animation as a guide, never to set the timings. If you see a problem, first set the animation window up so that you can still see the actual sequence window and the channel buttons. Play the sequence and watch both, the channel buttons and the animation. On my laptop I can see the delay.I thought you were talking about a problem of alignment of the wave form in the sequence editor itself.Once you delete the beginning of the mp3 file you change the file and thus the timings will be out of alignment. If the commands are spot on in the sequencer that’s the only thing that will be displayed so there is no problem, I would advise not making any timing decisions based on the animation window. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbth Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 The animation window is dependent on the graphics driver and should never be used as the final word on the timings. I use a laptop and desktop to do sequencing and the animation is okay on the desktop but lags a lot on the laptop. I only use the animation as a guide, never to set the timings. If you see a problem, first set the animation window up so that you can still see the actual sequence window and the channel buttons. Play the sequence and watch both, the channel buttons and the animation. On my laptop I can see the delay.I thought you were talking about a problem of alignment of the wave form in the sequence editor itself.Once you delete the beginning of the mp3 file you change the file and thus the timings will be out of alignment. If the commands are spot on in the sequencer that’s the only thing that will be displayed so there is no problem, I would advise not making any timing decisions based on the animation window. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Barnett Posted October 25, 2008 Author Share Posted October 25, 2008 Hi everyone. Thanks for the info and input. I wanted to repost earlier, but been busy all day working on the show.OK, so far problem resolved.I went back to square 1 on the Audacity steps.I relaoded the original 128 MP3 into Audacity.I then exported the MP3 again, no changes this time. Reassociated, the MP3 with appropriate sequence....saved files again.I then used the Hardware manager to load the sequences on my SD card.I DID NOT select the Lock step, and also selected the 115.7(or close to that number, instead of the 57.? number recommended)Loaded the shows in MP3 director, started playing..what a beautiful site!Everything was spot on perfect.....it looks awesome.Movingn forward again. Will get the rest set up tommorow(today). Big thanks to ALL.Best,DavidPS I know my spelling sucks, I'm tired and achy..need sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 David... good to hear from you again and glad everything is working.I discovered a bug last year in the lock step mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Barnett Posted October 26, 2008 Author Share Posted October 26, 2008 Hi William, good to hear from you as well. Thanks for all your assistance, with my show. As well as, information.Your discovery of the "Lock Step" thing, is precisely why I'm not using it right now. So far, everything is working fine.Hope I can do some vids this week.Best,David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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