Transfer musical sequence to another computer for show playing

[Grady29]

Hello all,

 

I built my sequences on my desktop and they are all done and ready to run. I would like to know how to transfer them to a laptop that I have dedicated for my musical shows.  I tried copying the sequences and audio to my laptop, but when I play the show in the preview window, the audio is no longer in sync with the sequence.  The preview is also not correct.   I am able to use the hardware utility on the laptop and test the controllers and they work fine. 

When I turn on the control lights feature on the right side of the screen (see attached image) on the laptop and play the sequence, it does not control the lights outside.  This feature works fine on my desktop- I am able to watch the show in the preview window and simultaneously turn the lights on outside.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks-

[dibblejr]

If all things are equal everything will be the same.

I have been doing what you are doing all along.

You probably need to set up your NP on the new computer.

As far as timing, ensure you are using the same song

How I do it from S4 to s5 is email the file/s to myself. 

Ive never had an issue. But every setting has to be the same.

JR

[PhilMassey]

Copy the entire LOR folder to the new computer with the install of the same version in the same location.

The data folder has several folders needed besides sequences and audio. The folder needs to be in the same place on both machines and LOR needs to be set to use if you don't use the defaults.

The preview and net prefs should come along, but check you have them correct. If the audio is out of sync, as JR said, it is more likely you have the wrong file somewhere.

If you have been trying this piecemeal, you might want to clean up the files on the show machine before doing this.

[Grady29]

Thank you. I will try the suggestions and let you know if I still have issues.

[Grady29]

Update:  The suggestions worked.  Since I was not transferring everything and only copying "piece-meal", that appeared to be my issue.   So far, everything is working.

 

Thanks!

[Grady29]

2nd update:

I have a folder setup on my main computer labeled "Light o Rama" and all the install files, folders, etc related to LOR are saved here.  I copied all the files from the LOR file on the main computer to my laptop, where I have a folder labeled "Light O Rama" as well.  I was getting errors when a show would attempt to start in the LOR Status window that read: "error with sequence (Object variable or with block variable not set) animation: "  After doing some experimenting, I found that after copying all the files from the main computer to the laptop, the show/schedule would not copy properly.  So I would start to re-create the show/schedule on the laptop and then the shows would work again.  Though, after a a couple days, I started to notice an issue with my RGB strings mostly (somewhat noticed it with regular LED lights too), where they would work as programmed, but they would flicker as they were running.  Basically, if they were sequenced to run steady, they would have a flicker effect or if they had a twinkle/shimmer effect sequence, it would be noticeable they were flickering while shimmering/twinkling.  I couldn't get this problem to stop.  I decided to uninstall the software on the laptop and reinstall it. I then copied only the folders from the LOR folder from the main computer to the laptop.  My thinking was that all other files that I didn't copy were only necessary to run the software and they weren't being changed as I made modifications to the sequences, so I didn't copy them to the laptop. After copying the the folders to the laptop, I would restart the laptop to make sure everything got a fresh restart, reprogrammed the shows and ran LOR.  I found that by not copying the software files, it left my schedule intact and I would not need to redo my schedule.  As I ran the shows, everything was working fine, until last night.  The flickering issue returned.   I am now at a loss.  I am not sure what I am doing wrong.  I did discover that I didn't check the box " Sequences are loaded before any are played" the last time I re-programmed the shows, so I will try that, but other than that, I can't figure it out.  The laptop does not have USB 3.0 or greater ports.  I don't believe that is a problem, but figured to mention it.

I also forgot to mention that I always unload LOR from the computer before doing any file transfers.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Edited October 9, 2021 by Grady29

[PhilMassey]

Difficult to say what's going on, but you should NEVER copy the actual program files usually found in the programfilesx86/LOR folder. All the data files in YOUR data folder should be copied to the same location on your 2nd PC. Whenever you install always use the default location for the program files. When you first start up any of the lor programs after a fresh install it should ask you to point to your data folder. Again always use the same location on both machines.

Anytime you need to change the location of the data folder you can run Lorpost.exe which you can find in the programfilesx86/lor folder. 

In Sequencer under Sequencer/File References you will find info on the file locations. Compare for the two machines.

[Rapajez]

Just a tip in general, since I have the same setup with multiple sequencing PCs and one show PC. (not sure if there's a better alternative?)

LOR doesn't like the absolute paths changing. I've noticed issues having a different Windows user on 2 PCs can do it. (The path goes from C:/username1/mydocs/LOR to C:/username2/mydocs/LOR), or different drive names.

The best alternative I've found was creating a DropBox folder on all PCs, and telling LOR to use it. That has the added benefit automatically syncing all my PCs. You can also create shared links to your sequences to share here. Finally, you have an automated backup. (Just keep in mind your mistakes are also getting synced -- make multiple backups!). 

You're limited by the storage DB provides without paying. You can do the same with One Drive (more or less free on Windows PCs), but again, you have to make sure the actual directory path is the same on both computers. I'm sure there's other Cloud alternatives out there.

Edited October 27, 2021 by Rapajez

[k6ccc]

I use mapped network drives - which may or may not be on the same physical computer.  On every computer there is a mapped network drive of L:.  In the case of the three computers at the house that have LOR, that is actually D:\Shared\LOR on my file server.  That way if I make a sequencing change from my family room PC, it is the same file location as what the server (which runs the off season landscaping show) and the light show computer see.  The laptop also has a mapped network drive of L:, but it is actually C:\LOR on the same computer.  Same thing with this computer at work, L: is actually D:\LOR on this computer.  In all cases, the LOR software sees the LOR files as being under L:\.

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by k6ccc

[Rapajez]

Ugh, that's even easier. I don't know why I never thought of it. The automatic sharing/backup is still nice in DB. 

[PhilMassey]

Connect the network folder to Dropbox.

[Rapajez]

Just now, PhilMassey said:

Connect the network folder to Dropbox.

Perfect

[kornerb]

added question to this: if you have 1 pc with Pro license for design, and 1 pc for control, do you need to have a pro license for the control Pc?

 

[PhilMassey]

You get 5 seats so why not just use pro on both. There are reasons not to use differing versions and no reason I can think of to use different ones.

[kornerb]

Somehow I didn't realize I got 5 seats... thanks! LOL