xmas lights

[itie]

hello everyone

i know that this is kind of off topic here but i was wondering how people make there xmas light dance to music. i was looking into doing it this year. what i was thinking about doing was getting some shoebox dimmers and a dmx to usb dongle. i have never done any lighting on a computer nor do i know of any software to do it. would this be the best way to do it or is there an easier way? if so could any suggest some software to use once i get every thing together.

thank you
giovanni

 

[gafftaper]

While you could design the world's most amazing Christmas light show using theater gear it wouldn't be very practical. I have the feeling you will find it easier and cheaper to investigate how those twinkle crazy people out there already do it. I hate to advise people to leave the friendly walls of CB but there are all kinds of websites and forums out there dedicated to just this topic. If you do find some other cool resources I'm sure people here will be interested, so do follow up by posting the favorite sites you find.

That said I think I remember a person or two here discussing doing this a year or so back. So don't give up hope.

 

[itie]

thank you and will do.

 

[Les]

I know that Light-O-Rama is a big player in the "Christmas Light Automation" industry.

http://www.lightorama.com/

 

[MaxS]

There's actually a pretty large online following for this. I know the guys over at Do It Yourself Christmas would be more than willing to help. There are a lot of E.E.s that hang around the forums, and at least one former ETC employee. Bear in mind though, "do it yourself" will definitely hold up to its namesake. Most of the things they do are based off of custom PCBs and you'll have to be willing to do extensive soldering work. Sequencing is done with a FOSS piece of software called Vixen. In the end though, the DIY route ends up being MUCH less expensive than investing in a Light-O-Rama system, with the same results.

 

[Studio]

light o rama now does dmx so you could use a theater board to control it.

 

[Tex]

I'm doing this.
I spent yesterday hanging and circuiting and I'll program today.
I'm using a couple of shoebox dimmer packs and an Elation board that I already had, so there's no extra expense there.
I've got alternating strings of red, green and white across the roof line and around the perimeter of the yard. Each color is on it's own circuit. I have several other circuits of net lights on bushes, tree lights and yard art. At some point, I'll add an FM transmitter and music.
I checked out the DIY sites and while they build some very cool stuff, I saw no need to re-invent the wheel. DJ boards and shoebox dimmers are cheap enough to compare price wise to the DIY equipment and come without the time commitment and learning curve.
I've had fun planning and hanging. I can see how this could be highly addictive...

 

[n1ist]

The main reason the Christmas guys use non-theatrical equipment is the channel count - they often use 100-500 channels of low current (2-4A per channel) dimming. Most of that world is now migrating to DMX from proprietary protocols.
/mike

 

[gafftaper]

Be sure to post a video of it when you are done!

 

[tcahall]

I actually have one of these running at a local shopping mall. Since we are in a mall environment, I can't just use music on my iPod, I have to use the Muzak they already have. I use an Enttec Pro dongle (usually backing up MagicQ) and Freestyler software (free). It allows you to sense the beat via a microphone and bounce through the cues based upon the beat. It is not as advanced as matching the lights to the sound, but everyone is impressed with the show and it clearly does do light to sound. Best of all, I didn't have to buy anything specific to putting on a show.

Tim.

 

[SouthFloridaSFX]

Like LES said, Light O Rama makes the majority of what people use today. Under $500.00s gives you 32 channels, the controller and software to run it. At that price even your cheapest shoebox dimmer or relay packs will never come close in price.

 

[n1ist]

LOR makes most of the commercial stuff, but the DIY side of the fence (www.diylightanimation.com,www,doityourselfchristmas.com) there are some very interesting products that even beats LORs pricing.

 

[tcahall]

Q

Looks like interesting stuff. I didn't want to end up with anything that was "Christmas show" specific. Also, I already had the dimmers and dongle. If you want the programming to be song specific, you can use MagicQ and MIDI triggers to have more precise programming. The "built for Christmas" stuff is designed to make the programming easier (although nothing is going to be easier than FreeStyler and the "bump to the beat" approach.

Being able to use stuff I already owned made it a lot more interesting from a $$$ standpoint.

Tim.