Newbie question – sequence to long mixed track or individual songs ?

Santa2

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Jul 9, 2016
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Hi guy, I have only just started playing with Xlights & wondering what most people do as far as sequencing to long music mixes ?

Is it best to just have a mixed 7 or so minute track & sequence to that

Or do the songs individually then copy & past it into one show ?

Whats the best way

Thanks for any help

Steve
 

Troy ELD

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It all depends on what you'd like your show to be!

There is an awesome video from Shane (Fing) about how to sequence to an audience

https://auschristmaslighting.com/media/adelaide-mini-2017-show-design-the-art-of-sequencing.251/


Troy
 

keithsw1111

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Generally I would recommend you break it up because it is faster and easier to sequence.
Most that disagree are because they want super smooth transitions between songs and you can't get that when you break them up as there is always a momentary pause as your player swaps songs. If you are particular about that then you have no choice but to create one long song.
 

djgra79

My name is Graham & I love flashing lights!
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The advantage of one long song/sequence is that it can be non stop. To me that is about the only advantage.
The disadvantage is you can't change the order if you want/need to, and the render time on a huge long sequence will became quite tedious the more you add to it too.
If you need a hand with any audio editing/mixing yell out ;)
 

scamper

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My suggestion for a newbie, is individual songs, and try and find short ones. If you are that concerned about a very short pause, I would suspect you would also be very pedantic about the quality of your work, In that case it could take weeks to do one long mix and you will become very frustrated.
At least with short songs, you can get an idea of what you want it to look like, sequence it and then get something finished. Then onto the next.
If you run out of time, at least you have something for your show, you can then always go back and fix things up later.
 

videoman3857

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This is subjective - just like the music.
People's attention span is very limited and most people don't even realise the music and lights are timed until near the end.
My lights are immersive and people walk amongst the lights and displays.
I have music playing and the lights are twinkling or doing subtle changes as they walk around.
Every 30 mins we have a "Light show"
The display lasts under three minutes and is choreographed to a piece of intro music and
then three different versions of the the same song (carols of the bells) edited together to make the "one song"
Pauses in the music and base drops allow for the change in the edit and allows us to change the "Pace" of the display.
This gives people a chance to see the display and see the show.
 

fasteddy

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I wouldn't make a music mix using full songs as that just would bulk up the sequence compared to having individual songs.
But making a music mix of about 5 minutes or so using several songs works great
 

videoman3857

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I wouldn't make a music mix using full songs as that just would bulk up the sequence compared to having individual songs.
But making a music mix of about 5 minutes or so using several songs works great
I find 5 mins is too long if people want to watch the whole show.
My carol of the bells mix is a combination of edits from different versions.
The first part is a cappella. Then it breaks into dubstep and finishes off with TSO.
Like I said. "Music and mixing is subjective and "you cant please every one - so you gotta please yourself "
 

fasteddy

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I find 5 mins is too long if people want to watch the whole show.
My carol of the bells mix is a combination of edits from different versions.
The first part is a cappella. Then it breaks into dubstep and finishes off with TSO.
Like I said. "Music and mixing is subjective and "you cant please every one - so you gotta please yourself "

I agree you have to do what you believe works best for you, each year my show sequence got shorter due to the traffic generated and in the end I had a single 3.5minute music mix but found it still was too long because I wasn't able to get the traffic to move fast enough which created long queues which needed to be managed because each year more people would come

Everyone's display is different from small displays to large displays with different music choices and ways to use the lights, so when it comes to sequencing then there are very little hard rules and everyone will do what they believe works best for their display and that's what makes our hobby so interesting, because you get to see so many creative ideas used in different ways on different houses.
 
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