Thread: does ne1 knw how to make lights go with music?i saw this on youtube?

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seen it goin to halloween simpsons theme song and the beat from the movie halloween very kool.

There are a variety of ways to do it, and there are a lot of options. It usually involves hardware, software, and a computer. You can buy some dedicated lightshow controllers, such as Light-O-Rama or Animated Lighting. Those will probably be your best bet in terms of cost and capability. You can build your own lightshow controller (links can be found at www.planetchristmas.com). Another option is you could use Insteon home automation hardware, which might be a good option if you already have some of that hardware. I make a software product called "Light Show Master" that can turn Insteon hardware into a light show (www.jltsoft.com). It has limitations because the hardware isn't designed for lightshows in mind (I don't make the hardware) and the hardware isn't cheap. There are also some light show controllers that are stand-alone (no computer needed) with some built-in songs and possibly an MP3 player port. The built-in songs tend to be cheesy and these are usually limited to 6 channels of lights, don't do dimming, and if you use the MP3 player, you probably won't be too impressed because it will almost seem like random blinking.

Your best bang for the buck might be the Light-O-Rama 16-channel starter kit which can be had for under $400. Keep in mind you'll need a computer to run the show, unless you buy their light show controller box which allows you to download your sequences onto an SD card and plug it into the box. I wouldn't bother with that expensive option. You just use a single cat5 cable that goes between your computer (an adapter comes with the starter kit) and the LOR box. The nice thing about LOR is you can daisy chain more boxes for more channels.

Yeah. What Xpendable said. There are DIY options out there. And there are the Mr. Christmas and Gemmy controllers - usually six channels that are NOT synchronized with the music. Animated Lighting and LOR allow precise timing of the lights with the music, including fading up and down. I use LOR (currently seven 16-channel controllers) for Xmas, and will eventually use them for Halloween. While it can be a little costly, LOR is pretty much plug-n-play as far as the setup. Actually sequencing the lights does take a bit of time.