Does anyone know how to hook Christmas lights to music?

Question

I've been watching alot of the videos on Youtube where people hook their lights to music (like Trans Siberian Orchestra). And I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to do that.

Answer 1

There are several ways to do this.

Cheap: Mr. Lights and Sounds of Christmas (available at Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart for about $100). You get 1440 watts of power on six channels. The songs are preselected and TSO style.


Not so cheap:

http://www.LightORama.com

http://www.AnimatedLighting.com

http://www.D-Lights.us

these are the top three manufacturers of hardware and software that allows you to select any song, program the lights and create a custom show.

There are several resources available, the largest being the forum at http://www.PlanetChristmas.com


how they work: D- light has you build your own controllers. So if you can solder, this is a less expensive option of the three. They are the smallest company of the three.

Light O Rama - less expensive than AL, but more expensive then D-Light. Seems to be the most popular among home owners.

Animated Lighting - Costly, but their software is easier to use than LOR (LOR is beta testing new software that is supposed to be easy, but it is not scheduled for release).

LOR and AL both sell a plug-n-play package.

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More or less: each time you see a set of lights turn on/off, it is on its own circuit. You buy controllers to turn off lights. If I had 200 circuits I wanted to control, I would wire the controllers in series to control the lights. Most controllers will operate 16 circuits.

But, you can have numerous lights on the same controller. Most people start with 16 or 32 channels. I currently use over 200.

HOW TO TRANSMIT YOUR STUFF ON THE RADIO:

To transmit on the FM band, you purchase a separate FM transmitter. The FCC allows you to broadcast 200ft without a license.

Some favorite decoration sites are http://www.ChristmasUtah.com by Marty Slack; (he is LOR)

http://www.LightsOnDisplay.com/ by Mike Ziemkowski; (he is AL)

http://www.LindsayLights.com by the Lindsay family in Canada; (LOR)

the homes shown on Planet Christmas.com; http://www.planetchristmas.com/ShowingOff2006.htm

the 2007 LOR decorating contest winners; http://www.lightorama.com/Videos.html

and some submittals from the customers of Animated Lighting; http://www.animatedlighting.com/showcase/customershows.asp

Answer 2

the easiest way is to get the proper software..

go to www.wowlights.com

good luck

oh you can go to also:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Christmas-Lights-Flash-to-Music


The guy below me seems to have all the answers!!!! I'd give him more thumbs up's of i could! WOW

Answer 3

Ther is a machine that you can buy...it just plugs into an outlet.