Frequently asked questions
When did you start synchronising lights to music?
2015 was my first year so as you can imagine with learning about this technology, that year was rather hectic.
How much did it all cost?
As you will see in the How To's I have re-used a number of old lights and even use PC power supplies to power the complete show. Because of these money savers the first year only cost about £250.
How long does it take to synchronise the lights to a song?
This is a very long winded process of first putting in beat tracks and then adding affects to each light element at a specific point in the song. This can take around 6 hours per song.
How many songs do you have in a show?
For 2015 there were 2 shows with 7 different songs in each show. I will hopefully add at least 3 more in each this year.
How long does it take to setup the whole display?
Fortunately I only have a small front garden and a semi-detached house. This means I have a small display which only takes 2 days to put up.
How are visitors able to listen to the music?
Many people, especially in the US, use an FM transmitter to broadcast the music to your car stereo. The road I live on is not that big so I don't imagine I will need to do that. Last year I used a pair of PC speakers in a bin bag hidden behind a bush! I will do similar this year but hopefully upgrade them for better sound quality.
What software do you use to make your display?
There are two sections to this - software to sequence your show, and software to play these sequences.
For the sequencer I use Xlights but there are many other free and commercial options available. This software is used to flash certain lights at a particular point in time. This can be with music so that the flashes occur in time with the music or can just flash the lights on their own with different effects.
Once you have finished programming your sequence the same software can be used to schedule your display. You can create many sequences and then have Xlights play them at set times in whatever order you like.
As Xlights needs a full blown PC or laptop to run, Falcon player (FPP) was created so that the same sequences can be scheduled through a mini low power PC called a Raspberry Pi.
