Every year, I love to check out all the Christmas light displays that every day people put their hearts into to display their Christmas spirit. In recent years, videos of Christmas lights animated to musical accompaniment have been popping up on YouTube. Some are fun and others can only be described as artistic genius. This year, my wife and I happened upon a house that featured, among other things, Christmas lights that jumped and danced in time with the music. While I had a general idea of how it was done, I decided to dig a little deeper and share some of what I learned with you. I also created a video containing a mix of these musical lights to give you a better idea of what I’m talking about. Watch the video below and then we’ll get into how it’s done.
How To Program Christmas Lights To Music
Getting your lights to dance to pre-determined music is pretty simple in concept, but will take some amount of learning for anyone new to it and a lot of time for just about anyone. That may sound discouraging, but the end result may well be worth all the trouble. Not only will you have the feeling of accomplishing something pretty cool, but you’ll have the coolest decorated house on the block and perhaps even a YouTube hit like the Skrillex Equinox display that was viewed over a million times in under three weeks.
Before you dive in and create your masterpiece, you’ll need a general idea of what’s involved. First, you’ll need to have some hardware and software to make the magic happen. The hardware (controller, etc.) will connect your lights to the computer that will run the show and the software will allow you to program the lights to react to music how you want them to. Software won’t be a problem for your budget, but hardware can cost anywhere from around $160 for 32 channels and more of a DIY, hands-on approach up to $1,200 or more for 64 channels and a lot less work. If you’re comfortable with soldering, you can spend less and do a lot of the work, but if you’re not, expect to pay a lot more for pre-built hardware. In addition to the hardware, you should be prepared to spend money on lights if you don’t have them already. The days right after Christmas usually reveal lots of great sales (that’s when I buy wrapping paper and accessories, too). And don’t forget your soon-to-be-bloated electric bill.
To get it all working, you just need to :
- Check with neighbors first
- Get your hardware and software (including lights)
- Design your display and plan what you want
- Program your show (get ready to spend a lot of time here)
- Test
- Let people know
Along with all the work involved, you’ll want to plan some things ahead. The last thing you want to do is spend months putting together the perfect Christmas light musical performance only to have something unforeseen prevent it from being displayed. Before you start, check with your neighbors and agree on reasonable start and stop times and dates. Check for any local laws, ordinances, or HOA rules that such a project my be in violation of. Plan your expenses before you buy anything and avoid fire and other hazards by talking to electricians or other experts. Planning ahead may save you a ton of headaches down the road.
When you’re all done, showcase your completed project in style. Collaborate with a local video company to create a professional-looking video and don’t stop at YouTube. Send it to local TV stations and related blogs. A viral video could help offset your December electrical bill.
As always, if you embark on this adventure, share your project here in the comments.
I love October. This is the time of year when we get to break out the cob webs and pumpkin carving kits. We get to dress up and eat candy. Halloween is even better, to some people, than Christmas. But let’s not argue about that. Instead, let’s mix in a little Christmas with our Halloween this year. You dress up and eat candy and I’ll give out the gifts.
Thanks to Wicked Audio, we have a couple sets of pretty cool ear buds to hand out, and I’m going to make this one even easier than previous contests. All you need is a Facebook account to enter. Keep reading to find out more, but first let me tell you about what you can win.
Wicked Audio: Wicked Empire Punk-inspired, noise isolating earbuds cater to a mulitude of personal styles
- Top of the line earbuds feature external design themes for a unique and personalized appearance
- Modern elements ,such as skull and 8 ball figures, allow consumers to promote their individual fashion sense
- High quality chrome finish offers a stylish look and gold-plated tip prevents damage and corrosion
- Available in 5 trendy models: Maiden, Lucky, Knight, Bones and Ace
- 10 mm Driver, 20-20,000 Hz Frequency, 1.2 Meter Cord
Wicked Audio: Wicked Little Buds Design-forward, noise isolating earbuds provide an edgy look and great sound
- Petite earbuds feature a semi-glossy finish and feature tiny Wicked Logos on the ends of each bud
- Fiber-like cord enhances the aesthetic appeal and gold-plated tip prevents corrosion
- High performance buds provide spectacular noise isolation for an enjoyable listening experience
- Light weight form provides a “barely there” feeling for the ultimate in comfort
- Available in 4 stylish colors: Black, Blue, Purple and Silver
- 5.8 mm Driver, 20-20,000 Hz Frequency, 1.2 Meter Cord
Win Wicked Audio Ear Buds
This will be one of the easiest contests you’ve ever entered. All you have to do to enter is share this post on Facebook. To let me know about your entry, you can add me on Facebook and tag me in your post or you can just send me a link to your post. As long as I can see it, it’ll count. Also, be sure to mention which set you would prefer and a style or color. As a bonus, everyone who commented on my Facebook status announcing that I’d be giving these away got an additional entry. If you weren’t one of those people, be sure to add me and watch for future contests. I’ll pick two winners via a random draw on Monday, October 10, 2011 at 2:00 PM MST.
Just so the fine print doesn’t feel left out… I must be aware of your entry for it to count. Only one entry per person for this contest (except for the bonus entries). Nobody in my immediate family can enter (sorry Mom). Winners will be contacted via Facebook and will have to provide a shipping address to send the prize to. Prize awarded will be based on preference where applicable, but no guarantee can be made that a winner will receive their specified preference. I reserve the right to disqualify any entries from Facebook accounts I deem to be fake.
That’s about it. Enter now and tag friends who you think might want to win these things (who wouldn’t?). Good luck, everyone!
Today, Google sent me an invitation to Google Music Beta. Until today, I was not a part of the limited number of users allowed in to play around. Launching quietly among all the buzz about Google+ and Google +1, Google Music is yet another attempt by Google to steal a huge user base. This time, Apple is the target.
What Is Google Music?
Google Music is a way to make your music collection available from anywhere you are. Because you upload your music collection to Google Music, it’s on the web for you to access from any computer or Android device. According to Google, it’s “A better way to play your music.”
How Do I Get A Google Music Invite?
When I first saw the Google Music Beta landing page, my first thought was that I wanted to dive in and play around. Of course, it’s in Beta, so they are limiting who can get in. I signed up to be on the list for an account and just a couple days later, I received my invitation email. Head to http://music.google.com and request an invite. If they open it up by time you read this, you should go right to your music collection to start adding. At the time of this writing, there are no invites being handed out to anyone other than via the invitation request system.
Google Music Features
In its infancy, Google Music Beta has one main feature: Play your music from anywhere. Beyond that, it doesn’t really have any ground-breaking features that are going to change your life. It has playlists, the ability to give a track a thumbs up or thumbs down, listings by song, artist, album or genre, and lots of information about the track. So, yeah. It’s like iTunes on the web.
In my quality time with Music Beta, I did find a few features that I thought stood out a little. While playing music, you can navigate to the next and previous tracks with the left and right arrow keys or use the space bar to play or pause. Additionally, the up and down arrow keys, home and end and even the page up and down help you navigate through the list while the backspace or delete keys will remove a track from your collection.
Google also added context menus to tracks to help you add songs to playlists, buy music, etc. My favorite part is the instant mix which just makes a quick mix playlist from the song you chose and other songs Google thinks compliment it. Finally, like in iTunes, you can select multiple tracks with SHIFT+click or CTRL+click and drag things around to make stuff happen. While testing, I dragged a whole album to a playlist to add it quickly.
To get your music into Google Music, you need to install the desktop application. It finds tracks from a selection of locations (I chose my iTunes library) and works like mad to upload them all. If you want to give it a test run, you can create a folder with a small selection of tracks and just import that or you can do like I did and go for broke. If you have a large collection, like me, you should be prepared to wait and keep in mind the 20,000 track limitation Google currently imposes. Seven hours after starting, only 3,400 tracks from my collection have uploaded. The upside is that it doesn’t choke up your computer’s bandwidth, processor, or memory as it quietly churns away in the background.
What’s Missing?
Social sharing : GrooveShark and Pandora set great examples for music sites with ample social sharing options. Google Music Beta doesn’t even integrate +1 or Google+ sharing, but I’d rather see Facebook and Twitter as a minimum. With the existing APIs, it should be really easy to build in.
International availability : At last check Google Music is available only in the United States. With a project like this, it’s probably just a matter of Google getting all the kinks worked out and then working through any legal barriers for offering a music service in other countries.
More keyboard controls : That there’s keyboard controls at all pleases me, but I kept looking for a way to fast forward or rewind with the keyboard. I’d also love to see shortcuts for common actions like SHIFT+Up Arrow to give a track a thumbs up or ways to add to playlists without the mouse.
While it’s not something I expect Google to take care of, I had a number of tracks that would not import because they had the old DRM ball-and-chain from iTunes. Actually, Music Beta intelligently recognized the DRM tracks, refused to import them, and provided a report about them in the desktop application. You can always burn those tracks to CD, rip them back to your computer, and re-import them without the DRM later.
Early Conclusions
The feature set is a little underwhelming, but the concept is exactly what I want from online music… MY music when and where I want it. Everything worked well, too, but I’ve heard others complain about the user interface. Google is touting it as “free for now”, but with an ad-supported option and some polishing, this will completely replace everything else I use to listen to music.
I had the opportunity this week to check out another site where you can search for and buy mp3 songs on the cheap. At 16 cents a track, iomoio.com is a fraction of other sites, leaving you to ask, “What’s the catch?”
What’s The Catch
The first thing most people wonder about a site offering cheap mp3 music downloads is if it is legal. According to the site’s FAQ, it is. The reason they can offer these tracks for so cheap is because they’re outside the U.S. and have different licensing rules and agreements. Giving your credit card to a site outside the U.S. might make some people nervous, but I didn’t feel that way with iomoio.
Features, Selection, And Quality
Any time I visit a music site that I haven’t been to before, I look for three key components: site features/usability, music selection, and quality of the music being played. I give iomoio.com a 90/100 for features and usability. The site was very easy to sign up and navigate and finding tracks was easy with a comprehensive search that auto-completes for artist, album, and track. In my searches, I found most of what I searched for, and I have an interesting taste in music. Even though it didn’t find one of the tracks I was searching for, it did find a few artists I didn’t expect results for, like Faderhead and Stromkern. Of course, iomoio had plenty of the top artists like Rihanna and Lady Gaga too. I gave iomoio a 95/100 on selection. Out of the 10 tracks I searched for, it found nine, but the site had two out of three albums for the one it didn’t find.
When viewing a list of tracks, you are presented with a play button to preview the track, but the music preview plays about four different parts of the track rather than just the first 30 seconds, providing a better sample of what you’re buying. In addition, the preview lets you skip ahead by clicking the outer ring of the circle. When you purchase, you get to download mp3 songs without any DRM, so you can add them to any of your devices and listen wherever you want.
When a track or album is purchased, it’s placed in your Downloads page, where you can download a .ZIP archive including the song or album. Downloaded tracks included the important track information like album, artist, track number, etc. and are 256k, earning a 100/100 for quality. The tracks I listened to sounded perfect.
As a bonus, when you sign up, you get two free tracks. I give that 100/100.
Conclusions
Like a lot of people in the U.S., I’m a little sensitive about who I give my credit card information to. Being a site in a foreign land may turn people away, but the trade-off is really cheap tracks at great quality with fast downloads. Even if you’re not ready to make a purchase, just head over and pick up a couple free tracks.
Although the preceding was a sponsored review, as always I strive to provide an honest opinion of the product reviewed.
