The Light-O-Rama (LOR) Sequence Editor is used to create musical sequences. It uses Microsoft’s Media Player to play and retrieve song timing. The DC-MP3 Show Director has its own MP3 player. To achieve maximum flexibility using LOR products you must use Constant Bit Rate (CBR) MP3 files and they should be recorded at 128 Kbps. These settings produce a CD quality recording.

Warning: Windows Media Player 10 has the ability to rip CDs to MP3s, unfortunately, this is not done correctly if the CD is ripped to 128 Kbps MP3 files. Media Player returns different timings when the song is played in its entirety as opposed to playing a small part of it while working in the Sequence Editor. If you are not going to use the song on a DC-MP3 Show Director, you can rip the song at 192 Kbps in Windows Media Player 10. Follow this link for a guide to ripping to 192 Kbps MP3s that are not going to be used with a DC-MP3: Media Player 10 - 192 Kbps

If you are using the DC-MP3 you should rip the MP3s at 128 Kbps. Higher bit rate MP3s consume too much of the DC-MP3’s microprocessor cycles and may interfere with the playing of your show. If you have Media Player 10 and do not want to load another musical media handling package on your PC, follow this link for a guide to upgrading the Media Player 10 MP3 encoder for $10 and using it to rip 128 Kbps MP3s: Media Player 10 - 128 Kbps

If you would like a free method of ripping CDs to 128 Kbps MP3s on Windows XP or have Windows 98, follow this link for a guide to using MusicMatch JukeBox to rip MP3s: MusicMatch JukeBox - 128 Kbps

If you buy songs from an online music service, these are usually delivered in a proprietary format. If you do not have a utility or function that will convert these into MP3 files, you can do the following: Burn the song(s) onto a CD and rip the song(s) from that CD to MP3s.