Sorry for the late reply, The preset faders will always master the intensity of the cue and will fire it as soon as you raise it above zero. If you are in Add/Swop mode, then the flash/swop buttons will flash or swop the cue. In fixture mode the swop button will toggle the cue, although the dimmers ...

You can use timed palettes just like the pearl, the only difference is that you press softkey B first before inputting a time. Also, on the D4 you can apply a palette so that it is overlapped from one fixture to the next. To do this, press softkey A in the timed palette menu and enter the percentage...