Begginer problems / Lighting philosophy

[qubazo]

Hi guys!

I'm new to all this, so please excuse my lame questions
I have a couple moving heads, 19x15W wash/beams. So far I used only playback buttons (Titan One User!), but since I'm considering updating to a deck, I've decided to learn to properly use faders.

Now - up to this point I've programmed all parameters of a group into a playback (e.g. color, position, movement, dimmer spread etc.) - all under one button. And a couple of these playbacks were prepared prior to the event and then I just clicked through them. But I figured that this gives me very limited options in terms of live editing and creating new scenes.

So I figured the right way to do it would be to have say 3 layers/pages:
1. colors, e.g. r, g, b, w - with mixing possibilites, on that page I would also put the dimmer value
2. positions, some which are most used
3. movement - pan/tilt saw, etc

I would want to put them on pages 1, 2, 3 - since the 10 faders available are very few. After doing that - surprise!
When I put on page one some faders up (dimmer, red = faders 1 and 2) and switch to page 2, the first two faders remain dim and red instead of becoming faders assigned to my positions! In other words - I loose access to the positions. On page 3 I also loose access to the first two movements...

How to deal with that?
Is the only solution buying additional faders / wing?
How are you dealing with it? Maybe some parameters on playback buttons and only some on faders?

Thanks!

EDIT: And if that's all true - wouldn't it be better to buy an "old" avo console (pearl or something) for 2000$ with 30 or 50 faders instead of buying and unreliable laptop-based system with fader wing for 8000$?

[niclights]

In terms of faders there might be two things to consider:

If you just want the same playbacks to be available over all pages then toggle [Playback Options]/[Handle Paging Locked] for the relevant playbacks.
If you want to be able to fire multiple playbacks across pages that occupy the same fader then there is the User Setting [Playback Paging = Never Hold].

However, I would say that for flexible/busking type setups like this normally you would use palettes for things like colour/position/gobo etc. The advantage of this is that you can recall with fade times on the fly and apply them to selected fixtures should you wish. That way you can free up faders for intensity. You could also consider putting shapes on playback workspace handles where they all have speed assigned to a single rate master fader.

Of course a wing doesn't hurt either. You can never have too many faders IMO. Regarding old Pearls don't forget that the Classic software only allows fixtures on the preset handles. So you would only have 15 playback faders. They're also much slower, don't have virtual dimmers etc. etc.

[qubazo]

Dear niclights,

thanks a lot, this has been a big help.
Can't find the User Setting -> Playback Paging -> Never Hold - I'm running Titan One 8.1, maybe this is something new in 9.0?

I've done some testing including the use of colour pallettes, positions etc. and so far so good - makes sense.
Although I'm struggling with the strobe effect and maybe you can help with that:

- I have dimmer value on fader 1
- pan saw on fader 2
- tilt saw on fader 3
- colors only on colour palette
- on fader 5 I have a strobe effect (clear, select a couple heads, shape and effects-> dimmer-> strobe, parameter adjustments; color: r255g255b255; record to fader, fixture mode)

Say I have faders 1-3 up (dimmer + movement) and then click a color - red. Looks good. After I flash the strobe button, the heads begin to strobe and stop when I release the button, but the color stays white (from the strobe effect).

I've tried local release mask (include color), but the problem is that there is no color in the faders which are already up (only dimmer and movement), so it doesn't have a place to go "back" from that white. On the other hand - if I don't CLEAR the color I've just given to my heads, the strobe effect works on the colors we have right now (goes on and off, but doesn't turn white).

Any clue I'm doing wrong?

Br,
Jakub

[niclights]

The playback paging option was introduced in v9.0. I recommend updating.

As long as you select palettes without selecting fixtures first (this is called 'Quick Palettes' - on by default) then it will use this as a release value. For example, white playback set to release colour. Clear. Select red palette = red. Fire white playback = white. Kill white playback = red.

There is also a new option in v9.0 to prevent release to locate values which might help. With this enabled if there's nothing to release to it won't automatically go to white (using colour as an example).

[qubazo]

VERY helpful, you're a star!

[burgi]

Hi,

I personally prefer, for such busking environments like disco/club or stages with beforehand unknown bands, to put color/color effects, positions, movements and chases/key frame shapes/ shapes onto a single playback page. All grouped in a meaningful way. And on Faders I have then different Speed/BPM Masters, for example all movements have Rate Master 1, all Color Effects have Rate Master 2, all Shutter Effects have Rate Master 3 and so on. This way you can act very fast as you don't have to change pages that often, but on the other hand you are able to adjust your preprogrammed playbacks with the help of the speed master faders. Furthermore I use some faders for Gobo/Prism rotation and of course for the front lights and Blinder/ACL effects. By the way its very usefull to have the Grand Speed Master on all fader pages thus you can stop effects with one finger at any time, without page change.

Greetings Burgi