Best way to transition between cue lists on different pages

[peter.rodda]

Hi,

I know the topic of having cuelists on the same fader but on multiple faders is being covered in another thread, and is not yet possible, but I want to ask for specific advice:

I am about to go onto a tour with a band where we have 18 songs per show. I have programmed each song on a different page in the same format: Fader 10 is main song cuelist; faders 7, 8 and 9 are various generics and front lights in transparent paging; faders 1 to 5 are used for song specific things (chases that require a tap tempo, flash cues, and other things to be run manually).

Now, to run the show...

I need to be able to start with a preset look. Then, when show starts with song 1 on page 1 I start the main cue list and run the song. Then I need to release the last cue and move on to the next song, which is on page 2 and the main cuelist is again on fader 10.

Pressing AVO+Playback 10 releases to black, then I change page and start the next cue list. This is all fine in the rehearsals, where we just rehearse song per song, but it becomes difficult when we perform live.

I dont always want to go to blackout between songs. Sometimes I need to smoothly go from the end of the last song to a holding look (or various different holding looks - depending on which member of the band does a chat between the song), sometimes I need to go to black out, and sometimes I need to hold the last cue from the last song, and then smoothly fade into the next song (and here the AVO Release kills it).

So what are possible solutions?

Each night some songs could be dropped, or the set order could be changed slightly.

I though of maybe having a single playback that is locked (fader 6) with a cuelist that auto-loads the different main cuelists for each song. Then it could also run the various holding looks or transition looks. And I could reorder the autoloads depending on the setlist order for that night. Would that work? How are autoloads released? (on the master 2s, or instantly, with a mask? etc.?)

I also thought of maybe staggering the cuelists, so song 1 has main cuelist on fader 10, song two has main cuelist on fader 9, song 3 on fader 10 again, and so on... but that doesn't solve all the problems...

I guess one of the possible solutions would be to put the entire show into one cuelist that in locked onto the fader, and then page per song for the different playbacks on fader 1 - 5... But I really dont like that. Having a cuelist of 400 cues means that all my eggs are in one basket and its difficult to come out if things change or go wrong.

So, any ideas from anyone, especially you guys from Avo PLEASE!

[CSmithDesign]

I'd make use of the executor buttons. Program several looks (maybe 10) into 10 of these buttons and have them be in "latch" mode with a fade in and out.

If at the end of a song you want to hold a look, press that executor button, let it fade in, then release all of your faders and change pages. When the next song starts up, release the executor button and start your new faders

Might be worth a try?

[niclights]

Yes. I was going to suggest something similar:

Have a transition playback in addition to the cue-list which is a copy of the last cue. After firing the last cue fire the transition cue. Kill list. Change page and fire next list. It might make sense to include a copy of the same cue at the start of the new list too. Obviously this is only necessary for intensity cues.
The advantage of this method is you are not restricted to 10 executors, it is manually fadable and you don't have to remember which exectutor to use. The disadvantage is using up a playback fader.