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This week’s Quick Tip is comes from a question that gets asked in training classes quite often: What’s the difference between Remove and Release?

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First, let’s talk about where you’ll see it on the console. When you’re recording over a Cue that already exists, the options to Remove or Release can be seen in a Pop-Up window along with the expected Merge and Overwrite options (see screenshot above). Additionally, you can also find these options in the STORE OPTIONS window. Removing and Releasing are not the same as deleting an entire Cue. These options are specific to attributes and should be used when you want to remove certain values (but not all values) from an existing Cue.

So, what’s the difference? Let’s say that you have 3 cues controlling multiple fixtures in a single Sequence. Then, imagine that you want edit the Dimmer value of a particular fixture in the Sequence. In Cue 1, your fixture’s intensity goes to 100%. In Cue 2, your fixture’s intensity drops to 50%, and in Cue 3, the level drops again to 25%. Now, say we want to get rid of the value of 50% in Cue 2. So, you select the fixture – put a hard value (any value) on the Dimmer attribute and STORE over Cue 2. If you choose REMOVE, then the value of 50% in Cue 2 is erased, but allows the value of 100% to track through during Cue 2. In Cue 3, the fixture would, of course, crossfade to 25%.

If you chose RELEASE when re-recording Cue 2, then the value of 50% would still be erased – but, the value of 100% from Cue 1 would not track through. In fact, when you play Cue 2, the Dimmer attribute of your fixture will actually be released: in other words, this Cue will actually relinquish control of the Dimmer. Again, when you play Cue 3, the value will crossfade to 25%.

Here’s a chart showing you the values of the fixture in each cue in each of the situations detailed above:

Keep in mind that using RELEASE doesn’t necessarily tell the attribute to return to it’s default value. In fact, all it does is Release that particular Cue’s control over the attribute. If another Sequence is active and could potentially take control of that attribute, then it will.

Quick Tips are exactly what the name should imply. We’re adding these to our blog in an effort to help programmers and operators of all levels. If you’d like to suggest a Quick Tip, drop us a message on this blog, or on our Facebook page, or even via Twitter.

Tags: grandMA programming, tips, Training

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 11:35 am and is filed under MA Series 1 Consoles, Quick Tip Tuesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.