Ready… GO

This week’s Quick Tip comes from programmer Paul Sonnleitner.

The syntax on the GrandMA lighting console is both powerful and flexible. It’s easy to sometimes overlook how a simple macro, however, can make common actions even easier.

How often does a designer say to a programmer, “Okay, take this exact look and record it as cue X”? While recording the existing values of all channels is the standard behavior with some lighting consoles, only the active values in the Programmer are, by default, recorded with STORE on the GrandMA. While a programmer can change the store default settings via holding down STORE on the GrandMA, the resulting cue can contain more than desired as all attributes of all channels/fixtures will be stored with the new cue. How can this request be best accomplished without all the tracking baggage? How about creating a simple Macro to help?

Create a Macro that does the following:
• IfOutput (This selects all fixtures that have an intensity above 0%)
• On Preset 1 thru 9 (This activates all parameter information for previously selected fixtures)
• IfOutput At 0 (This selects all fixtures with an intensity at exactly 0%)
• On Preset 2 (This activates the Dimmer information for the fixtures at 0%)
• Off Group 999 (This deactivates any fixtures stored in Group 999* so they will not be stored in the cue)

This macro takes the value of all parameters of all channels/fixtures currently above zero intensity into the Programmer, and only the intensity value of all channels/fixtures currently at zero. This means when the new cue is stored, only the intensity of channels/fixtures that are off are brought into the new cue so fixtures not adding to the new look won’t be fading out and moving and changing color, for instance; they’ll fade out and all their other attributes will track. Other manufacturers might call this a Snapshot cue or a Snapshot record option, and it’s very useful when building a lot of states quickly, such as when cueing a television show.

* Notice the macro’s last lines; any channel/fixture recorded into Group 999 (choose your own macro number that you will be unlikely to use in a show) won’t be recorded into the new cue, regardless of level. Houselights and hazers, for example, would be good choices for members of Group 999.

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.

Are you using QUIKEYS in your showfile? QUIKEYS allow for on-screen access to both buttons that are found as hard keys and others that aren’t. As their name implies they’ll help speed up your programming. Why in the world would you want a second, on-screen version of something you already have as a hard key? Well, some of the QUIKEY options allow you to bypass having to hit that hard key multiple times. For example, if you find that you’re constantly using ALIGN <> (SYM), you can set a QUIKEY for this that will save you from having to hit the ALIGN key 4 times. Also, keep in mind that not all hard keys are found on every model in the MA line. If you’re using a Replay Unit- these keys can be invaluable.

Creating a QUIKEY is easy. Simply open the QUIKEY pool, hit the EDIT key and touch any empty QUIKEY cell (alternatively, you can right-click in the cell). The console will open a new window showing you a list of all possible QUIKEYs that can be added.

Some of my favorites include the ENCODER SPEED option which allows you to toggle between coarse and fine (cause sometimes I just don’t like pushing down on the encoder, ok?); FLIP especially for working with yoke-based moving lights (but it can also be used on mirrored fixtures to help create symmetrical positions); BLOCK and UNBLOCK for fixtures in cues; and, of course, the selection tools: ALL, ODD, EVEN, INVERT, SHUFFLE, and the CCOPY options (Circular Copies – forwards and backwards). In fact, I like Circular Copies soooo much, I think I’ll have to dedicate an entire Quick Tip Tuesday to talking about them. Look for that in the future.

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.

This week’s Quick Tip comes from Paul Sonnleitner.

Are you confused about why some presets on the GrandMA apply to some fixtures instead of all fixtures? Understanding the difference between a Universal preset and a Selective preset unlocks some powerful time-saving functionality on the MA Lighting GrandMA.
What’s the difference, you ask? A Selective preset applies only to the fixtures you have in the Programmer when you store, while a Universal preset will expand upon storing to apply to all fixtures of the same type.

When you’ve mixed a beautiful sunset orange, for example, store the color preset as a Universal preset and all fixtures of the same type you mixed it with can now use that preset. If this information is stored as a selective preset, only the fixture or fixtures you used to mix this color will have data associated with this color preset.

To alter the type of preset stored, hold down STORE before selecting the preset destination. In the lower- right corner of the Store options view, you’ll see a toggle that can be set to Universal or Selective. But unless you choose USE AS DEFAULT from the upper right corner of this screen before continuing with your store operation, your selection will be used with the current operation only and will automatically reset to the default value.

As a general rule, I store most presets as universal except Pan/Tilt, Dimmer, and All presets. All fixture of the same type with cyan at 75, and magenta and yellow at zero, for example, will result in the same “Pretty Cyan” coming out of the fixture, like I’d name the color preset. All fixtures of the same type with pan at 50 and tilt at 32, however, will NOT all be “Downstage Center.” To make it easier for me to remember, I’ll usually turn on the “Universal” option from the Store options and set it to USE AS DEFAULT as soon as l start setting up a show. When I’m ready to start programming, I’ll toggle the option back to SELECTIVE and again set it to USE AS DEFAULT. After the initial set-up, most presets a programmer creates will fixture- specific, so there will be little need to alter this store setting except in rare situations.

An additional advantage of properly using universal presets is that as more fixtures of the same type to are added to a show, universal presets will automatically apply to these new fixtures without using AUTO CREATE to clone information. This is a big time saver.
As a final note, be aware that UPDATE also uses this Store option setting when updating presets. If a user has initially stored a preset as selective, EDITing the preset and UPDATing (as long as the Store option is set to Universal) will make it universal.
Good luck, and happy programming!

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.

Simple DMX access ability is an invaluable thing. You can use this to check an unruly attribute of a multichannel fixture, or to locate unpatched dimmers, or even just as the quintessential DMX test output.

On the grandMA, you can call up, and give a value to, any channel in your rig – it doesn’t matter if it is patched or not. To do this, you need to tell the console which universe and channel you want to work with, followed by a value between 0 and 100. For example, to call up Channel 42 of universe 3 (B) to 50%, I would use the syntax: DMX 3.42 @ 50 ENTER.
Tip: to access “DMX” on your Commandline, press the CHANNEL key twice.

Keep in mind that when you access DMX channels, you can’t simply CLEAR them out. This process actually parks those channels at the value you specified in your command (If you open the DMX Sheet, you’ll see that all parked channels have a light blue box around them). This means that when when you’re finished, you’ll need to un-park them. A syntax for this would look like Go DMX 3.42 ENTER (where the Go is initiated by hitting the GO+ key)

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.

In episode 4, we try to clear up some of the confusion about Parameter Calculation on the console. The grandMA console calculates DMX output by Parameters – NOT channels like most other consoles. This video explains the difference; how this affects your install; and why it’s so useful. This is consistently one of the more confusing aspects of the console – but we hope this video will help.

The FREEZE key is all about asserting Priority. By default, both playback and “captured” values in your Fixture Sheet work on an LTP (Latest Takes Precedence) basis. Let’s say that you have selected a group of lights and rolled their dimmer values to 50% in your Fixture Sheet. Then, you play a cue that takes those same fixtures to Full. On stage, your lights would increase their output from 50% to 100% in whatever time you had specified in your cue: thus overriding your original captured values. Following the same LTP rules, if you simply rolled those lights’ intensity back to 50%, your stage would immediately become dimmer.

On some consoles, “captured” attributes always have a higher priority than playback – and LTP doesn’t apply to their programming windows. On the grandMA, using the FREEZE key would give you this type of ability. FREEZE essentially holds any captured values in the Fixture Sheet at the level you have set, regardless of any cues played afterwards. Think of the FREEZE key functionality as a mode – a lot like how BLIND and HIGHLIGHT are modes. When the FREEZE key is lit, you’re in “Freeze mode” and nothing in playback can override the attributes you have captured, or are working with, in the Fixture Sheet.

The FREEZE key:
-Does NOT park any attributes
-Does NOT override parking
-Does NOT clear the Fixture Sheet when it is turned off
-Does NOT freeze parameters that are not captured in your Fixture Sheet

Some programmers (especially those coming from other consoles) choose to leave the FREEZE key on all the time. This may make them feel more comfortable, and works perfectly fine. Personally though, I recommend playing with the functionality. I find it very handy during live shows to have FREEZE turned off for the majority of the time. For example, lets say I have to bring up a new look in the Fixture Sheet for that unexpected Bassist solo, but I know that the lights I’m temporarily using are needed in the next cue: when we do a fly-out over the audience. Well, with FREEZE off, I know that when I hit GO, the console will automatically transition from my temporary bassist look into my fly-out (in the time that I’ve specified in the cue). This means that I don’t have to worry about busking in a nice looking transition, or even having to hit the CLEAR key.

Obviously, it works both ways. Using the same example, if I get the feeling that my Bassist is going to keep going with his solo through my next set of cues, I can simply hit the FREEZE key anytime before I hit GO, and whatever attributes are in the Fixture Sheet will be retained regardless of what my cues’ instructions for those fixtures may be. The rest of my rig will follow their cue instructions, but my Bassist will still be lit until he’s finished — or until I simply tire of lighting him — whichever comes first.

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.

When working with automated fixtures, simple profile changes can be made without the need to enter Full Access or even Live Access. Some commonly used edits can be accessed directly from the Fixture Sheet, which can save you a lot of time when you’re setting up your rig. To access these options, hit the EDIT key, then touch the name of the Fixture in the Fixture Sheet, and a new window will appear.

Fixture Options Window

From within this window, you can rename your Fixture, change Pan and Tilt inverts or even swap Pan and Tilt – which are all fairly common defaults to change depending upon your show needs.
Options:
PAN NORMAL / TILT NORMAL – touching either of these options will set that attribute to “INVERSE”
NO SWAP - touching this will swap Pan and Tilt control from the console.
WITH MASTER- changing this option to NO MASTER will tell the console that this fixture’s intensity will ignore the level of the Grand Master.
The arrow buttons at the bottom of the window allow you to move to editing the next or previous fixture.

An extra note: The Master option is similar to ‘parking’ the intensity of a fixture only in that it can also override the Grand Master. The big difference here is that you can still change the level of that intensity at any time using all of the usual programming methods. When parking an intensity, it is necessary to un-park before you can change the level.

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.

You’ve probably found that playing back looks live on stage from the grandMA is fairly easy… and you’ve no doubt used the OFF hard key or an OFF button on an Executor to stop that playback. There’s a super handy window named “Running Programs” that will allow you to quickly see (and stop) different types of playback. You access this window by simply pressing the OFF key twice.

The Running Programs Window

From within the window you choose to globally stop everything (EVERYTHING OFF) or choose to stop all playback of a certain type (like all Chasers, Sequences, etc). Additionally you can choose to turn off playback tied to hardware (like Executor Faders or Button) or you could choose a very specific item like an individual Sequence or Effect to stop.

All of these are great options, but – if you’re anything like me – you might want some hard key options as well. The syntaxes listed below are all for use in stopping playback, and they don’t even require that you open the “Running Programs” window.

Hold OFF and press GO+ = Switches everything off (the same as if you’d hit the EVERYTHING OFF on screen button in the Running Programs window)
Hold OFF + EFFECT = Turns off all running Effects
Hold OFF + EXECUTOR = Turns off all Executors
Hold OFF + MACRO = Turns off all Macros currently running
The following do not require holding the OFF button:
OFF PAGE ENTER = Turns off all Executor faders/buttons on current page
OFF PAGE 5 ENTER = Turns off all Executor faders/buttons on Page 5
OFF PAGE 2.5 ENTER = Turns off all Executor faders on page 5 (this will not affect Executor Buttons)
The same style syntax can be used to turn off other specific running programs like Timecode, Macros, Effects, Executors and more.

Since I love overriding timing.. lets throw this into the mix: Next time, instead of just hitting OFF and then hitting that button on the executor that you want to turn off, try speeding up or slowing down the time by adding fade and/or delay time to the syntax. Something like OFF EXECUTOR 1 TIME 10 ENTER might lend a more graceful exit…

Forget about playback for a moment – OFF can be used while you’re programming to essentially knock-out or erase values from your Fixture and Channel sheets. Here, we’re using OFF and selecting the units that we want to remove from our Sheets. For example:
OFF FIXTURE (#) ENTER
OFF CHANNEL (#) ENTER
OFF GROUP (#) ENTER
And, yes, you can type syntax like OFF FIXTURE 101 THRU 110 ENTER.
Additionally, you can choose to knockout attribute types – like pan & tilt or color. To do this – first, select the fixture(s) you wish to work with, then press OFF followed by the preset filter you wish to remove (like Pan/Tilt, Color, Dimmer, etc). You can choose the filter from the Preset Control Bar or by touching the title cell of any preset pool (or, press PRESET followed by the corresponding Preset type number). If you need to be even more specific – you can even use OFF to knockout an individual attribute on a wheel.

This list of OFF commands is not a complete list of the offerings available in the console, but, once you understand the syntax behind the commands – it’s fairly easy to achieve whatever you’re looking for.

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.