Chase functionality

The difference between a 'Chase' and a 'Normal' Sequence is that Chase Sequences run automatically with a default zero wait-time and auto-loop at the end.

If you want a Sequence Chase that waits for a 'Go' (either the [>] key when connected or the grey Master Key on the Master), then change the mode to Normal.

If you want the same Sequence but with slightly different settings, you can copy and paste them wholesale in the Sequences List:

• [Seq]
• Select chosen Sequence
• [Copy]
• #, [Paste]
• #, [Paste] (repeat as many times as you want)

Finally, have you looked at Chase Effect Playbacks, and the rest of the Congo v5 Effect system?

These are exactly what you're looking for, and are far more buskable than any other console effect system I'm aware of.

I've looked at the V5 effects, and I like the concept of effects being like a moving light, and think there are some interesting possibilities with this, but for me, the chase function just seems a little useless.

There's no buskability to it, but maybe I'm missing something. I dont like the way I have to use a wizzard to initially set the chase up with some 'dummy' channels (maybe there's another way?), but once an n step chase is created, I like how easy it is to edit the channels included in each step, just by pressing the grey button above a submaster.

However, once the chase is created, I can bring up the intenstity and watch it run, but the only parameters I seem to get on the wheels are Chase, and Rate. That's not very buskable now is it? So I can't even change the parameters such as direction (forward, backward, bounce, random, build, negative etc... ) or Cross fase.

I think that the V5 effects chases, and the old 'sequences' way of doing it, are potentially both very powerfull, and can create very intricate chases with various complex timings and so on, but seriously, all I want is to be able to make a 4 step chase, with 4 groups, that I can tap to a beat, and change between stepping and crossfading. Lets get the simple, easy stuff working 1st?!

I'm interested in any feedback you guys may have, and perhaps I'm doing it completley wrong. Also, maybe V6 will do what I need, but from the release notes, I don't see anything new?

Steve

The Chase Effect Playback is a very quick and easy-to-use Effect Playback, simplified to the core settings that many people use. So it's a great way to start learning the Congo Effects system.

When you want to produce more complex effects, there are some other kinds of Effect Playback that offer more options: Dynamic Effect Playback and Content Effect Playbacks. v6 adds Image Effect Playbacks for simple pixelmapping.

The Content Effect type of Effect Playback does offer the extra flexibility you're looking for - this has timing and playback mode attributes on the Encoders, plus a host of other options.

Content Effects are also not limited to Intensity only - you can create Content Effect "Series" that takes information from anywhere - Palettes, Presets and absolute data.

Sarah has previously posted a Content Effects Tutorial that you may find useful.

Ok, I understand what the content effect is, and I like the idea. I get that I can create a colour chase for movers, and then apply that colour chase to any group of movers. I like it. I read the tutorials, and they are ok, but nothing seems to address my rather simple, and I'm sure, far from unique situation.

So, I must be missing something. I will explain my situation, and then maybe someone can offer some assistance.

I have 4 groups, red, amber, blue, pink. The groups contain chanel data for generic channels. Each group has a different number of channels in it. I want to make a simple, buskable chase from these groups.

Now, how do I do that? It's a pretty simple concept, and one which should be right at the very start of a light desk, as I'm sure there are many users, like myself, with large generic rigs, who want to busk a few chases in time to the music. That's before we move onto the more complex, and I'm sure, powerfull and impressive chases, and content effects.

I just want to busk 4 groups of channels in time to the music, with an adjustable slope. My (very) old Sirrius 48 did this, with ease, and very quickly! As did my previous desk, an Avo Pearl. Can Congo rise to the challenge?

Please help me with this, 'cos I've not got much hair, and I'm pulling the res of it out over this simple issue.

Steve

Ok, I understand what the content effect is, and I like the idea. I get that I can create a colour chase for movers, and then apply that colour chase to any group of movers. I like it. I read the tutorials, and they are ok, but nothing seems to address my rather simple, and I'm sure, far from unique situation.

So, I must be missing something. I will explain my situation, and then maybe someone can offer some assistance.

I have 4 groups, red, amber, blue, pink. The groups contain chanel data for generic channels. Each group has a different number of channels in it. I want to make a simple, buskable chase from these groups.

Now, how do I do that? It's a pretty simple concept, and one which should be right at the very start of a light desk, as I'm sure there are many users, like myself, with large generic rigs, who want to busk a few chases in time to the music. That's before we move onto the more complex, and I'm sure, powerfull and impressive chases, and content effects.

I just want to busk 4 groups of channels in time to the music, with an adjustable slope. My (very) old Sirrius 48 did this, with ease, and very quickly! As did my previous desk, an Avo Pearl. Can Congo rise to the challenge?

Please help me with this, 'cos I've not got much hair, and I'm pulling the res of it out over this simple issue.

Steve

Hi

Um, no, I think you missunderstand. There was nothing usefull to me in that post.

I'm not interested in master links. And, as stated in my previous post, I have looked at content effects, but can't see how they can be run across generic channels in the way that I want.

Please re-read my post. I just want a SIMPLE rock n roll style chase, that I can programm quickly and easily program using 4 groups of generic channels. I need to be able to bring this chase up on one of the 40 playback masters, and somehow control it's speed, and cross fade between steps live.

Think simply people!

Many thanks to anyone who can restore my faith in this desk, and show me how this is done!

Steve

I have tried to answer this twice now, and the forums have not been kind to me today.

Let me see if I can help out here...

First, let me say that Congo is not designed as a rock-n-roll console first, rather as a flexible system with features that make it useful in many different types of situations. What you see as a basic chase can be accomplished in a number of ways, however not all of your requirements are satisfied by a single solution.

Having said that, the Content Effect is the most "buskable" effect in Congo. To control the channels in the way you want you will need to create a channel set containing the channels from each group in a single part. This is the object we use for such a customized channel list in a single effect. Then you can use the Intensity series to provide the on-off data, and then play with the timings on the U3 page of encoders to get the basic chase you need. Once set up, select the effect playback and record it to a preset on a master. The fader of that master will control the overall intensity output of that effect, and you can use the master key to select the contents of the preset (the effect playback in this case) so that you can change parameters of that effect like tapping in a rate or adjusting fade times on the fly.

Or you can write a good old fashioned chase sequence, basically a cue list set to loop automatically, assign it to a master and connect it to the Master Playback controls so you can pause and restart the chase and change its running direction. I would make copies of this basic sequence with relative (%) fade times within so that I could adjust a bunch of chases on the fly using Master Page Time.

The weak point in all of this is that we don't have a good way for you to manually step through your chase, fading each step in as you go. This is an area for improvement and we will consider this in a future software release.

The concepts I mention above are described in more detail in the help system. I would suggest choosing one as a starting point (if you're going to go with a chase sequence though, load an empty sequence onto the main playback, then use the Build mode to help make that sequence faster (one preset containing the channels/intensity of one group, for as many groups as you have), then go into the Sequence list and set it to Chase mode.) To search the help system for any of these terms, press the ? key to open help, then press the TEXT key and type in what you're looking for. It should lead you to results describing the important bits.

I hope this has helped a bit - sorry it's taken so long to get something to post correctly here.

Thanks -

Sarah

Here's a step-by-step guide to building an Intensity chase using Content Effects:

There are two parts - first of all creating the Series, or "What the lights should do", then using the Series in a Content Effect.

Part A: Create an Intensity Series
(If you're running v6, we've already created this for you)

1. {Effect} Soft Key, {Series} Soft Key
   • Or Browser > Effects > Content Effects > Series...
2. [Insert] to create a new Series.
3. Label it "Intensity" or similar.
4. Hit [Modify] on the 'Default Mode' cell and set it to "Break"
5. With the gold box on the Series or Steps column for the new Series, hit [Modify] to open the editor.
6. On the Intensity cell of Step Zero (Background), type '0', [Modify] - It will change to "M"
7. Hit [Insert] to insert Step 1.
8. On the Intensity cell of Step 1, type '100', [Modify] - It will change to "F"

Part B: Using the Series
I'll assume you've already recorded a few Groups of lights that you want to apply the Effect to.

1. Select a spare Content Effect Playback, or create a new one with [Insert] & [Effect], choosing Content Effect.
2. Set the Intensity of this Content Effect to Full - this runs the Effect so we can see things happen
3. Switch to encoder page [U1] (or [C/Alt] & [Focus]).
4. Adjust 'Ch Source' to "Group"
5. Adjust 'Set/Group' to the Group of lights you want to run the Effect on.
6. Switch to encoder page [U2] (or [C/Alt] & [Color]), change 'Series' to "Intensity" (or whatever you called it earlier if you made it yourself)
7. The Effect is now playing!

However, this may be a bit boring, as the default is for all the channels in the Group to move together.

To change that, on encoder page [U1] there are two options:

• 'GrpParts' defines how many sections to divide the Group into - 1,2,3....
• 'GrpDistr' defines how those sections should be divided - Sequential, Interlaced, Symmetrical etc

These are the same as the options you'll have seen in the Chase Effect Wizard

For Timing:

• Look under the [U3] encoder page (or [C/Alt] & [Beam])
• The first page has the 'Rate/Tap' option for overall speed just like Chase Effects
• The second page (hit [U3] again), has StepTime, Attack, Sustain and Release - these are scaled by Rate/Tap
  
  • StepTime is the time between starting subsequent steps
  • Attack is the 'Upfade' time
  • Sustain is the 'Hold'
  • Release is the 'Downfade'

We've now created a Rock'n'Roll Intensity chase where you can adjust almost everything about it on-the-fly - Rate, which lights, upfade/hold/downfade times, overlap between steps etc

Few more useful things:

To Pause, the PlayMode attribute ([U2]) has 'Pause'

To play it backwards, PartDirection ([U2]) has Forward and Reverse.
(PlayMode applies to the Series, eg with a 3-step RGB Series, you could go RGB or BGR - or randomly!)

This technique also works really well for flame effects - just put in a load more Steps in a Series at different Intensity levels, and use PlayMode Random.

Thanks for the attempt Richard, but I still can not see that your method is what I require.

Creating a content effect (for a chase?!) works pretty well, and does exactly what I want for movers. I can create and intensity content effect accross my group of movers, and busk it quite easily. Still slightly too complex for a 'simple chase', but getting closer.

However, I can only apply that effect to ONE group. I have RED, GREEN, BLUE, AND PINK groupS, each with different numbers of channels in them. How can I make these groups chase using the content effect? And what if I had 4 groups of movers that I wanted to chase (as groups!), each with different quantities of fixtures in them? Not outside the realms of possibility is it?

Oh, and as for the previous answer that the Congo is not designed as a rock and roll desk, I would like to add that it is so close to being a perfect rock n roll desk! But for a few tweaks, it could be the fastest, easiest, most buskable, and powerful rock n roll desk there is. 40 submasters is fantastic for busking, but not if 10 of them are taken up with chases, and 5 with 'rate masters (or whatever they are called) Why on Earth waste a sub with 'rate' when you have the encoder wheels there?

At least when touring lampies now ask me to create a few simple chases using our in house generics, I can now tell them with confidence that the desk doesn't do that, as before I felt a bit silly, as I just couldn't figure out how to do it.

What we need is a button (soft key at this stage I suppose) that is labled something like "Chase....." "Simple Chase". Pressing this wold bring up the "Simple Chase Wizzard". The wizzard would look similar to lots of other existing Congo screens, but I think the Independant Masters setup screen is a good base.

So imagine a screen that looks exactly like it does if you do [setup] + Independant master. You would set up your channels for the 1st step, using channels, groups, presets, selected using the keypad, or the grey buttons over masters. Once step one is set up how you want, there would be a button below labled "Record & add step", and another one labled "Record and finish"

Pressing the 1st button records the channel data as step 1, and then presents you with step 2, sexactly the same screen again, but with the previous channel data cleared.

When all steps are done, you would hit "Record and finish".

Now you could press 1, then press and hold the "simple chase" soft key + a Master, and hey presto, simple chase 1 would be assigned to the master. Pressing connect (like you would for a sequence) would then connect a pair of encoders labeled "speed" and "fade" and these would affect every step of the chase the same. You can't set individual step, fade, and dwell times because it's a SIMPLE CHASE. You could use the stop button to stop the chase running, and then step it in time to the music with the button nearby (forward and backward steps? Without the desk in front of me I'm unsure, but they are there) Pressing the play button would make the chase run again with the speed and rate defined by the encoders. The tap function would even work too.

I think that using this method, I could create a Simple Chase across 6 overhead colour groups, and having it running on a master, with my own time a fade in less than 20 seconds.

Simples.

I like to bring solutions to my own problems where I can!

As I see it, you've gone far too complex, too quickly, and forgotten the simple bits, the reliability, desk response, and speed. It feels like there has been very little of a grand masterplan, and instead, just a hash of features added in by various groups, at different times. I realise that what I am proposing only adds to that problem, but the seems to be the nature of the beast now.

I dont mean to be critical, and what I've said come across as a bit harsh, but it's not meant to be. I truely believe that the Congo will be the best thing out there in a few software revisions time, for almost all situations, and it's already extremely good.

Steve

DGTSteve said:

At least when touring lampies now ask me to create a few simple chases using our in house generics, I can now tell them with confidence that the desk doesn't do that, as before I felt a bit silly, as I just couldn't figure out how to do it.

Hi Steve,

I beg to differ here. You can record presets straight to Masters and in V6 you can record multiple presets to one Master as a Sequence.

1. Select the Ch for your first step with Intensity
2. [Record] + Assign Key
3. Select record Sequence
4. repeat step 1 through 3 for all the steps you need.
5. Open the Sequence window. Press [Seq]
6. Change the Mode of your new Sequence to Chase.
7. Remember if the Ch are still up in Live you will not see them Chase.
8. Now to change the speed of your Chase

• Press and hold [Tap] and press the Assign Key of the Master with the Chase min 4 times to change the Speed.
• This can be done with the Master down as well.
• Keep in mind that if you use the Tap and/or the BPM up/down times in your Seq will be ignored. Also if you wanted a "dwell" time, this would then be a delay on the out.

You can also use the Chase Wizard to create empty Chases on 'stand-by'

1. Open the Sequence list
2. Press [Wizard]
3. For example for a six step chase, select Channels 1 through 6 an no Intensity.
4. This will build the Chase for you, but empty.
5. You can now put this Chase on a Master.
6. With [Connect] + Assign Key of the Master you open a Master Playback window.
7. You can now step through the Chase an populate it with the desired Channels or Groups.
8. You could also do this in Blind in the Sequence Editor.

You see, there are plenty of ways to create Chases quick and easy almost on the fly.

Kind regards

Florian Baeumler

DGTSteve said:

However, I can only apply that effect to ONE group. I have RED, GREEN, BLUE, AND PINK groupS, each with different numbers of channels in them. How can I make these groups chase using the content effect? And what if I had 4 groups of movers that I wanted to chase (as groups!), each with different quantities of fixtures in them? Not outside the realms of possibility is it?

Hi Steve,

That's what Channel sets are for. Channel sets are "super" groups which can contain parts different number of channels in it.

Kind regards

Florian Baeumler

The features you mention do already exist in v6.

DGTSteve said:

Creating a content effect (for a chase?!) works pretty well, and does exactly what I want for movers. I can create and intensity content effect accross my group of movers, and busk it quite easily. Still slightly too complex for a 'simple chase', but getting closer.

However, I can only apply that effect to ONE group. I have RED, GREEN, BLUE, AND PINK groupS, each with different numbers of channels in them. How can I make these groups chase using the content effect? And what if I had 4 groups of movers that I wanted to chase (as groups!), each with different quantities of fixtures in them? Not outside the realms of possibility is it?

Yes, indeed, you may not want Groups divided 'evenly' or 'randomly' - hence Channel Sets as Florian just mentioned.

Channel Sets are found under {Effect} Softkey, {Channel Set} softkey.

The editor is very similar to the Chase Effect editor, except that it doesn't include any timings as you do that in the Content Effect.

DGTSteve said:

You would set up your channels for the 1st step, using channels, groups, presets, selected using the keypad, or the grey buttons over masters. (SNIP)

Actually, creating Sequence Chases like this is already built in to the console in v6 a couple of different ways:

Method A:
This method was available in v5 as well

• Open the Sequences List [Seq]
• # [Insert] to create a new one
• [Modify] on Mode cell to make it a Chase
• [Modify] on the Seq No column to open that Sequence for editing.
• Use # [Insert] to add Presets as steps
  • Either Presets that already exist or new ones
• The top half of this tab is a Blind editor for the Preset.
  • [Attrib] will toggle between Intensities and Attributes. (v6)
  • The Editor half is identical to the other Editors - select/edit/zoom/format etc as you would anywhere else.
• Hit [Update] to confirm edits to the Preset
  • Alternatively move away from the row and the console will ask you to confirm or cancel the edits

Assign the Sequence to any Master - # [Seq] & [Master_Key]

Method B:
New for v6

• Create the 'look' you want in Live (or Blind) for the first step of the Seq Chase
• [Record] & [Master_Key] on an empty Master
  
  • A popup appears asking how you want to Record. Choose the Sequence option
• Create the 'look' you want for the next step
• [Record] & [Master_Key] on the same Master
  • Repeat as necessary
• You now have a Sequence (theatrical stack) on the Master.
• To turn it into Chase mode, hit [Seq] to open the Sequences List.
• Find the one you just made (it's probably at the end)
• Set the Mode to "Chase"
• Optionally give it a label

There are also some useful settings that adjust how the chase responds to the keys and the fader. Open these using [Setup] & [Master_Key]

As to the 'complexity' thing - there's no way around that. Congo isn't an exclusively Rock'n'Roll, TV, Film or Theatrical console - it is a fully multi-purpose console that's completely at home in all those environments.

This means that there's a lot of features that the majority of Rock'n'Roll shows simply won't use - however, we've tried to ensure that they can be safely ignored.

This means that Congo has at least two ways of doing pretty much everything - some people like one method, others like a different method. Use the ones you like, ignore the ones you don't.