Effects

Hillary it sounds like you're using the dynamic effects 'raw' and plotting them, which as you have found out needs a start and a stop for each effect.  I think what you need to do is readup on Effects Playbacks.  Essentially they work like a channel controlling your effect, you make it live, you get your effect, you kill it you kill your effect.  Sarahs tutorial at the top of the forum explains dynamic effects (and the others) very clearly. 

Look here.

Have fun with it, the effects control in V5 is awesome.

Hi Hilary,

The Effects Playbacks are very powerful.  Think of them as an additional multi attribute  channel to control a range of fixtures instead of just one.

They will help you out with the starting and stopping of effects.

Also, check in the console setup and see if you have the box checked for keep running dynamics.  If it is checked, un-check it and see if that fixes your issues.

Are you running sequences or are you running effects off of masters?  If you are running effects off of masters than see if  "rubberband" is turned on! 

The Congo is a very versatile desk and will allow you to control lighting in different manors so that you can run your show the way you want.  I do many different styles of show and often set-up the Congo differently depending on the style of show that I am running.

I hope this helps, post again if you need more help.  I love the Congo and am always willing to help people become more familiar with it.

Take care,

John

I am running presets in a sequence on the main playback. Where is that setting to "keep effects running" or not?

Can you break down the effects playback? I made a preset i really liked so i added some color and conventionals to it for a preset for this sunday and recorded it as another preset. Well when i go back to play that preset, it has everything but the dynamic effects. When I go the Live effects tab, it shows the four effects and says running. But....they are not moving. Help...?

Because the Effects Playbacks are multi attribute channels (like a moving light) you have to give the attributes values.  These values are LTP.  So, when you start the console, they don't have any values.  When I use Effects Playbacks, I record an ALL Palette with the values for the effects.  I then record the Palette into the cue for the effects playback.

Also, with effects playbacks, the level has to be brought up for the effect to work.

What I think might have happened to you, is that you created the effect, then you went to the cue and the changed flags for the Effect Playback were cleared but the values remained because of LTP.  You then brought up the channels and everything looked good, so you recorded or updated the preset.  The attributes were set to record "changed" and because the change flags had been cleared there were no attribute values recorded for the preset.  So, when you went to run the effect later, you didn't get any effect. 

This is where the "Set Changed" softkey (under the device softkey) is useful.  Select the Effect Playback, press and hold "Set Changed" and press the Palette button.  In the Live Attributes tab, you will see the Effect Playback attribute boxes are all purple.  Now, when you record or update, all of the effects data will be included in the preset.

As for the "keep effects running", it is a setting in the Play Settings.  You can get to this by pressing [Setup] and tab to the 2nd or 3rd tab to find it, (sorry, I don't have the console or my computer with the Congo software anywhere close).  Alternately, you can go into the browser and I believe under General Settings you can get to the play settings.

I hope this helps!

Take care,

John

I think you're still running Congo v4.3.x

You really should update your console to Congo v5.1.0 - you can download the update for free from the Congo Download Pages.

You're hitting some of the reasons why the new effects were created - with v4 Dynamics, it was difficult to copy them about, and harder to see when they were recorded and when they would stop.

The v5 Effects are much easier to understand and use, as they are just like moving lights - they have intensities and parameters that get recorded directly into Presets.

Finally, "Keep Running Effects" is a per-Sequence-step option - you'll see it in the Advanced tab of the Record and Update dialogs. The tickbox in Settings is the default for newly recorded stuff. However, it only applies to v4 Dynamics, as in v5, you have total control over when an Effect Playback runs and stops - and how it fades in and out - just by using the normal Sequence and Master functions.