How exactly (if at all) does tracking of non-intensity presets interact with intensity changes (from 0) for fixtures? Also, what's the best way to get rid of live fades in a safe way?

LandGod said:

Now is the fact that my light is fading up from 0 in cue 4, going to stop the new pan value from tracking into cue 4?

No. When it comes to tracking parameters are "blind" of what other parameters do in a cue. To help you predict what happens when you use tracking mode: look at the font colors. stuff that is written in magenta is unchanged compared to the cue before. we call those "tracked values". think of them as "continue doing what you already are doing" or as "dito". tracking only has an influence on those magenta values, everything spelt in any other color is safe.

Pan 83 in cues 3 and 4 is written in magenta. if you get rid of the (blue) Pan 83 in cue 2, you will also get rid of the two magenta instances.

you have two ways of making sure that the magenta Pan 83 in cue 4 is safe:
- a) either tell the console that when removing the blue Pan 83 from cue 2 that it shouldn't affect cue 4
- b) or make sure that the Pan 83 in cue 4 isn't written in a magenta color.

for a) instead of using (Chan) 1 {AllNps} [@] [Enter] you would say [Cue] 2 [Thru] 3 [Enter], (Chan) 1 {AllNps} [@] [QOnly] [Enter]. this will protect the values of the next cue, i.e. cue 4. or do it in two steps, both of them using Cue-Only logic: in cue 3: (Chan) 1 {AllNps} [@] [QOnly] [Enter], in cue 4: (Chan) 1 {AllNps} [@] [QOnly] [Enter].

for b) the method of leaving the value unchanged but still have it in a color other than magenta is called Block. Block will change everything that is written in magenta and write it in white font and thus protecting it from tracking. you can either block a whole cue ( [Cue] 4 [Block] [Enter] ), a whole channel ( [Cue] 4 [Enter], (Chan) 1 [Block] [Enter] ) or specific parameters of a channel ( [Cue] 4 [Enter], (Chan) 1 {Pan} [Block] [Enter] ).

As long as you're not on an Element console, the safest thing to do is to use Reference marking and not Automarking.  When you create a reference mark in cue 4, that reference mark flag will act as a block for any non-intensity changes before cue 4.

If you are using an Element, reference marking is not available.  In that case, you do have to be very careful as you clean up your show.  You can apply a partial block to your NPs in cue 4 (the syntax would be: [1]{AllNPs}[Block][Enter]), but that's an extra step that you must be careful to do as you program.