Multiple Cue stacks

I don't use multiple cue stacks either, but I can think of reasons why:

1) Big touring show (arena size). each song is it's own cue stack. Each cue stack (song) is loaded on it's own fader handle. when the set list changes each night, the operator just runs that stack of cues of the correct fader;

2) Running a "regular" theatre show: cue list 1 is the main list. but a heavy effect sequence is required for a portion of the show. Putting that in cue list 2 can keep the main cue list clean, and gives you greater flexibility in operating.

3) busking live music. multiple cue lists, but each list is only a few cues. Cue list 1 has cyc swipes of colour (cue 1 to red, cue 2 to blue, cue 3 to rainbow); list 2 is moving light position changes; list 3 is ML effects. By mixing and matching the cue lists, you have much more flexibility in recalling different looks through a 3 hour show.

Hope this helps.
Andrew

The only thing I've used a second cue stack for is video during some of our shows. It works like a charm.

@Bart... Forgive my ignorance, but using the ion to run the video? or having a second stack optimized for video feeds (separate lighting). I believe our new tech director wants to introduce a new video projection system at church and wanted me to run it at the light board.


Thanks for the responses both of you. From what I gather it seems to be personal preference. While it may be easier to keep things organized, I could just run off one stack and achieve the same results

We use a EOS Ti as primary, we use it to trigger the timeline in pandora (so all the video stuff is programmed in pandora) So the second cue stack consists of the intensity, a macro that triggers the play button and the information to jump to the right cue. It keeps things organised and easy. If needed you can link the cues in stack 2 with stack 1.

So theres a few ways I use cue stacks depending on the show's requirements.

1) The song method. As you say if you have a song with a block of ten cues that is a perfectly fine way to run it, however, for me it was always easier to jump between programming different songs and programming out of order this way, especially useful if you have a programmed say 20 songs, but each nights running list is only 10. Much easier to keep the songs separate and jump between them. Also when the songs start getting more complex, this is an easier way of handling all the cues. For example, I've seen productions (On EOS line desks) that may have 1200 cues in a three minute song, when the songs get to this point it is much easier to completely separate them. Another example of where this was useful, we had an open day at one venue demonstrating the tech side of it (It was an amateur venue trying to get more interest in volunteers), as such all of the resident designers created timecode'd demo's, each song in it's own cue list. This allowed us to separate them from each other as they where completely separate.

2) Separating Operator run and auto-run cue's. For example, the main cue list that the board op run was 1/ with a second cue list containing lighting effects triggered from sound in cue list 2/. Means the Board op doesn't see them and can run the show as usual without trying to do MIDI based, non-essential cues as well.

3) Separating departments. As stated, you can run other devices such as video from EOS line desks. As such, Video gets it's own cue stack and is kept separate. This could also apply to stuff such as special effects (Water, confetti fans, kabuki drops where DMX). This is also where it dates back to, Moving lights and generic lights where traditionally separated with a programmer for each, keeping them in different cue lists allowed the programmers to only record data for their cue.

4) Rig check. On larger shows we usually have a cue list (Or several) dedicated to rig check cues that allow us to walk around the space and check every fixture works. This is useful as a rig check for a mover could easily be 40+ cues long as we check the function of every parameter of the fixture (Pan, Tilt, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, CW 1, CW 2, Gobo ect). It's not uncommon for us to have a cue list dedicated to each fixture type, this allows us to merge the rig check into new shows with the cues just requiring updating.

5) Busking. As Andrew Riter says, it allows for much more flexibility busking, as an example, I busked a musical (Lack of programming time as such) where I had 3/4 cue stacks to do sweeps into the audience, some with certain fixtures ect. It really is a must to successfully busk with EOS desks.

But as you say, it is more of an organisational and personal preference. There is no reason to use them if you don't need to or see a reason to.

Thanks for all the input everyone, is glad to know there is an active community so willing to provide advice and help each other out.
I only had time to program one cue in a second stack the other night. If I have 2 stacks with multiple cues, how do I toggle between lists. I know how to load in the cues. Hope this is making sense. I am looking at cues 1-10 in the master cue, but want to see all cues in stack 2 without loading them

you either change your PSD tab to display cuelist 2 (you can do this by clicking thee gears icon bottom left while PSD is active, i.e. has the gold border)
or you can do this by typing Cue 2/ Enter. this doesn't load anything nor does it change your output. it simply changes which cuelist is visible in your PSD (if you didn't use what i described above and locked the PSD to one cuelist)

One final question, for now, nothing to do necessarily with the board. Any suggestions for other lighting forums that can answer fixture specific questions? We run some Elation Q7's and right now I only know how to move and color them. I know they have a strobe effect and 4 led lighting zones but don't know how to access those functions.

i would gladly help. would you mind starting a new post, so we can keep everything clean and separate? and also please state the exact fixture type.

I posted the questions in the etc fixtures section. They aren't etc lights though. Hopefully you can help me out would live to unlock the potential of my fixtures