Controlling sneak time on a Sub

Since version 2.6 there's a "Manual Time Master", which does exactly what you want, even without the use of [Sneak].
In the Fader Config, set the target of a fader to "Man Time" and set the maximum and minimum values to whatever you desire.
This fader overwrites the manual time settings as long as it's active (De-/activate via Go/Flash),
which makes [Sneak] pretty much obsolete for busking Palettes.

You can even set more than one Manual Time Master, each with it's own range.
So you could set one with a range of 0 to 5 and one with 6 to 10 for example.
They won't collide as the LTP-concept applies. It might get a little confusing during busking though.

As with any sub, the fader ribbon just shows the percentage of fader path completion and not the actual time set.
But with a little mental arithmetic you can still be pretty precise with it.

Yes your macro will work.
The Manual Time Master sets all global manual times, so every palette-type will be affected.
The time set at the moment the Macro was activated will be used for the fade.

For busking I think it would be easier to just use direct selects for the groups and palettes though.
As the number of macros you'd have to write equals the number of groups, times the number of palettes,
whereas the number of direct selects would just be groups + palettes.
Depends on how many groups and palettes you have, but you could quickly amass a number of macros, that could be hard to keep track of and handle. Especially when all it saves you is the touch of a second button.

Just a thought though. You'll have to weigh the time it takes to write them vs. the time it takes to press two buttons instead of one.

I think the easiest way to achieve this is to work with cues in Blind.
In blind you can create cues without it affecting the output.
You could prepare everything just as you would in live, with Direct Selects and everything.

For example:
You have a look on stage that is recorded in Cue 10. The song is building up and you'd like to start a couple of effects, stop others and change the colours, maybe also take out the front lights or something.
In Blind you create the next Cue by pressing [Cue] [11] [Enter] (or 10.1, depending on your numbering taste).
When you are in Tracking mode, which would be preferable for this, the Cue you just created should hold the values that are currently on stage, as they are tracked from Cue 10.

You can now edit the look to your liking. Stop some effects, change the rate of effects, start new ones. Change the color of the Cycs and take out the front lights. All changes you make are immediately saved and ready to be recalled. The only thing you might want to do is give the cue a time. When you are done and the build-up has reached it's finale, you just press [Go] and the Cue is fired in the time you specified. You don't have to leave Blind mode to fire the cue. In fact you can prepare the next look right away. If you are fast enough, you could even work ahead further.
This also gives you the possibilitie to recall looks. By using the syntax [Cue] [#] [CopyTo] [Cue] [#] you can copy Cues you already recorded.
Something you'll definitely copy a few times would be the moderation-look for example. Also if you had a good look in the first verse and want to use it for the second -> Copy it.


There is one other way I can think of, to achieve what you want, but it involves a ton (and I mean a ton) of macros and is rather hard to set up. Even harder to explain. It revolves around using macros to copy values from palettes to "placeholder-palettes" (or presets), that can then be recalled via a macro.
I built a magic sheet once that allowed me to assign colors to different groups and then output them all at the same time, but I'm not shure if this would work with effects.
It took a lot of time to get done just for colors and in the end I didn't really use it.