Element Moving Lights Programming & Some Basics

Question

I'm brand new to lighting design - so I hope I'm asking this question in the right place. I've got most of my washes and scene lighting and cues set up for a theatre show. I've got 4 MAC 250+ Entours connected to the board. Channels 130-133. I've added those 4 channels into group 1. I've also set up a bunch of palettes for intensity, beam, color, and focus. I'm just not really sure what the best way to program these into my board is. The show is musical theatre - but all of the songs are pop music so there is a lot of programming. We are also adding 12 LED fixtures and 6 white pars for blinders next weekend. 
 Again apologies for not knowing some of the basics.. 
 a) should I create a single effect for each song with all the F/I/C/B setup as each step? and then add the group + effects to the cues between my other cues? Or should each focus/intensity/color/beam +effect be its own cue 
 b) any recommendations how to time the moving lights to the music? Should it be programmed in somehow - or should the lighting operator be controlling the timing live? 
 c) how many decimal points can you have in a cue number? If I have to program each F/I/C/B as a separate cue - its going to take a while. can you have a cue 9.11 and 9.12 or only 9.1 and 9.2 
 d) is there any easier way to put all the lights to zero to build my scenes? I thought [Clear][Sneak][Enter] would do it - but it doesnt really do anything. the only way I've figured out how to do it is to use Chanel [1] [Thru] [250] @ 0 [Enter] 
 I've watched the videos on the ETC library youtube page - but it mostly deals with setting up the positioning and other parameters - and not so much on how to move between the different parts of the show. 
 Thanks for helping out the new guy!

Andrew Riter · Accepted Answer

Those are big questions, Brooklin. 
running ques or "busking" live is one of the basic questions. Answer: it depends. 
Do you have time to cue the entire show? is there a tech rehearsal period for each band? 
If answers are no, then you're more likely going to busk it. (make changes manually during the show). 
 
Create different groups (all 250s, All LEDS, All Blinders, and then different pairings (outside pairs, inside pairs, DS groups, US groups, triplets, random groups). 
Put up a Direct Select field of groups on a screen. 
 
Set up the Focus Points, Colour Palettes, Beam (edge and gobo) palettes, and a few presets (combinations of all of these). 
Put these on Direct Selects on a screen. 
 
THis is all about accessing your design elements, either for live playback, or to build your cues. 
 
Build a few base cues, or looks, or subs, that are your Go To looks; blue out, a look for the MC between bands. these will give you someplace to go on stage while you reset or clear out cues or manual commands. 
 
to your questions: 
a) 
a lamp can have just a movement effect applied to it, or just a colour effect, or it can multiple effects stacked onto it (moving in a figure 8, with a colour scroll, and an intensity effect )... 
Or a single effect can have both movement and intensity, or movement and colour (make an absolute effect, step 1 is ON, step 2 is position A, step 3 is off, Step 4 is Position B). Light will turn on, sweep to a position, turn off, and reset. a separate colour effect can be added on top of this, or just a static colour. 
 
Don't jam too many things into 1 effect (IMHO). leave it so you can apply the separate elements as you like (build on the fly). 
 
b) Effect x {BPM} 180 Enter sets the Beats per minutes for the effect (if you know the BPM). 
 
With effect running: Effect x Learn Time enter enter enter . . . . to the beat, and press learn to exit. this is a live way to set BPM. 
 
With effect running: effect x learn Time Time enter enter enter. . . . .. to beat, press learn to exit. this will set the step time to the beat. 
 
c) cues, effect, preset, (all record targets) can be numbered to the 1000s: cue 10.123 is valid. 
 
d) Sneak only works with manual changes. If the data (level, position, colour) is in red on the screen, that is a manual entry, and can be cleared with Sneak enter. 
If the channel data is yellow (from a sub), or Blue, Green, or Magenta (from a cue playback), then Goto Cue 0, Goto Cue Out, to clear everything. 
1-250 @ 0 for intensity only (intensitys will turn red, and Sneak enter will send them back to the cue or sub level) 
1 -250 Home enter to clear position, colour, beam data. 
 
Have fun. 
 
Keep it simple. 
 
good luck. 
Andrew