I have had this question for years. Every time that I read something about it, I think I have it figured out...until I try and apply what I read.
Remember back to the Express, when we all used pile-on submasters? We would bring up a submaster or two and record that as a cue. Then, we would bring those submasters out and bring up new ones to record a second cue. Running the cues would give us exactly what it said that it would.
With the Ion (and others), Tracking was introduced. As I moved into using moving lights, I found it helpful in that sense. However, for shows with only conventional lighting, it still became a pain. We just unpacked our new Ion xe and went into the User settings to change the default from tracking to cue only, expecting it to behave the same way that the Express did when recording cues.
However, still running into the same issue...it tracks forward, even when set to cue only mode. In the educational setting in which I work, with one of our theaters NOT having any moving lights, teaching middle school kids is MUCH easier if I could get the board to actually record ONLY the faders that are currently brought up by the board operator.
Short version - I have faders set up as submasters on the Ion xe and the user settings are set to Cue Only, but the board still tracks cues from one to the next until I manually remove those channels.
Any more help here, or should I just throw in the towel and prepare for a fully frustrated Middle School teacher and all of her students that want to learn to use the basics of the light board?
