Question about Size for Absolute and Relative Effects, specifically on intensity. I'm assuming it has always been like this and I just never noticed until today?
My understanding that the center line of the Relative (Linear) graph is the same as Background in an Absolute effect, i.e. whatever value the channel is receiving from the source. It was then my understanding that Scale set the percentage above and below the line the graph represented. So at a Scale of 10 the very top of the graph would be +10% and the very bottom of the graph would be -10%. I had thought his was a percentage relative to the Background (center line) value meaning at the top of the graph in this example would be 115% of the background and the bottom of the graph would be 90% of the Background. But I'm now seeing that it is not a percentage relative to the Background, but an absolute percentage. So the top of the graph is equal to the Background +10 and the bottom is equal to +-10.
Ex: Ch1 is at 50% recorded and live in Cue 1. Effect 1 is a Sine Wave Effect entirely below the graphs center line with a Scale of 10. Applying Effect 1 to Ch1 makes Ch1 fade between 40%-50% intensity. My previous expectation was it would fade between 45%-50% Intensity.
The reason I thought that was because that's how it works with Size for Absolute effects
Ex: Ch1 is at 50% recorded and live in Cue 1. Effect 2 is an Absolute Effect with Action 1 = Background and Action 2 = 0. Applying Effect 2 to Ch1, and setting Size to 10 in the Effect Status Display, makes Ch1 fade between 45%-50%
The reason I noticed is I want to run Background-0 intensity effects on my channels, but use a Submaster to set the Background Intensity and therefore the maximum brightness. However for some reason when you apply that kind of an Absolute Effect to a channel with Intensity being controlled by a Submaster, it takes the light 0 and holds it there until you bring the submaster all the way down to 0 and then back up to your level, and does so for both HTP and LTP Subs. That's something I've posted about before on the forum but not heard back from ETC, but I digress.
Fortunately Relative Effects don't have this same behavior when applying them onto a Submaster controlled Channel, okay so I thought. I prefer to work with Absolute Effects, but sure I can use Relative Effects instead, so I make my wave, snap, ramp, and burst effects as you do, having them all be below the graph centerline, and set the scale to 100. With the intention being when my Sub is at full and I apply the effect it will fade from the Background of 100 to 0 and back to 100. Using a Sine Wave curve it should just touch the Background and 0 levels before immediately fading back up, giving a continuous appearance. However as demonstrated above they don't apply in the same way to the Background, so if I lower the Submaster to 50, it will now reach 0 in half the time and hold there at 0 for the other half of that time before it starts to fade back up.
I think I didn't notice before because I'd been using Square/Snap Relative Effects, so I couldn't notice the holding at 0. To make the Relative Effect behave the same as the Absolute version when at 50%, I have to either change the Scale or Size from 100 to 50, which is slow to do in a busking/live environment, especially if I'm frequently changing the level of the Submaster.
Is this as intended and how it has always worked? If so I'm not sure I understand why this is the preferred behavior
Thanks,
Steven
