How do you ?

Hi Graham thanks for the answers very helpfull,

In regards to building effects just a simple chase would do. For example if I had parcans on channels 1 through 10 how would I get them to flash in a random order ?

Can I alter the speed live while the chase is running and are there any pre-programmed effects ?

IIll have a look at the links you suggested thanks.

Im sure once I learn to use the ION Ill love it but at the moment I want my strand back !!

Matt

"In regards to building effects just a simple chase would do. For example if I had parcans on channels 1 through 10 how would I get them to flash in a random order "

Use the Random selection on the Effects page

 
"Can I alter the speed live while the chase is running and are there any pre-programmed effects ?"

Yes, (I'm not at the console or OLE, so...)  If you are running Effect 1, then press Effect 1 Enter and the effect rate will populate an encoder.  You can then speed up or slow down.  I believe the changed rate as established on the encoder stays with the effect, so any change overrides the rate as established on the Effects page.

As follow on for cue time overrides, if you press Fader Controls, then press and hold down the S5 - Timing Disable key while pressing the Load button above the primary fader set (or pressing both bump buttons on a fader wing fader configured as a cue playback), the timing disable toggles to ON.  Every GO press ignores cue times.  Reverse the process to get out of Timing Disable.

The chase syntax is pretty simple. If you press Effect, Effect, as a quick double tap, it brings up the Effects page.  There you will see a number of pre-recorded effects in the 900 range - Ballyhoo, Figure 8, Can Can, Circle, etc...  or you can easily build a chases by selecting Step Based, adding steps, adding channels to the step, selecting timings, etc... then record the effect (or by having selected a non recorded effect it automatically records - as if doing changes on Blind).  You can either copy one of these to a new effect number (Effect 990 Copy to Effect 1) or use it as is.  In live, key in the channels you have in the chase.    Press Effect 1 and you will see it running.  Adjust rate as needed.  Record to a cue or to a sub. 

"If I soft patch to the incoming companys numbers to make focussing easier and then load the show onto our desk the patch seems to return to 1 to 1 . Is there way of avoiding this ?"

Not sure I'm understanding what you are doing.  If you have a show up on the console and are patching dimmers to channels that follows the visiting companies channel hookup, simply save it.  There's no need to re-load anything.  Are you then wanting to import the cues from the companies thumb drive of something along those lines ?. 

A scenario I deal with all the time is I have a visiting company that has a particular channel arrangement.  During load-in I am patching dimmers to channels and using that patch for focus so that the visiting LD is calling up channels according to their hookup.  I will have saved this patch as a new show file on the Ion as "Midsummers Night Dream Brooklyn", or some such.  At some point later they want me to load-in cues they have pre-recorded (from a USB drive) from a prior space and that follows their channel hookup, thus I want to Merge the cues into the existing Midsummers file.  I do this by inserting a USB drive as given to me by the company that has their cue file on it  (It needs to either be an existing Eos/Ion file, or an ASCII cue file.  If an ASCII cue file, I can expand on the methods used to import).  I select Merge and the option to only merge in the Cues (or Submasters and Effects if so desired by the company).  This will only bring in the cues (Subs/Effects) and will leave the patch alone.  I then save this as a NEW file called Midsummer Cues-Patch, or something similar to differentiate from the Patch Only show file (just in case merge gets screwy). 

"I often build states using submasters if for example I bring up
sub 1 @50
sub 2 @70
and sub 7 @90
then record as cue one
Then if i want to modify this cue by decreasing  the intensity of  sub one ,   I pull the submaster down it will stay at the recorded level BUT if I push it up the intesity will increase past the recorded level. On the strand I would simply select the sub master , wheel it to the new level and  then re record the cue  is this possible on the ION."

Once you record a cue, the console will, by default auto-load that cue on the primary fader set (if Auto-Load is toggled on in Setup, which it sounds like it is).  The channel levels as established by a Sub will be in Yellow.  If you clear all Subs, those channel levels stay up at the same level but are now in Blue, indicating levels in a Cue.  If you don't want the Auto-Load function to occur and you desire to simply build a lot of cues from Subs but not see those cue levels on-stage, then you need to go into Setup and disable Auto-Load.

Hope this helped and as stated, I'm not at a console so all of this is by memory.  Other will correct errors

And as a BTW, ETC has excellent on-line/YouTube training videos that are highly recommended. 

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=etc+ion+training+videos&aq=f

Steve Bailey

Brooklyn College

Thanks for the additional info Steve.

Just a note on modifying Rate on effects:

Rate is recorded into the cue and does not affect the speed of the base Effect as created in the Effect list. Thus allowing you to use the same effect several times at different speeds.

So, start your effect running, Record Cue 1.

Change the rate (you can do this with the encoder, or use the rate softkey to add a value. The default rate is 100, so a rate of 200 would double the speed)

Record Cue 2.

The effect will speed up over the time of Cue 2.

The base effect is not changed, only the rate specific to Cue 2.

Matt - it's probably easier for you to take a look at the video tutorial on step based effects rather than us try to explain any further here.

Bear in mind that you can also use Absolute effects to create quick sequences. Using an Absolute Effect with 2 actions, the first with a level of Full, and the second with a Level of Zero is quite a quick easy way to create a parcan chase. Apply that effect to whichever channels you like, and play with the grouping of the effect to see some quick results.

Graham

Thanks for the additional info Steve.

Just a note on modifying Rate on effects:

Rate is recorded into the cue and does not affect the speed of the base Effect as created in the Effect list. Thus allowing you to use the same effect several times at different speeds.

So, start your effect running, Record Cue 1.

Change the rate (you can do this with the encoder, or use the rate softkey to add a value. The default rate is 100, so a rate of 200 would double the speed)

Record Cue 2.

The effect will speed up over the time of Cue 2.

The base effect is not changed, only the rate specific to Cue 2.

Matt - it's probably easier for you to take a look at the video tutorial on step based effects rather than us try to explain any further here.

Bear in mind that you can also use Absolute effects to create quick sequences. Using an Absolute Effect with 2 actions, the first with a level of Full, and the second with a Level of Zero is quite a quick easy way to create a parcan chase. Apply that effect to whichever channels you like, and play with the grouping of the effect to see some quick results.

Graham

Thanks again for your help,

Im sat at the console and can now go to black out and set a non dim quickly. I have also played around with the merge function !

I have encountered a couple of problems ,

Say if I record a cue with sub 1 (ch 1 thru 10) @50 and sub 2 (ch 11 thru 20) @ full but then I decided that I want to wheel sub 2 down to 70%.

I press [group] [sub] [2] and as soon as I hit the @ key the desk selects all of my channels not just the ones in that sub.Has this got something to do with my submaster setting ?

Ive watch the video tutorial and can now programme a simple effect yippie !

One more question , how do I record this effect on to a sub so that all I have to do is push the submaster up and the effect will run ?

Im not going home today until Ive got all this sussed.

cheers
Matt

Hi Matt,

Sounds like you might have some channels recorded in Sub 2 at Zero. If channels 1 thru 10 had a manual level of 0 when you recorded Sub 2 this is likely the case.

Group Sub 2 will take these channel as being part of the sub. The way to avoid this is to do a selective store when you record your subs.

So:

11 thru 20 @ Full

Select Last Record Sub 2

This will ensure you only get levels for those channels recorded in your sub.

To remove the unwanted zeros from your sub 2 try the following:

Blind Sub 2 Enter (this will take you into an editing view for Sub 2. You can then see what it contains.)

1 Thru 10 @ Enter (this will remove the data for channels 1 thru 10 from the sub.)

Effects on Subs - there are a few options here, but first of all try this:

1 thru 10 Effect 1 Enter (or whichever channels you have in the effect)

Select Last Record Sub 11

Sneak Enter (this will remove the manual values for the channels, stopping the effect)

Sub 11 Fader (this is a softkey) Enter (this will change the mode of the fader to Intensity Master)

Now you can hit the bump button to start and stop the effect, and use the fader to fade in and out.

Out of interest, where are you based Matt?

IT WORKS !

Thanks Graham you just saved me a hell of a lot of time and stress !

Now Ive just got to type this all up and stick it on the control room wall until it all goes in my head and stays there !

Im based at the Merlin theatre in Frome , somerset in the UK .

Thanks again.

As you're only in Somerset you may want to explore the possibility of coming up to ETC's London Office for some Ion training. We run courses very regularly (usually every 2 - 3 weeks), and they are free of charge.

You can see the available dates and sign up here.

Also, feel free to contact me in the London Office if you have any questions which would be better answered over the phone.

Graham

I will look into getting to getting on one of these courses in the new year.

Thanks again for your help

Matt