LED color changes

Sounds like Hue/Saturation fading is what you want, rather than direct color channel fades.

You are probably crossing the color wheel as shown on the color picker. As the fade happens all colors go directly from their current value to the new value. In the middle there are a bunch of colors partway up, so the net effect is white-ish so it appears bright. An HS fade will do a rainbow fade around the wheel without getting unsaturated.

Or possibly DMX issues...

Off the top of my  head I don't know if I recorded hs or color so i'll check that tonight however that's really not the problem.  It's the 0 time flash bright then fade to the correct next cue value that's really obvious in cue transitions.  We did tech rehearsal last night and I have quite a few scenes when I hit GO the led's flash bright then fade down to where they need to be rather than a smooth timed change.

Heres the final answer to this problem:  I discovered I had some pallets recorded using the Chauvet factory created color "macros" and used them in some cues.  Factory macros take charge over console selection so when hitting GO those fixtures immediately switched to the recorded Chauvet macro which immediately flashed bright then did fhe cue time fade to the proper look.  So don't use fixture macros in cues - per Lowell Olcutt (and I see why) let the console do all the work.  The hard part is if you need specific color temps - in my case I wanted a warm 3200ish white - its difficult without an led rated meter to hand make those palletes.  Or knowing what gel(s) do it, but they don't always match the fixture output.

Heres the final answer to this problem:  I discovered I had some pallets recorded using the Chauvet factory created color "macros" and used them in some cues.  Factory macros take charge over console selection so when hitting GO those fixtures immediately switched to the recorded Chauvet macro which immediately flashed bright then did fhe cue time fade to the proper look.  So don't use fixture macros in cues - per Lowell Olcutt (and I see why) let the console do all the work.  The hard part is if you need specific color temps - in my case I wanted a warm 3200ish white - its difficult without an led rated meter to hand make those palletes.  Or knowing what gel(s) do it, but they don't always match the fixture output.