Out of focus points/ different way of recording ML effects?

So im doing your standard high school rock show, with an Expression 3. Ive got 2 ML's in the house and 4 above the stage, plus a good conventional plot.

Im programming all kinds of ballyhoos, strobing crazyness and various other effects using focus points and ive manged to use up almost all of the 100 focus points. What Im doing is recording a focus point for each step of the effect and making a multi step effect cue. Problem is, i have four 15-step effects sucking up 60 focus points, and then quite a few more five- and ten-step effects, and now I'm out of focus points.

So my question is: Is there a different way to record multi step effects that doesnt involve focus points? I feel like 100 is an incredibly small number if that is the only way of doing it.

 

Actually I have one other question as well: Since i'll be making up the lighting as the show goes, I am recording all the effects cues to submasters (Wish I had an Insight, 24 subs is not enough and I cant  switch pages since i dont have enough hands) by writing the effect as a cue in blind and then recording a sub of it. Is there a faster way to record to a sub that perhaps does not involve writing a cue first?

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  • Johnthan,

    I was in your seat for many years with 4 moving lights on an Express 48/96 and running out of options! A great tool I started to use was a combination of subroutines and macros. Subroutines are like effects; but their steps are actually cues and by firing them on the C/D fader (assuming you are using A/B for primary playback) you can layer your effects on top of your beam looks and conventional intensities. So say you build many cues with different beam looks, leaving gaps between. Now jump up in your cue list say up to the 500s, and build cues with different combinations of focuses; for instance, different steps in a ballyhoo, circles, boxes, can-cans, etc. Now comes the little bit of cleanup: you need to go back to your cues with beam looks and create a sequential cue that clears out any position info in the same time as your subroutine's first step (since all channels are HTP on the Expression, your effect would only move your lights "beyond" where they are in your beam look cues, if that makes sense; also mimicking the timing of your subroutine allows effect to "fade" in.

    Now create the subroutines in Blind by pressing "type" and I believe subroutine is option 4 or 5. Subroutines can only be recorded as cues, so you can pick another bank of cues (maybe the 700s) to record the actual subroutines. You can get some great effects by combining cues from different subroutine sequences to create new effects.

    Now.....if you're in a cue with a good look onstage and want to add movement (say, on a build in the music) you can write a macro to fire your movement subroutine on the C/D fader while also taking a cue on the A/B fader that is the current beam look sans position info. To get out of this, make another macro that releases the C/D fader and jumps you back into sequence where you want to be.

    This sounds a litle daunting, but with some planning and a numerical organization plan; you can create many different types of effects an lay them out in a way for easy running on-the-fly.

    Let me know if you need some clarification.

    As far as your sub issues; try looking at macros to switch between pages; keeping in mind that macros can also fire one other macro as well as execute a full string of commands.

    -Nick



    [edited by: ldsfx at 9:26 PM (GMT -6) on Sat, Jan 10 2009]
Reply
  • Johnthan,

    I was in your seat for many years with 4 moving lights on an Express 48/96 and running out of options! A great tool I started to use was a combination of subroutines and macros. Subroutines are like effects; but their steps are actually cues and by firing them on the C/D fader (assuming you are using A/B for primary playback) you can layer your effects on top of your beam looks and conventional intensities. So say you build many cues with different beam looks, leaving gaps between. Now jump up in your cue list say up to the 500s, and build cues with different combinations of focuses; for instance, different steps in a ballyhoo, circles, boxes, can-cans, etc. Now comes the little bit of cleanup: you need to go back to your cues with beam looks and create a sequential cue that clears out any position info in the same time as your subroutine's first step (since all channels are HTP on the Expression, your effect would only move your lights "beyond" where they are in your beam look cues, if that makes sense; also mimicking the timing of your subroutine allows effect to "fade" in.

    Now create the subroutines in Blind by pressing "type" and I believe subroutine is option 4 or 5. Subroutines can only be recorded as cues, so you can pick another bank of cues (maybe the 700s) to record the actual subroutines. You can get some great effects by combining cues from different subroutine sequences to create new effects.

    Now.....if you're in a cue with a good look onstage and want to add movement (say, on a build in the music) you can write a macro to fire your movement subroutine on the C/D fader while also taking a cue on the A/B fader that is the current beam look sans position info. To get out of this, make another macro that releases the C/D fader and jumps you back into sequence where you want to be.

    This sounds a litle daunting, but with some planning and a numerical organization plan; you can create many different types of effects an lay them out in a way for easy running on-the-fly.

    Let me know if you need some clarification.

    As far as your sub issues; try looking at macros to switch between pages; keeping in mind that macros can also fire one other macro as well as execute a full string of commands.

    -Nick



    [edited by: ldsfx at 9:26 PM (GMT -6) on Sat, Jan 10 2009]
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