Newbie help please

[Poida]

Hi All,

I first used Freestyler a few years ago and made some basic scenes for the band I help out and it worked ok but I never took the time to really explore it so just went back to using a light desk (Jands Stage CL - I don’t use any moving heads yet). The Stage CL is so easy to use for a newbie who only has one gig every month or two.
I now want to take the time and get Freestyler working properly for me. I use 18 Nitec T12 leds positioned around the stage.
My question is what’s the best way to program a queue list or similar for a song so I can call that up and create a master queue list for the gig once I get a set list ?
Do I need to use sub masters? I don’t really understand them and think they only really apply to moving heads, is that right?
How do I save each song to call up when I need it?
Thanks.

[Partyman]

You will be best served using cuelists right now. You can also use the DMX400 portion of freestyler to do some pretty dynamic stuff. Being that you only use pars it will be very easy to create shows.
For simplicity sake I would use the DMX400 along with sound to light to run the moving scenes then use override buttons for color control and strobing. That would require very little programming and the show would be excellent.
If you choose to program everything for every song it is going to be very time consuming but will give you the ultimate in flexibility.
There is also a add on for Freestyler called "Go Monkey" that is built to make freestyler easier to operate from a band member download/file.php?id=2528

[PoidaH]

Thanks Partyman,
I hadn't even thought of trying that DMX400 mode. I will have a play with that on the weekend when I can plug into some lights. The bit I cant work out is my fixtures are 8 channel. The wiki says DMX400 can only control 12 channels. Does that mean I can only control one fixture?

[Partyman]

DMX400 can control the channels. DMX400 works with groups of fixtures and you can either choose: 4, 6, 8, or 12 everything after that is just a multiple. If you have 4 par cans you would choose 4, 6 par cans 6... That number is only for the chase effect, it needs to know how many fixtures are chasing. All fixtures need to be addressed individually. If you setup four pars each addressed individually you will be able to fully test and understand.