Support Forum

Hello,

It's my first post here, so i think i have to introduce myself
I am Anthony, i live in Tours, France. I am 30. (excuse me for my poor english)
Those days i work for an insurance company, behind a computer...
My girlfriend is a singer, and i decided few months ago to help her band to improve their show, actually to enlight it.

I reached the "DMX" step last monday, it was my first experience with freestyler too.

I faced some problems during the show.
I succeeded in making few basic one-sequence scenes and playing them with the "fast cue switcher"

Then, i wanted to modify my main sequence. The guitarist went just under a PAR and i wanted to lower the intensity of this fixture before the musician begin to be roasted. (we haven't any authorization to make some food in this place, especially a roasted guitarist)
So I opened the sequence, i lowered the level of power for this fixture, but whatever the way i save my sequence, when i came back to the "cue editor" the modifications were gone, and the PAR was at full power.

So... what's the right way to modify a sequence during a show ?
Thank you for your help

Hi Zin

Your English is pretty good!

Ive found that editing a sequence during a show can have strange results and often wont (as you found out) save the changes correctly.
I dont really know why.
What I can recommend you do if you have the 'Roasting Guitarist' problem again is....

1 select the relavant par from the FS desktop
2 Open the faders - FS desktop righthand side
3 Maually adjust the intensity.

You will notice that a little blue triangle appears on the FS tool bar (normally shaded out)
This means that you now have manual control over the selected fixture(s).
When your done, click the blue triangle to 'Release All' and FS will revert back to the sequence it was playing.

Thank you for your reply, dmxlighting from London !
I am very pleased to read that I am not the only one who have such a trouble when i want to save a sequence during a show

The manual setting you suggest is exactly the way i saved the guitarist. But i had to do it again and again, after each time i want to play another cue.

The next time i will take more time to prepare all my sequences and try and avoid this kind of problems.

Thank you again.

Zin wrote:Hello,
...
So... what's the right way to modify a sequence during a show ?
Thank you for your help

The Netherlands checking in.
This is the only and right way to modify a sequence during a show, lets call that "offline sequence editing".
But, in the FS version you are using you can't change the sequence by changing the sliders, you need to set manual DMX values in the matrix that is displayed below the sequences form.

That proved to be somewhat strange earlier, so in the next version of FS, this matrix will be gone and sliders can be used for offline sequence editing.
The changes are _not_ realtime showed on the outside world, only when you save the sequence and (re)start it in the cue selection.
The offline changes are realtime showed in the 3d easy viewer, so you can offline change a sequence, see the result offline on your computer screen in 3d easy viewer and save the sequence for real use.

For now you have to work with the version you have. I beleive there are functions in FS to disable or lock certain DMX channel values*.
So when in the middle of a show, you can give the fixture the value you like and then lock it somewhere in FS and it never gets any other value anymore.
Furthermore, as said, its possible to change the values in that matrix below the sequence editor. It works good enough to change some DMX values in a sequence.
You can also create a new sequence with 1 step and add it to override buttons to give that fixture a fixed value.

Edit:
* Set the preferred value in the slider without having the sequence editor open, the light changes to that intensity, then Menu "Edit->Show output", find the corresponding DMX channel. Right click on it and select "Disable channel". Now the channel stays on that value, forever, until re-enabled.
You can also right click on your fixture selecting "Disable fixture", only do this if you have a 1 channel PAR fixture configured. If you disable a complete PAR 4 fixture, than all 4 PARS are disabled instead of 1. In this case its better do disable the DMX channel in question in the "Show output" form.

Great reply, remco_k from Montfoort!

Two good news in one post is far better than i could expect. You give me two ways of getting around the issue, and furthermore you write the "bug" will be fixed in a future FS release...

The DMX matrix tip seems to be quite easy, but I am not familiar with override functions, i am going to learn how it works.

Thank you!

I actually Find it FASTER and Easier to Program with the DMX Matric in Offline Editor.. Just type in all your dmx values and click to choose fade or snap. I usally know what the DMX value is for each channel when programing!