Support Forum

I have a sequence for my uplights and I have a seperate sequence for my truss lights and a seperate sequence for my truss warmers and another sequence for my moving head lights. Is there a way to run several sequences at once? I need the uplighting sequence to run continuously while I turn on and off other sequences on my light truss. I know I can click the cog in the cue window and loop all sequences one after the other, but that's not what I want to do. The lights are all on different channels from sequence to sequence, so there shouldn't be any signal conflicts, but If I have a sequence playing and I go to turn another one on, the first one turns off. I want it to stay on.

Read dmxlightings tutorial in the FreeStyler Wiki about using cues & submasters. Once you get to grips with them you will not go back to other methods of doing shows.

^^ These options are good, but here's another one:

You can start multiple sequences at the same time in the cue window by enabling the option to be able to run multiple sequences in the settings.

Hey guys. I printed out and read the whole tutorial on the submasters and I'm not sure if I'm understanfing it completely. I think I followed the steps, but nothing worked when I started the submaster buttons. Here's a breif summary:

I already had a sequance created where 14 Chauvet colorsplash Jr.s are lined up inside my truss. The first one comes on red, then turns off as the next one turns on red and so on. The sequence runs to the end and then back. Once I adjust the speed, The effect looks like a Cylon eye from Battlestar Galactica or the red eye on Kit from Knight Rider. Ok, so step 1. sequence created and saved. Step 2. I opened the cue list which was empty, clicked the cog and clicked add sequence. I then dragged and dropped the "Cylon" sequence on the first Cue and adjusted the speed and disabled fades. Step 3. I opened the cog again and clicked "Save sequence", named it Cylon, and ticked the box to add it to the cue buttons on the right of the Cuwe Pane. Stewp 4. I closed the cue window, open the submaster window, click the Cog on the upper right side and add the Cylon sequence to the first Submaster window. Step 5. I click on the name, It turns blue and then I click RUN and I can see the timer counting off the timeing of the sequence, but the lights don't come on. Nothing, darkness.

The colorsplash Jr's onlu can change color and be on or off. I'm not quite sure where I went wrong.

Thanks for the second suggestion about changing trhe setting so I can run multiple sequences. That did the trick and I'm now ready for the big show this Friday as I can now fire off all my sequences and mix and match.

I still would like to learn how to use the submasters though as FDreestyler seems to be a very powerful program and I want to learn everything I can to be an expert. Can anyone look at my stgeps and let me know what I did wrong? Thanks again by the way for all the help guys.

Ok, so step 1. sequence created and saved

If you tick the "add to Cue" when saving your sequence, you can skip step 2. Just be sure your Cue window only has the sequences you want to ultimately end up in a specific save cue which will end up as a submaster channel.
You can do it the other way too, just pointing out another option.

Step 3. I opened the cog again and clicked "Save sequence", named it Cylon, and ticked the box to add it to the cue buttons on the right of the Cuwe Pane.

Do you mean "save Cue"? there shouldn't be a save sequence when opening the cog wheel in the Cue window. Remember, you can put 20 sequences in one Cue. Don't short change yourself by saving a cue with only one sequence in it, unless that's what you really want. If you only put one sequence for something specific, you should atleast consider adding another sequence which counter reacts what the first one does (ex. cyclone and cyclone off). I would try filling up the whole cue first. So when you save your cue and then add it to the submaster channel, you will have up to 20 separate sequences to pick from in one submaster. You should group certain things together when creating and saving your cues. Like color chases in one cue, static colors in another, gobo changes in another, shutter speeds in another and so on. It does take some time to create all the individual sequences, create the cues from the sequences and then add them to the submaster, but its worth it in the long run.

Step 5. I click on the name, It turns blue and then I click RUN and I can see the timer counting off the timeing of the sequence, but the lights don't come on. Nothing, darkness.

The colorsplash Jr's onlu can change color and be on or off. I'm not quite sure where I went wrong.

Thanks for the second suggestion about changing trhe setting so I can run multiple sequences. That did the trick and I'm now ready for the big show this Friday as I can now fire off all my sequences and mix and match.

I'm confused. Are the lights working at this point or not?

No. At this point the lights are not working. Nothing is happening, but on the Submaster window, I can see the time running on the sequence after I turn it on.

So to clarify the way you told me to load up the submaster for uplighting, I could have say one sequence wich is a series of slow fades that go through all the colors, another one for all black, another one for, say, all Red, another for the next color, etc. and I can save them all to one submaster and fire them off from the submaster? I thought you only place one sequence in the submaster and when you click run it turns on. So you can put multiple sequences in one submaster and just highlight the one you want from that groups and fire it off? What's the difference then between doing it that way as opposed to just enableing MULTIPLE CUES in the settings and playing multiple cues from the cue window?

I re read your eplaination and I think I get it now. I think I misunderstood the Wkipedia explaination. That example used a moving head and I thought that each aspect like Color, Gobo, Tilt, Pan, etc. was being saved, each in their own submaster window. But according to what your saying, they are all saved in only one submaster window which can have up to 20 sequences. So then you could click on sequence in the submaster that makes the light tilt down, then turn on another sequence in that submaster to open the lamp, another to change the color, etc.? AGain, I'm not sure if I understand the advantage of that. Isn't that almost the same as controlling the light manually? Sorry if I'm a little dense on this. I'm still fairly new to DMX as I havn't used it a whole lot.

I will try to explain in different words:

A seyuence is a number of steps, runing one after another. Your flashing red lights are a sequence. I think you know this already. I just want to start at zero

After seting up different sequences you might want to run one after anotzer. Or you have created different sequences and want to select manualy which to run. For this, you put the sequences to the cue list. There you can select which one to run. You also can select different sequences running at the same time, if you enable the corresponding option in freestyler.

Now let us think about a big example. You have some scanners and some color changers. You want your scanners to move in a line, a rectangle, an eight, a circle, a swirl, ... You also want them to use different Gobos and different Collors. Then you want your colorchanges to rund some sequences with the scanners, but sometimes you want only the scanners to light up or only the colorchangers.

You will aggree: Setting up one sequence for every possibly combination would be a solution to do the above, but not a very usefull one becouse then you get tons of sequences you have to create and start when needing them. So you will split this a little up. You think about what can be seperated from each other. You will come to the conclusion that only one scanner move will be used at the same time; And only one scanner color; And only one Gobo; And your colorchangers are copmletly independet from the scanners.

Therefore you will create some sequences with only the moves saved in. Some other with only the gobos. Some with only the ... I think you know what i mean. You put all these sequences to a cue list and combine them as you need them. For example hitting the movment-sequence "circle" will make the scanners move in a circle. Hitting color-sequence "red" will light them up in red. So now you do not have to programm each combination you want to use. You can combine them during the show.

But you will sone come to another problem: You can only set 20 sequences in one cue list. So you have to change cue lists very often. Lets say, we have for example 10 different movments, 7 different gobos, 12 different colors for the scanner and 15 different colors for the colorchangers. Each is saved in it's owne sequence. This means you have a total of 10 + 7 + 12 + 13 = 42 sequences.

At this point the submaster will help us. Remember: only one movement at one time, only one gobo, ... This means, when setting up one movment to run, the other 9 places in the cue list used by movments are useless. But now, with submaster, you can make all movments only need one place in the cue list!

Therefor you create one cue list only with the movments and save it. Then you do the same with the Gobos and so on. After opening the submaster you can assigne each saved cue list to a different submaster window. In the submaster window the name of the cue list will appeare as window name and the sequences of the cue list will be shown. You do this for movements, for gobo, ... So at the end you will see something simmilar to figure 9 in the submaster-section in the wiki.

When running a sequence now from the submaster during cue list open, you will notice that always the used submaster sequence will be placed in the line of the cue list coresponding to its submaster-window-number. This means, alsways the currently selected movement sequence will be placed in the first cue list line (if the movment is assigned to the first submaster window).

Lets do some math: We have 4 tabs in submaster, each hase 5 places for cue list. Makes a total of 20 cue lists. Every cue list can hold 20 sequences. So we are now able to controll 400 sequences realy easily. Damn, thats a lot!

I hope you now understand the use of cue list and submasters. If you only want to controll one sequence (or a maximum of 20) you will be fine without submaster since a cue list has 20 places for sequences. But I can tell you: It will work fine for the beginning but soon you will have to need the submaster. That is what I discoverd on my owne

So let us come back to your problem:
You say you hit "run" and nothing hapens. This is bad. There can be different problems:
- Do the sequence works correctly? Open the output window (right-click to FS-background and select "show output") and look if the channel values are set correctly during running the sequence.
- Is the right DMX interface selected in freestyler setup? For using the 3D view you have to select "virtual interface" otherwise select the one you use.

To add to Mavi's explanation, Take a look at my submaster window (attached). You can see how I have things grouped. It is kinda like running the lights in manual this way, BUT you don't have to open each light to make the changes. You have all those sequences ready with just a double click ( you don't have to highlight then hit run ). What you see in my submaster is mostly single step sequences, but that is because that's how I wanted it. You can have twenty 50 step sequences in one submaster. I run my lights on the fly. I don't have pre-programmed sequences. I do have a few 20 step sequences available that will change steps every 15 seconds. I use these to go to the bathroom or whatever. That way the lights don't just stay stuck in one scene while I'm away.

Once you have created a few cues and added them to the submaster, you should take note on what goes on in the Cue window when your clicking on things in the submaster. When you open the Submaster, the cue window opens as well, but is under it. Fix your windows so you can see them both. You will notice that when you run a sequence in Submaster 1, that sequence will be running in the first slot of the Cue window. The sequence running in Submaster 2 will be running in the second slot of the Cue window and so on. So if you pick pars red in Sub1, circle gobo in Sub2, scanners doing wave in Sub3, colorstrips doing music chase in Sub4........and so on...... you will notice in the Cue window that your actually using the Submaster to run MULTIPLE SEQUENCES at the SAME TIME! (hence: matches subject title of this thread). Not screaming BTW, hahaha.

So you can actually run 20 sequences all at the same time or just the ones you want.

Hey guys, it's been a few months. OK, I totally got the use of submasters, but have another prtoblem/question. I'm doing a show tomorrow with three Chauvet qspot LED 150's and they will be located on a DJ shelf above the crowd. With the submasters and the Freestyler pre-made movements, I can have all the lights move the same, but how do I make them move in opposite directions from each other with the same pattern? For example, I want the left light to start out pointing all the way to the left and the right one all the way to the right and the center one pointing straight down. Then the right and left each move to the center to join the center light and then all three lights move up from the floor to the ceiling. I can program that show, but if I want to change colors or gobo's on the fly, the way you can with the submasters, I can't. Is there a way to have them all on a submaster, but reverse the movements of some of the lights? What about the Fan feature. I havn't played with it yet and am not quite sure how to, but it seems that it starts the lighjts from a spread out poattern in stead of them all being thesame. Would that override the submasters or would the submasters over ride the fan. Any help to get me started would be greatly appreciated.