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Hi everybody,

First I'd like to ask you to go easy with me as I might take a lot of words to ask a question that you probably think simple, English is not my native language and so I try to give the more detail so people can understand what I'm asking.

I'm a bit new to this software (which is as complicated as fun ), the wiki and different tutorials helped a lot until now but although they hold more information than I need there is still stuff I can't get but amongst other questions I ask myself there's one peculiar thing I'd like to be able to do I can't find information on how to, I'm quite close but can't get it to work properly.

So I use freestyler DMX to light stages for (small) gigs and shows. I until now managed to do with what I learnt here and there and by myself but soon I'll need to be lighting a show, where artists will need a bunch of different scenes that I don't know the length of.

I would like to know how I can create a sequence with for instance 4 scenes that I can trigger manually and won't run through the different steps by itself as it does by default.

(to give an instance, let's say I have a RGB LED PAR and I want it to be blue in scene 1, red in scene 2 and green in scene 3 but I don't know how long I want the scenes to last so I want to be able to go from one scene to the next manually. I know how to create the sequence and to put it in the cuelist, the problem is once I'll hit the "read" button the sequence will start and go on with the scenes. I noticed the manual trigger button but is it possible for the sequence to start the first scene and not go to the next without me manually triggering it?)

I already thank you if you take time to answer this.

P.S: Please consider in your answer that I still haven't grasped how to use simultaneously the submaster + cuelist + override ect so what' I'm explaining and asking is propbably not the most efficient way to do it but I'd like to know how anyway.

To keep maximum flexibility, you want to program your cues to only change (1) value for multi-channel fixtures like movers and LED lights, and keep your sequences relatively simple.

So for your current example, if I were doing it (and be aware, if you ask 5 different people they would give you 7 different ways to do it ), I would create a 1-step sequence of just red color. Then create a new 1-step sequence of blue color. Then create a new 1-step sequence of green color. And so on.

Then in your cue list, load those three sequences up into the list. Save that as a "LED color" cue file. That would then get loaded into a single submaster. So during your show, you click on the "Red" sequence and click Run. Once you want green, you click on the "Green" sequence and click Run. Or you can click "Go" or "back" to move to each sequence one at a time. Does that make sense?

I have a relatively simple setup but let me explain it to see if that helps you understand the relationships better. I'm sure someone will have a better setup but this has worked well for me. I have (3) pairs of (2) different types of LED pars on a back truss, plus a pair of moving lights. In front I have (1) pair of LED pars that I use only for lighting our singer, and then (2) more pairs of LED pars I use for wash for the band, all on a pair of T-bars on stands. I divide this into the following groups in FS:

Tri PARs - rear truss
Mega PARs - rear truss
Inno Spots - rear truss
VPar - T-Bar (wash)
Spot - T-bar (vpar spot)

I created 1-step sequences for each of those groups for every color I wanted. So for instance, a sequence of the TriPars being red (nothing else selected). Then another sequence of the TriPars being blue. Then a sequence of the Mega PARs being blue, etc, until I had the 8 colors I planned to use for each group of lights. I would then create a cue for TriPars Colors which would contain all the 1-step sequences of the colors for the TriPars. Then create another cue MegaPar Colors which could contain all the 1-step sequences of the colors for the Mega Pars and so on. Those would each get loaded into their own submaster, so you could turn on each whenever you wanted.

I also created some sequences that incorporated all the PARs on the truss. for instance, alternating between Red and Blue, or some sort of chase. I saved all those different sequences into a Truss Chase cue for use in a submaster.

For movers, you end up getting a LOT more sequences, as you have all sorts of sequences that are just for movement of the movers. Then a bunch of sequences that are just for the shutter of the movers. Then more for the color. Again for the gobo. And again for the gobo rotation, etc. Most (other than the movement ones) were just 1-step sequences that either turned on or turned off gobos, rotation, prism, etc.

It sounds like a lot of work and it was - but I wanted maximum flexibility when building my light shows. You could certainly make your sequences incorporate more than one attribute (say color and movement) and that's fine, it's just paints you in a corner because now you MUST use those colors with that movement.

Does that make sense?