Understanding Effects Engine

Hey All,
New to the forums, just wanted to say hi. I am a relatively new programmer only having done a handful of shows with automated lighting so far. My question is how to get more movement into cues and how to set up the console to be able to do hits and multiple effects easier.

I started by having a cuelist per song, with verse 1 look, pre-chorus, chorus, etc. method. So one fader per song, most of my looks were pretty static. I then started having a few faders per song with effects and chases on a few that I would bring in and out with the hits. But I still feel as if I can't hit all the cues I want to easily.

So my question breaks down into how to set up the console on a song by song basis, and also how to understand the effects engine parameters. I can use it but usually have to result to trial and error when adjusting parameters trying to get a certain effect.

I know this is a long post, and it really comes down to I need to spend more time with a console. But I am a student and the venue I work in only lets us rents automated lights for certain shows so I don't get as much time as I would like to mess around.

Thanks in advance!
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    Hi Matt.
    that is a tough question for there's not a way to set up the console.
    if you asked 10 programmers how they would set up their console you would get 10 different answers.
    More if you think that the Hog III is a very flexible console and the same thing can be achieved in many different ways.
    A page per song basis might be a good base to start with.
    You can create your song list and other different effect cuelists you can play with as you feel you need to.
    I personally use loads of virtual cuelists triggered directly via touch screen.
    Normally I record loads of different effect list (position, colour, beam, intensity) that can be used independently. Using virtual lists gives you an awful lot of flexibility for they're not linked to a particular page particularly if you use the "add release end cue" option.
    First touch to trigger the list second to release.

    Effect engine is extremely powerful particularly used in conjunction with grouping i.e. repeat and buddy. I could explain how to use it and other people here in this forum could do it even better. The best thing you can do to make it yours is playing with that and more if you search the forum you’ll be able to find loads of threads explaining how to use the effect engine.

    Marco
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    Hey Matt,

    Nice to see you start your career with a console like the Wholehog III, i start my on a Jands Hog 250 then upgrade it to 500 and after 5 years on thet saxy console i move to the WholeHog III console, probably the best console in the world today, so...you have some very good start.

    My advice to you is to listen to Marco advice, as you see, from 2005 on the forum, he have time with the Hog.

    Remamber you can do every thing with that console, hey...it's a f**king wholehog III, you can played back effects from the touchscreens, from the faders, from leptup and from any bottun on the hog.
    You can still use 1 fader for each song and playback effects from touchscreens, if you see thet you have so many effect on the screen and you get confused so you don't know witch effect bellong to each song, you can record views for each song and use macros to automate the console to each song, for example:

    Lets say you programe song 1, you have the Main cuelist fader, fader no.1, and something like...26 effects and chasers for thet song recorded on a virtual list's on the touchscreens.
    Now lets programe song 2, fader no. 2 and again, 24 virtual effects and chases on the touch, that start to look messy on the screen.
    Now programe song 3, fader no.3 and 28 virtuals, thats really messy...

    To do that more easy, use Views and Macros:

    Record your effect and chases for song 1 in a deferent location on the virtual list directory and record that location in view no. 11 (i assume you probably have some views stored in 1>10 for programming) and in fader no.1 cue 1 set in the Macro field that every time that cue will "GO" you get that song virtual effects and chases alone on the screen.
    do that for each song and the console will be all for that song for any song.

    To finish, my biggest advice to you is to remember you use a WholeHog III Console and start to think like a WholeHog III programer and not looking for Lightcommander or Event or other "fader" console, you have the best, start think like it.

    Good luck and happy year.


    Amir
    Danix
    Israel
  • 0
    Thanks for the help guys I will certainly mess around with different setups. Just browsing many of the other threads has helped me alot already.
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