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5.11. How to work with effects
Effect theory
Effects are the dynamic transition from one value to another. It always moves between two values - and only two.
We can control how it should get from one value to the other, we can control the speed and whether all fixtures
should do this at the same point on time or if they should be spread out over the looping time.
Each of the different Preset Types have some predefined effects that you can modify.
All the different effects values are programmer values that you can store in cues. This is the only place we can
playback effects.
Let's examine some of these settings. Let's begin with the two values. In the purple effect title bar you'll find two
buttons called Low Value and High Value . These are used to access and change those values.
Some effects can use a Width and Softness.
To learn more about what effects are, please have a look at the
help pages.
Build an effect in your programmer
To build an effect in your programmer you need to select the fixtures you want to use the effect, and you need to
select the Preset Type you want the effect to use. Then in the title bar of the preset type tap the effects icon
- or
press the
Effect
key.
This opens the effects view for the selected Preset Type.
Now you can select one of the predefined effect templates for the preset type you have selected (not "Off" or
"Stomp") - there isn't any effects for the Control, Shaper and Video preset types, so please select something else.
The left encoder can be used to adjust the "High" and "Low" value. You can also adjust these by tapping the
respective buttons in the title bar. You can use presets as the values.
The center left encoder controls the Speed of the effect. A higher number makes the effect run faster.
The center right encoder controls the Phase. This is the spreading of the fixtures over the time of the effect cyclic
loop. If there's one value here, then all your fixture are at the same time in the looping cycle. and the result is that
they are all changing together. Even if you now turn the encoder, then nothing really seems to happen. This is
because all the fixtures are still at the same point in the loop, we are just moving where in the loop. If you want to
spread all the fixtures out evenly in the cycle, then they need to have a phase from 0 to 360 degrees. If you press the
encoder, then you can see some predefined spreads. One is called 0..360 and there is one called 0..-360 . You
can use these two to spread your fixtures evenly in the loop. The difference is the direction of the effect. A third
predefined phase is the Mirror (0...360...0) , This will split you selection in two and make the effect run in a wing or
mirror style. You can also type your own e.g.
0 Thru 180
or
-360 thru 0 thru -360
. These spreads can also be made
using the different modes of the Align key in combination with turning the encoder. Play around with it and also try
to exceed the 360 number.
There's often effects called something like "Soft" or "Hard". These effects will change between the high and low
values with either a soft (sinus) or hard (PWM) curve. You can often adjust this by using the right encoder while you
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