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state of the DMX channels solely by seeing what scenes were left running at any given time. This 
‘on is on’ and ‘off is off’ approach makes it far easier to program automated or randomised 
lightshows. This mode is also ideal for running automated lightshows in different areas at the same 
time as you can program (pre-determine) exactly what is on and what is off in any area, at any time.

In 

Live

 mode you can use ShowMagic in a more ‘on-the-fly’ manner using a similar logic to 

popular ‘Live Performance’ lighting desks. Put simply, when a scene is run the DMX channels are 
adjusted accordingly (as in 

Normal

 mode), however, when that scene is turned off the channels set 

to 

LTP

 remain in their last state because no 

Latest

 scene has been run to change them. If you want to

bring an 

LTP

 channel back down to 

00

 you must run a scene that includes that channel recorded at 

00

. However, any channels set to 

HTP

 return to 

00

 as there is no scene left running that is pushing 

that channel higher than 

00

.

Another way of explaining the difference between the 

Normal

 and 

Live

 modes is:

Normal

 mode - what you get for each channel is the result of what scenes 

are currently running

 for 

those channels (allowing of course for NTP, LTP or HTP precedence).

Live

 mode - what you get for each channel is the result of what scenes 

were last run

 (that use the 

channels set to LTP precedence) and the brightness level of any fixtures is dictated by any currently 
running scene(s) that set the highest ‘brightness’ levels for those fixtures using HTP.

Live

 mode is selected by ticking the 

Live Mode > On

 

item in the 

Options > General Settings

 

menu.

Normal

 mode is selected by un-ticking the 

Live Mode > On

 

item.

Summary of the Different Recording Modes

Before we move on to the other scene panel items, and the process of recording and playing back 
lighting scenes, it is a good idea to re-cap, and summarise, the different types of recording modes 
because a proper understanding of them is required to make the most of ShowMagic’s features and 
achieve the desired results.

There are various scene-recording modes in ShowMagic:

a)

Record Moved

 (the default) - shown as 

Rec M

 on the scene panel’s record button.

In this mode the settings of all lighting fixture faders that have been physically moved, or 

Cued

 by a running scene, are stored in a scene when it is recorded.

b)

Record Tagged

 - shown as 

Rec T

 on the scene panel’s record button.

In this mode only the settings of lighting fixture faders that have been tagged are stored in a 
scene when it is recorded - irrespective of what faders have actually been moved.

c)

Record Fixture

 - shown as 

Rec F

 on the scene panel’s record button.

In this mode the settings of ALL the function faders for selected fixtures are stored in a 
scene when it is recorded - even if those function faders are at 

00

 or have not been moved.

d)

Record by Sniffing DMX

 - shown as 

Rec S

 on the scene panel’s record button.

58    

 ShowMagic SLX Series User Manual

Summary of Contents for AV

Page 1: ...SLX Series User Manual Version 14 1 For SLX and SLX Plus Models www showmagic com ...

Page 2: ... of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the information contained herein ASIO is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH All trademarks acknowledged Copyright 2016 AVSS Ltd ii ...

Page 3: ...tch and Copy Commands 17 Multiple Assignment and Patching Commands 18 Function List 19 Notes on Matching Fixture Fader Numbers to DMX Channels 20 Notes on Overwriting DMX Addresses Already in Use 20 Deleting Fader and Fixture Assignments 20 The Load Patch and Save Patch Functions 21 Making Fixtures 21 The Test Buttons Fdr and Dmx 22 Load Fixture and Save Fixture Functions 23 Change Password 23 Aut...

Page 4: ...ilters Presets for RGB CMY Functions 44 The Trackball 44 Centre and Locate Buttons 45 Color Box 45 Grouping Fixtures 45 Multi Button 47 Setting Faders using Commands 47 Copying Fixture Function Settings using Commands 48 Clearing Fixture Function Settings using Commands 49 Section 7 Lighting Scene Panel 51 Applying Icons To Bank and Page Selector Buttons 51 Scene Button LEDs 52 Red LEDs 53 Recordi...

Page 5: ... FX Presets 81 Triggering a Shape FX using Sound To Light 82 Using the Fixtures Presets with Shape FX Presets 82 Clipping Shape FX using the Range Limiter Box 82 Changing the Reference Positions in Existing FX Scenes 85 ColorScene 85 Creating a ColorScene Lighting Scene 87 ColorScene Patch Mode 88 Chase Mode 89 Color Mode 89 The Set Frame 90 Creating Frames 91 Using Insert and Delete 93 Setting a ...

Page 6: ...med Sequences 123 Pausing Resuming Events within a Manual or Timed Sequence 123 Recording Event Trigger Times in Real Time 124 Random Sequences 125 Auto Timed Random Sequences 125 Snapshots 125 Deleting a Sequence 128 Copying a Sequence 128 Moving a Sequence 128 Deleting Sequence Steps 128 Inserting Null Sequence Steps 128 Changing Event Settings Within Sequences 129 Adjusting Settings for Sound E...

Page 7: ...Groups 159 Action Group dialogue box 159 Operation Options 160 Triggering Action Buttons 163 MIDI Input Triggering 163 Comm String Triggering 165 Comm Device Triggering 168 Wireless Media Player Remote Controller 170 DMX Input Triggering 170 IR Remote Control Triggering 172 User Screen Hide 173 Conditional 173 Event Scripts for Action Buttons 175 Quick Find Feature 175 Using Key Activated Presets ...

Page 8: ...u 190 System Locked 191 The Notepad Menu 191 Section 14 Schedule Screen 193 Day Buttons 194 Creating a Schedule 194 Copying Schedule Days 195 Inserting a Schedule Step 195 Deleting a Schedule Step 196 Loading and Saving Schedules 196 Auto Schedule Button 196 Schedule Log 196 Section 15 User Screen 199 Quitting the Program 202 Section 16 Appendix 203 Appendix A Event Scripts 205 Appendix B Quick Ke...

Page 9: ...hese should become clear with use and experimentation In order to understand the functions and features properly it is very important that you first read through the Beginner s Tutorial and practice the examples using the software first before using this manual The Beginner s Tutorial introduces you step by step to the basic operating principles patching lighting fixtures using those fixtures crea...

Page 10: ...Experimental features should not effect the standard features of ShowMagic if you decide not to use them x ...

Page 11: ...m from one place to another press and hold down the left mouse button on the item you wish to drag move the item to where you wish to put it and then let go of the button to drop it Style Conventions The following style conventions are used throughout the manual Ctrl Keys to be pressed on the keyboard e g press the key marked Ctrl Normal Non ShowMagic items e g names of devices RS232 input strings...

Page 12: ...th ShowMagic events these timings are in the following format Hours Minutes Seconds and Frames shown thus HH MM SS FF a frame being 1 25th of a second shown from 00 to 24 e g 12 frames equals half a second Where HH are the hours MM are the minutes SS are the seconds and FF are the frames e g 09 08 07 06 9 hours 8 minutes 7 seconds and 6 frames Where hours or hours and minutes are not appropriate t...

Page 13: ... available in two sizes to suit the maximum number of DMX channels that you need to control 512 on standard models and 2048 on the Plus models There are 3 ranges of ShowMagic SL Sound output Lighting control and MIDI device control SLX Sound output input output routing Lighting control MIDI device control eXternal RS232 IP device control plus auto scheduler AV As SLX but including on board softwar...

Page 14: ...iate panels Clicking once on a button highlights it this is then shown brighter and the details of the event stored on that button are displayed in the details display at the top of the panel Double clicking on a button is the equivalent to pressing it and this will start the event if it is not currently running or stop the event if it is currently running i e double clicking on an event button to...

Page 15: ...e The File New Desk option will clear the desk set up after confirmation and a copy of the current desk is automatically saved as a file called Backup dsk Normally when ShowMagic is initially run all the lighting scene sound control event and sequence buttons are empty Each can then be selected and programmed or alternatively a desk set up that was previously programmed can be loaded in using Load...

Page 16: ...the keypads on hardware lighting desks for patching channels and setting values etc Edit Event Label User editable event labels can be applied to all ShowMagic event buttons Selecting this item enables you to globally or selectively find and replace all or sections of any event labels This eliminates the need to go to each event button highlight it double click on its label in the details display ...

Page 17: ...click on the Replace All button Alternatively click on the Replace button if you want to replace each label selectively you will then be prompted with a dialogue box to confirm each replacement Note The text that you type into the Replace box is case sensitive and must match the label being replaced Section 1 Overview 5 ...

Page 18: ......

Page 19: ...ces a dialogue box Pink Used for Pop Up Menus Items shown in pink can be changed by right clicking on them This produces a pop up menu from which options can be selected Lighting Scenes A lighting scene is simply a desk setting or lighting state in which lighting fixture fader settings are stored along with settings for how that scene should occur when the scene is run using Wait fade In Hold and ...

Page 20: ...ls the previous audio file is stopped ASIO Drivers ASIO drivers only support playback of un compressed wav files but the advantage of using ASIO outputs is that multiple uncompressed wave wav files can be played to any of the multiple audio outputs with up to 16 channels synchronized and on SLX and AV models audio inputs can also be mixed routed to any of the multiple outputs As described later in...

Page 21: ...ce it is ignored Manual This is similar to a Cue List on popular lighting desks but unlike lighting desks a ShowMagic Manual sequence can be used to cue much more than just lighting scenes You may be running a show where for instance lighting scenes music sound effects etc must be operated manually to allow for fluctuations in human participants timing Each step of a manual sequence lighting scene...

Page 22: ... change commands from any external MIDI keyboard or MIDI sequencer connected to a MIDI port on the PC A handheld RF media player remote control can be used to control the currently highlighted action button Action buttons can also be triggered and controlled when ShowMagic receives commands sent by External RS232 IP devices DMX signals received from an external DMX lighting desk Switches connected...

Page 23: ...ayback system that can also control itself In terms of flexibility the combination of auto scheduler control events and action buttons that can be activated in a variety of ways means that one or more shows sections of shows light and sound environments individual events and or external RS232 IP devices can be run by the clock by RS232 IP commands DMX or MIDI Triggers by switches by analogue input...

Page 24: ...X addresses of the lighting fixtures Please Note With all models of ShowMagic any DMX addresses between 001 and 512 can be used The DMX addresses can also be spread across up to 4 universes However the amount of DMX channels that can be assigned to fixtures is dependent on the model as follows SL Free Edition 24 DMX channels SL SLX AV models 512 DMX channels SL Plus SLX Plus and AV Plus models 204...

Page 25: ...n displays windows 1 Key Input This is where you can enter commands 2 Fader List This where you assign fixture types to the fixture faders on the main screen s fixture panel 3 Address List This is where physical fixtures and their DMX addresses are shown set 4 Function List This is where the functions of the fixtures are shown set Section 3 Patch Screen 13 ...

Page 26: ...ses the number buttons to the right of the Command display are used for selecting the appropriate DMX universe when patching fixtures The correct universe number should first be highlighted when patching addresses Clicking anywhere in a display selects it and it is shown with a red highlighting bar the highlighting bars in the other non selected displays are shown in green You can also scroll up a...

Page 27: ...functions of the GoldenScan HPE will also appear automatically in the Function list 6 Double click on the DMX address for that fixture and an Enter DMX Address Copy dialogue box will appear Type a start address of 55 in the Address box and click on Enter button That fixture will then be patched to DMX addresses 055 066 as it is a multi channel fixture that uses 12 DMX channels Clearing an Address ...

Page 28: ...the Library button there are no addresses assigned The information provided in this display is as follows Fix Each physical fixture s that is patched to a fixture fader is shown under this title in white by its number 1 to 24 e g if you assigned 4 par cans with different channels DMX addresses to the fader the Fix numbers 1 to 4 would be shown in white with the remaining Fix numbers 5 to 24 shown ...

Page 29: ...tched to DMX address 10 Pressing Enter confirms this command or alternatively you can press the Del key to delete and re enter the patch command before pressing Enter The Del key on the numeric keyboard is used only for deleting commands The Delete key above the cursor keys is used for many other purposes Please Note An alternative way to enter the start address of any fixture is to double click o...

Page 30: ...GoldenScans assigned to faders 1 to 10 but they are not patched to DMX channels the patching can be done for each fixture individually as previously described or if their addresses are all set to be consecutive they can all be patched with a single command 1 Let us say that you have physically set 10 GoldenScan 3 HPE fixtures to use consecutive start channels beginning with 1 i e 1 13 25 37 etc an...

Page 31: ... GM button however will always send zero values to ALL channels The setting of minimum values can be useful if you want to ensure that certain functions on fixtures are never allowed to go fully off such as the dimming level of fixtures that might be used for emergency lighting Mx The maximum value that will be output to that DMX channel The default Mn and Mx values are 00 and FL Full 100 respecti...

Page 32: ...cks to fixture faders it is a good idea to assign those fixtures to faders that correspond to the DMX channels E g If you are using a 24 channel dimmer pack set to DMX address 001 the fixtures connected to that pack should be assigned to fixture fader numbers 001 to 024 You can then use the commands for setting faders when creating lighting scenes and you know that the fixture fader numbers in tho...

Page 33: ... take advantage of ShowMagic s function icon display and control features To create a new fixture do the following 1 Highlight an empty fixture fader row that you want to assign your new fixture to and click on the Make button to activate it The top right fixture list is then temporarily changed into a Function List and a comprehensive list of functions is displayed 2 Use the scroll bar to scroll ...

Page 34: ...alue selected on the Options Dmx Test Level menu item default 50 so that the effect can be observed e g if you had 2 Goldenscans assigned to fader 001 highlighting fader 001 with the Fdr test button on would turn on the dimmer channels 4th functions for those two fixtures at their test levels Also because ShowMagic knows what channels need to be used to open the beam iris etc it opens these channe...

Page 35: ...r show requiring a similar set up but for 8 fixture faders 1 Highlight a fixture fader row in the Fader display 2 Select the File Load Fixture menu item and choose the fader set up saved previously You now have a fader instantly set up with all its 4 fixture assignments and Function list settings for each fixture Min Max etc the DMX patch settings are not of course saved as these invariably have t...

Page 36: ...g Comm Configure Comm Devices enables you to set up the parameters for controlling external RS232 and IP network devices or for setting up devices for triggering action buttons and controlling various elements of ShowMagic via RS232 IP For the triggering of action buttons via IP outstations see Configure Outstations p 28 RS232 IP Command String Protocol p 223 provides a list of command strings for...

Page 37: ...item can be left at the default String In Out setting If you want to read command strings from IP Outstation devices then you must first configure the outstation as described in Configure Outstations p 28 User Defined If the device expects a mixture of string and number data decimal or hexadecimal then User Defined should be selected here After selecting String In Out or User Defined the appropria...

Page 38: ...device type that you are using can be selected here Edit 01 to 16 This drop down menu enables you to select each unit to set its com port and edit its name For instance if you were using two Sanyo PLC XU116 projectors one connected to COM1 and the other to COM2 and the first projector was located in room 1 and the other in room 2 then these could be set up as follows 1 Select Units 02 2 With Edit ...

Page 39: ...ed control commands e g Play Rew Stop etc In this way you don t have to keep referring to the command protocol for the device to find the correct string commands to enter for the most commonly used commands you simply use the Command drop down menu on the Enter Ctrl String dialogue to see what generic codes are available for that device and select one of the Plain English codes ShowMagic does the ...

Page 40: ... as an application running on an iPhone iPad etc then this menu item can be used to set the IP address and port number for the device Any command string messages received from this device IP address and port will be acted upon but any command string messages received over IP from devices with different IP addresses ports will be ignored See RS232 IP Command String Protocol p 223 for a list of comm...

Page 41: ... to 12 pixelmaps for use with ColorScene PixMap User Configuration Select the Options Edit User Setup menu item and a Pixmap User Configuration dialogue box will appear The Pixmap User Configuration dialogue box For this example six 8x8 RGB fixtures have been patched to faders 001 to 006 on the patch screen Section 3 Patch Screen 29 ...

Page 42: ...little arrow icon will appear to show what direction the pixels are arranged in When you let go of the mouse button that fixture will be soft patched into the grid The next fixture in the fixture window will then be highlighted ready for soft patching Click on the top ninth element from the right drag the mouse to the right until the arrow icon is shown then let go of the mouse button That fixture...

Page 43: ...nged so that their pixels run left to right top to bottom If snake is used with this option then it is assumed that the fixtures are arranged as left to right then right to left on alternate rows moving down the grid A pixmap grid can be defined as any size up to 32 x 32 and elements in that grid do not have to have fixtures patched to them so different clusters of LED fixtures can be used on the ...

Page 44: ......

Page 45: ...ble that are designed to provide logical and easy access to the various features and facilities available on the desk The Master Fixture Lighting Scene Sequence Sound Control Monitor and Action panels can be accessed on either side of the screen by simply clicking on its tab at the top The panel selector tabs The tabs are normally colored grey except when one is selected in which case its icon is ...

Page 46: ... than one bank of page buttons is available bank buttons labelled A B etc each containing a number of page buttons are provided and this bank and page system provides a very handy way for you to organise events into logical groups for easy access Bank and Page selector buttons A short label of up to 3 characters however many will fit can be applied to a bank or page selector button by double right...

Page 47: ...es sequences sound events or control events respectively that are running on the desk Holding down Ctrl and double clicking on any one of these buttons stops ALL events The button s LEDs are illuminated in green if any events of that type are running The top half of the Master panel contains a sound to light section Section 5 Master Panel 35 The Clear buttons ...

Page 48: ... the frequencies The lowest and highest frequency for each frequency band can be selected between 30hz and 16Khz There are eight sound to light slots that can be assigned to any of the available DirectSound Dsnd or ASIO input and output channels that are detected by ShowMagic To set up these slots use the Options Other Settings Audio ASIO Settings menu item The sound to light meters can be used to...

Page 49: ...ently selected button is denoted by its colour being shown in a rectangle outlined in grey as in the fourth button in the picture above shown in orange and labelled 3 4 Directsound channels are shown preceded by a D on the selector buttons ASIO output channels are shown in orange with the appropriate channel number s ASIO input channels on SLX AV models are shown in red with the appropriate channe...

Page 50: ...un mute the outputs by double clicking on them The sub master ASIO audio faders Multiple ASIO Audio Input Sub master Faders When the button above the page selector buttons is selected shown red clicking on the page selector buttons enables you to scroll through the ASIO input sub master faders for all the input channels that are available these buttons are colored red to denote input and are also ...

Page 51: ... the current DMX lighting state This is useful if you want to load another desk but keep the current lighting state running temporarily Similarly if you are programming lighting scenes but need to maintain the current DMX output then this button can be used to program blind Blackout Button Double clicking on this button will set all dimmer channels to their minimum settings as defined on the patch...

Page 52: ...e auto schedule button above it will stop flashing and the auto scheduler will catch up and trigger any events that should be running at that point Auto Save Button The auto save button Double clicking on this button toggles auto save On or Off When On the button is displayed in red and the current desk is saved automatically every 5 10 or 15 minutes depending on which duration is ticked on the Op...

Page 53: ...ader setting as a percentage i e 00 to FL Full 100 The fixture page selector buttons Page buttons containing the number of the first fixture fader on that page as it s initial label are provided for access to any one of the pages of 12 faders These buttons can be labelled using up to 3 characters however many will fit by double right clicking on them and entering the label e g you could use sca to...

Page 54: ... light function e g Dimmer or Shutter is assigned to the fixture fader as well as its function fader so the brightness for the fixture s can be controlled by either The function fader values are shown below the function fader as a percentage i e 00 to FL Full 100 and the actual DMX values 0 to 255 are also shown below that The Left and Right cursor keys can be used to scroll along select each func...

Page 55: ...r Wheel function button and hold down Shift you would see the colour wheel presets on the right Clicking on the button labelled Orange for instance would then select orange on the color wheel and you will notice that the function fader moves to the correct value for that preset The last preset selected for each function remains highlighted in blue with a red border until another is selected Using ...

Page 56: ...settings etc of the preset buttons below them they are not used to select anything they are there purely for reference To remove the presets panel simply take your finger off the Shift key The Trackball The Trackball on the right of the function buttons can be used to alter both the pan and tilt settings of fixtures by simply holding down the left mouse button when the cursor is situated over the ...

Page 57: ...the group is turned on also affects the other fixtures in that group By grouping two or more fixture faders you can then select a gobo on one of the fixtures and the other fixtures in that group will also be changed to that gobo This eliminates the need to set each fixture independently Fader Page Groups The function keys F1 to F8 can be used to store up to eight group selections for each page of ...

Page 58: ... off To record scenes using alternate fixtures 1 and 3 press F2 to select group F2 and so on Fixture grouping affects all the functions of fixtures contained within the group so moving the Color Wheel function fader or selecting one of its preset buttons will select that function setting for all other fixtures in that group When initially setting up a desk and assigning fixtures via the patch scre...

Page 59: ...preset value because the fixtures are grouped However you will find that the same fixture types as the selected fixture will display the color shown on the preset button but the other dissimilar fixtures may display a different color for that preset value Setting Faders using Commands In a similar way to assigning fixtures on the patch screen the key thru and the key at Using the numeric keypad yo...

Page 60: ...o copy one or more of those function settings to one or more of the other three fixtures then this can be done in one of the following ways a To copy one of the function settings to all the other 3 fixtures 1 First highlight the particular function that you wish to copy the settings from 2 Press F12 once to select Copy Function the name of the highlighted function that you are about to copy will b...

Page 61: ...nction settings from fixture 1 through to 4 e To copy all of the function settings to just fixture 3 1 Press F12 twice to select Copy Fader 2 Press 1 to select fixture fader 001 the fixture you are copying all the function settings from 3 Press then 3 followed by Enter to copy all those function settings from fixture 1 to fixture 3 Pressing F12 three times will cancel the Copy Fader command in the...

Page 62: ...ure fader pressing Delete twice followed by 1 4 3 Enter will clear all function faders on fixtures 1 2 and 4 Pressing Del on the numeric keypad once will cancel any command in the function display 50 ShowMagic SLX Series User Manual ...

Page 63: ... is empty The lighting scene panel You can apply a short label 1 to 3 characters to any bank or page selector button by double right clicking on it and entering the label Applying Icons To Bank and Page Selector Buttons If you wish to order your scenes into banks and pages then graphics can be selected for any of the boxes provided above the bank and page selector buttons for easy recognition When...

Page 64: ...o scroll through the scene buttons Pages and banks will automatically be scrolled through when boundaries are reached The Page Up and Page Down keys can scroll through the pages and the Home and End keys can be used for selecting the first scene on bank A page 1 and the last scene on the last page of the last bank respectively A Blackout scene scene 0000 shown in the display below the Rec M and Cl...

Page 65: ...ng of the lighting scene Rec record button recording mode The setting of the Overwrite Recorded Channels Only flag accessed via the Rec button Playing Scenes How the system of desk precedence works The difference between ShowMagic s two operating modes Normal mode and Live mode The Fader States The Rec T Record Tagged recording mode see next section introduced in ShowMagic version 11 greatly simpl...

Page 66: ...ues below the fader will then change from their current color to white then to dark yellow to show that it is Released When faders are in Released mode their settings are not written to a scene when it is recorded unless the record button is set to its Record by Fixture Rec F setting as described below Though faders set to Locked or Released states are similar in that neither get recorded in scene...

Page 67: ... un tagged functions are not recorded even if they have been moved manually or have been moved by a currently running lighting scene Cued state If you hold down Ctrl whilst double clicking on the scene panel s clear button labelled as Clr Y or Clr N then the desk is cleared down as normal but all tagged function buttons are also un tagged as well Rec F This is short for Record Fixture When set to ...

Page 68: ... that will now be described When a number of lighting scenes are running that are using one or more of the same DMX channels the way in which the output values to those DMX channels is determined is called the precedence The three types of precedence are a None take Precedence NTP b Latest takes Precedence LTP c Highest takes Precedence HTP To best explain how these different precedences work we w...

Page 69: ...main dimming attributes for the fixtures in those scenes must all be set to HTP on the patch screen Normal and Live Modes ShowMagic has been designed to offer a complete solution for any lighting desk or show control application Traditional theatre desks tend to use a program the scenes then manually trigger them from a set cue list method of operation Show Controllers use a program run and walk a...

Page 70: ...d the brightness level of any fixtures is dictated by any currently running scene s that set the highest brightness levels for those fixtures using HTP Live mode is selected by ticking the Live Mode On item in the Options General Settings menu Normal mode is selected by un ticking the Live Mode On item Summary of the Different Recording Modes Before we move on to the other scene panel items and th...

Page 71: ...g on the Clr button will clear any fixture fader settings on the desk except Locked faders and it will also turn off any running scenes except Safe scenes see Type below If you hold down Ctrl whilst double clicking on the Clr button it will also unlock and clear any locked faders except faders locked by running Safe scenes This provides a clear desk on which to create new scenes There are two sett...

Page 72: ...t to 00 00 00 00 the scene will start to fade out or go off if no Out time is selected immediately Out The time taken for the faders to fade out If 00 00 00 00 is set then the faders change instantly Type A scene can be set to Normal or Safe If set to Safe its button will be shown in blue with a red border and it will not be affected by the use of any Clear or Black buttons it can only be turned o...

Page 73: ...play and using the appropriate drop down menus on the Edit Scene dialogue box that appears The scene s label can also be edited by clicking within the Label window on the dialogue box Recording Scenes To record a scene do the following 1 Select the fixture panel on the left side of the desk and the scene panel on the right 2 Set up all the faders that you wish to record as a scene In the example b...

Page 74: ...r all the fixture functions stored in that lighting scene Simply click on the appropriate box the box will then be shown pressed down and type in the time that you want in minutes seconds and frames Example Fade times in the edit scene dialogue box Here we have entered a Default fade In time of 02 seconds and 00 frames by typing 2 0 0 Now if you press Enter on the PC keyboard that value will be st...

Page 75: ...ker and easier to use overall Default settings and then just change the times for any functions that need to have different times to the rest Example Let us say that we want to record a scene for the Stage Light 300 as above with Default fade In and fade Out times of 2 seconds for most of the functions but we want the gobo and color wheel functions to snap on instantly when the scene is run rather...

Page 76: ...ton sub master fader or external slider to manually bring in that scene and adjust its level etc For scenes containing single channel fixtures this is no problem the sub master fader for the action button containing the scene will control the level of the dimmers for those generic fixtures However if you were using intelligent fixtures in the scene this might not be ideal as you move the fader the...

Page 77: ...fade out over 2 seconds When operating in Live mode if the fader reaches 00 the scene is turned off but the all functions not set to HTP will remain in their current position Recording Scenes With Sub Master Control If you record a scene whilst using sub masters to control the overall levels of running scenes the scene being recorded will take account of the current levels of any channels being co...

Page 78: ...es can be previewed sequentially by clicking on the scene button for the first scene that you wish to preview this will highlight the button and clicking on the Play button or pressing Spacebar if the scene panel is on the left will activate that scene and the next scene button will become highlighted ready for previewing when the play button is clicked again or Spacebar is used and so on Scenes a...

Page 79: ...ing to check them Flashing and Releasing a Scene Rather than dragging individual faders up and then locking or releasing each of them one by one so that beams etc can be viewed when creating scenes for other functions a quicker alternative is available If temporary scenes are created and recorded in which just the lamps are turned on the scene can be flashed by holding down the right mouse button ...

Page 80: ...nces you will be informed of this and if you confirm the deletion it will be removed from all sequences that contain it Copying a Scene To copy a scene drag the scene button or its label from the details display onto the scene button that you wish to copy it to dropping the scene elsewhere e g back onto the same button or back into the display will cancel the operation If the scenes are on differe...

Page 81: ... S button still flashes after a sniffed scene has been recorded This means you can then simply run a scene on the external desk click on a ShowMagic scene button to record it run another scene on the external desk click on the next ShowMagic scene button to record it and so on When you want to turn off record mode simply click again on the Rec S button Another feature has been included to further ...

Page 82: ...t all the scenes can be selected and recorded by just using the external desk Scene Generator Function Normally when creating scenes you would select a fixture or group of fixtures highlight a function fader such as Gobo Color etc by clicking on it hold down Shift to call up the Preset panel on the right click on the desired preset and the function fader for that fixture or for all the fixtures in...

Page 83: ...ts that you want auto generated and their text will turn yellow to indicate that they have been selected for auto generation If you want to select them all then also hold down the Ctrl key and click on the last preset in the list The scene generator dialogue box If white labels are present on the preset panel then all of the presets from the last one clicked UP TO the label will be selected Preset...

Page 84: ...depends on the effect you are trying to achieve but in any case the scene generator will generate all the scenes for whatever groups you set up in the same way The choice of grouping and combinations is entirely up to you Other scene pages can be filled with scenes for the MiniMacs Shutter strobe Gobo and Gobo Rotate functions using the same quick scene generator function so within minutes you can...

Page 85: ... will be aborted at that point FX Generator Pan and tilt movements can be created by recording pan and tilt position scenes dropping them into a lighting chase and then setting the speed and slope for that chase This is ideal if you want the beams to go from one specific position move to another specific position and so on perhaps to highlight particular points in a room Shapes such as a circle or...

Page 86: ...m an FX window and some FX preset buttons FX Generator Details Display settings on the left Wait You can set a delay time here for the FX scene to wait when it is run before any functions stored in that scene other than pan tilt movements which occur straight away are brought in using the In time In If a fade In time is set then any function faders stored in the FX scene that are set to the Defaul...

Page 87: ...ect setting on the standard scene panel cannot be changed In This can be set to Scene or Spd short for FX Speed If set to Scene then the pan and tilt functions and any other functions that are set to use the Default In time in that FX scene will fade in using the time set in the In option on the left of the details display If set to Spd then the pan and tilt functions in that FX scene will fade in...

Page 88: ...pectively Random If this preset is selected then the three faders appear as above but instead of panning between the extreme left and right positions ShowMagic will randomly pick continuously pan positions within the range limiter box for the fixtures to pan between The Tilt FX Presets As with the Pan FX presets you can also select either Straight or Random for the Tilt FX When either of these is ...

Page 89: ...e from the above examples it is the relationship between the Pan and the Tilt Speed settings that determine the vertical horizontal direction and frequency of the waveform and the Slope settings determine the shape of the waveform The FX Window and Range Limiter Box The range limiter box The FX window consists of a black background with intersecting horizontal and vertical yellow dotted lines The ...

Page 90: ...the pan channels to the half of their range The vertical edges of the box represent the pan limits Similarly if you now drag the bottom handle up so that the bottom of the box lines up with the horizontal dotted line You will notice that the tilt channels will only scan between the values of 000 and 127 you have now also limited the tilt channels to half of their range The horizontal edges of the ...

Page 91: ...l record a value for pan and tilt channels in order to include those fixtures in the FX scene It is only when you are using a Shape FX preset such as a circle that requires a central reference point to draw the shape around or if you are going to use just one or the other of the Pan FX or Tilt FX and not both that any stored pan and tilt reference values are actually utilised The Fixture Presets T...

Page 92: ...ored pan position instead The odd fixtures will move up as the even fixtures move down at the speed set by the Tilt FX Speed fader to produce the marching effect If you now click on the Pan FX Straight preset to select it set its Speed fader to 10 and its Slope fader to FL then stop the FX scene and re run it you will see the scanners march as before but the odd and even fixtures will now also cri...

Page 93: ...ollow the music sometimes moving smoothly sometimes snapping The Shape FX Presets Combining the Pan FX and Tilt FX presets can produce many waveform type shapes but in order to create geometric shapes such as circles and ellipses the pan and tilt values must be calculated and applied mathematically to achieve the desired shape The Shape FX presets are provided for this purpose The two most useful ...

Page 94: ... HM or HF respectively the shape will be traced at the speed set with the fader whenever that sound to light band is triggered then it will remain static until triggered again and so on Using the Fixtures Presets with Shape FX Presets The Fixtures presets All Individual and Odds Evens work in a similar way with shapes as they do with Pan FX and Tilt FX patterns but it is the shape that will be tra...

Page 95: ... circle The range limiter box for a quarter circle Example 2 Creating a Quarter Circle Drag the bottom handle halfway up so that the bottom edge of the limiter box now also lines up with the dotted horizontal pan line When you run that FX scene the fixtures will try to trace the circle but will be restricted to the right and bottom edges of the limiter box and so will trace the shape of a quarter ...

Page 96: ...ox defines the area that the shapes will move around in and the rate of movement of the shape is defined by the Pan FX and Tilt FX Speed fader settings Here s an example 1 Select the Shape FX Circle preset and drag the centre handle to make the circle quarter size 2 Select the Pan FX Straight and Tilt FX Straight presets A Pan FX Speed fader and Tilt FX Speed fader will then be accessible These ar...

Page 97: ...s the faders are not cleared down and the Reference scene is still left running 3 Set the scene panel s record button to Rec M recording mode using right clicks 4 With the Reference scene running click on the Rec M button to set it recording and then click on the FX scene that you want to store the new reference positions in 5 Repeat step 5 above for each FX scene that you want to re record 6 Turn...

Page 98: ...n a grid to simulate their physical arrangement so that when effects are applied to them the effects produced can also be simulated on screen The Pixmap tab on the patch screen is used to soft patch LED fixtures on up to 12 grids PixMap User Configurations See PixMap User Configuration p 29 You can then select one of those 12 PixMap User Configurations in Colorscene to use for that ColorScene Plea...

Page 99: ...n the same way as lighting chases with a sound to light frequency selector button below it Left clicking on this button enables you to select the sound to light slot and frequency range that will trigger each Colorscene frame or if Off is selected on the button then the speed set by the speed fader is used The combination of the speed slope settings determines how quickly the ColorScene frames cro...

Page 100: ...ting the 3 different modes k Two options displays with selection areas below them These upper and lower options displays and selection areas change depending on what programming mode you are in l A duration window that displays the time duration of a ColorScene event when a ColorScene chase is selected to repeat a number of times or a series of chases are run in succession for that ColorScene even...

Page 101: ...and white and the next 6 colors default to red green blue cyan magenta and yellow To create a different palette highlight any color box from the third box onwards by clicking on it and then you can choose your colors using one of the following options a Selecting Lee Rosco gel colors using the Presets panel If you wish to use a range of colors available on the presets panel then simply click on an...

Page 102: ... fixed colors Black and White followed by Red Green Blue Cyan Magenta and Yellow The upper options display shows the currently selected color box along with the red green blue and white values for that color Having selected Frame as the chase type the lower options display shows the following Frames This shows the number of frames in that chase when you create them initially shows Set Opt This sho...

Page 103: ... the selected background color To create subsequent frames you can do one of the following a Double click to the right of Frames to add a blank frame to the next empty frame box b Drag an existing frame onto an empty frame box to copy that frame c Double click on an existing frame to copy that frame into the next empty frame box To delete a frame simply click on the frame box to highlight it press...

Page 104: ...where red green and blue colors are scrolled across the grid 1 Exit the ColorScene panel to the normal scene panel 2 Highlight the Scene A002 button and click on the CScn button to enter the ColorScene panel again 3 This time we will assume we are using a 3 x 3 grid thus 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 4 Double click on Set to insert the first frame click on the color red third color palette box and draw this c...

Page 105: ...ws after that and so on This is because the In and Out settings on the right of the top details display are both set to Scene and the scene fade In and Out times on the left of the details display are both set to 00 00 00 the default If you want the first frame to come in hold for the duration set by the speed fader followed by the second frame and so on then set both the In Out to Spd the initial...

Page 106: ...lorScene to use a different color The quickest and easiest way to do this is as follows 1 Create the first ColorScene chase in red for instance on Scene button A001 2 Exit the ColorScene panel to return to the normal Scene panel 3 If you want to replicate the red ColorScene to provide the same animation in green then blue then simply drag the red ColorScene button A001 onto the next two empty scen...

Page 107: ...nd right arrows will produce a rainbow that moves out vertically from the centre and adding the up and down arrows as well will move the rainbow out from the centre in rectangles Simply left click on one arrow to remove any others that have been added To select the colors used in the scroll effect simply double left click on the first chosen color in the palette and then double right click on the ...

Page 108: ...e preset Spectrum Analyzer If the Spectrum Analyzer chase preset is selected from the drop down box you can select one of the 8 analyzer configurations to use and the width in pixels cells for each band of the analyzer graphics The three colors used for the analyzer graphics are chosen by double clicking on a color box in the palette That color and the two to the right of it in the palette are the...

Page 109: ... or overlapped with independent volume fade up fade down and stereo balance selectable for each Up to 16 wav files can be played on multiple selectable outputs Up to 32 audio inputs can be routed and mixed to up to 32 multiple outputs see Using ASIO Drivers and Multiple Input Output Soundcards p 108 Mixer setting events are also available which allow you to store and recall the settings of the aud...

Page 110: ...io files in uncompressed wav file format and audio files in mp3 wma or aif compressed formats can all be played by ShowMagic using any available outputs with DirectShow drivers On the Default Directshow channels as selected on the Windows Sound and Audio Devices dialogue box multiple files of multiple types can be played at the same time Please Note On any other DirectShow channels other than the ...

Page 111: ...up on your PC then the appropriate button is left blank and that type of sound event will not be available This last selector button is used when creating a Mixer Setting event as described in Mixer Setting Events p 106 Sound Motor Control Buttons Motor control buttons can be used depending on the sound event type to play pause or stop a sound event The pause button can also be used to hot start a...

Page 112: ...d row in the details display contains the file details The length of that file in minutes seconds and frames and the From and To play times these are the time positions within the file that the event will play from and to These default to the start of the file and the end of the file but can be changed by holding down Ctrl and left right clicking on the time digits to decrement increment them If L...

Page 113: ...r that sound event will be used to cross fade between each track E g if the In and Out times are both set to 02 00 then 2 seconds before its end the current track will start to fade out over 2 seconds and the next track will start to fade in over 2 seconds 7 Sequence Insert Introduced in version 12 0 this option enables you to insert and play a sequence between tracks after an interval selectable ...

Page 114: ... number of tracks in the selected folder whilst ShowMagic examines all the audio files in the folder and calculates the overall duration of the playlist When the dialogue box disappears the playlist is ready to run Note if there are a large number of files in the folder this can take some time 9 If you hold down Ctrl and click on LP LooP in the details display to highlight it in light blue the pla...

Page 115: ...ighted in light blue indicates that looping is set to on If shown dark blue then looping is set to off will play the playlist only once h The fifth row shows the In and Out times these are normally used to set the fade in and fade out times of single sound events but with the playlist selected these denote the cross fade times between tracks i The item to the right of Plist denotes the following L...

Page 116: ...e fade In and fade Out times in seconds and frames The default is 00 00 for both but can be changed by holding down Ctrl and left right clicking on the time digits to decrement increment them f The playlist function is not available for MIDI files so Off is shown and cannot be changed If you right click on the MIDI sound event button the normal sound event buttons are removed and replaced with a M...

Page 117: ...ht click on these track numbers with Ctrl to adjust them Clicking on RND with Ctrl will toggle between enabled bright blue or disabled dark blue When enabled ShowMagic will randomly pick the order in which to play those tracks In the same way the LP loop option can be enabled disabled to continuously loop the sequential or random playing of those tracks d The fade In and fade Out times in seconds ...

Page 118: ...t you wish the event to start The time position within the sound event at that moment will then be stored as the From setting The To setting can also be set in the same way by clicking on any of the To digits with Ctrl held down at the moment within the playback of the event that you wish it to stop The From and To settings can later be tweaked in the normal way to the nearest 25th of a second by ...

Page 119: ...ettings in this event fading in Out An Out time can be set here which determines the time between the mixer settings in this event fading out when it is turned off and the original mixer settings fading back in if Res On is set Beats Per Minute Counter The beats per minute counter in the details display can be used to store up to 8 different bpm settings for each sound event If you were creating l...

Page 120: ...desk one on the left and the other on the right and copy from one to the other If the sound event button you are copying to already has a sound event stored in it you will be prompted to confirm or cancel the overwrite Moving a Sound Event To move a sound event from one button to another drag the button onto another empty sound event button and hold down Ctrl before dropping it If the original sou...

Page 121: ...wMagic these outputs can be treated as stereo pairs e g outputs 1 and 2 are the first left and right stereo outputs outputs 3 and 4 are the second stereo left and right outputs and so on or each channel can be selected as a single mono output or in any combination at any time Please Note Channel pairs 1 2 are selectable on both primary and secondary soundcards So if you are using a SoundBlaster co...

Page 122: ...y audio files on a stereo output then the stereo pan position can be set by clicking on the Pan button this will temporarily replace the volume faders with pan faders for each track these faders can then be used to adjust the pan position for that track Clicking on the Pan button again removes the pan faders replacing them with the volume faders 10 Finally right click anywhere in the lower area or...

Page 123: ...digital inputs outputs To create a sound event that routes an audio input to one or more audio outputs do the following 1 Highlight an empty sound event button and double right click on the ASIO selector 2 The sound event buttons will then be replaced by a page of 8 input faders colored red and 32 output selector buttons 3 Click on an input fader to highlight it and then either click on each outpu...

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Page 125: ...n the Edit button opens it up and it shows the details for that sequence in the step details display Alternatively right clicking on a sequence button will toggle between showing the live step details displays for that sequence or the button display The sequence panel Sequence Settings The top settings display shows the following for each sequence Label The number for that sequence A001 etc and a ...

Page 126: ...ype the letter s on the keyboard Mas This determines what DMX audio channels used in that sequence are affected by the In Out sequence sub master fader settings Holding down Ctrl and clicking on a dark blue description Dm PT Col Gb Msc or Snd turns it bright blue to show that it is set Dm selects DMX channels assigned to dimmers PT selects Pan and Tilt channels Col selects channels assigned to col...

Page 127: ...ce is automatically re labelled End Opt Chase only Various options are available for determining what steps in a chase are activated next This can be set to Down Up Bounce or Random If set to Down then the chase runs down the steps in the sequence e g step 1 2 3 1 2 3 etc If set to Up then the chase runs up the sequence steps e g step 3 2 1 3 2 1 etc If set to Bounce then the chase runs down then ...

Page 128: ...re made on the bottom Step Details display as described next Step Details Display Step Number Each event in a sequence is called a step and step numbers are shown in the first column Sequences can vary in size from a sequence containing 2 lighting scenes to a sequence containing hundreds of lighting scenes chases sound or control events A total of 50 000 steps are available with a limit of 999 ste...

Page 129: ...t set to XT is activated The group letters A to Z can be used for exclusive grouping If any events are set to A group A then the latest activated step containing any type of event set to A will turn off any previous event of any type that is set to A all other events however such as those set to LA or other main groups such as B C etc are unaffected Double Letter groups Each main exclusivity group...

Page 130: ...n a Manual or Timed Sequence p 123 for detailed instructions If an event step is another sequence that contains scenes chases etc the above In On Out or Off settings will be applied to the first last event s in that other sequence Depending on the type of sequence selected other details may be displayed on the right of the fifth column These will be described in the appropriate sections that follo...

Page 131: ...e same scene button will cancel the operation If you wish to add the scene to the end of the sequence it can be dropped anywhere below the current last step To copy it to a particular step number simply drop it on that number s row 6 Do likewise for scenes 2 to 4 Then highlight any of the blank steps below the current last step and press Insert to insert a step at the end the last empty step in a ...

Page 132: ...s you to go forward through the sequence to a later step Stop This is used to stop a sequence if it is running If record mode is on this will turn it off To view the start of the sequence in the Live display simply double click the Stop button Pause Clicking on this button when a sequence is running pauses the sequence and the button illuminates Clicking on the Go button or Spacebar if the panel i...

Page 133: ...e faders Speed This fader is used to select the speed of the chase in beats per minute BPM Scenes in the chase are executed at each beat so at 60 BPM 60 scenes are executed per minute i e one every second Slope The rate at which each scene fades in and out in a chase is selectable as a percentage of the chase speed e g if a speed of 60 is set then a slope of 50 produces fade in and out times of ha...

Page 134: ... previous event has started that this event should wait before automatically activating If the Wait time 00 00 0 seconds and 0 frames then this event will activate at the same time as the previous event i e the two events will occur at the same time c Fllw This determines how soon after the previous event if it is a lighting scene or chase has finished fading in that this event will wait before fo...

Page 135: ...y Null Step in a sequence is automatically re labelled as End Events in a timed sequence have a default timer setting of 00 00 00 00 and these can be changed in a number of ways a Highlight the event in the step details display and then type in the values in the same way as typing in fade times for scenes b Hold down the Ctrl key and double click on the time to set it to the same time as the previ...

Page 136: ... steps to the end of the sequence so you drag them in as normal Now you wish to set the trigger times for the last three steps in real time This can be done in two ways a Highlight the fourth step in the details display click the record Rec button and then click the bottom Play from Mark half of the Go Button The sequence will then start from the fourth step and subsequent clicks on either half of...

Page 137: ...time interval say every 10 seconds then simply set both Min and Max to the same value e g 00 10 Auto Timed Random Sequences If you set the Min time to 00 00 the Max time changes to a Once setting and the sequence Type changes to Rnd Sel meaning Randomly selected and run for the duration of the selected event When that random sequence is triggered an event in that sequence is randomly selected whic...

Page 138: ...n that snapshot take the following simple example Example A snapshot containing a lighting scene has its sub master fader In and Out times both set to 1 second The lighting scene event in that snapshot has it s own fade In and Out times set to 2 seconds on the scene panel That lighting scene event step is set to In in the snapshots step details display Now what happens when the snapshot is turned ...

Page 139: ... 8 Repeat steps 4 5 and 6 above until you have enough varieties of snapshots to create your required sequence 9 With a sequence panel on the left of the screen and a sequence panel on the right containing your new snapshots open an empty sequence on the left panel by right clicking on it s button and then simply drag the snapshot buttons into the bottom of the sequence step display in the order re...

Page 140: ...n a sequence click on it to highlight it in the step details display and then press Delete You will then be asked to confirm or cancel Inserting Null Sequence Steps If you wish to insert a Null Step empty step at the end of a sequence so that actions times etc can be set ready for events to be dragged in later then highlight any blank step at the end of the sequence and press Insert The Null Step ...

Page 141: ...s settings for events can be changed in a sequence at any time using Shift with the faders on the sequence panel but for other settings you may need to set them on the event s panel and then drop the event into the sequence again in order to store those new settings Adjusting Settings for Sound Event Steps If a manual timed or random sequence contains a sound event then the volume pan and fade in ...

Page 142: ...Setting Faders using Commands p 47 to adjust lighting fixtures and then re record them to a running scene Example Let us say that you have recorded 8 par cans assigned to fixture faders 1 to 8 at 50 stored on scene A001 and you have dropped that scene into step 001 of a Manual sequence If you want to adjust those values to 60 then you can do this as the sequence is running in the following way 1 W...

Page 143: ... the sequence the channels that are recorded into the last scene are determined by the current mode setting of the record button as normal Adjusting Settings for Chase Event Steps If a sequence contains a lighting chase then the Speed and Slope settings for that chase within that sequence can be adjusted in the following way 1 Highlight the chase event in the sequence step details display 2 Whilst...

Page 144: ...utton turns off this display and returns to the sequence step details display To remove a volume pan change step simply highlight the step press the Delete key and confirm Auto Playlist Function If you are creating a sequence which contains events of different time durations that need to simply run one after the other often referred to as a play list the features in this section can be used to aut...

Page 145: ...ove but you wished to set a delay of 4 seconds between the Mood2 event finishing and the CASH1 event starting the timings for all the events following the Mood2 event would have to be incremented Rather than having to do this manually step by step an Auto Time function has been included to simplify this process This function uses start and end markers to mark the range of consecutive steps that ar...

Page 146: ...ng rather than clicking Go or Spacebar to trigger the next step in the manual sequence as shown in the live display you can click on any step in the step details display to highlight it and then click on the bottom Play From Mark half of the Go button ShowMagic will then jump to that step in the sequence it will be triggered and ShowMagic will then await a Go or Spacebar to trigger the next step a...

Page 147: ...that ShowMagic does not have any time references to use in determining which events should be running and which events shouldn t if you start or continue from a particular step in that sequence Because steps are triggered manually with the exception of any steps set to Wait or Fllw it is not possible to know when the next steps were triggered after a step containing an event with a set time durati...

Page 148: ...sive when that step is triggered using Play From Mark only that lighting scene is run as its EX setting will turn off any other events that may otherwise have been run This will stop the earlier sound effect step 001 from playing and any earlier scene events from running b If solution a above is not appropriate in a sequence because you may want to leave other earlier events such as video events c...

Page 149: ...n group letter C it does not affect any of the previous steps ShowMagic then waits for the next Go to trigger step 004 When step 004 is triggered the lighting scene set to main group L turns off any earlier steps set to main group L or any of its sub groups La to Lz Therefore step 001 is turned off set to Ll step 002 is turned off set to La but step 003 is unaffected because it belongs to a differ...

Page 150: ... being designed the lighting scenes sound effects etc are each given a cue number denoting their running order in the show and the step numbers in a ShowMagic sequence 001 002 etc could be used to represent these cue numbers However during rehearsals the director of a show may decide to insert some extra cues in the show and the usual method used for this is to give these new cues a part step numb...

Page 151: ...tton is not empty you will be prompted to confirm the overwriting of that sequence 3 Use the Load Sequence dialogue box to select the sequence you want to load 4 Click on the Open button to load the sequence Notes on Loading and Saving Sequences Please Read Very Carefully When an event button is dropped into a sequence ShowMagic stores a pointer to that event button in the sequence not the event i...

Page 152: ...tting that turned on red par cans when you run the sequence it will run scene button C008 that turns on red par cans Example 2 If you were to create a sound event on sound event button A001 such as loading a wave file called Song1 wav into it and then drop this into a sequence when you run that sequence it will play the Song1 wav file If you later loaded a different wav file onto sound event butto...

Page 153: ...For instance if you were a live performer using ShowMagic to play wave files as your backing click tracks with your lighting synchronized to each track via timed sequences for each song you could use MIDI control events to turn on off certain effects such as echo or reverb on an audio effects unit In this way the singers microphone could be fed into the effects unit and by dropping appropriate MID...

Page 154: ...he Enter button for one control event then type P2 in the On box for another control event and click on the Enter button Now if either of these buttons are run by double clicking on them dropping them into a sequence and running that sequence or dropping them onto action buttons which then get triggered in any of various ways the desired effect on the audio effects unit will selected A list of the...

Page 155: ...s an echo effect By typing in the commands P2 in the On box and P1 in the Off box for that control event running the event will select echo on the device and turning off the event will select no effect To send a Control Change MIDI command type Xn where n is the channel number followed by two decimal numbers separated by commas the first number being the number of the control command and the secon...

Page 156: ...ollowing 1 Click on a control event button to highlight it and then double click on the port select button containing the icon depicting a 9 pin serial port The details will then be shown in the details display 2 Hold down Ctrl and then left right click on the number to the right of Dev to select the device you wish to use One of the following will then be shown to the right of Map depending on wh...

Page 157: ...tically for you when a device is set to String If a device is set to User Defined then you can enter a mixture of string data and or numbers If you need to send hexadecimal values to the device then these need to be preceded by a character or the characters 0x to differentiate them from decimal numbers or strings Example to send the hexadecimal value 2F type 2F or 0x2F Multiple characters can be s...

Page 158: ...S 808 AV switcher that uses editable commands 5 Finally click on the Enter button Enter Control String dialogue box In this first example a script for a Sanyo PLC XU116 projector has been loaded You will see in the comments section that the commands cannot be edited for this device only selected Where there are a lot of commands available for a device you can use the Filter drop down menu to filte...

Page 159: ...or Off box Example If the unit 1 video input output audio input output command is selected and you want to route the audio and video from input 1 to output 1 input 2 to output 2 and so on then the command should be edited to the following unit 1 video 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 audio 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 as described in the comment section of the dialogue box System Control Events These can be used to assign syst...

Page 160: ...ut what if you want the default buttons to be active only between certain times This is where the Run Default system control event can be used You simply create the event as described above drop it onto an action button and then schedule it to turn on at the appropriate opening time and go off when the venue is closed This in effect schedules when the defaults are run without having to manually us...

Page 161: ...ee below to disable triggering but this feature applies to all triggers on all action buttons whereas using the Dummy button system described above you can be selective over what buttons are trigger disabled Disable Action Triggers This can be used to turn on the Disable Triggers DT button on the action panel Deleting a Control Event To delete a control event highlight its button and press Delete ...

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Page 163: ...ring what is currently running in ShowMagic and what input and output signals are coming into and going out of it Buttons are available on the bottom for selecting the different monitor displays DMX output Dmx MIDI input Midi Running events Run Section 11 Monitor Panel 151 ...

Page 164: ...channels in rows of 8 i e The values are shown as raw channels rather than by fixture functions MIDI If you click on this button the MIDI in port channel number status e g Note On and values for the data bytes B1 B2 for any MIDI inputs can be viewed If the Options Other Settings MIDI Settings Display Midi as Note item is ticked then the first byte B1 will be displayed as a note and octave number r...

Page 165: ...ottom half of the display shows on off status LEDs for each of the channels buttons on any data acquisition devices such as ADAM input output modules that are detected in your system If the module is an output module such as the 4060 for switching relays then the LEDs are colored yellow If the Module has input channels for triggering ShowMagic action buttons then they are colored green Analogue in...

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Page 167: ... together and controlled from that single panel Events that are to be controlled by external devices e g MIDI remote media controller etc need to be assigned to action buttons because there are playback and logic control features available that are specific to action buttons only For events to be scheduled they must also be assigned to an action button Section 12 Action Panel 155 ...

Page 168: ...ent were dragged onto an action button that button would be changed to red to indicate a lighting scene event The label for that event is also displayed on the action button Please Note Labels on action buttons cannot be edited the label shown is the same as the label used for the event that has been assigned to that action button Action Button LEDs An LED is provided on each button and when a but...

Page 169: ...ting Action Button Assignments To delete an assignment on an action button and make it empty simply highlight the action button and press Delete You will then be asked to confirm or cancel the operation Action Motor Control Buttons Go Clicking on this button or pressing Spacebar if the action panel is on the left will run the event assigned to the currently highlighted action button If you had 2 a...

Page 170: ...l volume s of the sound event s are also adjusted by this fader assuming that Snd has been highlighted in that sequence s details display The sub master fader Please Note To control the dimming levels of lighting scenes stored on action buttons using the sub master fader the main dimming attribute for those fixtures must be set to HTP precedence on the patch screen See Function List p 19 for detai...

Page 171: ...those buttons in that letter or double letter group will be allowed to be run at any one time Clicking on another button set to that same group will turn off any other button set to that group which is running and any Hold or fade Out times etc set for the out going event will be used Additionally if an action button is run and it is set to a single letter group e g A it will turn off any other bu...

Page 172: ...on will be turned on when an appropriate NOTE ON command is received via MIDI by holding down the appropriate key on an external MIDI keyboard or sending it from an external MIDI sequencer If the key on the external MIDI keyboard is released issuing a NOTE OFF command or if the appropriate NOTE OFF command is received from an external MIDI sequencer then the button goes off DMX the action button w...

Page 173: ...e for events that automatically stop after a period of time such as Timed Sequences sounds video events captured video with a selected To time scenes set to Flash Chases set to Once etc Off Ex All Trigger Inputs This option works in exactly the same way as the On Ex option described above but it is triggered on the condition being off rather than on Default The Default setting is used in conjuncti...

Page 174: ...ltiple independent rooms On TRG If set to On TRG then the action button will be run when an on state is detected from its selected trigger device This is useful for running timed events that turn themselves off automatically When an action button set to On TRG is run then it will not be re triggered if the trigger device switches from off to on again i e if the event is already running any more on...

Page 175: ...c receives selected notes or program change commands from the MIDI port e g using a MIDI keyboard or MIDI sequencer etc Within this section we will assume that you have a MIDI keyboard connected to a PC MIDI port b When a wireless Media Player remote controller is used c When ShowMagic receives command strings via RS232 or a script has been loaded for a data acquisition input device as described i...

Page 176: ...ard graphic Click on one of the keys on the keyboard graphic will then set the trigger to that note The arrow keys on the right are used to scroll through the octaves from C0 through to B7 The MIDI keyboard display Alternatively whilst the music keyboard graphic is shown pressing the actual note on the external keyboard will also set that note to trigger that action button if the Action Panel Midi...

Page 177: ...el To do this simply select the master panel on the right of the screen and click on the fader you wish to control You will notice that the white Action item under the Record item on the action panel will then change to show what fader has been selected e g Wv Md Cd AM GM etc With that fader selected simply push up the fader turn the knob on the external MIDI interface to select that to control th...

Page 178: ...will trigger that action button Refer to RS232 IP Command String Protocol p 223 for a full list of command strings User Defined Strings As well as having default command strings as described in Appendix F you can also define what command strings will trigger and control an action button Here s an example 1 Load the Demo desk and click on action button A002 Cue List to highlight it 2 Hold down Ctrl...

Page 179: ...to send the strings to ShowMagic and the only stipulation is that the strings being sent to ShowMagic are terminated with a carriage return value of 13 Let s assume that you wish to control action button A001 Timer Sequence with a system that will send the string Play01 to start the sequence Pause01 to pause it and Stop01 to stop it This is how you would set the user strings for that action button...

Page 180: ...es refer to the documentation supplied with the module for information on how to do this it is recommended that you set them to at least 38 400 baud rate to ensure fast and smooth operation The ADAM input can be selected as the trigger device by ticking the appropriate Module and then ticking the appropriate Input on that module as the trigger As well as using a single ADAM input to control an act...

Page 181: ...pan and tilt will jitter as it receives fluctuating voltages 1 Create three independent scenes Cyan at Full Magenta at Full and Yellow at full then drag and drop those scenes onto three action buttons 2 Create a scene in which pan is recorded at full create another in which tilt is recorded at full then drag and drop these two scenes onto another two action buttons Now we have 5 action buttons tha...

Page 182: ... and runs from there Vol This increases the volume of the Audio Master fader on the Master Panel Vol This lowers the volume of the Audio Master fader on the Master Panel Mute This mutes the Audio Master fader on the Master Panel and pressing this button again un mutes it DMX Input Triggering If you are using a DMX interface that has DMX input capability then DMX input can be used to trigger and co...

Page 183: ...If it is a light and sound sequence then it adjusts both the volume of any sound events AND the overall brightness levels of any scenes chases etc in the sequence assuming that Dim and Snd have both been highlighted in the details display for that sequence e If the action button contains a video event then it adjusts the video s audio volume f If the slider is flicked straight back to zero then th...

Page 184: ...pectively in the same way as clicking on that action button SEL button This will start stop the currently highlighted action button using any fade in fade out times in the same way as double clicking on that action button Pause button This will pause the currently highlighted action button if it is running If the action button contains a sound event this can be used to cue the sound event ready fo...

Page 185: ...ditional The settings in this section enable you to quickly and easily apply conditional logic to the normal running or triggering of an action button This should eliminate the need to have to set up complex switches hardware logic by performing all the logic in software The idea of the Conditional settings is this an action button is only enabled allowed to be triggered depending on the condition...

Page 186: ...ependent on one other action button Act ON This works in a similar way to the above but is conditional on the selected action button being on not off LTP Trigger Selecting a DMX value from the drop down menu will set the LTP Trigger threshold Any DMX value received above that threshold value will be used to trigger that action button Any DMX values below that threshold percentage are ignored Set P...

Page 187: ...ou to select those presets on the fly providing you with full Live control of those functions without having to store different scenes for each setting on different action buttons Example Let s say you have recorded a scene containing the color functions for a group of fixtures set to red You then drag and drop that scene onto an action button By running that action button on the left hand side of...

Page 188: ...utton The options are Realtime Edit Enable ticking this item enables realtime editting on the user screen for that specific action button Enable Bank Page Access If this item is not ticked then the user can only replace the event on this action button with another event of the same type and on the same page of events If this item is ticked it provides access to page and bank selector buttons enabl...

Page 189: ...en double click on the required sequence button The sequence assigned to that action button will then be replaced and you will be returned to the normal user screen display The same system applies for replacing other non sequence events and if the event is file based a sound event etc you can click on the file folder button above the bank selector buttons and load a different file onto that action...

Page 190: ...nt button to put that event into that step If the original event in the step is a file based event you can also use the file folder icon to load a different event into that step from a file The event step will then be replaced with that new file based event and subsequently the appropriate event button on its event panel will also now contain that new file based event 178 ShowMagic SLX Series User...

Page 191: ... Sound To Light The sound to light facility for triggering FX scenes and normal scenes in Chases can be enabled or disabled by ticking or un ticking the Enabled menu item Desk Precedence None NTP Latest LTP or Highest HTP The overall precedence of the desk can be set to any one of these by ticking it Disabled Event Layering On a desk set to LTP it is the latest event that is run whose values are s...

Page 192: ...nput channels A001 from DMX channel 001 A002 from DMX channel 2 etc and use the selected Threshold and LTP trigger settings Retain Event Label If this item is ticked then the current label for an event is kept even though you may be loading a different file etc for that event Other Settings Menu 16 Bit Settings Ticking Enabled and then ticking the appropriate functions enables 16 bit operation for...

Page 193: ... Any drivers found by ShowMagic are listed and are selectable from the drop down menu Once the drivers are selected they are stored and they will be remembered by ShowMagic each time you run it There is an option to apply user labels to the DirectShow and ASIO audio input and output channels This makes it easier to identify the channels when using audio routing events etc To apply a label to each ...

Page 194: ...urned on Click on the Action Sub Group Settings item on the Options menu or double click on the blue group letter on the action panel and a dialogue box will appear If you tick Main Group A tick Sub Group B C and D and click on OK any action buttons set to A will turn off action buttons set to A BUT they will also now turn off any other action buttons that are set to groups B C or D Action Sub Gro...

Page 195: ... With a DMX input or input output interface you can connect an external lighting desk and transfer lighting scenes from that desk into ShowMagic lighting scenes by sniffing DMX see Recording Scenes by Sniffing DMX p 68 Additionally you can also use the external lighting desk sliders for playback purposes triggering and controlling ANY ShowMagic events that are contained on action buttons To set a ...

Page 196: ...nd Flash settings are used to determine what minimum and maximum DMX input values are used in triggering action buttons etc Some lighting desks output non zero values even though the slider is at its bottommost zero position and likewise a slider at its topmost or Flash position does not always output a value as high as 255 Therefore these threshold or sensitivity settings can be used to compensat...

Page 197: ...d Some of the interfaces that use the DMX USB Open drivers require this MIDI Settings Midi Output Devices A list of the available MIDI ports that ShowMagic has found is given here Click on the ports that you wish to enable for MIDI output Midi Input Devices A list of the available MIDI ports that ShowMagic has found is given here Click on the ports that you wish to enable for MIDI input Threshold ...

Page 198: ...t to common values but other values can be selected if required 6 If you want to use fewer than the default 10 bands graphic columns then 6 7 8 or 9 can be selected and the frequency ranges adjusted accordingly using the frequency range settings above If the 26 Band option is selected then the frequency ranges are fixed 7 The number of vertical segments default 10 can be selected up to 75 8 An X G...

Page 199: ...on panel Midi Record Enabled If this item is ticked you can select what MIDI note triggers the highlighted action button by pressing the required key on an external MIDI keyboard whenever the keyboard icon on the action panel is shown see above Number Action Buttons If this item is ticked then ShowMagic will print the numbers of the action buttons A1 A2 etc on the bottom left of those buttons Run ...

Page 200: ...er If ticked a sub master fader and mute button will appear on the user screen that enables the user to adjust the levels of the events in the currently selected action button on the user screen Display Details If ticked the details display will appear on the user screen as on the action panel that shows the details of the currently highlighted action button Display Schedule If ticked the schedule...

Page 201: ...r operation when using a touch screen One Touch Button If ticked then a button labelled One Touch will appear on the user screen that enables the user to switch between a single click being required to start or stop an action button One Touch button shown in red or whether a double click is required One Touch button shown in grey Recall Button If ticked a Recall button will appear on the user scre...

Page 202: ... labels such as Lighting Motor Control etc in the boxes provided If more than 10 pages are selected for display on the user screen then arrow buttons are provided below the page selector buttons on the user screen that you can double click to select the next 10 or previous 10 pages Auto Menu Load Desk If ticked then ShowMagic when it is run looks for a file called auto dsk in the default desks fol...

Page 203: ... desk screen at all unless they know the password If a password has been set using the Options Change Password menu item on the patch screen this password will be requested if you attempt to lock or unlock the desk or exit the user screen If a valid password is entered the System Locked item will be locked or unlocked as appropriate If an invalid password is entered you are notified and the attemp...

Page 204: ...pe messages If you then tick the Start Up Notepad Enabled item from the Notepad menu this notepad will then automatically appear when ShowMagic is started Quit Notepad This works in a similar way to the Start Up Notepad but is used to display messages or instructions when quitting from ShowMagic Both the Start Up Notepad and the Quit Notepad are saved in the desk file so each desk that is loaded c...

Page 205: ...tab Below this is a live display that shows what events are running and due to run next when a schedule is turned on Below this display are 7 buttons labelled Sun Mon etc for the days of the week An Auto Schedule button clock face is situated on the left below the day buttons and to the right of this are Sort Log and Use buttons that are used for running a schedule log Finally the large display in...

Page 206: ... or go off at e g 00 30 00 half an hour past midnight 4 Right click and left click on In for that schedule step to select between In On Out or Off and this setting will determine whether the event turns on fades In or comes On instantly or turns off fades Out or goes Off instantly 5 Repeat steps 2 to 4 above for all the other events that you wish to schedule for that day of the week When a day con...

Page 207: ...steps manually The copy day functions are provided for this purpose To copy the steps contained in a day to another day simply drag and drop the day s button that you are copying from onto the day s button that you wish to copy to You will then be prompted to confirm the copy Alternatively if you hold down the Ctrl key when letting go of the mouse button to drop the day the day s steps will be cop...

Page 208: ...ggle the schedule on and off and this button will also be displayed in red to indicate when the schedule is running The steps due to be triggered by a schedule are shown in the live display on the schedule screen and also in the live display on the Master panel A schedule can be edited even if a schedule is running but any changes that are made will only come into effect if the schedule is first t...

Page 209: ...ollow steps 3 to 5 above for the other schedules that are needed in the log as shown 7 Click again on the Log button to turn it off and return to the schedule step display then click on the Use button to set the schedule log working The schedule log 8 Finally click on the Options Main Screen menu item to go back to the main screen and then save the desk because the schedule log itself and a flag t...

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Page 211: ...a stage however the background lighting needs to drop down to a dimmed level and stay there until the stage show has finished and an appropriate background scene is selected The club owner wants to be able to select the different lightshows for the floor area by simply touching different options on a touch screen The user screen is ideal for this and here is how it can be done 1 Create the early m...

Page 212: ...column and the other background scenes in the right column This has been done because the way in which you organise events onto action buttons determines how they appear on the user screen as you will see Select the User Screen Access item from the Options menu and a User Screen Access dialogue box will appear The User Screen Access dialogue box allows the programmer to select what action buttons ...

Page 213: ...Locked items on the main screen Options menu This can be done in the following way 1 Tick the Load Desk and Run Schedule items if required from the Options Auto menu and then tick the User Screen item on the Options Auto menu When ShowMagic is later re started it will then automatically display the user screen instead of the main desk screen 2 Select the User Screen Access item from the Options me...

Page 214: ...l to unlock it Quitting the Program To quit from ShowMagic select File Quit Program on the main desk screen or the user screen menu If a schedule or any events are running you will be prompted as a safeguard to turn them off or not You will also be prompted as to whether you wish to save the desk or not click on the buttons as appropriate The Close Window cross at the top right of the window is al...

Page 215: ...Section 16 Appendix Section 16 Appendix 203 ...

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Page 217: ... between a do start marker and a do end marker are performed at the time determined by the timer nn nn nn nn timer element that has elapsed since that event was started 6 Any elements contained within another elements start and end markers will be applied to that first element e g video do timer 00 00 00 timer 01 volume 100 0 01 do video refers to the volume for video 7 Because an event can posses...

Page 218: ...refers to the action button that the script has been attached to and action 1 action 2 etc refers to the action button s numbers whose state is being checked i e their current condition Please Note Action states are checked constantly runif Can be used to automatically run that Scripted Action if it is not already running depending on the current state of another action button or the current state...

Page 219: ...tops break and the Scripted Action is run If neither action button is on then the condition is false the checking stops and the Scripted Action is not run In the following example runif action 1 on action action 3 off action action 22 on action runif There are no breaks at the end of the checked states so this means that all three states are checked collectively i e each state has to be true the s...

Page 220: ...quarter seconds 25 one quarter of a second etc TG DT You can also check the condition of the disable triggering DT button on the action panel and or the condition of the Scripted Action s trigger TG button The DT button is global for all action buttons but the TG button is specific to the action button that you are applying the script to The break instruction is not used with TG DT condition check...

Page 221: ...any scripts for that audio video channel must all be contained within the same pair of nn and nn markers See samples below do Any elements contained between the do element start marker and the do element end marker will be performed This is used in conjunction with the timer element described below so that different operations can be performed at different time periods from the time that the event...

Page 222: ...0 full right with 50 being centre and a fade time Alternatively the letters l c and r can be used to replace 0 50 and 100 respectively Example 01 pan c 1 25 01 pan from current position to the centre in 1 and a quarter seconds alpha Used for adjusting a video event s alpha brightness levels In a similar way to the volume instruction this requires a percentage value from 0 black to 100 full brightn...

Page 223: ...d fade the volume of audio 02 down to 0 over 1 and a half seconds You can also mix multiple instructions in a script separated by a space such as in the following video do timer 00 00 10 00 timer 01 volume 0 0 alpha 0 0 01 Note multiple instructions for each channel must be contained within the one pair of nn and nn markers 02 volume 100 1 5 alpha 100 2 02 do video In the example above the do inst...

Page 224: ...Scripts for Events Contained within Sequences You can apply a script to an event that is used within a sequence by dragging the event button onto an action button double right clicking in the window to the right of the TG button and entering the script in the Event Script dialogue box When an event has had a script attached to it on the action panel the script will be run whenever that event is ru...

Page 225: ...he details display Backspace Deletes last character when typing in labels Home Selects the first fader page button or item in a display End Selects the last fader page button or item in a display Page Up Selects the previous page of faders buttons or display items PageDown Selects the next page of faders buttons or display items Scrolls up and down event buttons Scrolls horizontally through event ...

Page 226: ...Locate to lock the function faders Hold down and double right click on Centre or Locate to unlock the function faders Hold down and right click on a preset panel to select all presets up to that one for the Scene generator Enter Executes the displayed commands if any on the fixture panel At Used to specify a value for a fader To When used with the F12 copy key to specify another fixture fader Thru...

Page 227: ...ettings for the currently highlighted lighting scene event Sequence Panel on Main Desk Ctrl Hold down and double click on a step time to select the same time as the previous step Hold down and click on the Sequence Rec button to record a snapshot to the currently highlighted Sequence button Hold down when dragging events into a sequence to create an event change step Hold down and click on the Seq...

Page 228: ...ld down and tap Spacebar 4 times to log BPM when a sound event is playing Control Event Panel on Main Desk Shift Hold down and click on X or Y settings to select Ctr Action Panel on Main Desk Shift Hold down and click to toggle between midi note program change selection on the action panel Tab Used to scroll through extra midi trigger functions Back Pause Next on action panel Schedule Screen Ctrl ...

Page 229: ...r range of faders Delete Fixture Deletes a fixture from a fader if the fixture is highlighted Insert Insert Fixture Adds a fixture to a fader If used in a copy command it will add the specified number of fader assignments to the copy Scrolls through Faders Scrolls through and tests Dmx channels if Dmx test button is on or tests fader s dimmer channels if Fdr test button is on Home Displays the fir...

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Page 231: ... disable trigger DT button on the action panel on off ACT_ALL_STOP Instantly stops all action buttons that are running ACT_ALL_FADE Turns off all action buttons using any fade times In the following command strings replace nnn with the 3 digit action button number between 001 and 960 and replace lll with a 3 digit level value between 000 and 255 ACT_nnn_ONOFF Toggles the action button On Off AnnnT...

Page 232: ...b master fader by lll AUD_MIDI_LVL lll Sets the level of the MIDI sub master fader to lll AUD_CD_MUTE Toggles the CD sub master button On Off AUD_CD_LVL lll Increments the level of the CD sub master fader by lll AUD_CD_LVL lll Decrements the level of the CD sub master fader by lll AUD_CD_LVL lll Sets the level of the CD sub master fader to lll AUD_DV_MUTE Toggles the master mute button On Off AUD_...

Page 233: ...ic also works with many other DMX interfaces that have not been certified If you wish to use an interface that is not on this list we recommend first testing compatibility with our ShowMagic SL Free Edition ShowMagic v14 0 Certified DMX Interfaces Manufacturer Interface Operating Systems Enttec Open DMX USB Win 8 32 64 bit Win 7 64 bit DMX USB PRO Win 8 32 64 bit Win 7 64 bit JESE DMX TRI MK1 Win ...

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