Strand 300 Auto Record + Macro Issues

[DMX Will]

Hi BR!

 

I'm working with a Strand 300 series at the moment, and have worked with the particular desk a number of times.

 

The board has always allowed you to add lights/change levels whilst in a cue, and then hit REC twice to save over the current cue you are in (great for making changes as your running the show).

 

The desk also has a couple of macros programmed in.

 

Macro 1: 1 THRU 80 @ 0 (Blackout all house channels)

Macro 2: 1 THRU 80 @ 40 (For Warmup)

 

All of a sudden, when recording live you have to type CUE # REC REC to re-record over the top, which can be a lengthy process if your running a show at the same time.

 

The macros now don't activate themselves until you hit the enter / * key. So to blackout you'd hit P1, ENTER, where as before you'd just hit P1.

 

Is there something in the setup I can change to get the desk back to how it was. It's a little bit ill at the moment, and probably needs an upgrade, however with opening night tonight, that's not an option right now!

 

Cheers,

 

Will.

[simes]

Hi

 

I think you will find that the desk has been changed from "direct one digit" or "Direct two digit" mode to command line. To change it back you go in to the setup and there will be an option to change this back. I think it is in the top left hand corner of the setup screen.

 

Simes

[DMX Will]

Thanks Simes,

 

I'll give this a whirl tomorrow (well today now) when I'm in the theatre.

[mog]

Yep, that def sounds like your problem!

 

 

also if you wanted to keep it in direct 1 digit you could put the */enter key in at the end of your macro.

[gareth]

Seeing as everyone's chipping in with the answer to the easy issue (:)), I'll ask about the other one! The ordinary behaviour of the desk is as you describe in your first post - i.e. when you hit record without a preceeding cue/group/sub/whatever selection, the desk defaults to recording the currently-selected cue. The first time you hit Record, and get asked "are you sure", the command line tells you what cue the desk is attempting to record over. When the desk exhibits the abnormal behaviour that you describe (in that you have to specifically tell it what to record if you want to update the current output cue), what cue does it offer to record for you the first time you hit the record button? Is it just jumping forward or backward along the cue list by one step? Or is it doing something different?

 

 

also if you wanted to keep it in direct 1 digit you could put the */enter key in at the end of your macro.

Nope - you'd only need to do that if you were in Command Line mode.

 

Also, just noticed that in the original post there's an inconsistency in what Will is telling us is programmed into his macros - the first one would work fine in Direct 1-Digit, the second one in Direct 2-Digit. It's probably something simple, like he's left a 0 off the first one, though ...

 

Just as a by-the-way kind of side-note, Will - do you really feel comfortable having such macros programmed into two direct-action buttons on the desk? I'm not saying that there's a strong likelihood of those two getting knocked, given their position on the desk, but all it would take is a little knock to P1 to plunge your show into darkness ... <_<

[paulears]

Moderation: QUALITY CONTROL - please don't keep repeating entire posts as quotes, when they are only just a few posts up. If you need to refer to a particular sentence or paragraph, then fine - but edit the original to just this bit. I have removed loads of unnecessary quotes from this topic - and what is left, is, well rather brief

[DMX Will]

Seeing as everyone's chipping in with the answer to the easy issue (), I'll ask about the other one! The ordinary behaviour of the desk is as you describe in your first post - i.e. when you hit record without a preceeding cue/group/sub/whatever selection, the desk defaults to recording the currently-selected cue. The first time you hit Record, and get asked "are you sure", the command line tells you what cue the desk is attempting to record over. When the desk exhibits the abnormal behaviour that you describe (in that you have to specifically tell it what to record if you want to update the current output cue), what cue does it offer to record for you the first time you hit the record button? Is it just jumping forward or backward along the cue list by one step? Or is it doing something different?

 

 

also if you wanted to keep it in direct 1 digit you could put the */enter key in at the end of your macro.

Nope - you'd only need to do that if you were in Command Line mode.

 

Also, just noticed that in the original post there's an inconsistency in what Will is telling us is programmed into his macros - the first one would work fine in Direct 1-Digit, the second one in Direct 2-Digit. It's probably something simple, like he's left a 0 off the first one, though ... :(

 

Just as a by-the-way kind of side-note, Will - do you really feel comfortable having such macros programmed into two direct-action buttons on the desk? I'm not saying that there's a strong likelihood of those two getting knocked, given their position on the desk, but all it would take is a little knock to P1 to plunge your show into darkness ... <_<

 

When live in a cue, if you hit REC al you get up is "RECORD" I've noticed since my first post if you then use the enter / * key twice you can re-record over the current cue.

 

With regards to what Mog said, the Macros never had the * value at the end of them, and they worked fine without it, although until the rest of the issues are resolved we've added a * into the macro.

 

The Blackout / Warm up macros are in as house default. (i.e. The theatre has had them there, since the desk what purchased, and as a semi-regular user of the board, I've got used to having them there :)) - I've never personally accidently hit a macro key, not heard any stories, so until I black the stage out, They'll probably stay put. Thanks for the note though, something to seriously consider for bigger shows.

[Bryson]

I have a rig test and a blackout macro up there too. Never hit it by mistake.

[paulears]

As long as you know the function of a key it isn't a problem - all desks have a dbo button and that's pretty terminal if you hit that in the wrong place. I've got some mirror scans that don't have a dimmer, and from time to time when busking you get into the position of needing a blackout and this won't shut the scans off, so I've a button that does the blackout AND the gobo 'blank' position on these scans. It is labelled PANIC BO in big letters.

[gareth]

When live in a cue, if you hit REC al you get up is "RECORD" I've noticed since my first post if you then use the enter / * key twice you can re-record over the current cue.

In that case, you're definitely in Command Line mode. Go into the Setup screen and change back to Direct mode, and all will be well again. (And tell people to stop fannying about with the desk setup! <_<)

[DMX Will]

When live in a cue, if you hit REC al you get up is "RECORD" I've noticed since my first post if you then use the enter / * key twice you can re-record over the current cue.

In that case, you're definitely in Command Line mode. Go into the Setup screen and change back to Direct mode, and all will be well again. (And tell people to stop fannying about with the desk setup! ;))

 

** laughs out loud **, cheers. I think it was when we were trying to correct the auto fade issue we had a couple of days ago (see other thread).

 

Thanks guys, everything back to how it should be, and learnt a bit along the way. So thanks :)

[Renny]

A better habit to get into is using "update" instead of "record" when modding cues.

 

For a variety of reasons.

[gareth]

A better habit to get into is using "update" instead of "record" when modding cues.

Yes. But also a little bit no ....

 

Update is a great function, I use it a lot - but it's also something that, if I'm telling people how to program a 500-series, I don't tell them about until they're feeling fairly 'at ease' with the desk and are getting into the swing of it. The reasoning behind that is that Update is just as powerful as Record in terms of altering the contents of a recorded cue, and it doesn't give you the "are you sure?" prompt before doing it. Better for a beginner to stick to using Record in the first instance, I feel, just for the sake of getting the confirmation request before commiting to any changes.