Darkness Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Hi All, I finally got around to using MagicQ for the first time in a show. I normally use a fat frog but I got some new LED par cans recently and the fat frog does not have enough channels to control all the generics and LED lights individually. When I was running a colour chase with 6 different colours for example I found if I changed the speed so it was in time with the music (90bmp for example) I started to loose the colours, when I had the xfade on 100% it was a bit like a white wash on the stage with a hint of colour changing, when I changed the xfade to 0% the colours didn't get to full intensity, they seemed to get to about 50% intensity and then start on the next colour. I know of the fat frog if I set the chase to a xfade all the colours come through no matter how quick it is running, likewise if I set the chase to snap the colours snap to 100%. How do I get this kind of effect on magicq as I couldn't seem to find the correct settings. I ran out of time so resorted to running the chases at half the speed I wanted to. In the washes I used the generic lights and then the LEDs to help boost the colour. During a chase I noticed the LEDs were changing at a reasonable speed but the generics seems to be slightly delayed, is there a way I can get them both to come on at the same time and same intesity. I've been reading the post about setting up a virtual dimmer which may be the solution, I like to the fact with the LEDs I can select them and then choose a colour from the swatch and it changes all the values to that colour, maybe I just need a play with this. For the next show I have a switchpack used for turning on the mirror ball and any inteligent fixtures on the bars. I don't really know much about switch packs as each of the 6 sockets are set as a fixture on the fat frog and when I put the brightness up to over 50% the sockets turn on. How do I go about setting this up on magicq? Thanks for any advice in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peza2010 Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I can't help you with the first bit, but for the second bit, I would just patch the switch packs as generic dimmers... I haven't came across and switch pack personalities with magic q, but haven't looked either. While we are on the subject of magic q, I have a question... When using it in normal mode (where you have channel faders at the top) is there away to scroll through to later channels and have control of them with these faders? Eg channels 50 onwards? In sure wol will be along soon enough to answer all of these questions :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 When I was running a colour chase with 6 different colours for example I found if I changed the speed so it was in time with the music (90bmp for example) I started to loose the colours, when I had the xfade on 100% it was a bit like a white wash on the stage with a hint of colour changing, when I changed the xfade to 0% the colours didn't get to full intensity, they seemed to get to about 50% intensity and then start on the next colour. I know of the fat frog if I set the chase to a xfade all the colours come through no matter how quick it is running, likewise if I set the chase to snap the colours snap to 100%. How do I get this kind of effect on magicq as I couldn't seem to find the correct settings. I ran out of time so resorted to running the chases at half the speed I wanted to. FX in MagicQ add on top of the values programmed to give you a bit more flexibility for complex effects. So what you usually have for LEDs is 50% red, 50% green and 50% blue, and then the FX wibbles it up and down by 50%, giving a resultant 0 > 100%. If you locate the LEDs to start off with, then you find that all the values are at 100%, and only for half of the sine wave in the FX, they dip down to 50%, rather than going between 0 and 100%. If you hit "Col" and then select the colour as being a mid grey, with RGB all set to 50%, and then add the FX onto that, set the FX speed up, and see if that gets any closer to what you want. In the washes I used the generic lights and then the LEDs to help boost the colour. During a chase I noticed the LEDs were changing at a reasonable speed but the generics seems to be slightly delayed, is there a way I can get them both to come on at the same time and same intesity. I've been reading the post about setting up a virtual dimmer which may be the solution, I like to the fact with the LEDs I can select them and then choose a colour from the swatch and it changes all the values to that colour, maybe I just need a play with this.Depending on how fast you're trying to run the chase, are you sure you're not being limited by how fast a generic light can physically warm up and start outputting light? LEDs will be instant whereas parcans usually won't be as fast. If you hit "Out" you should be able to see the outputs that MagicQ is sending out over DMX. Double check there that the values are both changing in time to see if its a lag in MagicQ or elsewhere in your system. For the next show I have a switchpack used for turning on the mirror ball and any inteligent fixtures on the bars. I don't really know much about switch packs as each of the 6 sockets are set as a fixture on the fat frog and when I put the brightness up to over 50% the sockets turn on. How do I go about setting this up on magicq?Patch > Select Dimmer > Patch it > 6 The switchpacks will most likely do a "if the value is > 50%, turn the output on", so you don't need to use the dimmer curve to snap from 0>100% in MagicQ. Hope that helps! When using it in normal mode (where you have channel faders at the top) is there away to scroll through to later channels and have control of them with these faders? Eg channels 50 onwards? In sure wol will be along soon enough to answer all of these questions :) Normal mode is the normal MagicQ screen with the boxes in the middle / encoders around the outside. If you mean "Simple" mode, where it has the row of faders at the top, then as far as I'm aware, there isn't a way to get any more than 48 channels on this. I've not really poked around that much in that bit of the code, so not 100% sure on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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