MagicQ cue timing

[DrV]

I've just finished using MagicQ PC for a show which included a fairly complicated lighting sequence (50 cues in about 3 minutes) which ran on its own with various effects and changes synchronised to hits in a pre-recorded music track. I programmed this by using wait times which represented the time period between each cue and the previous one. It worked very nicely in the end but it was difficult getting the times exactly right. Life would have been made easier if I could have scheduled each change as a time since the start of the track.

 

I thought that using a wait time of 0 and using the delay field to determine the time before the cue executed might work but it didn't - bit puzzled as I imagined that this would kick off all the cues together but then each one would wait until its allotted point in the track before it executed. However, this doesn't seem to be what happens.

 

Has anyone got any tips on how they would program such a sequence (for next time!)

 

For clarity an example of what I had was

 

Cue Wait Halt Delay

1 Follow Yes 0.00

2 5.00 No 0.00

3 5.00 No 0.00

4 5.00 No 0.00

 

which would execute cues 1 to 4 at 5 second intervals - that works of course.

 

What I thought would achieve the same result was

 

Cue Wait Halt Delay

1 Follow Yes 0.00

2 0.00 No 5.00

3 0.00 No 10.00

4 0.00 No 15.00

But it doesn't. It seems to execute cue 1 and then do nothing until 15 seconds have elapsed then the last cue is executed. This is an academic exercise at the moment as the show is now over but I'd like to nail this while it's fresh in my mind for next time, especially as I am about to persuade the group to shell out on a PC wing compact!

 

Dave

[Wol]

"Life would have been made easier if I could have scheduled each change as a time since the start of the track. "

 

Have you tried using the timecode function built into MagicQ to do this as these are times based on when you activated that cuestack? Set the "Halt" column to be "timecode" rather than "yes", and then use (shift+) RECORD TC in the Cuestack window to record the times into the "Wait" column automatically.

 

Search through the manual for "Record TC" for more info.

[DrV]

"Life would have been made easier if I could have scheduled each change as a time since the start of the track. "

 

Have you tried using the timecode function built into MagicQ to do this as these are times based on when you activated that cuestack? Set the "Halt" column to be "timecode" rather than "yes", and then use (shift+) RECORD TC in the Cuestack window to record the times into the "Wait" column automatically.

 

Search through the manual for "Record TC" for more info.

 

Thank you so much Wol - how much easier is THAT! I got my little sample cuestack working correctly within minutes. Exactly what I needed. Can't wait to programme the next dance routine...

 

Dave