Put the speed and or size of shapes or movement on a fader, this gives you much better control of movements and FX (shapes) so you can make it as fast/slow as you want. this is also good for strobe/shutter shapes
on MagicQ this in on CUE STACK and the options soft button and fader FX size/speed on fader

for an AVO Pearl you have to record in mode 2. get your shape in the programer, hit memory/cue, hit 2 on the key pad, the LCD will say record in mode2 and hit the sub master you want. this puts shape size and speed on the fader.

also on MagicQ and a Pearl you can recall pallets to fade in over a set time by using the keypad before selecting the pallet. 1 = 1 second 2 = 2seconds etc. this way you can have colours fade in nicely not just snapping in.

Also on the not using up too many sub masters front put a pan shape/FX on one fader and a tilt next to it. raise both together and hey presto you got your circle.

put a bit of tape under the faders you dont want to use like your masters. When in a button bashing frenzy I always accidentally drop the Playback master fader on a pearl coz its next to playback(sub master) no. 1 and wonder why its gone dark.

hope this helps

great site by the way

James

Just want to say a massive thanks for all your tutorials and advice on this site, I lit 5 bands last Friday at the venue I work at and it was my first time doing everything alone (usually I just rig/de-rig) but on the 28th I rigged, programmed and operated the desk during the 3 and a half hour set. I just want to say I took alot of your advice on board and the punters seemed to really enjoy themselves, and I guess I was pretty proud too.

So thanks again!

Liam

My concert went brilliantly, with only a few issues in setting up. The actual format was different to what I expected, as we ended up pre-programming the lighting for every act that performed, so very little was done live, but the guide was still helpful anyway

The term preset faders refers to the faders on a desk that control individual channel levels, often in two “presets” of faders, duplicated to allow crossfading between the two.

While you have to control each channel/dimmer individually, if the faders are laid out so that different purposes are next to each other, you can just grab a handful and adjust. Laying out of channels/faders can be either done within the desk (soft patching) or in the way you plug up fixture to the dimmers.

Thanks for your question.

Thanks
Phil

Where you need to look for all these things is in the Cue Stack window of the particular stack. Here you can type a cue number and goto a cue (or select the cue from the list and enter) and also set the fader options via the View Options softbutton.

If you want to change the behaviour of the stack when you raise and lower the fader, look at the options : Fader activates stack and Fader releases stack. The default behaviour is that the fader activates the LTP channels above a certain level (like an Avo Pearl) and releases (deactivates) them on lowering but depending on how you run your show, you might not want this.

Having said all that, you might just want to call up gobos on the fly using the palettes. HTH