Please explain how tracks work

[Amazn1]

Hi All,

Newbie here. Just took advantage of the recent sale and bought 4 controllers and have started sequencing...talk about time consuming! A little background. I have had a six channel controller that I bought from Costco for about 4 years. I have upgraded all my lights to LED and have about 15K. I wanted to do more with the lights and that's when I found LOR . Looking forward to a really awesome display this year.

Can someone fill me in on what "tracks" are and how to use them to speed up sequencing if possible.

Thanks,

Brad

[ItsMeBobO]

Tracks are used to logically group your channels. All channels are in a track even for those who say they do dont use them.

I use them to hide groups of channels to make them adjacent to other channels for visual comparison. Each track can have its own timings. So if for example you have 16 mini trees but only 7 candy canes you can divide some beats by 16 and other beats by 7 and not be forced to have all timing marks in sight at the same time.

[Ron Amedee]

Just be aware of your license level..Mutiple tracks can not be run on basic level.

[PaulXmas]

I use traks to group elements together.

For example I have 12 deer thoughout my yard on 4 controllers.

In the main track they are all over the place.

I copy them into a new track and can see all 12 of them on one screen.

What you do in one track does carry over to the main and visa versa.

[Amazn1]

I'm starting to understand the basic concept. I guess my next question would be how do you start a new track? Then how do you give it it's own timings?

I have all my channels named and saved so when I start to sequence a new song, I just import the named channels.

I have the Standard S2 software which includes 4 tracks I beleive.

[bob]

Amazn1 wrote:

I'm starting to understand the basic concept. I guess my next question would be how do you start a new track? Then how do you give it it's own timings?

I have all my channels named and saved so when I start to sequence a new song, I just import the named channels.

I have the Standard S2 software which includes 4 tracks I beleive.

You can create an entirely new track via Edit / Add New Track. Or, you can duplicate an existing track (i.e. make a new track that contains all the same channels as the old track) via Edit / Duplicate Track.

One thing to note, though, is that one of the primary uses for tracks in the days of yore was to have different sets of timings on the same channels. With the advent of timing grids, this is no longer necessary; you can have a single track with many different sets of timings, choosing which set of timings is displayed at any given point in time from a simple dropdown menu.

So, if that's the main thing that you would want out of tracks, tracks may be overkill. Consider using timing grids instead.

You can read about timing grids on the following page from the help file:

http://www.lightorama.com/help/index.html?timings.htm

And tracks:

http://www.lightorama.com/help/index.html?tracks.htm

[Max-Paul]

Amazn1,

And anyone else that is new to this addiction. Ok, you sequence a song and now you do a few more for your first year. For portability and for making more sequences using the same channels and controllers.

Be sure that each of your tracks contain the same channels and that the order of your tracks are the same from sequence to sequence. If you have track two contain say 8 channels and they are numbered 1-8 to represent sections of an Arch. Do not make this track 3 in another seq. I found out that in year two if you add some more channels and tracks and these new channels and tracks are not at the bottom (last track was say 7, new track has to be 8 or above). Or you can add more channels to a track but again they need to be at the bottom of the track. Once you have added this to your first Seq. then you export to save and then import to other seq. to update them to the new elements of your display.

But do like I mistakenly did and added in the middle and watch your sequence get all out of order when importing into an existing sequence.

If this was clear as mud, ask questions and we will try to clear things up. As long as you understand this. Much time can be saved when upgrading your display.

[Guest guest]

Max-Paul wrote:

Amazn1,

And anyone else that is new to this addiction. Ok, you sequence a song and now you do a few more for your first year. For portability and for making more sequences using the same channels and controllers.

Be sure that each of your tracks contain the same channels and that the order of your tracks are the same from sequence to sequence. If you have track two contain say 8 channels and they are numbered 1-8 to represent sections of an Arch. Do not make this track 3 in another seq. I found out that in year two if you add some more channels and tracks and these new channels and tracks are not at the bottom (last track was say 7, new track has to be 8 or above). Or you can add more channels to a track but again they need to be at the bottom of the track. Once you have added this to your first Seq. then you export to save and then import to other seq. to update them to the new elements of your display.

But do like I mistakenly did and added in the middle and watch your sequence get all out of order when importing into an existing sequence.

If this was clear as mud, ask questions and we will try to clear things up. As long as you understand this. Much time can be saved when upgrading your display.

I just started using tracks and found that out too. BUT, there is a way around this.

If you add more channels to an existing track and did so in the middle of the track, just do this to the pre-existing sequence (that did not have them):

Existing sequence has let's say 5 channels in track 6 labled Ch 1,2,3,8, and 9 but you need to bump this to 9 channels using channels 4,5,6, and 7, and you put these 4 new tracks in the middle of track 5, so that your channels would be 1-9 in sequence.

Easy fix, just use the "Insert Channel", then use "Insert Multiple Channels Above (or Below)" and type in the number of channels needed, in this instance 4. Click on the channel 8 button, then insert channel, then insert multiple channels above, type in the number 4 in the box, click ok, LOR SE2 will add in the channels where you tell it where you want/need them. DO NOT ADD OR CHANGE ANYTHING TO THESE 4 NEW ADDED CHANNELS - LEAVE THEM AS THEIR DEFAULTS!!!

Now import your previously created track configuration that you had created using these 4 added channels from a previous sequence, the 4 NEW CHANNELS WILL CONVERT TO THE IMPORTED CONFIGURATION FILE WITH THE CORRECT CHANNEL ID/CONTROLLER and BUTTON TEXT INFORMATION!

I figured this out after messing up one of my previously created sequences, all I needed to do was add in the channels to the correct location in the OLD sequence, Import Track configuration file and presto, all done.

The only thing I haven't figured out is how to make ALL TRACKS import with the same timing grid instead of having to set this in every sequence. The first track imports just fine, but tracks 2 - 9 don't import the same timing grid I use as a default (0.15), that's the only thing that drives me nuts with using tracks. As I'd rather have all my tracks default to the same timing grid and change it later if I need to.