VU wizard questions

[Baron1414]

Hello everybody,  Does any one like to use a particular percentage(s) of ON lighting events when using the VU set-up for firesticks?  I am trying to set-up for six section firesticks to look similar to equalizer effect.   Thank You.

[james morris]

I use it on  some of my halloween sequences  i dont have any firestick but i have 10 tombstones  5 each way looks pretty cool

[Geoff Harvey]

Hi Barron
In 2012, I used the VU wizard to produce a few different effects in 3 of my sequences "Voice Introduction", "Six White Boomers", & "Real Men Of Genius, RMOG". Videos can be seen from the YouTube link in my signature.

I have previously added a "how to" in the "Sequencing Tips & Tricks" topic http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/13818-sequencing-tips-tricks-and-secrets/ (see posts 27-30). This was mainly about using multi level VU wizard timings and channel turn-ons to produce effects for fire sticks (or similar elements). In my introduction, I actually use 2 separate VU patterns, one for my voice and a second for the background music. These patterns were created before the audio files were merged. The voice pattern was applied to the arches, fire sticks and firework stars, while the background music was applied to the RGB spinners, and fenceline mini trees. In the voice introduction, both the voice and the background music have significant quite periods

To set VU levels, I used the VU level adjustment to determine the level below which the % on did not increase (maybe 80%). This became the lowest VU setting. I then picked the maximum VU setting as that level where there was about 1-2% on time. Picking levels between these 2 limits was then a bit of trial and error, but the percentages are not equal. I used 8 levels for my firesticks and on the intro the % on times might typically be 80, 50, 30, 20, 13, 6, 3,1.

A similar approach was used for the other sequences where I used VU effects, but for these, there was no silent periods and the low limit setting was more like 95% on time, but with a similar pattern of levels between the low and high levels.

The variations in VU effects used in 2012 were:

• Application to the RGB spinners in my Introduction enabled the activation of different colours as the VU levels increased. Green, then yellow, then red for the top level(s) just by applying the pattern to the required RGB component colours. (Note: each spinner ray is a dumb RGB strip controlled by 3 LOR DC channels.)
• Horizontal application to the arches for specific effects - eg in "Six White Boomers" at times 42-47 sec (spanning all 3 arches) and 60-67 sec (each arch individually activated from its centre).
• In "Real Men if Genius" I used the standard VU effect on the firesticks, but also used the VU timings and levels to create either red or green background modulation (colour depending on who was talking). To create the intensity modulation, I used only 4 levels (corresponding to my VU channels 1,3,5,7. ) and created the pattern in a separate "modulation" channel.

Procedure:

• a: On Channel 1, use foreground effects and intensity tool (10%) to reduce the on-time intensity to 10%.
• b: Copy this reduced intensity to the modulation channel (copy from foreground).
• c: Repeat steps a & b for channels 3 (at 20% intensity), 5 (at 40% intensity), and 7 (at 100% intensity), to complete the modulation channel over the required sequence timings.
• d: Copy the resultant modulation channel to the required sequence channels.

Edited February 11, 2013 by Geoff Harvey

[Baron1414]

Thank you so much Geoff.  God Bless