SS and visualizer fixture settings

[roverdish]

What affect, if any do the visualizer fixture properties settings have on a sequence created in SS?

 

Specifically, I went to all LED lighting this year and after creating quite a few visualizer sequences in the new SS 3.10.0.6 (love it), I noticed most of my fixtures were not marked as LED in the fixture properties box. Now I have gone through and marked all as LED. I am only running string lights at this time

 

Will I have improved or different effects now that the 96 fixtures have been checked as LED?

 

Thanks

Chip

 

Now running 3.10.0.8.

 

[Don]

The Visualizer can't affect sequences in the Sequence Editor. No matter what changes you make to your Visualizer, nothing in the SE will be affected.

 

Will you have improved effects in the Visualizer? I don't know, haven't gone through those options yet.

 

Will you have improved effects in the SE, and thus your final shows? No. Visualizer can't effect SE.

[BrianBruderer]

Actually, SuperStar does look at the LED checkbox in the fixtures in the Visualizer. It affects the dimming curve that SuperStar will use. This is only an issue if you use intensity settings of less than 100%. For example, if you set the intensity to 50% and do not have the LED checkbox checked, then SuperStar will export 50 as the intensity for that light.

 

However, if you have the LED checkbox checked and you have the intensity at 50%, then SuperStar will export a value of about 25 for the Sequence Editor to play. This is because LEDs tend to illuminate more brightly during the top part of the dimming curve than incandescent lights. So to get the LED down to 50% brightness Superstar exports a value lower than 50.

 

So the end effect is that if you are using LEDs and do not have the LED checkbox checked in the fixture, then even if you set lower intensities like 50% you won't see the LEDs get much dimmer, it will look pretty much the same as 100%. And actually, even when you check LED, you need to put intensity down to 20 or 30% to see the LEDs get dimmer, its just hard to get LEDs to be dim. For what it is worth, when you have the LED checkbox checked and you set intensity to 10%, Superstar exports a value of 2. When you look at it in the Sequence Editor you probably will not be able to see it. But even a value of 2 is brighter than you would expect, but its as close as I can get to 10% brightness. I would use a value of 1 except that I have found that some LEDs don't illuminate at all with a value of 1.

[Don]

Learn something new every day.

 

Thanks, Brian.

 

(Course, it would have helped had I read the original message correctly. *Sigh*)

[roverdish]

When you speak of the intensity settings are you referring to the setting placed on the controllers and channels through the use of the hardware utility? Running all s3 pro controllers. Sorry if questions are dumb. This is only my 2nd year.

 

Thanks

[BrianBruderer]

I am speaking of the intensity set in SuperStar. The idea is that in SupeStar you are setting the desired intensity of the light, and then when SuperStar exports the sequence it chooses a value for the Sequence Editor to use that will give you that intensity. If it is an incandescent and you set 50% in SuperStar, the value exported to the Sequence Editor is the same, namely 50. But if it is an LED the value exported for the Sequence Editor to use will be something lower such as 25.

 

You can think of the value exported as the value in the hardware utility. That is, if you go into the hardware utility and change the setting to 50 on and LED you will see that the intensity is not much different than 100. To get it to dim to 50% you need to use a value of about 25.

[roverdish]

Can the intensity be manually set in SS?. If so I can't seem to figure out how and the help section is no help. Or is the intensity set by SS automatically dependent on audio file, TCM and timing map settings along with visualizer properties? 

 

Thanks

[overeazy]

Chip do you have your fixtures set up as props.  For example a spiral tree?   I like to take parts of my display such as my spiral tree and make a visualizer file of just that and import it into SS for instant sequence.  It seems to make it easier for me to change all the TCM options and timings until I find something I really like.  But it seems no matter what I did they all start looking the same and all of your different songs seem to start looking the same.  Well I got to thinking about it and went  back to the visualizer and looked at my file and the fixture order in it.  I had my fixtures listed 1 thru 16 so I decided to change it up so I changed the order of the fixtures to   1,9,2,10,3,11,4,12,5,13,6,14,7,15,8,16.  I then saved it as another visualizer file.  I then did one with them 1,5,9,13, ect and saved again.  Went back to SS did the instant with my first one, then using the same instant  as the first one opened my second visualizer of the spiral tree and completely different look, same with the third.  Changing the order of your fixtures in your props will give you different looks in the SS instant sequencer.

[BrianBruderer]

It sounds like you are using Instant Sequence. In the TCM there is a setting for Intensity, it defaults to 100%. Also, what version of SuperStar are you running? If it is an old version the Intensity setting in the Instant Sequence TCM will not be there.

[roverdish]

It sounds like you are using Instant Sequence. In the TCM there is a setting for Intensity, it defaults to 100%. Also, what version of SuperStar are you running? If it is an old version the Intensity setting in the Instant Sequence TCM will not be there

 

It sounds like you are using Instant Sequence. In the TCM there is a setting for Intensity, it defaults to 100%. Also, what version of SuperStar are you running? If it is an old version the Intensity setting in the Instant Sequence TCM will not be there.

 

 

Yes, Using Instant sequence a lot.

 

3.10.0.8 and the settings are there and I just couldn't see them. Now what you say make more sense Brian. My light bulb in brain is a little dim.

 

But not to dim to learn something new.

[roverdish]

Chip do you have your fixtures set up as props.  For example a spiral tree?   I like to take parts of my display such as my spiral tree and make a visualizer file of just that and import it into SS for instant sequence.  It seems to make it easier for me to change all the TCM options and timings until I find something I really like.  But it seems no matter what I did they all start looking the same and all of your different songs seem to start looking the same.  Well I got to thinking about it and went  back to the visualizer and looked at my file and the fixture order in it.  I had my fixtures listed 1 thru 16 so I decided to change it up so I changed the order of the fixtures to   1,9,2,10,3,11,4,12,5,13,6,14,7,15,8,16.  I then saved it as another visualizer file.  I then did one with them 1,5,9,13, ect and saved again.  Went back to SS did the instant with my first one, then using the same instant  as the first one opened my second visualizer of the spiral tree and completely different look, same with the third.  Changing the order of your fixtures in your props will give you different looks in the SS instant sequencer.

That sounds like a great idea.

I'm gonna try that too.

 

I have acheived multiple looks to sequences using the TCM settings and applying different TCM to different props and manipulating the settings on the timing map. I have found some favorite TCM's that seem to work better with some props than others. Background seems to like segs/twinkles/staggered and the 32 ch 4 color tree likes either a full morph, water off a bowl or star color twist. 16 ch minitree line mesmerizes with a TCM of Star dot twist with motion set to pass by.