HIDE channels in sequencer program?

[Jaynee]

So this morning my husband and I pulled out everything we're using in the display this year.   One new feature is a set of 3 arches that I bought off another LOR person here at this forum, which I bought a couple years ago.  Back in the spring my husband and I pulled out a pole to see how many channels it has, and we counted 8.  So I programmed my entire show assuming each pole has 8 channels.

Pulled out the stuff this morning only to discover that NO, the poles all have 6 channels each.  I'm now having to scramble and redo all of my arches programming for my entire program.  However, I'm wondering if there is a way to simply HIDE a couple channels from each pole in the sequencer rather than delete the channels, in case I ever re-wrap the poles and decide to go with 8 channels (which will JUST FIT on these poles that I have).  I'd like to keep the current programming intact should that day come.

However, I don't see an option to "hide" the 7th and 8th channel in the sequencer program so that they remain in the sequence, but just are not visible on the screen.  Is that not something that is available?

[PhilMassey]

Copy the channels you need to a new Track and sequence them there. A track can have any channels you like in it.

One caution. If you copy a group to a track, you MUST degroup before moving channels around to "disconnect" it from the original in the Master track.

[Orville]

What I do in cases like this, is I will leave the channels there, but I'll disengage the controller info from the channel Config area, that is say you have those 2 added channels for the arches as Controller #08 and Channels 7 and 8, go to the channel config and set those to a higher number tan the controller has, like a CTB16PC is 16 channels, so you can set those channels as 17 and 18, they remain in the sequence, but won't be used.  However, doing this and not redoing the arches movement flow may put them off in the sequence as those last two channels are ones being used as the fade out of the song area {in most cases}, so the arch being only 6 channels and blacking out the other 2, your arches timing will still be off.

Me, in your case, I'd copy all those 8 channel arch sequences to a specific directory like 8CH_ARCH, that way they will be intact when you make your changes in the future to the arches.   Then you can just redo the arches and delete the channels in the original sequences that you just created duplicates of that other folder for later use.  This is what I do a lot of times, especially if I don't want to redo the entire sequence, but just to change the two arches from 8 to 6, this, in my opinion would be the easiest option.  And this way you have copies of the original 8 channel arch sequences and no addition programming would be needed to add the extra channels to them when you're ready.

Hope this makes sense.

[Jaynee]

12 hours ago, Orville said:

Me, in your case, I'd copy all those 8 channel arch sequences to a specific directory like 8CH_ARCH, that way they will be intact when you make your changes in the future to the arches.   Then you can just redo the arches and delete the channels in the original sequences that you just created duplicates of that other folder for later use.  This is what I do a lot of times, especially if I don't want to redo the entire sequence, but just to change the two arches from 8 to 6, this, in my opinion would be the easiest option.  And this way you have copies of the original 8 channel arch sequences and no addition programming would be needed to add the extra channels to them when you're ready.

Hope this makes sense.

This is what I ended up doing.  I saved a copy of my entire 2018 folder and called it "2018 sequences - 8 channel arches" and then went back into the original folder and worked through the songs, removing the 6 channels and then reprogrammed the arches stuff in all of the songs.  Fortunately, it did not take that long - a few hours.

[Mr. P]

When I add a 16 ch. controller I add all 16 channels even tho I may only be using four, I just don't label the unused 12. This alleviates any confusion when I eventually have to use the other 12 and prevents me from splitting the controller later on since you always add to the bottom.

[Orville]

44 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

When I add a 16 ch. controller I add all 16 channels even tho I may only be using four, I just don't label the unused 12. This alleviates any confusion when I eventually have to use the other 12 and prevents me from splitting the controller later on since you always add to the bottom.

I do the exact same thing Mr. P.  

And if I ever have to remove something due to being worn out or broken and can't replace it.  I'll blank that channel out, but leave it labeled as Controller # and Channel #, i.e. Controller 08 Channel 9 would just be "Unit 08.9 ~ OPEN" as the label.

This way I know the channel is an unused one and can be utilized for something else when I get either a replacement item that wasn't exactly the same as I had.  Or just re-label it if I happen to luck out and find the exact same item I wore out or broke due to excessive use. LOL