Busking intensity: balance, hits and the baseline¶

The problem¶

A typical rave rig mixes fixtures of very different brightness: LED bars that blind at 30%, washes that need 100% to be seen, beam movers that cut through everything. During the normal flow of a set you want a balanced atmosphere: in a dark room that usually means a few elements lit at a time, and none of the fixture types jumping out because it's three times brighter than the others. Then the track builds up, and on the drop the same fixtures should hit at full: bars flashing white, washes strobing, beams punching through. A small rig often has no separate strobes or blinders for that; the hits come from the fixtures that also carry the atmosphere. When there are strobes (real ones, or very bright pars with a strobe mode), they add one more hit executor; the logic below stays the same.

The obvious tool for the balance is a group master per fixture type: pull the LED bars to 40%, keep the washes at 100%. But then the strobe hit on the LED bars is also limited to 40%. Group masters work on the output of those fixtures, whatever drives them. The manual puts it as "a fixture told to be at 50% by a cue and limited by a group master at 50% outputs 25%". That includes your flash buttons.

The idea: balance the source, not the output¶

Instead of limiting fixtures at the output, limit the atmosphere layer where it's produced, and keep the hits on a separate layer that never passes through that limit.

grandMA2 has three places where intensity can be scaled, and they reach different amounts of the show:

So group masters (and the grand master) are the wrong place for the musical balance. They're still good for global safety limits ("this fixture type may never exceed 80%").

Building the layers¶

1. The atmosphere layer, balanced at the source¶

Put the atmosphere's intensity (dimmer levels, dimmer chases and effects) on executors per fixture type, or at least split so that the bright types are on their own executors. Then each executor's master is effectively a "group master" that only affects the atmosphere. Colour and movement don't need that split, because an executor master only scales dimmer values; the worked example shows the whole page.

• Washes atmo at 100%, LED bars atmo at 40%, Beams atmo at 60%.
• The balance is now a fader position you can ride by ear.

Two ways to make the balance less dependent on fader positions:

• Balanced dimmer presets: store the atmosphere with dimmer presets per type ("Bars base" = 40%, "Washes base" = 100%) and use them as the high value in dimmer effects. Retune a whole fixture type later by updating one preset (see Presets).
• Playback masters as submasters: assign all atmosphere executors to one playback master ATMO (or one per type). One fader then rides the whole atmosphere, for example down in the breakdown and up through the build-up. The hit executors stay unassigned.

2. The hit layer: the same fixtures, at full¶

With a small rig there are often no dedicated strobes or blinders. The hits use the same fixtures as the atmosphere, just much brighter. That works because a hit is a second executor on those fixtures, not a different set of lights:

• Bars atmo (fader at 40%) runs a slow colour chase on the bars.
• Bars hit (a button) contains the same bars at dimmer 100%, colour white, maybe shutter strobe.
• Press Bars hit and the bars jump to full white; release it and they fall back into the chase, which kept running underneath.

The hit executors are button executors, stored at full intensity and not assigned to any playback master, so neither the bars' atmosphere fader nor the ATMO master can scale them. This is the reason the balance has to live in the atmosphere executors and not in group masters: with shared fixtures, a group master on the bars would limit the bars' hit as well.

• Flash key function: full while pressed, back when released. That's the classic "hit on the beat" button.
• Priority HTP for the hit executors. HTP ranks above High and LTP, so the hit wins over the atmosphere on every attribute it contains: the dimmer goes to full, and stored colour or shutter values beat the running colour chase too. See Playback priority.
• Swop (instead of Flash): only this executor while pressed, everything else dark. A different tool from the hit; see Hits: Flash, Swop or Kill.

Two kinds of hit are worth having:

Store them per fixture type (Bars hit, Washes hit, Beams hit) and one All hit for the drop, so you can hit one type on the beat and everything on the one.

3. Tension controls for build-ups¶

Faders worth having within reach during a build-up:

• the ATMO playback master (or the per-type atmosphere masters)
• a speed master for all chases and effects, with half/double speed buttons, so the movement can accelerate with the build-up (see Playing in time)
• the master of an "intensity effect" executor (e.g. a fast dimmer or strobe effect) that you fade in under the build-up and kill on the drop
• Kill on a "drop look" button: start this look and turn everything else off at once (with Kill Protect on what must keep running; see Hits: Flash, Swop or Kill)

Getting back to the baseline¶

Once the atmosphere is balanced (the bars sit right next to the washes, the beams don't swamp the haze), that balance is your baseline. During the set you leave it all the time: bars down in the breakdown, washes up for a vocal, everything pushed through a build-up. After the drop you want the baseline back in one move, without having to remember four fader positions in the dark.

How easy that is depends on where the balance lives:

Balance in presets, faders normally at full¶

This builds on the balanced dimmer presets: the bars' 40% is stored in the preset Bars base, not in a fader position. Each atmosphere executor then plays at full, and its fader is a pure ride control. The baseline is "all faders up", the one position you can find by touch on any hardware, and retuning the balance means updating a preset, not memorising positions.

The cost: there's nothing above the baseline. If the washes need to be brighter for one track, their preset has to leave headroom (store Washes base at 80% and you can ride them to full).

Ride only a playback master¶

Assign all atmosphere executors to one playback master ATMO and keep your hands on that during the set. The executor faders hold the balance and you don't touch them; ATMO scales all of them together. Back to baseline = ATMO to full. With one playback master per fixture type you get per-type riding with the same rule: every master's home is the top. This combines well with the preset option above.

A macro or a cue that sets the faders¶

The Fader keyword sets an executor's fader from the command line, for example Fader 1.3 At 40 for executor 3 on page 1 (see Fader). A Baseline macro with one such line per atmosphere executor puts every fader back in one press, and a SpecialMaster line can reset a playback master the same way. The same lines work in the CMD of a cue, so a "drop over" cue can restore the baseline on its own (see Macros).

This is the only option that keeps a baseline below full on the faders themselves, but it depends on the hardware:

• Motorised faders (grandMA2 consoles and the grandMA2 fader wing) move to the new positions, so what you see and feel matches the output.
• On-screen executors in onPC simply show the new value.
• Faders without motors (a MIDI controller, and as far as the manual's device overview shows the MA onPC fader wing) stay where your hand left them. The executor is now at 40% while the physical fader says 80%, and the next touch decides what happens: either the value jumps to the fader, or the fader has to "pick up" the value first.

Fading a fader by command (Fader 1.3 At 40 Fade 4) instead of jumping is still open (see Timecode shows).

A baseline executor and overrides on top¶

The fourth approach never moves the baseline at all. The balanced atmosphere runs on its executors and nobody touches their faders. Every manual change comes from somewhere above it, and releasing that change brings the baseline back:

• An override executor with higher priority: Bars low (bars dimmer at 15%, priority High) on a Temp or Flash button pulls the bars down while held. A fader executor with the same content and Temp fader function gives a rideable override that returns to the baseline at zero.
• The programmer: select the bars, roll the dimmer down, and Clear hands them back to the running executors. Fine for one-off corrections, awkward for riding to the music, and how the programmer ranks against a playback triggered later is still open (see Playback priority).

The whole approach on a sample rig (4 washes, 8 bars, 4 beams) is in Worked example: a small rig.

When it matters, and when not¶

• Rig with similar fixtures: balance hardly matters; one ATMO master is plenty.
• Mixed rig with very different brightness, busked to electronic music: this layering is worth building once and reusing as a template.
• Group masters: keep them for safety limits and for areas you never want to hit at full, not for the musical balance.
• Getting back to the baseline on faders without motors (onPC, a MIDI controller): keep the balance in presets and ride downwards from the top; with motorised faders, or for a reset at the end of a drop, a baseline macro or cue CMD.

Related¶

• What goes on an executor
• Executors and pages: key functions, protect options
• Playback priority: HTP, High, masters after priority, override executors
• How the hardware shapes the show: motorised faders, wings, MIDI controllers
• Worked example: a small rig: the whole approach on a sample page
• Selection and groups: group masters
• Reference: Playback masters, Masters window, Group masters, Assign a function

Sources¶

• Group masters: relative limiting of the fixtures' dimmer output
• Playback masters: 50 submasters for assigned sequence executors
• Playing back cues: executor master affects that playback's dimmer values; priorities
• Assign a function: Flash, Swop key functions
• Executor options: playback master, priority
• Masters window: group, speed, rate, playback masters in one view
• Fader keyword: Fader 5 At 50 sets an executor's fader
• SpecialMaster keyword: sets special masters from the command line
• Macros
• grandMA2 fader wing (motorised faders), MA onPC fader wing (no motors listed)