What goes on an executor¶

The problem¶

Executors are your instrument during the show. A busking set can need dozens of things within reach: colour looks, positions, movement effects, dimmer chases, white and strobe hits, haze, a blackout, tempo. A console has maybe 15 to 30 faders and as many buttons per page, onPC fewer.

If the layout is random, you search instead of play. If it changes from page to page, your hands learn nothing. The questions are: what goes on an executor at all, faders or buttons, and how do pages fit together?

Faders for amounts, buttons for events¶

The most useful rule of thumb:

• Faders for things you ride by feel: intensity of a layer, effect size, speed, haze amount, an atmosphere submaster.
• Buttons for things you trigger: a look on/off (Toggle), a hit (Flash, Swop), the next cue (Go), a macro, a tap tempo (Learn).

Fader executors also have buttons, so a fader for "LED bars atmosphere" can have Toggle (or On/Off) and Flash above it: start it, ride it, hit it.

Build blocks, not finished looks¶

For busking, the strongest structure is layers you combine live rather than complete looks stored as single cues:

Each layer only touches its own attributes: a colour button must never move your lights. Store them through the right preset pools, and give the executors playback filters so the guarantee also holds if a sequence accidentally contains more (see Executors that only do one thing). With LTP, the last colour button you pressed wins, and Off On Overwritten turns the previous one off automatically (see Executors and pages).

For the intensity layer and the hits, see Busking intensity: balance, hits and the baseline. It covers why group masters limit your strobes and what to use instead.

Pages: fixed controls and changing controls¶

Pages only change what you see on the hardware; running executors keep running. Two common structures:

• Same layout on every page, different content: page 1 "warm", page 2 "cold", page 3 "techno" all have colours on buttons 1–8, movement on faders 1–4, hits on buttons 9–12. Your hands always know where things are.
• Fixed controls + a changing area: the things you always need (hits, blackout, atmosphere master, speed master) sit in the same place on every page, or are fixed so they stay on the hardware when you change page. Only one area changes per page.

Many programmers combine both: a fixed "always" block, and per-page content in the same positions.

For cue-list shows (a set list with programmed songs), the common structure is one page per song, with the song's cue list on the main executor.

Fog and one-shot buttons on every page¶

Some controls must be under your hand whatever page you're on: a fog burst before the drop, the hit on the one, blackout, the home macro. If the fog button is on page 1 and you're busking on page 3, the moment is gone before you've flipped back.

Keeping a button in the same place¶

grandMA2 offers three ways, and they behave differently:

For one-shot buttons, plain Fix is the reliable choice: fix the whole "always" block (fog, hits, home, ATMO and speed master) once, and every page shows it in the same place. Auto Fix is meant for something else: a look you started on one page follows you to the next until you turn it off.

The manual describes Fix as fixing executors "on a page" and Auto Fix as keeping an active executor "visible even when pages are changed". On onPC without a wing, the same applies to the on-screen executor bar.

A fog machine as a fixture¶

The manual doesn't mention fog or haze machines. Treated as working practice: a DMX fog machine or hazer is patched like any fixture, usually with an output channel and, on hazers, a fan channel. Two ways to play it:

• A fader for continuous haze: one executor with output and fan, the fader as the amount. This only works as a level control if the fixture type treats the output as a dimmer attribute, because an executor fader scales dimmer values only. If the output is a plain control attribute, the fader just starts and stops the executor.
• A Flash button for bursts: an executor with output at full (fan at full) and the key function Flash. Flash turns the executor on with zero timing while pressed and off on release, so a burst lasts exactly as long as you hold it.

For a timed burst that stops by itself, use a macro with wait times (Flash On Executor 1.14, wait 3 s, Flash Off Executor 1.14), or a two-step chaser (output on, output off) with Shoot-Off, which runs its steps once and turns itself off. The chaser's step length follows its speed, so it can be tied to the speed master if the burst should last a bar.

Which masters should reach it¶

Decide what the global controls are allowed to do to the fog and the other always-there buttons:

• Blackout, grand master, group masters: they act on fixtures with React to Master on, the default for dimmer attributes. The manual suggests turning it off for "power relays, blue lights and other stuff you do not want to accidently turn down" (Setup → Patch & Fixture Schedule). For a hazer it's usually right to turn it off: a blackout before the drop is the moment when haze in the room matters most.
• Kill and Swop: a drop look on Kill turns every other executor off, a Swop hit pulls all other masters to zero. Give the haze executor Kill Protect and Swop Protect so the drop doesn't stop it.
• Home macro: decide whether "home" turns fog off (safe) or leaves the haze running (usual). Put that decision in the macro, not in your head.

Executor options that make busking predictable¶

• Auto Start / Auto Stop on faders: moving the fader up starts the executor, down to zero turns it off.
• Off On Overwritten: an executor turns off when another one has taken over all of its attributes, so pulling a fader down doesn't bring back an old look you forgot about.
• Restart: First Cue for looks and effects, so they always start the same.
• Speed master for every chase and effect, so one tap tempo controls all.
• Swop Protect / Kill Protect for things that must survive a drop.

On onPC with few faders¶

Without a fader wing, use button executors and on-screen executors, layouts with groups and presets as touch buttons, and X-keys / keyboard shortcuts for the most important hits. Consider an onPC wing or a MIDI controller (see Remote input in the reference) when you play live often.

When it matters, and when not¶

• Busking: this is the core of your show design. Build the layout once, reuse it as a template, and change only the content.
• Programmed sets / timeline shows: one main executor with the cue list, a few specials, done.

Related¶

• Busking intensity: balance, hits and the baseline
• A forgiving show: the home macro, safety
• Executors and pages: key functions and options
• Building and changing a show
• Organising groups and presets
• Reference: Assign a function, Executor options, Executor pages, Remote input

Sources¶

Mostly working practice. Manual facts used:

• Assign a function: key and fader functions
• Common executor options: Auto Start/Stop, Restart, Off On Overwritten
• Executor options: Auto Fix, speed master, protect options, playback filter
• Executors: pages only change what's displayed
• Apply worlds or filters to executors and sequences
• Fix keyword: fixing executors on a page
• Assign keyword: sequence to an executor
• Flash keyword: temporary full, zero timing; Kill, Swop
• Playing back cues: the master fader affects dimmer values
• Adding fixtures to the show: React to Master; Blackout keyword
• Chaser settings: Shoot-Off; Macro timing: wait times