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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.

A narrow, tiled club room full of red haze: one small row of lights at the far end, the crowd only visible as silhouettes

Atmosphere in a dark room: one row of lights at the far end, haze, the crowd in silhouette. Levels this low leave all the headroom for the hits. Photo: technocity.berlin.

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%. A group master always belongs to a group, and it scales the output of that group's 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.

Practice

The approach on this page is working practice built from grandMA2's documented master types. It isn't described in the manual as a recipe. The open details are marked To verify on the worked example and the Flash/Swop/Kill page.

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.

Where such a limit can sit depends on how grandMA2 puts intensity controls on faders.

Executors, faders and masters

  • An executor is a slot on an executor page that holds one object: a sequence, a group, an effect, a macro or a special master. Executors exist in the software; the physical faders and buttons are a window onto one page of them, and on onPC the same executors are on screen (see Executors and pages). There are two kinds: a fader executor has a fader and three buttons, a button executor only a button (its fader exists only on screen). What the fader does depends on what the executor holds: with a sequence it's the executor master, with a group the group master, with a special master that master. Every master needs a fader executor: special masters can only be assigned to fader executors (or the 100 mm master faders of a console).
  • A sequence executor is an executor that holds a sequence, on a fader executor or a button executor: "sequence" says what it holds, "fader" or "button" what it has. On this page the atmosphere executors are fader executors with sequences, the hits are button executors with sequences.
  • The executor master is an executor's own fader with the fader function Master. It scales the dimmer values of that one executor's content.
  • A playback master is one of the special masters, separate from any executor's own fader. You put it on a fader executor of its own (Assign menu → Special Masters, or the SpecialMaster keyword), and each sequence executor that should follow it gets it in its Playback Master option. That one fader then scales all of them; the Masters window shows all 50 on screen too.
  • A group master is a group assigned to a fader executor.
  • The grand master is a special master too, and scales the whole output.
Pools Executors on page 1 (software) Hardware Sequence 5 "Bars atmo" Sequence 6 "Washes atmo" Sequence 9 "Bars hit" Group 3 "Bars" Special master Playback master 1 assign 1.1 Bars atmo · fader executor fader = executor master · follows ATMO 1.2 Washes atmo · fader executor fader = executor master · follows ATMO 1.3 Bars hit · button executor Flash key, no fader · on no playback master 1.4 Bars · fader executor fader = group master (limits the hit too) 1.5 ATMO · fader executor fader = playback master 1 · scales 1.1 + 1.2
Objects from the pools are assigned to executors on a page; what an executor holds decides what its fader does. The ATMO executor holds playback master 1, and the two atmosphere executors follow it; the hit is a button executor on no playback master. The hardware faders and buttons show one page of these executors (on onPC, the screen does).

Where each master acts

Four of these faders scale intensity, and they act at different points on the way to the output. The executor master and the playback master scale an executor's content before the console merges all running executors by priority. The group master and the grand master scale the merged result per fixture, after the merge. That point decides whether a master also reaches the hits:

Scaler Scales Hits limited too?
Executor master only that executor's content no, if hits are on other executors
Playback master only the sequence executors assigned to it no, if hit executors aren't assigned
Group master the output of that group's fixtures, from every source yes
Grand master everything yes
Executors bypasses ATMO Washes atmo own master 100% LED bars atmo own master 40% Strobe hits Flash · HTP · at full ATMO playback master balance here: atmosphere only Priority merge LTP · HTP Group masters per fixture group limits hits too Grand master → DMX
Executor masters and playback masters act before the merge, on the executors that use them. Group masters and the grand master act after it, on everything, including your hits.

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

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 set by eye.

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.

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:

Hit Contains Looks like
Brighter dimmer only, at 100% the current colour look, suddenly at full
White / strobe dimmer 100%, colour white, shutter strobe if wanted a flash that breaks out of the look

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.

Practice

Leave headroom. A hit can only add what the atmosphere leaves free. If the bars already run at full in the atmosphere, Bars hit only changes the colour. Keep the types you hit with clearly below full during the flow (the bars at 40% from the example), and lean on contrast for the drop: white instead of colour, strobe, Swop, or a moment of darkness just before (see Building a drop). The most headroom comes from the fixtures that are off: in a dark room most of the rig sits dark during the groove, so the hit has the whole range to work with (see Busking a rave).

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 move away from it again and again: 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 and reset four fader positions by hand.

How easy that is depends on where the balance lives:

Option Baseline is Back to it with Catch
Ride only a playback master ATMO (or per-type masters) at its home, e.g. 80% ATMO back to its home per-type faders stay untouched
Macro or cue CMD that sets faders stored fader positions, e.g. Fader 1.1 At 40 one button physical faders without motors no longer match
Baseline executor + override the baseline look running untouched releasing the override every override needs its own executor
Balance in presets, faders at full every atmosphere fader at the top pushing the faders up you can only ride down; every fine-tuning means updating a preset

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.

Don't make full the home position of ATMO. At 100% it can only take the atmosphere down, and a build-up has nowhere to go. With ATMO at about 80% during the groove, pushing it to full lifts the whole atmosphere by a quarter: a push you can feel, still well below the hits, which aren't on ATMO and play at full anyway. Back to baseline = ATMO back to 80%.

With one playback master per fixture type you get per-type riding with the same rule, each master with its own home below full.

An ATMO master is worth having whichever of the other options holds the balance: it's the one fader that takes the whole atmosphere down for a breakdown and up through a build-up.

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 (ATMO back to its home at 80%). 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 option keeps a baseline below full on the faders themselves, so it avoids the costs of keeping the balance in presets:

  • Each type keeps its own fader and can go up from the baseline as well as down.
  • Fine-tuning happens on the fader, by eye; only the macro line changes (Fader 1.2 At 45 instead of At 40).
  • Several macros work like presets for the balance: Baseline groove, Baseline breakdown, each a set of fader positions.

Writing those lines by hand after every tuning is the tedious part. A macro that reads the current fader positions and writes them into the Baseline macro would turn "store the balance" into one press too. The command line has no keyword that reads a fader position into a macro line, so this would need a Lua plugin; the manual describes how to run plugins but not the functions a plugin can use.

To verify in onPC: check 39

The macro 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 (the faders of the MA onPC command wing and fader wing, a MIDI controller) stay where your hand left them. The executor is now at 40% while the physical fader says 80%. The fader has to pick up the value: it does nothing until you move it through 40%, and from there it takes over. So a stray touch can't make the level jump; you pull the fader down until it meets the current value. It's the same after a page change, when the fader suddenly stands for an executor at a different level.

For a small rig on onPC wings that's acceptable: the screen shows the real value, and the pick-up keeps the macro's reset from being undone by accident.

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

This approach never moves the baseline at all. The balanced atmosphere runs on its executors and nobody touches their faders. Every manual change comes from an override executor above it, with higher priority, and releasing that executor brings the baseline back. 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 could do the same (select the bars, roll the dimmer down, Clear), but it isn't a busking tool: it's slow for riding to the music, and leftover values in it get stored into the next look by accident. Keep the overrides on executors. The cost is space: every override needs its own executor, so this suits a few prepared moves (Bars low, Washes up) better than free riding of every type.

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 end stop of every fader.

It has two costs. 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). And the balance can't be fine-tuned with the faders: moving the bars from 40% to 45% means editing and updating Bars base, which is slow at the desk and breaks the "all faders up" rule if you do it on the fader instead.

Practice

For a small busking rig, combine the playback master with the macro: the atmosphere faders hold the balance below full, the ATMO master rides the whole atmosphere from a home at about 80% (headroom for a push), and a Baseline button (or the CMD of a "drop over" cue) puts every fader back after the drop. Fine-tuning stays on the faders, and each type can still go up for a track that needs it. Add override executors for a few prepared moves if the page has room. On faders without motors (a MIDI controller, the onPC fader wing), the macro leaves the physical faders behind; see the list above.

To verify in onPC: check 19

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: an ATMO playback master in every setup, plus a baseline macro or cue CMD that resets the faders; on faders without motors, the physical fader picks up the value once you move it through it.

Sources