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Sequences on a busking page

The problem

A build-up on a small rig: the bars sit dim blue on an atmosphere fader, and a four-step chaser on another executor runs a bar at a time over them. After one round all four bars are on and stay on. You switch the chaser off for the breakdown, and the bars go black instead of back to blue. A routine cue list behind the drop runs its next cue on its own while the DJ holds the breakdown longer than planned.

None of this is a bug. Cues, tracking and triggers work exactly as in any cue list (see Cues, sequences and tracking). But a busking page runs many short sequences side by side on their own executors, and you combine them live (see What goes on an executor). The cue-list question, "how far does a change travel down the list?", becomes "what does each executor claim, and what happens when it lets go?"

The idea: three kinds of busking sequence

Kind Example What tracking does
One-cue look colour look Ice, a gobo look, a static position nothing inside the sequence; what counts is what the cue stores
Variations Ice A / B / C stepped with Go, Wrap Around on a value from a later cue tracks round into the first after a wrap: cue zero or Release Firststep
Steps a build-up routine, one cue per phrase, ending in the drop a story in miniature: Cue Only, Release and loops with Loop BreakingGo apply as in any cue list

A chaser is a fourth kind: a sequence whose steps run at a speed instead of their cue timing (see Effects and chasers). It's still a sequence, so tracking applies to it as well.

For a one-cue look, the part of tracking that matters is the content. A colour look that stores only colour can only ever take colour from other executors. Keep each look to its job: store it through the colour presets and add a playback filter (see Executors that only do one thing).

Interpretation

The three kinds are this page's framing; the manual describes sequences without distinguishing how they're used.

Tracking on or off for a busking sequence

Tracking is a sequence option (Assign → Options → Tracking), shared by every executor that plays the sequence. On a busking page the two settings answer different needs:

  • Tracking on (the default): the sequence keeps holding everything its earlier cues set. Each Go plays only the next cue's content, so a layer you pressed on top keeps what it took (see Go plays the content).
  • Tracking off: every attribute a cue doesn't store is released. The sequence only claims what the current cue stores; everything else goes back to the other executors, or to its default if nothing else holds it.

A dimmer's default is 0. In a dark room, tracking off therefore means "whatever this step doesn't mention goes dark", which is often exactly what a step sequence should do. The classic case is a chaser:

Bar 1 Bar 2 Bar 3 Bar 4 Tracking on unstored bars track on S1 S2 S3 S4 S1 wrap 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Tracking off unstored bars are released S1 S2 S3 S4 S1 wrap 100 rel. rel. rel. 100 100 rel. rel. rel. 100 rel. rel. 100 rel. After one round all four bars are on, and the wrap doesn't switch them off One bar at a time, the rest dark unless another executor holds them stored in this step tracked from earlier no value, or released (rel.)
A four-step chaser where each step stores only its own bar. With tracking on, every bar keeps its 100 until something else changes it, so after one round all bars are on. With tracking off, the bars a step doesn't store are released and fall back to dark.

Practice

For chasers and step sequences on a dark rig, tracking off is the simpler model: each step is the complete look of that sequence, and darkness is what's left. Tracking on with an explicit 0 in every step gives the same picture, but every step has to mention every fixture, and adding a fixture means editing every step. Keep tracking on for sequences whose cues build on each other, such as a build-up that adds a layer per cue.

To verify in onPC: check 25

When executors overlap: tracked, released, switched off

Two busking executors touch the same bars. Atmo holds them dim blue; Build, started later, sets them white. LTP gives the bars to Build. What the bars do next depends on how Build lets go:

What happens to Build The bars
Go to a cue that doesn't store the bars, tracking on stay white: the tracked values still claim them
Go to a cue that doesn't store the bars, tracking off released: Atmo's blue comes back
Go to a cue that stores Release for the bars released the same way, while the rest of the sequence keeps tracking
executor switched off released: Atmo's blue comes back, if Atmo is still on
switched off, Atmo has Off On Overwritten Atmo turned itself off when Build took all its attributes: the bars go dark

A stored Release is the precise tool for routines: the drop cue can release the bars' colour, handing colour back to the colour-look buttons, while the routine keeps the dimmers.

Practice

Off On Overwritten decides whether executors replace each other or stack. Use it where the newest should replace the old one for good: colour looks, where the old look mustn't return when you switch the new one off. Leave it off for a base layer that should come back when something on top lets go, such as an atmosphere fader under the build-up and hit layers. Flash buttons don't need it; they let go on key release anyway.

Cue triggers on a busking page

Every cue has a trigger (column Trig in the sequence executor sheet):

Trigger Fires On a busking page
Go on a Go the default, and right for most busking cues: you decide on the beat
Time a set time after the previous cue was triggered counts seconds, not beats, so it drifts against the music
Follow when the previous cue has finished all fades and delays, plus an optional wait chains two moments to one Go: "snap to white, then fall back to blue"
Sound, BPM on a sound peak in one frequency band / on the detected beats the music fires the cue (see Let the music fire cues)
Timecode at a timecode time; such a cue always asserts short fixed routines (see Timecode in a DJ set and Timecode shows)

The executor option Trigger Is Go ignores automatic triggers "like follow and time" without deleting them; the Trig column turns red and the cues only run on Go. That suits a routine that normally runs on its own when the DJ holds a breakdown longer than planned: switch it on and step through by hand.

To verify in onPC: check 25

When you need it, and when not

  • Only one-cue looks (colour looks, positions): tracking doesn't matter. Keep each look to its job, and decide per layer whether Off On Overwritten replaces or stacks.
  • Chasers and step sequences: decide tracking on or off before you store the steps; on a dark rig, off is usually the simpler model.
  • Layers that share fixtures (an atmosphere fader under build-up and hit layers): the overlap table decides what you see when a layer lets go.
  • Routines that run on their own (Follow, Time, Sound, BPM): keep Trigger Is Go in mind for the moment the music doesn't do what you expected.

Sources

  • What is tracking: Release hands the attribute to other sequences; tracking off releases instead of tracking, a sequence option shared by its executors
  • Common executor options: Off On Overwritten, with the two-fader example with and without it
  • Playing back cues: trigger: Go, Time, Follow, Sound, BPM, Timecode; timecode-triggered cues assert
  • Executor options: Trigger Is Go
  • Chasers: a chaser is a sequence whose steps are cues, run at its speed