Hits: Flash, Swop or Kill¶
The problem¶
Flash adds: the button's light comes on top of whatever is running. Often that's what you want. But some moments need the opposite. On the last beat before the drop, or on a vocal line in the breakdown, you want only one beam in the haze and the rest of the room gone, and a moment later the groove back exactly as it was. By hand that's pulling three or four faders to zero on the beat and pushing them back to their old positions a bar later, which nobody manages.
The idea: this and nothing else¶
Swop is "this and nothing else, while I hold it". The manual describes it as overriding the master of the pressed executor to full and setting all other executors' masters to zero. On release the masters return to their fader positions and the swopped executor turns off. Because the other executors keep running at master zero, their chases and effects don't stop: they come back in step, as if you had never touched them. It's the darkness principle as a button: contrast by taking light away instead of adding it.
Three details follow from "masters to zero":
- Only intensity goes. An executor master scales dimmer values. The other executors' colours and positions stay active, so the movers stay where the atmosphere put them and come back in the same place.
- Shared fixtures still work. If the swopped executor contains the bars too, the bars stay lit by its dimmer values while Bars atmo is at zero.
- Protect what must stay. Haze, a booth light, anything safety-related gets Swop Protect (Assign → Options → Protect).
The three key functions compared¶
How the three key functions compare:
| While pressed | After release | Use it for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flash | the button at full, on top of everything | back as before | hits on the beat |
| Swop | only the button, other executors' masters at 0 | back as before, in step | a moment of only this: before the drop, a stutter, a spotlight |
| Kill | Go on the button, every other executor off | stays that way | changing to a new look for good (a drop look) |
Kill isn't momentary: it's a Go that also sends Off to every executor without Kill Protect. The killed executors restart from their Restart cue when you turn them on again. Solo, despite the similar effect, is a programmer function: it darkens every fixture that isn't selected, so it's for finding fixtures while programming, not a busking button.
Practice
Swop moments that work in a dark room:
- The last beat (or bar) before the drop: Swop a single beam or one bar, release onto the drop hit. The near-black moment makes the drop bigger than any extra light would.
- A stutter: tap Swop on a beam in rhythm during a breakdown, and the room alternates between the groove and the beam alone.
- A spotlight: Swop a narrow light on the DJ booth for a moment.
Don't use Swop as the normal beat hit: the groove disappears with every press. And the darker your groove already is, the less a Swop changes, so it pays off most when several elements are running.
To verify in onPC: check 21
When you need it, and when not¶
- Hits on the beat: Flash is enough (see Busking intensity).
- Contrast by taking light away (before the drop, a stutter, a spotlight): Swop, with Swop Protect on haze and anything safety-related.
- A new look for good: Kill on a drop-look button, with Kill Protect on what must keep running.
Related¶
- Busking intensity: balance, hits and the baseline: the hit layer these buttons sit on
- Executors and pages: key functions, protect options
- Playing in time: building a drop
- Busking a rave: darkness as the canvas
Sources¶
- Assign a function: Flash, Swop, Kill key functions ("all other fixtures will fade out the dimmer")
- Swop keyword: other masters to zero, no timing, executor off after release; Kill keyword: Go plus Off for all other executors; Solo keyword: unselected fixtures to zero
- Executor options: Swop Protect, Kill Protect, Restart