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Timing

The problem

A cue stores how the stage gets there as well as what it looks like. And real shows need more than one fade time per cue:

  • The wash should fade in over 3 seconds, but the spots should snap their gobo instantly, not scroll through every gobo on the wheel.
  • The lights going out should take longer than the lights coming in.
  • The bars should come up left to right, one after the other, as a wave.
  • A moving light fades in from black, and you can see it swing into position and scroll its colour while it brightens.
  • The DJ plays faster than you expected, and all the routine's fades should be quicker tonight, without reprogramming anything.

grandMA2's answer is several layers of timing, each more specific than the last, plus tools to change timing during playback without touching what's stored.

The idea: general first, specific wins

Each value change in a cue gets its time from the most specific layer that has one:

  1. Cue timing (lowest priority): Fade and Delay for everything in the cue, plus OutFade and OutDelay, which only apply to dimmer values going down. By default they follow Fade and Delay, but separating them lets lights fade out slower (or faster) than others fade in.
  2. Preset type timing: a Fade and Delay per preset type (Dimmer, Position, Color …) in the same cue. "Position moves in 5 seconds, everything else in 2." By default these say "Cue", meaning they follow the cue timing.
  3. Individual timing (highest priority): a fade and/or delay for a single attribute of a single fixture. You set it in the programmer by switching the encoders to the Fade or Delay layer (Time toggles between layers) and storing it like a value. Spread across a selection, this is how you build waves and fans in time.
Layers in one cue 3 · Individual Fixture 3, Dimmer: Fade 4 s 2 · Preset type Position: Fade 5 s 1 · Cue Fade 2 s (everything else) more specific wins What each value gets Dimmer Position Colour Fixture 1 Fixture 2 Fixture 3 2 s 5 s 2 s 2 s 5 s 2 s 4 s 5 s 2 s Each cell takes the frame of the layer it came from. Snap attributes (gobo wheel, prism) jump instead of fading.
Three layers in one cue. Each value takes the time of the most specific layer that has one.

On top of that, attributes that make no sense to fade (gobo wheels, prism in/out, mode channels) are defined as snap attributes in the fixture type. They jump instead of fading. Snap Percent says when during the cue they jump: at 0% (the start, by default), at 100% (the end), or anywhere in between.

Interpretation

The manual suggests considering part cues instead of lots of individual times. As a rule of thumb: individual times for "the same move, staggered" (a wave across the rig); part cues for "separate events within one cue" (the spots move, then the wash changes colour).

Move in black: hiding the preparation

A moving light that fades up while moving and changing colour looks messy. The classic fix is to move in black: change position and colour while the light is at zero, so it fades up already in place.

You can do that by hand (store position and colour in an earlier cue, as in the filter examples in Storing only part of a look). grandMA2 can also do it automatically. MIB is a per-cue setting: the console looks ahead and pre-positions fixtures that will fade up from zero in that cue, as soon as they're dark and not used in between. Early means as soon as possible, Late means one cue before, and a cue number means "from that cue onwards".

The manual warns about a side effect it calls "Back to the Future": with MIB the console outputs values from future cues. Change a cue in between and the pre-positioning moves, so a cue can suddenly look different from last time. Use MIB once the show is fairly settled, and keep it late rather than early.

Changing time during playback

None of these change what's stored:

Rate
Every executor has a rate (1:1 by default). It divides the stored times: rate 2 makes all fades twice as fast, rate 0.5 twice as slow. Individual times scale along. Several executors can share one of the 15 rate masters.
Speed
The tempo of chasers and effects, rather than the fade time of cues. Several executors and effects can share one of the 15 speed masters, one of them following the beat of the sound input. Learn on an executor taps a tempo.
Exec Time
A fader that, when switched on, replaces all stored cue times with one time (ignoring delays and individual times). It's useful for rehearsals ("run everything in 2 seconds") or rough busking. Executors can be set to ignore it.
Program Time
The same idea for the programmer: changes you make while programming fade in with this time instead of snapping. Handy to preview how a change will feel.
Manual crossfade
Either fader can also be used as a manual crossfade, and an executor's fader can be a Crossfade fader. Then the fader movement is the timing.
Fixture 3 from the cue above, played back three ways. Bar length = fade time. 0 s 1 s 2 s 3 s 4 s 5 s Stored in the cue what you programmed Dimmer 4 s Position 5 s Colour 2 s Rate 2 executor or rate master Dimmer 2 s Position 2.5 s Colour 1 s all times halved, individual ones too Exec Time 1 s fader switched on Dimmer 1 s Position 1 s Colour 1 s replaces every time; delays and individual times ignored Speed is a different control: it sets the tempo of chasers and effects, not cue fades.
Rate scales the stored times and keeps their proportions; Exec Time replaces them with one time. Neither changes what is stored.

When it matters, and when not

  • Every show: cue Fade and Delay. Separate OutFade as soon as you notice "the lights go out too abruptly".
  • Moving lights: preset type timing (slower position moves), snap attributes, and some form of move in black.
  • Programmed routines (an intro, a build-up where each fixture type comes in at its own moment): individual timing and part cues become everyday tools; MIB saves a lot of manual pre-positioning.
  • Busking and concerts: speed masters and rate are the main tools. Stored timing matters less than tempo. How to keep a set in time with the music (tap vs. BPM detection, musical speed factors, phase) is in Playing in time.

Sources