strand 300 series

[technosam]

yo!
we have recently got a new lighting system in in school using a strand 300 series as the control desk. basically we dont have a lot of time on our hands to get this thing running to its full potential and the manual is pretty difficult to get the jist of things quickly with, so i was wondering if ppl could post some advice on how to best program effects and chases and stuff for bands etc playin in the 'talent show'. its also pretty important to know how to adjust the speed etc to be able to get them in time. so are ther any quick tips on how to program these, set speeds and possibly change speeds on the fly durin songs etc?

any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[eamon]

I agree the 300 manual is quite difficult to read through but here are some of the tips for programming. All these things read through to the 500 series

You can do most things about 3 different ways.

To record an FX in live mode:
1) enter your channels required

2) Type: FX 1.1 record. This will record the 1st step of the 1st effect
You have about 100 effects each with 99 steps

3) repeat the above to continue programming an effect.
i.e. Type FX1.2 record

4) Once you have recorded your FX, the best way to edit your times is in the FX preview menu. The button to access this menu is located on the top right of the desk. Using the soft keys that appear in the LCD screen you can access the properties of the effect and/or edit/re-record the effect. This will give you all the FX speed and direction and times for the FX

5) Hit the LIVE button.

6) Type FX 1, then hit FX GO.

7) your FX will now run.

8) If you wish to edit the FX, you may do so with the FX properties of the FX menu bank. For example if you wish to speed up the FX manually, Hit The FX Speed button and two options will appear in the soft keys(Chase/Build) and use the level wheel you can speed or slow down the FX.

9) unfortunately with the manual adjustments to your FX, you CAN NOT update the FX. You would have to edit the FX all over again.

10) A handy way is dump your FX onto one of your submasters.

11) Hold down SHIFT and HIT THE BUMP BUTTON OF THE SUB you wish to put your FX on. This will jump you to the SUB PREVIEW menu. A shorter way of hitting the SUB MENU BUTTON and scrolling to that FX

12) In SUB menu, Use the SHIFT BUTTON and TRACKBALL to acces the SUB PROPERTIES. There are a couple of columns in black. One of these is marked FX. AFTER programming your FX scroll to the column on the SUB you want and enter the number of the FX their. Now exit back yo live

13) Push the sub up and watch your FX run


To recap
Ways to program an FX

1) Program in LIVE

2) Program in the FX preview menu

To run an FX

1)Type FXnumber then Hit FX GO

2) Load into a SUB as above. IF you type FX 1 and hit then BUMP BUTTON of the SUB in question it will do the same as described above!

3) Record the FX into a macro. You will have to record another macro to stop or set a time on the FX. I.e. you wish to trigger an FX from a macro( say a flash of lighting) enter a time/loop/circle in the FX properties in FX PREVIEW MENU. You can get the FX to stop after say 10 seconds/circles etc

4) Trigger it from a cue. This can be quiet tricky but very handy if running a normal theatre show.

I hope this helps. I am sure if you do a search on the site you will find previous threads on the 300 series.

I hope I have made sense in the above


best of luck with it

eamon
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[technosam]

cheers mate! thats a great help - shall put it into practise asap!

sam