Up/Down/Wait Times on an ETC SmartFade

[Jay Ashworth]

This YouTube clip talks about the Up Down and Wait times on the Smartfade, but neither it nor the manual really explains what they're supposed to do, and they don't behave as I expect.

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It's not clear to me whether they are the Up and Down times *for the current cue*, IE the "in" and "out" times, or if, as the clip implies but does not actually say, they are the up times for the dimmers in this cue, and the down times for the dimmers in *the previous cue*, which might be more useful to those who know what they're doing, but is sort of counterintuitive to me...

Can anyone explain that to me a bit more?

In a related story: when I bump a scene into a stack step, is that a pointer? If the scene is edited, will *all* appearances in the stack take the new settings?

If so, what does Edit Mem->Stack do? Copy the scene to the step and then edit, or edit the scene for all appearances, as before?

 

[theatricalmatt]

The up time is the time needed for all channels that are increasing in value to change to their new level. Their current value might come from a previous cue, a memory on a fader, or a manually selected channel (among other possible sources). The down time is the same, but for all channels decreasing in value. Usually in programming for a theater piece, you think in terms of consecutive cues, but occasionally you might also need to run cues out of sequence.

If a memory is edited, it affects all cues that point to that memory. One of the handier functions of the SmartFade.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Ah. So *both* Up and Down are "In" timings.

No, wait: In the most common circumstance, Up will be the incoming timing for the current cue, and Down the outgoing timing from the previous one, then, right?

What's "Wait", then?

And if I read you right: Edit Mem-Stack *loads the scene that step points to* for editing. Handy, yes.

 

[theatricalmatt]

Wait time essentially is a pause between when you hit "Go" and when the cue executes. It's very useful when dealing with effects.

 

[CanYouHearMeNow]

This YouTube clip talks about the Up Down and Wait times on the Smartfade, but neither it nor the manual really explains what they're supposed to do, and they don't behave as I expect.

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It's not clear to me whether they are the Up and Down times *for the current cue*, IE the "in" and "out" times, or if, as the clip implies but does not actually say, they are the up times for the dimmers in this cue, and the down times for the dimmers in *the previous cue*, which might be more useful to those who know what they're doing, but is sort of counterintuitive to me...

Can anyone explain that to me a bit more?

In a related story: when I bump a scene into a stack step, is that a pointer? If the scene is edited, will *all* appearances in the stack take the new settings?

If so, what does Edit Mem->Stack do? Copy the scene to the step and then edit, or edit the scene for all appearances, as before?

I feel your pain Jay. I have had to program lights shows to music with that console multiple times and it was way more of a hassle than it should have been. Luckily we now have a HedgeHog that we can do it with in a fraction of the time to get much better results from. That being said, when you work with anything enough, it gets easier and easier.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

This is the sort of console - I forget the term ETC uses; HTP? - which doesn't lend itself to pile-on cues. I can live with it for 172 seat proscenium theater.

 

[CanYouHearMeNow]

This is the sort of console - I forget the term ETC uses; HTP? - which doesn't lend itself to pile-on cues. I can live with it for 172 seat proscenium theater.

It definitely works for simple theatrical lighting. But when you start getting too in depth, it becomes a headache.