With your
Strand 300, you actually have more control
power at your finger tips than you really would with with the
Express(
ion) series from
ETC. One of the wonderful things about
Strand is that up until the newest generations of consoles, all of the consoles have run on the same
operating system. This means that you could take a show from a 300 to a 500 or vice-versa. You can also take a show from a 300 or 500 up to one of the new Palettes. Also, one of the the nice things about the
Strand OS is that if you ever need more than your 100 channels you can
call your local
Strand dealer and they can sell you a software password that will unlock more channels.
But here is more on running your
console. As it was mentioned before, pretty much everywhere you go as you progress in the
theatre world you will find that few people use the phyisical faders on their consoles for much more than submasters. Most cueing and
level setting is done via the keypad. You might find that you have a
leg up when you get to college (if you stay in
theatre) if you start to learn to key in your commands.
On to patching. One of my favorite things about
Strand is the ability to add and delete channels. When I start a new show I will completely
clear the patch. This is accomplished by going into patch and hitting the (CHAN)
softkey (this is the second from the right under the
LCD on the facepanel). Then you can select
channel numbers, in your case it sounds like 1-99 and then hit the (DEL CHAN) softekey followed by [*]. You will probably be asked if you are sure, in which case it [*] again. Now when you go back to live you should see no channels on the display. When you go back into patch you can patch any
dimmer (Output in Stand speak) to any
channel and only the channels that you use will show up in the LIVE display. Also, if you make a mistake patching, you don't need to assign the
dimmer to a
channel, you can unpatch a
dimmer by pressing 21 [@] [*] for example (to unpatch
dimmer 21).
Here is something on your LIVE vs.
PREVIEW debate. At the most basic, the names of each mode speak for themselves, when you are in LIVE, anything you do will show up on
stage. In
PREVIEW you can edit cues, but you won't see them on
stage. When you are in LIVE, any changes that you make to cues won't be recorded until you record or update a
cue. In
PREVIEW all changes are recorded as soon as you hit [*]. This is especially important to keep in mind if you keep your
console in
Tracking mode ( you will know if you are in
tracking if under the LIVE at the top of the
screen it says "
Tracking on") as if you want to only change the
current cue in
PREVIEW then you have to press the [Q-Only]
button before you press [*].
Another useful thing to note when writing cues is the differences between Record and Update. Record will either create a new
cue or record over an existing
cue. When you record over a
cue the commands for each
channel are stored. Update can only be used when working on existing cues, but what it does is only record new information to the
cue. So if you change the
level of a
channel and then hit Update the
console will record that change into the
cue, but won't touch the information on any other
channel. This again is something that only makes a big difference if you work in
Tracking mode.
Submasters, touched on a little in this thread, let me see if I can elaborate/clarify. A
submaster is like a
cue, but instead of recording it for playback on the GO
button, you assign it to a physical
fader so that it is readily accessible all the time. So, say you have a look that you use in your space every time that there is an
orchestra concert. You can record that to a sub and then all you have to do is bring up one
fader and you are set. This of course only works if you don't change your patch all the time. I always write a sub that has the
house lights so that I can bring them up quickly if we need them. As it was mentioned before you can record FX to subs for easy playback as well.
I could ramble on, but that may not be too helpful for you (i suppose it could be though). I work on
Strand consoles every day, and there are many other here on the boards that do as well. I (and the rest of us) would be happy to keep offering any help we can. And I know you said you weren't going to at the moment, but I wouldn't recommend a
switch to
ETC until you can get an
EOS. Why? Because your
Strand 300 is more similar to and Obsession than either the
Express or Expression
line. Stick a
mouse on it and you have,
IMO a comparable or superior
console to the Obsession (I used to be someplace that had both and I loved the 300).