porkchop
Well-Known Member
I must agree that a little more information from the OP would have been nice. If the question is do I like a dimmer 1 > channel 1 ; dimmer 2 > channel 2 patch that is almost always a no. The only way I would like that is if I designed and numbered the space's dimmers to fit my rep plot so that I could use such a patch and have the lights grouped in a way that makes sense when programming. That is a waste of time to me and I would never do it.
If you are asking if I would program one dimmer per channel then that is an interesting question that depends highly on equipment used and the plot I'm using. If I have a plot with more fixtures than dimmers, then I will have to do some physical twofering and then I would likely have only one dimmer per channel. If I have some extra dimmers and there are lights that will only be used together I see no problem in saving some cable, plugging the lights into the easiest dimmers, and just putting both dimmers into one channel (off the top of my head par can down lights tend to be the most common use of that technique).
There have been a few people that have mentioned submasters and groups for reasons not to use more than one dimmer per channel. That ends up being totally a question of how your board handles such things and how good you are with your board. I've worked on a board that had 10 pages of 6 numbered subs so all I had to reference what a sub did was my note pad, my memory, and the try it and see what it does method. This made it easier, because of a patch that made sense to me (1 - 3 front warm, 5 - 8 front cool, etc...), to just turn on the lights I want with the necessary channels than to program and later seek out the sub to do it. On the other hand more modern boards allow you to name groups and in many cases will keep them displayed on a screen for you to access. In this case it's usually significantly easier so have one light to one dimmer (for fine tuning, lamp check, and such) and then just use the named groups when you're designing. The wild card here being the user, any combination of, organizational skills, memory, training, etc.... will cause you to lean one way over the other.
If you are asking if I would program one dimmer per channel then that is an interesting question that depends highly on equipment used and the plot I'm using. If I have a plot with more fixtures than dimmers, then I will have to do some physical twofering and then I would likely have only one dimmer per channel. If I have some extra dimmers and there are lights that will only be used together I see no problem in saving some cable, plugging the lights into the easiest dimmers, and just putting both dimmers into one channel (off the top of my head par can down lights tend to be the most common use of that technique).
There have been a few people that have mentioned submasters and groups for reasons not to use more than one dimmer per channel. That ends up being totally a question of how your board handles such things and how good you are with your board. I've worked on a board that had 10 pages of 6 numbered subs so all I had to reference what a sub did was my note pad, my memory, and the try it and see what it does method. This made it easier, because of a patch that made sense to me (1 - 3 front warm, 5 - 8 front cool, etc...), to just turn on the lights I want with the necessary channels than to program and later seek out the sub to do it. On the other hand more modern boards allow you to name groups and in many cases will keep them displayed on a screen for you to access. In this case it's usually significantly easier so have one light to one dimmer (for fine tuning, lamp check, and such) and then just use the named groups when you're designing. The wild card here being the user, any combination of, organizational skills, memory, training, etc.... will cause you to lean one way over the other.