ETC Express 48/96 Tracking

Zakiro

Member
So during a spring show, a co-crew chief and I were programming cues and somehow managed to turn on tracking and have yet to find a way to turn it off. I've glared at every page in the manuel and only seem to have found warnings that it can be consequentially to turn it on for shows (as I have now learned :( )We have a new show to program cues in for so anyone with a simple (or at least detailed) way to turn this off would be saving us a lot of headaches in the very near future.

Thanks!
 
Found some things in my Manual that may be of some help.

Deleting a part from a multipart cue
Deleting a part from a multipart cue is the reverse of creating a multipart
cue from a standard cue. When a part is deleted, the channels in the
deleted part do not leave the cue but transfer to part 8, where they can be
reassigned if desired. Channel levels are unaffected.
Follow these steps to delete part 1 from a multipart cue in Blind:
Keystrokes: Action:
1. Press [Blind]. Selects Blind display mode
2. Press [Cue] [4]. Selects the cue
3. Press [S7], More
Softkeys, until Part
appears as softkey [S1].
Finds the Part softkey
4. Press [S1], Part, [1]. Selects the part
5. Press [S6], Delete Part. Prompt reads:
To delete part, press ENTER –
Delete part & tracking, press TRACK
+ ENTER
To cancel, press CLEAR
6. Press [Enter].a
a. If the part to be deleted has tracking channels and you want
those tracking channels removed from subsequent cues,
press [Track] before [Enter].

------------------------

Blind/Cue > S7: Enable/Disable Tracking

------------------------

Other than those, whenever I've done something I didn't intend to do (more often than I'd care to admit) I've found that resetting the board (turning it off & on) sometimes eliminates the problem.
 
I took a quick look at XOL. It looks like you go to Blind, then (S3) Spreadsheet, and then (S7) Enable/Disable Tracking.

Found some things in my Manual that may be of some help.

Deleting a part from a multipart cue
Deleting a part from a multipart cue is the reverse of creating a multipart
cue from a standard cue. When a part is deleted, the channels in the
deleted part do not leave the cue but transfer to part 8, where they can be
reassigned if desired. Channel levels are unaffected.
Follow these steps to delete part 1 from a multipart cue in Blind:
Keystrokes: Action:
1. Press [Blind]. Selects Blind display mode
2. Press [Cue] [4]. Selects the cue
3. Press [S7], More
Softkeys, until Part
appears as softkey [S1].
Finds the Part softkey
4. Press [S1], Part, [1]. Selects the part
5. Press [S6], Delete Part. Prompt reads:
To delete part, press ENTER –
Delete part & tracking, press TRACK
+ ENTER
To cancel, press CLEAR
6. Press [Enter].a
a. If the part to be deleted has tracking channels and you want
those tracking channels removed from subsequent cues,
press [Track] before [Enter].

------------------------

Blind/Cue > S7: Enable/Disable Tracking

------------------------

Other than those, whenever I've done something I didn't intend to do (more often than I'd care to admit) I've found that resetting the board (turning it off & on) sometimes eliminates the problem.


You guys are fabulous. I'll give it a try real soon. thanks so much :)
 
Ummm, the Express(ion) series of consoles are inherently cue-only consoles. While you can record/update a cue with a tracking option, there was never (as far as I knew) a way to turn on tracking globally. Now, if for some reason your record and track buttons got swapped, that could be your issue.

In any case, I would have to guess that if tracking is screwing you up then you don't really understand how tracking works and how it is often advantageous. However that is probably a discussion for another time.
 
Now, if for some reason your record and track buttons got swapped, that could be your issue.

Well thats easy to check. Next time your at the console, is the record button on the bottom right near the number pad, or is it somewhere else?
 
Ummm, the Express(ion) series of consoles are inherently cue-only consoles. While you can record/update a cue with a tracking option, there was never (as far as I knew) a way to turn on tracking globally. Now, if for some reason your record and track buttons got swapped, that could be your issue.

In any case, I would have to guess that if tracking is screwing you up then you don't really understand how tracking works and how it is often advantageous. However that is probably a discussion for another time.

Does the Express have any sort of real tracking at all? In my brief read through the manual I assumed it "tracked" cues by simply recording all the previous cues' values into the current cue.

For example, let's say I have an effect cue that is running. Then I record the next cue (non-effect) with tracking. When I advance to the next cue on playback will the effect still be running? I've never tried this. Does anyone know what would happen?
 
or example, let's say I have an effect cue that is running. Then I record the next cue (non-effect) with tracking. When I advance to the next cue on playback will the effect still be running? I've never tried this. Does anyone know what would happen?

The effect will stop if you go from an effect cue to a standard cue.

The Express will save whatever level every light is at when the record button is pressed. If you are mid-fade and you record a cue, it will save with the lights mid-fade. If that makes sense.
 
Yep, Express can be pseudo-tracking. It's preset/cue-only, but in "Tracking" mode, I believe any edits you make later will be copy-paste "tracked" into subsequent cues until it encounters a different value, or something of the sort. I tried that once on a show, it made more problems than it solved since it's not real tracking. Maybe they put that in there to make it easier for Obsession or Light Palette programmers to use Expression when they needed to?
 
Express cannot be a tracking console. Period. It can do a tracking edit, which is handy when editing multiple cues. The tracking you are talking about is for the spreadsheet only. It is the exact same thing as a tracking edit in live or blind, it is just that in spreadsheet it is a toggle that you turn on or off. There is no tracking mode that it can be put into and if when you are creating cues you use the track button instead of record, if there are not any cues following it already, then it doesn't matter.

-Tim
 
Express cannot be a tracking console. Period. It can do a tracking edit, which is handy when editing multiple cues. The tracking you are talking about is for the spreadsheet only. It is the exact same thing as a tracking edit in live or blind, it is just that in spreadsheet it is a toggle that you turn on or off. There is no tracking mode that it can be put into and if when you are creating cues you use the track button instead of record, if there are not any cues following it already, then it doesn't matter.

-Tim
Came to say this.
 
One other thing to take a quick look at....

If you do not have both playback faders up at full, the console acts like it is tracking during cue playback.

David
 
One other thing to take a quick look at....

If you do not have both playback faders up at full, the console acts like it is tracking during cue playback.

David

Just to clarify, if either cue playback fader set (A/B or C/D) is at less then full vertical travel, you are in manual mode. You can press the GO button but nothing happens and you have to set the faders to zero to run the crossfade. I'm thus not clear on how that affects the tracking/preset function of the console, as the action of moving the faders merely replicates what happens in a standard cross-fade - the left fader completes the movement of the channels dropping in level or going out, with the right fader completing the movement of incoming levels going up in value.

Am I missing something ?.
 
alright...i get it, i know its a cue only, but tracking was enabled and i never worked in it before to know how to turn it off. i'll get a chance at it next rehearsal.

I get the feeling that 2+2 is not adding up to four right now. You say you understand that the console is a cue-only console, yet you maintain that tracking is enabled. This lead me to think that something else is going on here like:
A) you have a different console than we think that actually does support tracking
B) you don't really understand what cue tracking is and are mistaking something else that is going on for tracking

I suppose what none of us mentioned is that you could save your current show to floppy and run a deep clear of the console. It will return everything to factory settings and wipe out any user data. I would use this as a last resort because I think the solution to your problem is probably a lot simpler.
 
...as the action of moving the faders merely replicates what happens in a standard cross-fade - the left fader completes the movement of the channels dropping in level or going out, with the right fader completing the movement of incoming levels going up in value. ...
I'm pretty sure you have that backwards. From the manual:
The left slider (A and C) of each fader pair controls upfades.
The right slider (B and D) of each fader pair controls downfades.
 
Another option is that you (or the console) are accidentally pressing [Track] which is next to [Record] on the keypad. When you press [Track] in Stage or Blind, you will be prompted with the following red text:
To record cue & tracking, select number and press ENTER

This will allow you to record the cue and will track level changes until it hits a previously recorded value change.

To clarify David's statement, if the B or D fader is left in the bottom position at GO, it can appear that the levels are "tracking" because the downfade hasn't occured.
 

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