Controlling Attributes

MagicQ loads macros for the head from the personality file. Typical macros are "Lamp On", "Lamp Off" and "Reset" - however they are very head dependent.

The "Lamp On", "Lamp Off" and "Reset" macros can be run at any time by using the following short-cuts:

SHIFT + LOCATE Lamp on selected heads

CTRL + LOCATE Reset selected heads

CTRL + SHIFT + LOCATE Lamp off selected heads

Other head macros can be accessed in the Macro Window - press the HEAD MACRO soft button. A list of the available macros is displayed. Select the macro you wish to run. Progress of the macro is shown in the Input Display.

It is also possible to lamp on or off all heads from the MACRO window.

The first action you are likely to want to do is to locate the heads – i.e. to put them into a starting position. Select the required heads and then press the LOCATE button.

Pressing LOCATE, locates all the selected heads. LOCATE places all the attributes of the selected head(s) into the Programmer at their Locate values.

Every Head in the MagicQ library has a set of Locate values and a set of Default values. The DMX values for Locate are part of a heads profile. The Locate Values and Default Values are often the same however there may be some slight differences in the two. These values are set by each manufacturer and outlined in the DMX chart provided by that manufacturer. A good example of this is often the Dimmer channel. The Locate value may bring the dimmer into the programmer at full intensity or DMX value of 255 while the Default value will tell the fixture to default to no intensity or a DMX value of 0

When using Locate typically the shutter is opened, the dimmer is set to 100% (DMX value of 255) and pan and tilt are set to the center position, (DMX value of 128) You can Locate attributes individually by holding down one of the Pos, Col, Beam, or Intensity buttons and pressing Locate. Only attributes of that type are Located and placed into the programmer.

Locate values are ‘active’ in the sense that the operator has to activate or hit the Locate button to bring the Locate values in to the programmer. Default values are ‘passive’ in the sense these values tell the fixture what DMX values to default back to when no information is in the programmer.

Intelligent heads have several different attributes typically including pan and tilt, colour, gobo and iris. When MagicQ patches an intelligent head it maps the head parameters to standard attributes to enable easy access of the features of the head.

Attributes are categorised into four types – Intensity, Position, Colour and Beam. On MagicQ there is a window for each of these attribute types. Select the required heads, then open the required window.

The window enables the control of all the attributes of that attribute type using the eight rotary encoders. In the Beam Window there are more than eight attributes to be controlled – these are accessed using multiple pages of encoders – by pressing the PAGE 1, PAGE 2, PAGE 3, PAGE 4 or PAGE 5 soft buttons or pressing the BEAM button again.

For indexed attributes such as colour wheels and gobo wheels, the button associated with each encoder can be used to bump the attribute value to the next range. Pressing SHIFT and the button bumps back to the previous range.

In addition the window enables selection of palette values for the attribute type using the touch screen. When heads are recorded the system automatically generates palettes for each attribute type. You can record new palette entries, or modify existing ones as you see fit.

In the Colour Window there is a COL MIX soft button which gives access to libraries of pre-programmed colours. Pressing the COL MIX soft button toggles between the normal palette view and the colour mixing view. In the colour mixing view you can select a colour using the touch screen. The COL TYPE soft button enables the user to choose between the default colour library, the Lee colour library or the Rosco colour library.

To modify a 16bit parameter in high (i.e. 16 bit resolution), hold SHIFT and turn the appropriate encoder.

Layout 1 opens the Group, Position, Colour and Beam windows together.

There are 13 colour attributes. The core colour mixing attributes are Cyan (Red), Magenta (Green), Yellow (Red), Amber, White and UVLime.

The colour wheels are Col1 and Col2. In addition there is CTC, CTO, Col5, Col6, and Col Speed.

The Colour Window now supports two pages of colour attributes. Page 1 is for the core colour mixing - Red, Green, Blue, Amber, White, UV Lime and the main 2 colour wheels Col1 and Col2. CTC and CTO default to encoders A and B on Colour Page 2.

The Col Mix option in the personalities (Head Editor, View General, Options tab) specifies which attributes are being used for colour mixing.

For heads with HSI or HSV models, Hue is always on the Cyan/Red attribute and Saturation is on the Magenta/Green attribute. The Col Mix option is set to HSI to enable MagicQ to recognise these heads.

Colour temperature can be set onto CTC, CTO, Col1 and Col2 colour attributes in the Colour Window, and the current colour temperature will be show shown based on the range name info in the Head personality. For example, typing SET 3500 and pressing the soft button for CTC will attempt to set the CTC attribute to be 3500K. Turning the encoder will show the colour temperature as per the range names, interpolating between the different ranges.

Flip modifies the pan and tilt parameters of a moving head so that the beam is positioned in the same place but from the other end of its movement ranges. Select the heads and then press the FLIP soft button in the Position Window.

Use the MIRROR soft button in the Position Window to only invert the Pan attribute and not the tilt attribute. On older software versions press SHIFT + FLIP.

Stadium consoles include a dedicated MIRROR button. On Compact consoles press ALT + FAN.

You can set attribute values directly by pressing SET, entering the value on the keypad and then pressing the soft button for attribute in the Intensity, Position, Colour and Beam windows.

To reverse the rotation direction of gobos in the selected heads, hold the MIR button and press the soft button for the rotate attribute (e.g. soft button E and F in beam Page 1).

On MagicQ PC or on systems without a MIR button, press SET and type "-" before pressing the soft button.

Each of the heads will be reversed individually - so if heads have a mixture of clockwise and counter clock wise rotation, then each head will be reversed so that you then have a mixture of counter clockwise and clockwise.

Snap colour sets all selected Heads to the same colour values as the first selected Head. Snap Colour is available via ALT + ALL.

Default colour sets all selected Heads to the default colour of those Heads. If the colour is already the default colour then sets them to red. Default Colour is available via ALT + LOCATE.

Highlight mode is used in conjunction with Single mode and Odd/Even mode. There are four possible modes of operation depending on the setting in the Setup Window of the Highlight Mode - "Normal", "Advanced (highlights/lowlight)", "Advanced Highlight only" and "Advanced, no reset".

In "Normal" mode, the intensities of the selected heads are reduced except for the one (or ones in Odd/Even mode) that are being controlled. Highlighting of the controlled head(s) makes programming of positions much easier.

In "Advanced (highlight/lowlight)" mode, the selected heads are highlighted using the highlight values from the personality. If heads from the current selection are sub selected (e.g. through Single or Odd/Even) then the sub selected heads are highlighted and the remaining heads in the selection are lowlighted.

"Advanced Highlight Only" is the same as above, but no lowlighting occurs. If heads from the current selection are sub selected (e.g. through Single or Odd/Even) then only the sub selected heads are highlighted - all other heads remain at their playback state.

"Advanced no reset" is the same as "Advanced (highlight/lowlight)" but is not cleared when you press CLEAR. Press Highlight again to reset it.

When in Highlight mode the LED on the HIGHLIGHT button is lit - pressing the HIGHLIGHT button again or the ALL button returns the head control area back to the default mode.

A lowlight function is accessed by pressing SHIFT and HIGHLIGHT. When active the selected head is lowlighted to the value in the personality. This allows each head in the current selection to be temporarily lowlighted to try to find a particular head – without making a massive change to the current lighting state.

Highlight mode must be set to Advanced highlight/lowlight.

The FAN button enables a different mode of operation of the encoders whereby instead of encoder changes being applied to each selected head in a linear fashion, changes are applied in a fan. Positive changes fan the heads apart whilst negative changes fan the heads together. Fan mode cannot be used when Single mode is are active since fanning only makes sense when more than one head is under control.

Pressing and holding the FAN button enters FAN mode temporarily. Releasing the FAN button returns to the normal mode.

When you press and hold FAN you get a toolbar on the screen that gives you direct access to fanning options. On MagicQ PC you can press SHIFT + FAN to bring up the FAN toolbar.

There are 3 types of FAN

Asymmetric (default, as in previous s/w) – fans from centre asymmetric

Symmetric – fans from the centre symmetric

End – fans from the end

It is possible to use "Parts" for fanning parts so that the fan is replicated across the selected heads. For 2’s, 3’s select the 2 Parts or 3 parts. For higher number of parts, use the N parts option and entering a number on the keypad. In FAN mode the current FAN type and parts is shown in the status display window (Fan-A, Fan-S, Fan-E).

It is possible to use "Segments" for fanning segments – adjacent heads do the same fanning.

It is possible to use "Groups" for fanning. When fanning by groups, the fan is performed on each group in turn as if the group contained the only selected heads. This enables a fan to be simultaneously applied to groups of different sizes.

Fanning by segments overrides fanning by parts. Fanning by groups overrides fanning by parts or segments.

The following short-cuts also work:

Hold FAN + press LOCATE. Returns to default FAN type – asymmetric.

Hold FAN + press NEXT HEAD. Chooses next FAN type.

Hold FAN + press PREV HEAD. Chooses previous FAN type.