Selecting Heads

Select the heads you want in a group in the VIEW HEADS view of the Group Window.

Change to the VIEW GROUPS view.

Press RECORD and then select the group you wish to record either by pressing the touch screen or by using the cursor keys and then pressing ENTER.

When recording a group, if you key in a name before pressing the touch screen (or pressing ENTER) then the group will be named at the same time as it is recorded.

You can name a group at any time by keying in the name, pressing SET, and pressing the touch screen.

If you do not have a keyboard then press SET and select the group to name by pressing the touch screen (or using cursor keys and ENTER). A keyboard window will be displayed for you to enter the name on screen.

Set a Icon for a Group by pressing SHIFT and SET and then selecting the Group item to set an icon to. The File Manager will be opened with a list of icons.

It is possible to show Col Tags associated with each Group. In Setup, View Settings, Windows set the Col Tag to Head Type - this will automatically show a different colour tag for each type of head. Alternatively set the Col to Patch. This will then use the Col Tag assigned in the Patch to the first head in the Group.

Every Group has a Group Grid associated with it which is automatically generated when the Group is recorded. Group Grids are used for performing fades and FX in 2D instead of linear fades to match the spatial positioning of the Heads on the real lighting rig.

In the Group Window press VIEW GRID to view the Grid for the Group at the cursor.

MagicQ sets the size of the Group Grid sufficient to fit all the Heads from the Group and automatically inserts into the Group Grid using the order of the Heads in the Group.

The Heads in the Group Grid can be easily moved around to match the real lighting rig.

Group Grids can be set to multi element to include all the elements from the Heads.

Group Grids for Heads with multiple Functions only include the elements used by the particular Group. For example, considering a strobe fixture with Beam and Plate functions, the Group Grid for the Group with just the Beam Function would only have the Beam elements in it. This enables Pixel Map FX to be run nicely over just the BEAM pixels without any gaps.

When inserting into User Grids if elements are selected in the Programmer then only those elements of the Heads will be inserted into the User Grid. This enables creation of User Grids using only particular functions of Heads.

When a Group is removed, the associated Group Grid is also removed.

When the Select Heads and Palettes from keypad option in Setup, View Settings, Keypad & Encoders is set, Groups can be selected directly from the keypad.

To select heads 1 to 4 key in

1 THRU 4 ENTER

To select heads 1 to 4 and heads 8 to 11 key in

1 THRU 4 + 8 THRU 11 ENTER

To select heads 1 through 12 but not head 7 key in

1 THRU 12 - 7 ENTER

To select all heads of a certain type without specifying the entire range use

1 THRU ENTER

This selects all heads of the same type as head 1 starting at head no 1 in ascending head order until it reaches a head that is not of the same type.

At any time you can select all of the heads of a particular type (regardless of head no) by selecting one of the heads and then using ALT ALL

1 ENTER

ALT ALL

Note that on MagicQ PC you can use > to indicate THRU.

0 ENTER deselects all heads.

Pressing NEXT HEAD, PREV HEAD or SINGLE enters Single mode whereby only one head from the selected heads is sub selected for operation on at a time.

When Single mode is first entered control is given to the first head within the selection – i.e. the first head within the group or the first head the user selected after no heads were selected.

Single mode is indicated by a LED lit on the SINGLE button.

In Single mode changes made by the encoders or through selecting Palettes only affect the one sub selected head. The head is indicated by a * by the head number.

Once in Single mode, the NEXT HEAD and PREV HEAD buttons are used to transfer control between the selected heads. Pressing the ALL button returns the head control area to the default mode whereby all selected heads are controlled.

In Single mode, Locate only affects the sub selected head.

Pair mode is similar to Single mode except that instead of only a single head being sub selected, a symmetrical pair within the selected heads is sub selected.

Pair mode is indicated by a LED flashing on the SINGLE button.

Pressing NEXT HEAD or PREV HEAD selects the next pair for sub selection. Pressing the ALL button returns the head control area to the default mode whereby all selected heads are controlled.

The MQ500 includes a dedicated PAIR button. On Compact consoles (MQ40/60/70) press ALT + SINGLE to get Pair. On all systems SHIFT + SINGLE will also select PAIR.

Odd/Even mode is similar to Single mode except that instead of only a single head, half of the heads are sub selected. Odd/Even mode is indicated by a LED lit on the ODD/EVEN button.

Pressing ODD/EVEN selects the odd heads. Pressing NEXT HEAD or PREV HEAD toggles between the odd and even heads. Pressing the ALL button returns the to the default mode whereby all selected heads are controlled.

Holding the ODD/EVEN button brings up the Odd/Even toolbar for quick selection of odd/even or 3s, 4s, 5s. On MagicQ PC/Mac pressing SHIFT and ODD/EVEN opens the toolbar and keeps it open.

Press SHIFT + ODD/EVEN to increase the mode to 3s or more.

Segments is similar to Odd/Even except that the sub selection is a segment of heads - for example if you have selected 10 heads and then select Seg 3’s will sub select the first three heads in the selection. Pressing Next Head will select the next three, then pressing NEXT HEAD again will get the next three, and then pressing NEXT HEAD again will get the tenth head. Pressing NEXT HEAD again goes back to the start with the first three. PREV HEAD works in a similar way but in the opposite direction.

Segments is selected by holding ODD/EVEN to show the ODD/EVEN toolbar and then selecting SEGMENTS.

The ALL button is used to return the head control area to the default mode whereby all heads in the current selection are controlled.

Pressing ALL when there are no heads selected causes the selected heads that were active when CLEAR was last pressed, to be reselected.

Pressing SHIFT and ALL selects all the heads of the type last selected.

Pressing CTRL + ALL, or FAN + ALL selects all the heads active in the programmer.

Pressing Next Head and Prev Head reselects all heads in the current selection (like pressing ALL).

Holding ALL opens the selection order dialog box.

It is also possible to sub select groups. When making a head selection you can choose multiple groups using SHIFT and pressing group items or using the keypad.

To sub select groups, Hold Odd/Even and then select Groups. MagicQ will now sub select heads from the first group. Pressing Next Head moves the sub selection to the next group of heads. Pressing Prev Head moves the sub selection to the previous group of heads.

It is possible to sub select heads from the current selection, sub selecting only the heads using a particular palette and that have intensity greater than 0%.

Hold NEXT HEAD and then select a palette in the Position, Colour, or Beam windows.

The order of the overall selection can be changed using the C Soft Button in the Group Window – the options are "Normal", "Reverse", "Into Centre" and "Centre Out".

It is also possible to randomise the overall selection order by holding SHIFT and pressing "RANDOM SELECT". The overall selection order can be randomised multiple times to get different random orders. Note that once the order is randomised it can not be returned to the normal order – to do this you must reselect the overall selection.

Hold the ALL button to bring up a toolbar showing the above options.

When you select heads using Groups or the keypad, MagicQ then enables the operation on a sub selection of the main selection using the Next Head, Prev Head, Odd/Even, and All buttons. This enables the user to select a group of heads and work on heads individually without reselecting the heads.

It is possible to sub select heads from within the main selection using the keypad and referring to heads using the index of that head within the overall selection order – for instance, selecting the 1^st and 3^rd head within the selection, or selecting heads 1 THRU 4 in that selection. The numbers used are the index into the selection order, not the head numbers.

To use this method, select a group of heads, then type the index number followed by NEXT HEAD or PREV HEAD. So to select the 1^st and 2^nd heads in the current selection:

1+2 NEXT HEAD

Or to the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th

3 THRU 5 NEXT HEAD

You can select multiple groups as your main selection – so if you have a line of 4 spots and 4 washes you can make a group with of all 8 heads and then access them using the numbers 1 to 8 regardless of their head number.

It is possible to invert the current sub selection - press 0 NEXT HEAD.

Using NEXT HEAD and PREV HEAD without entering a number, operates as normal, selecting the next or previous head within the overall selection.

To sub select an element of a multi element head use the dot operator, for example head 1 element 2.

1 . 2 ENTER . 3 ENTER // Select 3rd element of currently selected heads . 1 > 3 ENTER // Select 1st, 2nd and 3rd elements of currently selected heads . 1 + 4 ENTER // Select 1st and 4th elements of currently selected heads .> ENTER // Select all duplicated elements of currently selected heads . ENTER // Cancel selection of duplicated elements - revert to normal head selection

Note that in the above when the Keypad Always Selects Heads option is set to No then replace ENTER should be replaced with @ @.

MagicQ supports the ability to select different elements from different heads using both the keypad and the Output window View Grid view. This is referred to as Head Element Selection.

This operates in addition to the existing global programmer elements selection which affects all selected heads. When using the keypad the element selection is global unless multiple dot operators are specified in the syntax or until elements are added to an existing selection.

When head element selection is in operation the title bar of the Outputs, Group and Palette windows shows the elements in the order selected, prefixed by "HE".

In the Output View when a Grid is set to Multi Head then selection of elements will always select individual head elements rather than global elements.

In the Output View multiple head elements can be selected by dragging over the required elements.

The selection of head elements is ordered, in the order that they are selected. When dragging over multiple elements, the initial drag direction determines the order - as per dragging over single element heads.

Operations such as changing attributes, selecting palettes, and applying times will only affect the selected head elements, not the full heads.

Normal head FX can be applied and will affect only the selected head elements and will respect the head element selection order.

The head element selection can be recorded into a Group - the Group will show HE followed by the number of heads in the top right corner - e.g. HE2 indicates that 2 heads have some head elements selected. When the groups are selected the head elements will be added or removed from the current selection in a similar way to direct selection from the Output Window.

Any Head that has a head element selected, or has had a head element selected since the last clear / deselect of heads will show in the Outputs, View Heads and Programmer windows as selected, but operations that support head elements will only affect the current head elements selected.

Pressing CLEAR, DESELECT HEADS, NEXT HEAD, PREV HEAD, ALL or SINGLE will revert MagicQ to the normal head selection. Entering a global element number (e.g. . 2 ENTER) on the keypad will also revert to normal head selection.

Keypad selection and setting intensities of elements using the dot syntax operates as before, except that when using the + operator at the start of a selection it enables per head element selection.

Palettes can be applied with times using the standard timed shortcuts (*, *+, *- , */ and *.) and will respect the head element selection order.

Group FX on Groups with head element selection will operate on the head element selection (v1.9.1.1 and above).

The existing programmer elements can also now be used to apply timed palettes with element section order / priorities as shown in the Group, View Elements window.

Note that when setting intensities using the keypad using the @ syntax it is not possible to set heads with multiple head elements, only one dot is allowed in the command syntax.

The View Elements view shows the current global element selection and enables one or more global elements to be selected or deselected.

Each element has a newly supported priority which is shown in the top right corner of the element. Elements can have the same or different priorities enabling either sequential element usage or simultaneous element usage.

When an element selection is active, FX are now only applied to those elements. If the option "Inc Element (synced)" is chosen then the element priorities will be used in playing back the FX. Both Group FX and Normal FX take the element selection and priority into account.

For example, if half of the elements have priority 1 and the others have priority 2 then the FX offset is split into two - all the elements with priority 1 will have the same FX offset, whilst all the elements with priority 2 have the same (opposite) FX offset.

When elements are selected from the keypad then they automatically get increasing priorities - e.g. if you enter . 6 THRU 10 then elements 6 to 10 will be selected with increasing priorities 1 to 5. If you enter . 10 THRU 6 then then elements 6 to 10 will be selected with decreasing priorities 5 to 1.

When individual elements are selected in the View Element window then they get increasing priorities. When the programmer is cleared or all elements are deselected the priorities are reset.

It is possible to set priorities directly to one of more elements using SET.

Element priorities are stored when Groups are recorded and are recalled when groups are selected - therefore it is possible to create groups with the same heads but different element priorities.

For fixtures that support multiple functions, the elements from a particular function can be selected using the double dot operator.

<head no> . <function> . <element>

The element is the element number within the function starting at 1 regardless of the element number where that function starts in the functionality. The element can include + and THRU to select multiple elements. The function must be a single function number.

Note if the Keypad Always Selects Heads option is set to No then replace the ENTER with @ @ in the examples below.

The duplicated element selection can be stored in Groups - so you could make a group with no duplicated element selection and one with all duplicated elements selected. Groups with duplicate element selection show a "." after the number of heads in the top right of the group item. Note that duplicate element selection applies to all selected heads in the programmer and in groups, so it is not possible to store e.g. element 1 from head 1 and element 2 from head 2 in the group.