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Grandma on pc manual download.INTRODUCTION TO LIGHTING
MA3 viz-key. Not with Capture Presentation files. Console Connectivity Capture supports a wide range of network protocols and methods of communication with lighting consoles.
Last tested with Hog 4 v3. Last tested with grandMA2 onPC version 3. Just like with paint, light has primary colors. The first primary system in lighting found on most lighting fixtures before the application of LED technology based on cyan, magenta, and yellow as the primary colors called CMY. A combination of cyan and magenta got you blue, magenta, and yellow created red and yellow and cyan- green.
The lights had to be enlarged to fit the larger lamps and more so the ballasts that controlled them. Once again, with the advent LED technology, color mixing has reverted to the standard primaries of lighting, which are red, green, and blue called RGB.
With all of this, of course, comes more expense, and you could imagine a light without color mixing would be less expensive. Lighting companies use color wheels to save money and retain lamp output- even on LED source fixtures. Dance is a powerful medium that embodies both music and movement to create an emotional response. Good lighting should be a ballet of movement choreographed to perfection by a designer or programmer.
I have spent hours playing back looks and cues working on the right timing for moving fixtures. I will expand more in section 2 of how to accomplish this, but in lighting, you can create the energy it a variety of ways. I know that creating energy may sound a little like new-age hocus pocus talk, but it is what is happening when colors and movement combine with light.
That is why it is essential to know how movement affects people psychologically. I started this section talking about dance because when humans hear music, we have an emotional reaction to the point of dancing and singing. Lighting is just as much about human expression as dance is.
When placing lights with music, audio, and lighting complement each other and create the captivating experience I spoke about earlier. These are concerts and experiential events that leave people speechless and talking for weeks. But this experience must be felt in person for the emotional experience to take place.
When you move the light from one place to another on the stage or transitioning from look to look with a color, you are creating new experiences, new moments with each press of the play button. Moving the lights is a good and easy way to accomplish this. You can pan, and you can tilt the lights around the stage, but in worship lighting and concerts, when you move the lights to the crowd connection takes place.
This is the ultimate goal of the movement. People connect with colors and movement. If the lights are going crazy, the audience will most likely be going crazy. One can only hope. As we round the bases and finish talking about the basics of lighting, there are two more things to add to your toolbox- gobos and strobes.
Spots have gobos, and most modern LED and moving lights can strobe. Beyond being a steel or glass circle with a design cut out of them think of the face of a jack-o-lantern in spot movers, they rotate and spin, which is used to create movement on stage without moving the light. A slow gobo spin can be used for delicate moments and faster spins for high energy moments. Gobos in spots are attached to wheels, which spin to place the gobo in front of the beam of light. When this gobo wheel as it is called spins, you can create crazy looks that will melt faces and blow minds.
But all of this lies within your arsenal of tools used later when we talk about creating looks and programming. Speaking of stockpiles, there is one last thing that I call the apex of energy, reserved for moments when people freak out or lose their minds. It is strobing. When I was a kid, one of my favorite Christmas presents was a strobe light my mom bought me. I would turn all the lights off in my room and just sit with the light turned on full blast. New lights have powerful strobes.
My rule with strobing is there is a time and a place for everything. You can pretty much work a strobe in anywhere. Also, if you have a geriatric audience, then strobing may not be the best option. I do a lot of lighting for students and younger crowds, so I get my strobing out there. So now that you know what light is and what to call it, I hope you have read or have researched the fixtures in your lighting rig. Getting to know the fixtures you are controlling is the key to success for any programmer.
Now you have a toolbox full of knowledge, now how to set yourself up for success with programming. For starters, there is the whole thing called tracking. Not as in are you tracking along with me so far, but what is tracking in the world of lighting? Tracking is an automatic function of most lighting consoles; it means that a console will hold any applied value until the user changes that value. This comes in handy when you want a fixture to hold values over several cues.
If you were to turn tracking off each time you stored something from cue to cue, you would have to add back values each time. For example, if a light in cue one were programmed with an intensity of percent, you would have to apply the same intensity to the light in cue two and then to cue three, and so on.
Tracking assumes that you want to keep the light at percent until you apply a new value, which saves time when programming.
Below is a graphical representation of this concept the first being a list that tracks vs. You may see how time-consuming it would be to apply these values every time you record a cue.
This becomes a chore when each fixture has an average of 30 attributes you can control. Once again, tracking speeds up the programming process. MA tracks your changes live. Then allows you to save or record or store those changes for playing back later. Most attributes can be saved for playback later. Typically when you read manuals for lighting consoles, they devote a decent amount of time to tracking, but there is also another section that explains something called Latest Takes Precedence.
Since this guide is supposed to be for beginners, just know that this protocol dictates which sequences take priorities over other sequences, and also how cues interact and override one another. It is important to note that these protocols tracking, LTP usually come into use when two or more sequences are using the same fixtures with different values.
Any lights or attributes that are not programmed into the sequence will not be affected. If that seems self-explanatory- it is! The lighting console will assume certain things to speed up the process but ultimately can only do what you tell it!
So how does LTP work? Latest Takes Precedence or LTP is the default function when it comes to playing back cues on any lighting console. It means that the last thing that was changed, or the last attribute that was changed and tracked remember tracking? Once again, this only affects the fixtures that have saved values in cues that are being played back in a sequence.
You have two sequences that are playing fixtures that have two different intensities applied to them. If you were to turn off sequence two, sequence one would automatically assume priority again because it is the next to last instance of tracking for those fixtures. Tracking and LTP work together as a set of basic rules that affect all playback and programming. Another important note is that these can be disabled or overridden by advanced programmers in instances where it makes sense to do so.
In section 3, we will go through the necessary steps of creating and saving looks on MA, though, as always, these concepts can be applied to any control surface for lighting. This is as easy as Pretty simple. In the beginning, lighting consoles would put these cues in lists called cue lists, and some consoles still use this language today.
Cues are played back in numerical order in a sequence and are numbered and labeled for reference. Each cue will have a fade time, which is the time it takes to play the cue back. When two cues are played in sequence, the cues overlap and create a crossfade. Crossfades are where the magic happens. Timing is achieved by changing the fade time of a cue. Slower fade times work well for slow sweeps, a sweep being the act of taking the lights from a down position to an up position over a slow crossfade usually over a crowd.
Several meaningful effects can be created with movement by slowing down or speeding up the crossfade. Be kind to your lights, and try not to do too many rapid movements, though some occasional snaps are both tasteful and do not wear out your fixtures. Once you have mastered the crossfade, you may be wondering how to playback or control the sequence that you have stored. This is typically controlled by something called a fader.
A fader is a sliding button that controls the output of a single dimmer, sequence, or cue. When a fader is brought to the zero position or down position, there is no output. Most of this is for when your swirlies stop working, and you need to call tech support, such as the wonderful folks at ACT. In MA, after you assign a sequence to a fader, you should be able to control the intensity of the sequence with the fader.
Some designers spend weeks on programming large tours with hundreds of lights with months of planning and 3D design work. In churches or smaller venues, most house lighting people, that is, people who are hired at these places full time to run lights, may have hours to program on a good day, so they set their consoles up differently. In the world of lighting and my experience, there are two methods of programming, and I like to teach the option of using both to achieve results.
The first method is called program and go and is based on the theatrical way of storing a look and playing back the cue or look at a predetermined time. This is great for meticulous programmers who strive for perfection, and it is achievable easily. The downside is it makes for pretty inflexible programmers who need time to set up everything. MA speeds up the process in a way that will be discussed in section 3, but still, the time spent and the reward payoff must be balanced, or else you will stress yourself out.
If you have excellent time management skills, this is the method for you. The second method is called busking or punting. This is where everything is created on the fly or in the moment. The time spent creating busked looks can be just as long as program and go but have the benefit of being faster and easier to travel. A lot of designers use the same show over and over again and modify it to the venue or place that their band is playing. It also allows for great versatility for song changes and is used by flexible designers.
Downsides are the quality of the end product looking rushed and hurried. It is a method that requires a lot of preplanning and quick reflexes. If you can master it, then time spent programming is actually reduced. No matter which method you choose, you can always get the best of both worlds by programming base looks and modifying them on the fly. Even though I am a program and go, designer, I still like to have a strobe button and other fun options to trigger at the moment.
A lighting console is like a musical instrument, and the best programmers know how to set up the board or console for their success and personal preferences. The options are nearly endless within the MA family of lighting consoles, and whatever works for you will always be the best option. Learning a new language can be difficult and time-consuming, but it makes you a well-rounded individual as well as an asset in certain situations. It comes from the fact that most consoles are command-line based.
This means that when you are selecting fixtures and applying color, what you are doing is executing commands in a command line. To you, the user may look something like tapping two presets such as selecting the group preset then selecting a color preset. The console reads your input as Group 2 At Color 3 using its own set of commands called a language in computer programming.
After all, the console you may have just purchased is nothing but a fancy computer with lots of weird buttons and flashing lights. Learning how to talk to your new toy is integral to becoming a good owner.
MA is a preset console, meaning that you group things into predefined buttons that you then press to apply values. This is the quickest and easiest way to program, and the only way I will be covering in this guide. Creating presets are easy but more on that later. Setting up the console for the first time can be a daunting task too, but that will be covered in section.
In review, lights can have values, and these values can be changed. In MA, these values fall into seven categories that are found near the bottom of the screen.
The button layout on the console is important to know and will speed up your programming time tremendously. The console has two main sections.
To the right is the right-hand side of the console that includes a number pad. The main buttons that are in use are store , clear , and oops. It is good to note that the enter key on all MA2 and MA3 consoles are please keys. Manners are important! The Goto button is used to jump to a cue in a selected sequence using the command Goto Cue 1 Please.
The console speaks your language, and if you can think up a command more times than not, the console can execute it. Using the buttons saves time. The buttons found on the left-hand side of the console are mainly for playing back cues and modifying sequences. The main buttons to be aware of are the output modifiers.
It is shown to the right. These modify fixtures and console output and give beginners trouble if accidentally engaged. Once again, memorizing or at least repetition will be your key to success when programming. Now it is time for you the programmer to set up the console for the first time.
Since every console is different, I will assume that you have everything plugged in, and you have turned on the MA3 for the first time.
This is one of the many views that you will see throughout getting to know your new console. Next, I will go into more detail about all the buttons you see, but in general, to the right side of the screen from the top are six buttons that control the views or predetermined windows.
All views are customizable and will be discussed later. The bottom of the screen is for programming and will change based on the selections you make. The Left side of the screen provides fixed views such as setup, button, and fader views called the command bar. Help — Select this button, followed by any other button to open up the manual for the selected button.
At — Has a ton of features to add or subtract values from fixtures using the At command. The bar to the right-hand side of the screen is how you recall views. The default views are listed here, but you can change the labels and create whatever view best suits your needs.
I will be patching a demonstration show step by step, and I will devote more time to this later. The views you choose are up to you, but MA3 does a great job filling in the gaps. Admittingly the only view I edited before making this guide was the Preset view. Customizable options are what MA is known for, and it will take a while before you have a layout with which you are satisfied. I keep reiterating that this takes time for anyone, so do not give up. Find your niche and what sets you up for success rather than a default or standard setup.
This button is directly below the power button. After pressing the following window should pop up:. From here, you see a lot of options. The two I would like to focus on are the Patch and Backup buttons. The window below should pop up after selecting backup. Your show is now saved into the console. Quick save will be fine to save your show now. Since this is a beginner guide, I will go a little more into detail about what patching is. If you are a more advanced user, skip ahead to the pictures.
For the rest of you- every light in your setup has a specific address or number that is assigned to it. Lighting consoles communicate these through a modulated signal protocol called DMX DMX helps designers and lighting professionals communicate with the lights remotely.
For your knowledge, each light has a set of attributes or values you can control. I would turn all the lights off in my room and just sit with the light turned on full blast.
New lights have powerful strobes. My rule with strobing is there is a time and a place for everything. You can pretty much work a strobe in anywhere. Also, if you have a geriatric audience, then strobing may not be the best option. I do a lot of lighting for students and younger crowds, so I get my strobing out there. So now that you know what light is and what to call it, I hope you have read or have researched the fixtures in your lighting rig. Getting to know the fixtures you are controlling is the key to success for any programmer.
Now you have a toolbox full of knowledge, now how to set yourself up for success with programming. For starters, there is the whole thing called tracking. Not as in are you tracking along with me so far, but what is tracking in the world of lighting?
Tracking is an automatic function of most lighting consoles; it means that a console will hold any applied value until the user changes that value. This comes in handy when you want a fixture to hold values over several cues. If you were to turn tracking off each time you stored something from cue to cue, you would have to add back values each time.
For example, if a light in cue one were programmed with an intensity of percent, you would have to apply the same intensity to the light in cue two and then to cue three, and so on. Tracking assumes that you want to keep the light at percent until you apply a new value, which saves time when programming. Below is a graphical representation of this concept the first being a list that tracks vs. You may see how time-consuming it would be to apply these values every time you record a cue. This becomes a chore when each fixture has an average of 30 attributes you can control.
Once again, tracking speeds up the programming process. MA tracks your changes live. Then allows you to save or record or store those changes for playing back later. Most attributes can be saved for playback later. Typically when you read manuals for lighting consoles, they devote a decent amount of time to tracking, but there is also another section that explains something called Latest Takes Precedence. Since this guide is supposed to be for beginners, just know that this protocol dictates which sequences take priorities over other sequences, and also how cues interact and override one another.
It is important to note that these protocols tracking, LTP usually come into use when two or more sequences are using the same fixtures with different values. Any lights or attributes that are not programmed into the sequence will not be affected.
If that seems self-explanatory- it is! The lighting console will assume certain things to speed up the process but ultimately can only do what you tell it! So how does LTP work?
Latest Takes Precedence or LTP is the default function when it comes to playing back cues on any lighting console. It means that the last thing that was changed, or the last attribute that was changed and tracked remember tracking? Once again, this only affects the fixtures that have saved values in cues that are being played back in a sequence.
You have two sequences that are playing fixtures that have two different intensities applied to them. If you were to turn off sequence two, sequence one would automatically assume priority again because it is the next to last instance of tracking for those fixtures. Tracking and LTP work together as a set of basic rules that affect all playback and programming. Another important note is that these can be disabled or overridden by advanced programmers in instances where it makes sense to do so.
In section 3, we will go through the necessary steps of creating and saving looks on MA, though, as always, these concepts can be applied to any control surface for lighting. This is as easy as Pretty simple. In the beginning, lighting consoles would put these cues in lists called cue lists, and some consoles still use this language today.
Cues are played back in numerical order in a sequence and are numbered and labeled for reference. Each cue will have a fade time, which is the time it takes to play the cue back. When two cues are played in sequence, the cues overlap and create a crossfade. Crossfades are where the magic happens. Timing is achieved by changing the fade time of a cue. Slower fade times work well for slow sweeps, a sweep being the act of taking the lights from a down position to an up position over a slow crossfade usually over a crowd.
Several meaningful effects can be created with movement by slowing down or speeding up the crossfade. Be kind to your lights, and try not to do too many rapid movements, though some occasional snaps are both tasteful and do not wear out your fixtures.
Once you have mastered the crossfade, you may be wondering how to playback or control the sequence that you have stored. This is typically controlled by something called a fader.
A fader is a sliding button that controls the output of a single dimmer, sequence, or cue. When a fader is brought to the zero position or down position, there is no output. Most of this is for when your swirlies stop working, and you need to call tech support, such as the wonderful folks at ACT. In MA, after you assign a sequence to a fader, you should be able to control the intensity of the sequence with the fader. Some designers spend weeks on programming large tours with hundreds of lights with months of planning and 3D design work.
In churches or smaller venues, most house lighting people, that is, people who are hired at these places full time to run lights, may have hours to program on a good day, so they set their consoles up differently. In the world of lighting and my experience, there are two methods of programming, and I like to teach the option of using both to achieve results. The first method is called program and go and is based on the theatrical way of storing a look and playing back the cue or look at a predetermined time.
This is great for meticulous programmers who strive for perfection, and it is achievable easily. The downside is it makes for pretty inflexible programmers who need time to set up everything. MA speeds up the process in a way that will be discussed in section 3, but still, the time spent and the reward payoff must be balanced, or else you will stress yourself out.
If you have excellent time management skills, this is the method for you. The second method is called busking or punting. This is where everything is created on the fly or in the moment. The time spent creating busked looks can be just as long as program and go but have the benefit of being faster and easier to travel. A lot of designers use the same show over and over again and modify it to the venue or place that their band is playing. It also allows for great versatility for song changes and is used by flexible designers.
Downsides are the quality of the end product looking rushed and hurried. It is a method that requires a lot of preplanning and quick reflexes. If you can master it, then time spent programming is actually reduced. No matter which method you choose, you can always get the best of both worlds by programming base looks and modifying them on the fly.
Even though I am a program and go, designer, I still like to have a strobe button and other fun options to trigger at the moment. A lighting console is like a musical instrument, and the best programmers know how to set up the board or console for their success and personal preferences. The options are nearly endless within the MA family of lighting consoles, and whatever works for you will always be the best option.
Learning a new language can be difficult and time-consuming, but it makes you a well-rounded individual as well as an asset in certain situations. It comes from the fact that most consoles are command-line based. This means that when you are selecting fixtures and applying color, what you are doing is executing commands in a command line. To you, the user may look something like tapping two presets such as selecting the group preset then selecting a color preset.
The console reads your input as Group 2 At Color 3 using its own set of commands called a language in computer programming. After all, the console you may have just purchased is nothing but a fancy computer with lots of weird buttons and flashing lights. Learning how to talk to your new toy is integral to becoming a good owner.
MA is a preset console, meaning that you group things into predefined buttons that you then press to apply values. This is the quickest and easiest way to program, and the only way I will be covering in this guide. Creating presets are easy but more on that later. Setting up the console for the first time can be a daunting task too, but that will be covered in section. In review, lights can have values, and these values can be changed.
In MA, these values fall into seven categories that are found near the bottom of the screen. The button layout on the console is important to know and will speed up your programming time tremendously.
The console has two main sections. To the right is the right-hand side of the console that includes a number pad. The main buttons that are in use are store , clear , and oops. It is good to note that the enter key on all MA2 and MA3 consoles are please keys. Manners are important! The Goto button is used to jump to a cue in a selected sequence using the command Goto Cue 1 Please.
The console speaks your language, and if you can think up a command more times than not, the console can execute it. Using the buttons saves time. The buttons found on the left-hand side of the console are mainly for playing back cues and modifying sequences. The main buttons to be aware of are the output modifiers. It is shown to the right. These modify fixtures and console output and give beginners trouble if accidentally engaged.
Once again, memorizing or at least repetition will be your key to success when programming. Now it is time for you the programmer to set up the console for the first time. Since every console is different, I will assume that you have everything plugged in, and you have turned on the MA3 for the first time.
This is one of the many views that you will see throughout getting to know your new console. Next, I will go into more detail about all the buttons you see, but in general, to the right side of the screen from the top are six buttons that control the views or predetermined windows.
All views are customizable and will be discussed later. The bottom of the screen is for programming and will change based on the selections you make. The Left side of the screen provides fixed views such as setup, button, and fader views called the command bar. Help — Select this button, followed by any other button to open up the manual for the selected button. At — Has a ton of features to add or subtract values from fixtures using the At command.
The bar to the right-hand side of the screen is how you recall views. The default views are listed here, but you can change the labels and create whatever view best suits your needs.
I will be patching a demonstration show step by step, and I will devote more time to this later. The views you choose are up to you, but MA3 does a great job filling in the gaps. Admittingly the only view I edited before making this guide was the Preset view. Customizable options are what MA is known for, and it will take a while before you have a layout with which you are satisfied.
I keep reiterating that this takes time for anyone, so do not give up. Find your niche and what sets you up for success rather than a default or standard setup. This button is directly below the power button. After pressing the following window should pop up:. From here, you see a lot of options. The two I would like to focus on are the Patch and Backup buttons. The window below should pop up after selecting backup.
Your show is now saved into the console. Quick save will be fine to save your show now. Since this is a beginner guide, I will go a little more into detail about what patching is. If you are a more advanced user, skip ahead to the pictures. For the rest of you- every light in your setup has a specific address or number that is assigned to it. Lighting consoles communicate these through a modulated signal protocol called DMX DMX helps designers and lighting professionals communicate with the lights remotely.
For your knowledge, each light has a set of attributes or values you can control. Some consoles also call these parameters. Each value is assigned a number. This is called a DMX footprint in the lighting community. The profiles are spot fixtures with a DMX footprint of 27, meaning there are 27 separate values you can control. The Auras are wash fixtures with 25 parameters or values.
All these fixtures are in advanced mode, meaning I have control over all features. DMX is limited to parameters, and consoles must create Universes to add more parameters to a show. Consoles are limited to how many parameters you can control too. A typical four universe console will have parameters, and the MA3 lite can control up to parameters. This may seem like a lot, but modern fixtures can have hundreds of parameters and values to control.
You assign a fixture an address physically on the fixture, run control cables to the console, and then patch the console so the light and the console can communicate. So patching is telling the console what universe and what address the light is to keep everyone on the same page. From the Menu screen select patch and the following window should pop up when starting a new show:. The next screen is where you can name and number your fixtures.
Go ahead and give them something other than their default name. Next select the quantity you wish to add, for this show I added I would suggest starting each fixture type with a different prefix, such as for spots and for washes. Here is the fixture identification.
MA3 will always number multiple fixtures sequentially. The last thing is the patch information. MA will automatically patch the fixtures at the next available channel. However, the first number represents the universe, and the second number represents the fixture address. To control fixture , the Quantum Profile would need an address of 1 and be plugged into the console output A, which is the default output for universe 1.
This may seem easy, but when you are dealing with multiple fixtures across multiple universes, it can be hard to fit it all in using the parameters available on the console. Every light needs a unique address to be controlled individually. After you are done entering the information, press Apply, and your window should look like this. You now have fixtures in your show that you can now apply values to. For this example and extra practice, go ahead and patch 12 Mac Aura XBs into your show in universe 2.
Then press the X in the top corner of the patch window, and the console will ask if you want to save your changes. Now you are ready to move onto selecting and creating groups of fixtures to which to apply values.
MA3 can store six views on any screen. It allows for even more customization. We covered the default views earlier, but the one I would like to expand on for beginners is the preset view. On the right-hand side of the screen press preset, and the above window should pop up.
You can delete or reshape any of these windows.
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