Manipulating Effect Playback Parameters with All Palettes
Effect Playbacks behave just as Channels do; they are HTP1 for intensity and LTP2 for non-intensity attributes. They are much like Channels that have a device patched to them. From moment to moment, the highest intensity level an effect is being told to play at, it will play at. However, the attributes of the Effect Playback (such as ChSource, Set/Group, DynTemplate, Size, etc.) will perform the most recent task that they have been told to perform.
The result of this is that All palettes can be used to "store" the attributes for effects, which can be recalled when an Effect Playback of the same effect type (Dynamic, Image, Content, Chase) is selected and the All palette is applied.
While Congo only supports 99 Effect Playbacks, this allows the programmer the ability to quickly move from one block of effects to another. For example, if all 99 Effect Playbacks are in use, all 99 can be selected, and recorded in an All palette with attributes for [Each Device]3. Now all 99 Effect Playbacks are stored in a palette. If all of the Effect Playbacks are changed around then, selecting the Effect Playbacks and applying the palette changes them back to their original configurations.
Another powerful way to work with Effect Playbacks is to create All palettes using the Mask4 function that allow programmers the ability to quickly alter specific parameters (Ch.Sources, Size, Series, DynTemplate, etc.) of their Effect Playbacks, just as the Mask function would be used to create palettes for device parameters.
1(HTP) Highest-Takes-Precedence. When multiple sources are controlling a channel level, the channel listens to the source at the highest level.
2(LTP) Lastt-Takes-Precedence. When multiple sources are controlling a channel level, the channel listens to the source that most recently told it to do something and ignores any previous actions it was told to perform.
3The differences when creating palettes to record attributes for [Each Device] versus [Each Device Type] are explained here.
4Information on how to use the Mask function to exclude parameters from a palette or preset can be found here.