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Electronic Theatre Controls Inc

Recording submasters on Express consoles

You can create submasters in Stage or Blind mode.

Follow these steps to record a simple, pile-on submaster:

Keystrokes: Action:
1. Press [Stage]. Selects Stage display mode
2. Select channels and set channel levels. Creates look
3. Press [Record]. Prompt reads:
To record cue, select number and press ENTER
To cancel, press CLEAR
4. Press [Sub] [5] [Enter]
    or…
    Press Submaster 5’s bump button.
The current stage look is recorded into submaster 5
Note-Icon-new.png Note: Use Solo to record specific channels into the submaster (rather than the full stage look). For example: [5] [Thru] [1][0] [S7], More Softkeys, [S3], Solo, [Solo] [Record] [Sub] [5] [Enter] records only the current levels of channels 5 through 10 in submaster 5, regardless of what other channel levels may be up on stage.

Fade and dwell times for submasters

Normally, pressing a sub bump brings channel levels to their recorded level immediately. Channels stay at full recorded levels as long as the bump button is held.

You can also set upfade, dwell and downfade times for submasters. These times are activated for each submaster by its bump button. Upfade time is the length of time it takes a submaster’s channels to fade to their recorded levels when the submaster bump button is pressed. Dwell time is the length of time the submaster’s channel levels stay at their full recorded levels before the downfade starts. A manual dwell time means that you can override the bump button fades with the slider (see Controlling submaster fades manually for more information). Downfade time is the length of time it takes a submaster’s channels to fade from their recorded levels to zero.68

Fade times may be programmed from 0.1 seconds to 99:59 minutes. The number may be entered in normal time format or in decimal format. When entered with a decimal point, the number must be less than one minute (0.1 to 59.9 seconds) to be accepted. When entered without a decimal point, a 2-digit number will be treated as seconds if less than 60 and as a calculated value of minutes and seconds if between 60 and 99. For example, if you enter 70, the time will display as 1:10. If you enter either a 3-digit or a 4-digit number, the last two digits, up to 59, are interpreted as seconds. For example, if you enter 9930, the time will display as 99:30.

68 Defaults for upfade/dwell/downfade dwell times are 0/Manual/0. These default times are true for pile-on or inhibitive submasters, but not for effect submasters. See Effect fade times.

Adding fade and dwell times

You can add fade and dwell times to a submaster from Stage or Blind mode. To add fade times to a submaster, follow these steps in either mode:

Keystrokes: Action:
1. Press [Sub]. Prompt reads:
Select submaster number
To select submaster type, press TYPE
2. Press [5]. Selects submaster 5
Corner reads:
Sub 5
3. Press [Time]. Prompt reads:
Enter upfade time
4. Use keypad to enter upfade time          and press [Time]. Prompt reads:
Enter dwell time
(For hold or manual operation, press CLEAR until desired setting appears)
5. Use keypad to enter dwell time and      press [Time]. (See next page for            information about using a Hold              dwell.) Prompt reads:
Enter downfade time
6. Use keypad to enter downfade time      and press [Enter]. New fade times are recorded into submaster 5
Note-Icon-new.png Note: Once a timed submaster is running, press the bump button to change the direction of the fade. For example, if the upfade is half finished, pressing the bump button starts the downfade from 50 percent. If a downfade is running, pressing the bump button begins an upfade again from the current level.

Hold dwell time

If you record a submaster with a dwell time of Hold, the submaster fades up when you press the bump button, then holds until you press it again.

To add a dwell time of Hold to a submaster, follow these steps:

Keystrokes: Action:
1. Press [Sub]. Prompt reads:
Select submaster number
To select submaster type, press TYPE
2. Press [5]. Selects submaster 5
Corner reads:
Sub 5
3. Press [Time] [Time]. Prompt reads:
Enter dwell time
(For hold or manual operation, press CLEAR until desired setting appears)
4. Press [Clear]. Corner reads: Dwell Hold
5. Press [Enter] [Enter]. Dwell time is set to Hold for submaster 5

Manual dwell time

If you record a submaster with a dwell time of manual and an upfade time other than zero, the upfade starts when you press and hold the bump button. It runs until channels reach full recorded levels, then holds at full as long as you hold the bump button; the downfade begins when you release it. If you don’t hold the bump button for the duration of the upfade time, channels do not reach their full recorded levels.

Follow this procedure in Blind to convert a timed dwell to a manual dwell.69

Keystrokes: Action:
1. Press [Blind] [Sub]. Prompt reads:
Select submaster number
To select submaster type, press TYPE
2. Press [5]. Selects submaster 5
Corner reads:
Sub 5
3. Press [Time] [Time]. Prompt reads:
Enter dwell time
(For hold or manual operation, press CLEAR until desired setting appears)
4. Press [Clear] [Clear]. Corner reads: Dwell Man
5. Press [Enter] [Enter]. Dwell time is set to Manual for submaster 5

Adding a rate to a submaster

Rate allows you to record submasters that play back faster or slower than their recorded fade times. This can be especially helpful when you are trying to calculate complex timing information for effects loaded to a submaster.

Note-Icon-new.png Note: If you adjust the rate on a submaster containing an effect, the rate adjustment affects individual step timing but does not change the overall effect timing.

Rate is expressed as a percentage. A submaster with a rate of 100 plays back at its recorded fade time. A rate of 300 plays the submaster back three times faster than its recorded fade time. A rate of 50 causes it to play back half as fast as its recorded fade time. You may assign a rate of up to 2,000 percent.

To add a rate to submaster 7, follow these steps:

Keystrokes: Action:
1. Press [Blind]. Selects Blind display mode
2. Press [Sub] [7]. Prompt reads:
Select submaster number
To select submaster type, press TYPE
3. Press [S5], Rate. Prompt reads:
Use keypad to select submaster rate
(0 to 2000, 100 = Normal)
4. Press [1][5][0]. Corner reads: Rate 150
5. Press [Enter]. Rate of 150 percent is recorded into submaster 7

69 If you do not enter a dwell time for a submaster, the submaster defaults to a manual dwell.

Specifying a submaster’s page

You may specify the page to which you record submasters. For example, if page 1 is loaded, you can record a submaster to page 2. To do so, follow these steps:

Keystrokes: Action:
1. Create a look in Stage.  
2. Press [Record] [Sub]. Prompt reads:
To record submaster, press BUMP or select number and press ENTER
To cancel, press CLEAR
3. Press [Page] [2]. Prompt reads:
Select page on which to record submaster, then press submaster bump button
4. Press submaster 6’s bump button. Current levels are recorded into submaster 6 on submaster page 2

Using Except to record a submaster

The console allows you to program a submaster containing all the current levels on stage except for those contributed by a specific cue, group, or another submaster.70

This example illustrates how you record a submaster without including levels contributed by the specified submaster.

Keystrokes: Action:
1. Press [Stage]. Selects Stage display mode
2. Select desired channels and set            channel levels.  
3. Press [Record] [Sub]. Prompt reads:
To record submaster, select number and press ENTER
To cancel, press CLEAR
4. Press [5]. Selects submaster 5 to be recorded
5. Press [Except] [Sub] [3].a Instructs that levels raised by submaster 3 be ignored
Prompt reads: Select excepted submaster number
6. Press [Enter]. Records submaster 5 minus submaster 3’s levels

Press [Cue] or [Group] in place of [Sub] in step 5 to leave out the channels supplied by a cue or group.
70 [Except] will not work with effect cues or effect submasters.

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