Manufacturer's name	MA Lighting Technology GmbH
Manufacturer's address	Dachdeckerstr. 16 D-97297 Waldbuettelbrunn Germany

declares that the products.

Product category	Control unit
Name of product	grandMA2 full-size , grandMA2 light, grandMA2 ultra-light, grandMA2 wing
.	.

:

Safety	EN60065, EN60950-1
EMV (EMC)	2014/30/EG; EN55103-1:2009 (E1), EN55103-2:2009 (E2)
ROHS (II)	2011 / 65 / EU

Additional information: DMX512, Ethernet, USB, MAlink, DVI, LTC, Audio IN, MIDI and analogue inputs must be shielded and the shielding must be connected to the earthing resp. to the housing of the corresponding plug.

Dipl. Ing. Michael Adenau

The reproduction and distribution of the documentation and software and the use of its contents is subject to written authorization from MA Lighting Technology GmbH.

Microsoft, and Windows are either registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

"What is .... ?". Concepts contains background information you should know to successfully work with the grandMA2 series consoles.

This section aims to give you a conceptual understanding of the philosophy behind the console, without digging deep into every little detail. With a conceptual understanding, you will have the knowledge needed to understand the technical information and facts found in the reference section.

The Reference section contains technical information - facts, descriptions and properties of each elements of the console.

This section is intended for look-up and reference, to expand the basic knowledge gained by the concept section

"How do I .... ?" Although the concept and reference section should provide you with enough information to operate the console, the exact steps of some Tasks may not be obvious for all users.

This section contains step-by-step instruction for common tasks and procedures.

This section provides tutorials intended for training. While Tasks contains step-by-step instruction for single operations, the tutorials will guide you thru different scenarios from A-Z.

1. Screen 4 (full-size)

2. Screen 3 (light & full-size)

3. Screen 2

4. View Buttons

5. Power Key

6. Menu Keys

7. Attribute Encoders

8. Grand Master

9. Dimmer Wheel

10. Trackball

11. Command Area

12. Keyboard (inside)

13. X-Buttons

14. Screen 1 Command Screen

15. Main Executor

16. Button Executors

17. Fader Executors

18. Screen Encoders

1. Mains Switch
2. Mains Input, PowerCon NAC3MPA, 120-230V 50/60Hz 350VA
3. DMX Out A-F, 6 x XLR 5pin male
4. DMX In, XLR 5pin female
5. Ethernet 1+2, 2 x EtherCon RJ-45 10/100/1000 Base T-X
6. External Monitor Left+Right, 2 x DVI-I Dual-Link
7. DC Remote Input / pin configuration: DB-25 female, pin 1-16 = input, pin 21 and 22 = +5V, pin 24 and 25 =common ground
8. MA-Link, DA-15 female
9. USB, 2 x TypeA USB 2.0
10. MIDI In+Out, 2 x DIN 5/180 female
11. LTC/SMPTE In, XLR 3pn female, min 200mV
12. Audio In, XLR 3pin female, min 20mV
13. Reset Button
14. Desklamp Outputs, 2 x XLR 4pin female, MA LED desklamp 4pin

1. Mains Switch + Input, IEC C14, 90-240V 50/60Hz 42VA
2. USB, TypeB USB 2.0
3. LTC/SMPTE In, XLR 3pn female, min 200mV
4. DMX In, XLR 5pin female
5. DC Remote Input / pin configuration: DA-15 female . pin 1-6,9-14 = input, pin 7 = +5V, pin 8 = common ground
6. MIDI In+Out, 2 x DIN 5/180 female
7. DMX Out A+B, 2 x XLR 5pin male

1. Mains Switch + Input, IEC C14, 90-240V 50/60Hz 42VA
2. USB/PC, TypeB USB 2.0
3. USB/CMD, TypeA USB 2.0
4. USB/PWR, TypeA USB +5V only (Desklamp)
5. DMX Out A-D, 4 x XLR 5pin male

This section provide background information you should know to successfully work with the grandMA2 series consoles.

For step-by-step instructions for common tasks, and reference documentation of each element of the system, please look at the Tasks and Reference sections.

Every fixture/channel has a minimum of one, but possibly multiple parameters to be controlled. These parameters are classified as Attributes, and may be adjusted and manipulated via the Encoder Toolbar , once the fixtures are selected.

A generic dimmer typically has only one attribute - "Dimmer" while an advanced Moving Light may have 30+ different attributes. To effectively work with a high number of attributes, Attributes are grouped in Features, which again are grouped in Preset-types.

The top row of the Encoder Toolbar will display one button for each Preset-type existing in your Showfile. Pressing this button puts the attributes of the first feature, on your encoders. If the Preset-type contains multiple features, or more than 4 attributes per feature, these amy be accessed via the leftmost button in the second row.

The encoders have three basic functions:

Some attributes and features have dedicated controls to enable faster and/or easier access to adjustments.

The most obvious is the level wheel next to the numeric keypad, which is always linked to the dimmer attribute, and the Trackball which is linked to Pan&Tilt, unless it is in Mouse-mode.

Additionally some features like Colormix and Shapers have graphical tools on the multitouch commandscreen.

A fixture with a Channel ID will display its dimmer-attribute in the Channel Sheet window. Channel IDs are typically used with devices that only have one controllable parameter - Dimmer.

A fixture with a Fixture ID will display all its attributes in the Fixture Sheet window. Fixture IDs are typically used with fixtures that have multiple controllable parameters - pan/tilt, color, gobo etc.

A fixture must have either a Channel ID or a Fixture ID, - or both. Some operators prefer to give every fixture both the same Channel and Fixture ID, to be able to select number 5, not caring about if it is a Channel or a Fixture, while others prefer to separate and distinguish between the two types of fixtures. e.g. Channel 5 (dimmer 5) is another fixture than Fixture 5 (Mac600 #5). A fixture can also have different Channel and Fixture IDs. This may be useful in situations where the designer would like to call fixtures by its location: Channel 35 (5th position on third truss), while the operator prefer to think of the fixture as first mac600, Fixture 601.

In the later years, there has been an increase in products which actually are multiple fixtures in one housing, e.g. LED-battens, where you have multiple cells, and each cell has individual control of RGB. Such fixtures may be patched as one fixture, but nevertheless be accessed individually as Subfixtures. If a Thomas Pixel-line is patched and given the ID Fixture 5, merely selecting fixture 5 would adjust all 18 cells of this fixture. To adjust only cell #13, you select Fixture 5.13

Object Keywords are used in the commandline to reference objects in your showfile. Examples of object keywords could be Channel, Fixture, Effect, Preset. These keywords represent object-types, and are typically used together with a number/ID or a name/label, to point to specific objects: Channel 3, Fixture 10, Effect 4, Preset "Red".

Object keywords may be compared to nouns in human languages.

Functional Keywords are used in the commandline to perform a task or function. Examples of functional keywords could be Goto, Delete, LeaveSession. Functional keywords are often followed by an object, that the function/task should be applied to: Goto Cue 3, Delete Preset "Blue". Some functions are global and does not need an object as argument, e.g. Blackout.

Functional keywords may be compared to verbs in human languages.

Helping Keywords are used in the commandline to give relations to functions and objects. Examples of helping keywords could be At, Thru : Copy Cue 3 At Cue 5, Delete Effect 4 Thru 6.

Helping keywords may be compared to prepositions and conjunctions in human languages

The general syntax is [Function] [Object], or more specific [Function] [Object-type] [Object-IDs], however to speed up programming, parts of this syntax may be omitted, and will be replaced with default values by the console:

Store Cue 3 may be typed as Store 3 , as Cue is the default object-type for the function Store

Go+Macro 5 may be typed as Macro 5 , as Go+ is the default function for the object-type Macro

The console does not distinguish between upper/lower case in keywords, this form is used merely to improve readability. Additional, when entering commandline with a keyboard, it is inconvenient to have to type the whole keyword, so every keyword may be shortened to it's unique letter-combination

Store Cue 3 may via the keyboard be typed as st cu 3

Macro 10 may via the keyboard be typed as ma 10

To speed up programming even more, the commandline has a default object keyword, which will be inserted if you start your commandline directly with a number. The default keyword is displayed in square brackets the start of the commandline:

typing just 9 will generate Channel 9, as Channel is currently the default keyword/object of the commandline.

You may change this default keyword at any time, by entering the keyword and then press please.

Fixture Please

When you edit the command in a macro or if you are adding or editing a command in a cue you'll get a pop-up that overwrites the command line input. When a pop-up like this overwrites the normal commandline, it gets a red background like this:

You will see that what you type or what hardkeys you press go to the red background colored command line and into the pop-up. When you press Please the pop-up will close and the commandline will empty and go back to the original color.

Pressing an executor buttons will take the action from the button directly into the pop-up and return the commandline to normal mode.

Effect-values may be stored directly into your cues as discrete effect-values, or to the Effect-pool as a Selective Effect for referenced reuse, similar to how static values may be stored and reused via Presets.

Effect-values may be manipulated by selecting the corresponding Effect-layer via the Layer select buttons above your encoders:

Fader Executors have 4 controls: one fader and 3 buttons (2 above fader, one below). Depending on console type and wings attached, you may have direct physical access to up to 90 Fader Executors at once. These Executors are labeled from 1 and up.

Button Executors have only one control: a button. Depending on console type and wings attached, you may have direct physical access to up to 110 Button Executors at once. These Executors are labeled from 101 and up

Even if your hardware-setup do not support 90 + 110 physical Executors, you may still access and use all 200, via onscreen faders and buttons.

The function of each button and fader of an Executor may be freely assigned, to suit the needs for your style of operating, type of show, and functionality of assigned object.

Typical button functions could be Go, Pause or Flash, while fader function could be Master (intensity), Speed or Crossfade.

The command for labeling is Label [Object] , - the Label keyword is access by pressing two times on the Assign key, so the exact keystrokes for giving group 3 a name, would be Assign Assign Group 3 Please, and then enter the name in the popup dialog.

If you are labeling a pool-object (i.e a group), and the pool and the object has focus (white square around the object), you can enter a new label just by start typing with the keyboard.

This direct labeling of object with focus, enables you to enter the name directly after selecting or storing via pool-windows.

Direct labeling also work in the Cue-lists when focus is on the cue-name.

In addition to being informative when displaying data in pools and sheets, names may also be used in the commandline to access the objects.

Sets group "pars"to 50%. If the name includes white-space or reserved words (keywords), the name must be enclosed in quotes Group "All Macs" At 50 .

Presets are divided into different types, each by default collecting related attributes. e.g. Pan, Tilt belong to the Preset-type Position, while ColorWheel and CMY belong to the Preset-type Color etc.

Active parameters are displayed in the fixture and channel Sheet with a dark red background. By default when creating/storing Cues and Presets, the console will take the Active parameters.

Parameters gets automatically activated when you adjust them in the programmer. For convenience the console will also activate related parameters, so if you adjust the attribute Pan, then Tilt will also be included.

A parameter's data is divided into multiple layers. These layers are divided into two main groups, Value Layers and Effect Layers.

With the layer select buttons centrally located above your encoders, you may choose which layers you are working on.

The Value layers consist of 3 layers

The Effect layers consist of 11 layers

These layers define a dynamic value for the parameter. Learn more about what each layer does via the concept and tutorial pages for Effects

Selecting may be done with the commandline by i.e. pressing Fixture 5 Please . Multiple fixtures may be selected in one go by using the helping keywords +, - and Thru, e.g. Channel 2 Thru 10 - 4

To see your current selection onscreen, you need a Channel Sheet and/or Fixture Sheet window. Selected fixtures will have their name and number (ID) displayed with yellow text.

With a Channel Sheet or Fixture Sheet window visible, you may select fixtures merely by touching their name or ID-number. Selecting a range is done with a "lasso": press on first fixture, move finger/mouse to last fixture, then release. To deselect via the GUI, press the - (minus) key first, then the name/ID in the sheet.

To de-select all selected fixtures press the Clear key once.

The bottom section of this screen contains label and softbuttons for the X-keys. The X-keys can control Button Executors, (List) or Views/Macros (User1 + 2). Additionally these act as hardkeys for options in pop-ups, menus and dialogs.

The bottom section of this screen contains the Encoder Toolbar which gives access to fixture attributes and object properties. In the bottom left corner is the Executor-label for the currently selected (Main) executor. Along the right hand side is 10 View-buttons for easy recall of different user defined Window-arrangements

The bottom section of this screen contains the labels for the Fader and Button Executors. Along the right hand side is 10 View-buttons for easy recall of different user defined Window-combinations.

Windows are created by pressing an empty space on your screen, and choosing type of window, from the Create Window dialog.

Windows may be moved by dragging the headline, and resized by dragging the lower right corner. After filling your screen with multiple windows, it could look something like this:

Every window has a yellow ball in the upper left corner, which may be used to access the Window Option dialog. Within the options dialog, you may select how the data is presented, fontsize, readout, special filters, toolbars etc.

Here is two examples of the same Window, Fixture Sheet , but with different options:

Window arrangements and options, are stored in as Views. By pressing Store, and an empty Viewbutton on the right part of the screen, the console will create a new View, and assign the View to the button, for easy recall of the current arrangement.

The grandMA2 comes with an extensive library of fixture-types from known (and unknown) manufacturers.

Generic fixture-types like ordinary dimmer channels, simple RGB LEDs, scrollers etc may be found via the manufacturer "Generic"

Altering fixture types must be done in the Fixture Schedule, and any changes first takes place when you exit. If in a session, the new schedule will be uploaded to all other stations

To be able to program the fixtures defined in the Fixture Schedule they need to given either a Channel ID a Fixture ID - or both. Without any ID's you will not be able to program the fixtures, but as opposed to deleting the fixtures, removing ID's we keep existing data in your showfile.

Altering ID's must be done in the Fixture Schedule, and any changes first takes place when you exit. If in a session, the new schedule will be uploaded to all other stations.

To be able to control (and visualize) the fixtures they need to be patched to a given DMX address and Universe.

The grandMA2 supports patching to 256 different universes, and address & universe are given in the format universe.start_address e.g. 1.1 = first address of first universe, 256.512 = last address of last universe.

The DMX-patch does not have to be edited within the Fixture Schedule. The patch may be altered at any-time via the Fixture Sheet or Commandline.

By placing each fixture with XYZ in a three-dimensional environment, the fixtures may be visualized in the Stage Window (wire-frame) and via a connected PC running MA 3D.

Fixture positions does not have to be edited within the Fixture Schedule. The positions may be altered at any-time via the Stage Window.

Click on any of the sub topics for more info about the Extended Operations.

A Chaser is a sequence that run in a loop. It disregards the timing in the sequence and uses the speed setting to run through all the cues. Cue cues are referred to as steps. Each cue is a step in the chaser.

As mentioned above all timing information in the sequence is ignored and all loop information is also not used. Commands are executed and the Command Delay is the one timing from the sequence that's actually used.

You can set a direction in a chase. There are four different directions. "Forward" and "Backward" is self explanatory. A different option is "Bounce". With this it will run through the steps to the end and then run backwards to the first step then change direction again and run forward to the last step and continue bouncing between the first and last step. The last option is "Random". This will run the steps in a random pattern.

But a chase can also run backwards using the GoBack command or GO-. So if you have a chaser that uses the direction "Backward" and you start it using GoBack it will actually run forward. You can change this in the Edit Chase pop-up.

The speed controls the how fast the chaser loops. There are two other important time settings. The two other are called "Fade" and "MFade".

The Fade is used to set how much the chaser should fade between the steps. This is set as a percentage. If the percent is 0, then the chaser will snap between the steps. If it’s all the way up to 100%, then it will use all the time it can (restricted by the speed) to fade between the steps. The MFade is used when you want to fade in the first step and fade out when you stop the chase. This is set as a time value.

On the Chaser Encoder Toolbar you have four encoders. The first encoder (from the left) is the "Master" for the intensity. The second encoder is the "Speed". The next encoder is the "Fade". The last encoder is the "Off-Time".

Using the Chaser encoder toolbar is the best way to change these settings unless you have expanded your chaser to several faders and can assign the function to faders. You can also select the chaser executor and use the Special Masters to change the settings.

This is the list of Colordim colors.

• Colordim 1 = Red
• Colordim 2 = Green
• Colordim 3 = Blue
• Colordim 4 = Amber
• Colordim 5 = White
• Colordim 6 = Warm White
• Colordim 7 = Cool White
• Colordim 8 = Orange
• Colordim 9 = Red Orange
• Colordim 10 = Purple
• Colordim 11 = Indigo
• Colordim 12 = Cyan
• Colordim 13 = Magenta
• Colordim 14 = Yellow
• Colordim 15 = UV
• Colordim 16 = Green Cyan
• Colordim 17 = Medium White

With the command line, you are accessing a database that represents the current show file. The structure of that database is a tree. By default when using the commandline, you are at the root of the tree, and the commands will be directed to the correct branch, by the content of the command. In some situations it may be convenient to direct the commands to a specific part of the tree.

This can be achieved with the ChangeDest keyword.

If the destination is not the root, the Commandline input field will display the destination as a prefix of the commandline. To open the Commandline Feedback window, tap the yellow ball in the commandline.

In the situation above, Store 1 creates FixtureType 1, rather than the usual Cue 1.

When the commandline is directed to a specific destination, you can still do normal operations, however shorthand entry no longer work, you need to enter the full syntax Store Cue 1 to create Cue 1

Well, I can tell you the difference between the two, but to make MA or you change your ways, is a bit out of the scope if this manual. The physical DMX512 output on all grandMA2 products is a 5 pin XLR connector. A connector like that will output one universe equal to 512 DMX channels. Okay, that’s pretty standard knowledge.

So why are MA talking about parameters?

Well, let’s have a look at the DMX history. Some years back the only thing controlled by DMX was dimmers. The standard was designed to make a smooth transition from 0 to 100% Because of the way the protocol works it was decided that 256 steps would do the trick.

A lot of water passed under the bridge and now DMX controls everything (well almost everything). Some things were just not happy with 256 steps (also known as 8-bit). Like Panning from 0 to 460 degrees in 256 steps gives you something close to 1,8 degrees per step. That really wasn’t good enough. So someone thought of adding the values of one DMX channel to another. And then we had 16-bit equals 65.536 steps! That's much better for panning. But some products still needed more than that. And we have 24-bit and that’s a stacking 16.777.216 steps!

MA is only thinking in parameters. If you think of a fixture with a 16-bit Pan, 16-bit Tilt and an 8-bit Dimmer. This is 5 DMX channels, but MA is only calculating this as three parameters (Pan, Tilt & Dim). The internal calculations of the parameters are higher than 8/16/24-bit (more like 32-bit), and they are then converted down to the amount of DMX channels a parameter uses.

Now how does this affect you and why should you care?

Let’s imagine that you have bought a grandMA 2Port Node onPC. This acts like a hardware dongle for 512 parameters. This means that you can with an onPC control 512 parameters. Let’s imagine that you only control dimmers. But you have 512 of them. When MA is only counting parameters, it doesn’t matter if they are 8-bit, 16-bit or 24-bit dimmers.

If MA was counting in DMX channels, you could control 512 8-bit dimmers or 256 16-bit dimmers or 170 24-bit dimmers.

Is that fair? MA doesn’t think so. That’s why they think in parameters and you should be a happy customer :-)

If you want to know more about parameter count and expansion, follow the link below.

Via the Layout Pool, you may create multiple layouts for each part of your stage. Use the Layout View to edit content of layouts and to display layouts.

Let’s first have a look at “Device ID”. This is used to limit the receivers of the MSC message. There are three categories. “Individual device” number, “group” number and “All” devices.

The device ID is a 2 digit hex number. And the three categories are divided like this:

Command format is used to indicate the type of equipment that’s intended to receive the MSC message.

The console responds to and transmits three different command formats. They are:

The console supports five different commands.

The commands are:

This is the same as a GOTO command. After the “01” command you’ll need to specify a cue number (the "Data" part of the massage). Cue numbers need to be transmitted in ASCII format using hex. This means that if you need to transmit the cue number 4 you’ll need to use the hex number “34”. All number can be transmitted by placing a “3” in front of it. A dot is “2E” in hex. So to transmit the cue number “309.45” you’ll need to transmit “33 30 39 2E 34 35”.

You may also specify an executor and executor page number. This is controlled by the MSC options in Setup. You’ll need to separate the cue number and the executor by a “00”.

An executor and page can be separated by a space (00) or a dot (2E). So if you need to trigger cue 5 on executor 4 on page 3 and the separation is a dot, you’ll need to transmit the following data: “35 00 34 2E 33”. If the separator between the executor and page is a space then the same command would be “35 00 34 00 33”.

The grandMA2 always transmit full cue numbers with three decimals. This means that the cue number 2 is transmitted as “2.000” (“32 2E 30 30 30”) and cue number 2.5 is transmitted as “2.500” ("32 2E 35 30 30") but it doesn’t need to receive full cue numbers.

The full MSC message for a GOTO cue 4.5 on executor 12 on page 1 (dot separator) to all devices and all types of equipment is: F0 7F 7F 02 7F 01 34 2E 35 00 31 32 2E 31 F7 .

This is like hitting the pause button. Please read the section above for a better understanding of the hex cue numbering system.

How much you need to transmit is dependent of the MSC options in Setup. If the “MSC In Exec” option is “Default Only” they only the default executor will respond and you don’t need to send any “Data” values. So you’ll only need to send “F0 7F [Device ID] 02 [Command Format] 02 F7”.

The console will transmit “F0 7F [Device ID] 02 [Command Format] 02 30 2E 30 30 30 F7”. This is like sending a “pause running cue” command.

If you have specified in the Setup that you need to specify an executor and a page, then you’ll also have to specify this for the Stop command. And then you’ll have to transmit the “running cue” number. The full MSC message for stopping a running cue on executor 12 on page 1 (dot separator) to all devices and all types of equipment is: F0 7F 7F 02 7F 02 30 00 31 32 2E 31 F7 . This is the shortest possible format for that MSC message. The console would transmit the full message: F0 7F 7F 02 7F 02 30 2E 30 30 30 00 31 32 2E 31 F7 .

This is the only way to continue a paused cue. The only difference between the Stop and Resume commands are the “02” and “03”. So continuing the cue we just paused in the example above would be:F0 7F 7F 02 7F 03 30 00 31 32 2E 31 F7 .

Again if the MSC options in Setup is set to “Default Only”. You can just transmit F0 7F 7F 02 7F 03 F7 to continue the fade.

This is the same as the 01 (Go) command but with a specified time. So, if you haven’t already, please read (and understand) the 01 (GO) section above. Just to make this a bit simpler we are going to pretend that the “Default Only” option is turned on in the MSC options in Setup.

To transmit a timed GOTO you need to specify the time first and then the cue number. The time is specified by five 2-digit hex numbers. They represent (in order) Hour Minute Second Frame and Fraction.

The hour, minute and second sections are very strait forward. You’ll need to transmit the value in hex number but you can transmit a value above the normal limit i.e. you can transmit 64 seconds (“40” in hex). The console will transmit this as 1 minute and 4 seconds.

Right now the console will not accept any time specified in the Frame and Fraction sections. But it transmit values below a second in the Frame section. The console divides the second into 24 frames. So 0.5 seconds is 12 Frames and the received hex number is “0C”.

Follow the link below to a table that compares decimal and hex numbers.

The set command is used to move a fader to specific position. The “06” is followed by two 2-digit hex numbers that indicate the fader and then two more 2-digit hex numbers that dictates the position.

The first of the two numbers for the fader is the fader number (on a page). The first fader are hex number “00”, the second “01” and so on. Remember that this is a hex number so fader 16 have hex number “0F” and 17 is “10”.

The second of the two numbers for the faders are the page number. This is 1 to 1 - although also in hex. But page 1 is “01” in hex and page 2 is “02” etc.

So, how to calculate the position in hex numbers? For this we need to do some math. The faders’ position is defined by a coarse and fine value. The scale for both values is 128 steps. The “Fine” value is transmitted first followed by the “Coarse” value. So you need to multiply the desired fader position (in percent) by 1.28. The resulting integer is the “Coarse” value. The rest of the number (everything on the right side of the separator) should be multiplied with 128 to get the “Fine” value. The two decimal numbers should be converted to hex. You can use the link below to a table that allows you to convert up to decimal number 128.

Let’s try to do an example. Let’s say you want to move a fader to 45%. Multiply 45 with 1.28 (45*1.28) this gives you 57.6. So our Coarse value is “57”. Now we need to multiply 0.6 with 128 (0.6*128). This gives us 76.8. So our Fine value is “76”. Decimal “57” is “39” in hex. Decimal “76” is “4C” in hex. Remember that we need to transmit the Fine value first. Our two hex numbers after “06” is “4C 39”. If we then need to move fader 3 on page 1, our complete MSC message would be: F0 7F 7F 02 7F 06 02 01 4C 39 (all devices and all command formats).

The console only transmit the position of some faders (executors and all the green colored special masters (for the selected executor)), but it accepts positions for all faders that have something assigned.

As mentioned before, you might be using some software that makes this more user friendly, but you might need to know what's really happening down in the hex numbers.

The following are some more examples of MSC messages.

Networking is enabled by Starting (or joining) a Session via MA Network Control, under the Setup>Network tab.

A session is a group of stations, communicating and sharing data within a network. There may coexist 31 different Sessions within the same Network.

Additional members/stations in the session may be added and removed via the MA Network Configuration, under the same tab.

DMX Streaming over Ethernet is configured under the DMX-protocols menu

The MA NPU can be connected to a series 1 or series 2 network.

The MA NPU helps the consoles with the output calculations, and it provides 8 DMX ports that can be configured as input or output. The output follows the USITT DMX512-A protocol.

One of the main thoughts behind the MA NPU, is a central DMX output/input device, that's shared by all the stations in the MA-Net. It supports the system with real time calculations and parameter expansion (4,096 parameters).

The MA NPU is a 3 unit 19" rack mount device with an 7" internal touchscreen. It has 8 DMX ports (5-pin female XLR) and 3 USB plugs.

When you use the MA NPU in Series 2 mode, it provides parameters to the network. It can be used with a grandMA2 console or with grandMA2 onPC.

In this mode, you can use the touch screen to change some of the setting. DMX port settings needs to be changed from a console or onPC.

You can also use the MA NPU in Series 1 mode. When connected to a console or onPC it also provides parameters.

When in series 1 mode, you can only make change to the MA NPU using a USB keyboard.

There are a fewer parameter numbers to remember in grandMA2.

This section is about the parameter count for single units.

If we begin at the top end and work our way down the ranks:

The MA NPU is the only unit that expands your parameter count when you use a grandMA2 console. Every MA NPU you add to your network, also adds 4096 parameters!

You can add a maximum of 15 MA NPUs regardless of your console. There's a maximum limit of 65.536 parameters in a grandMA2 session.

The MA NPUs help with parameter calculations.

When you use a grandMA2 onPC you need some MA hardware to unlock parameters. The maximum allowed parameters for a grandMA2 onPC system is 4096 parameters!

You can combine any number of onPC hardware with your computer. Every piece of hardware will add it's parameters until you reach the limit of 4096 parameters.

This are the only two rules for parameters with grandMA2 onPC.

Remember you can always add more units to get more DMX connectors.

Here are some examples:

grandMA2 onPC + MA onPC command wing = 2048 parameters.

grandMA2 onPC + MA onPC command wing + MA 2Port Node onPC Pro = 3072 parameters.

grandMA2 onPC + + Fader Wing = 4096 parameters.

grandMA2 onPC + MA 2Port Node onPC + MA 2Port Node onPC = 1024 parameters.

grandMA2 onPC + MA onPC command wing + Fader Wing +MA 8Port node onPC = 4096 parameters (you have reached the limit).

grandMA2 onPC + MA onPC command wing + MA NPU = 4096 (you have reached the limit).

If you are using a MA VPU it supplies it's own parameters and doesn't affect the limit. You can control several MA VPU's using an grandMA2 onPC. If you however are using a mix of VPU and other fixtures you need some MA hardware to give you the parameters for the fixtures.

Even though the MA VPU doesn't count in your parameter limit, you should patch your MA VPU on a higher universe than your other fixtures. There's a risk that it will steal the parameters from the other fixtures, if you have it on a lower universe than the fixtures.

A grandMA2 replay unit is basically a grandMA2 light compacted into a rack unit but without the user interface. There's a small 7" internal touch screen that allows to do everything on the small screen.

The screen works as a combination of screen 1 and 2. It's devided into two areas as the multitouch on a console, but the lower part is mostly displaying the encoder toolbars. See below for example screenshots.

The grandMA2 replay unit can be connected to a series 2 network and can only boot in series 2 mode.

The grandMA2 replay unit is a 3 unit 19" rack mount device with an 7" internal command touchscreen.

• 6 female DMX ports and 1 male DMX port (5-pin XLR).
• 2 Ethercon connectors for Ethernet.
• 2 DVI-I connector for external screens.(also specified touch screens)
• 1 MA-Link
• Sub-D 25 connector for remote control
• MIDI in and out
• Sound and LTC input (3-pin female XLR).
• 3 USB plugs
• 1 reset button

Learn more about the inbuilt Stage-View by following the related links at the bottom, and check out the manual of MA 3D here

There are different types of timecodes. The grandMA2 accepts LTC (Linear TimeCode) also known as SMPTE and MTC (MIDI TimeCode). The purpose of timecode is to synchronize the light with other type of medias (e.g. sound and/or video).

The supported time formats are: 24 fps, 25 fps and 30 fps. If you send 29.97 or 30 dropframe, it'll be interpreted as 30 fps.

Worlds are used to limit what you can access and what is displayed in sheets.

The first world in the pool is locked. It contains everything and is used when you don't want to exclude anything.

You can select a new world by simply pressing the pool element.

Worlds can be used as Input filters. This will limit what can be stored. Worlds can also work as Playback Filters for a sequence. This will limit what is executed by a sequence. Let's say you have a sequence that have Dimmer, Pan/Tilt and Color - If you apply a world that only allows dimmer values and some fixtures, then the sequence will only output dimmer values for those fixtures. If you also uses the "Dimmer only" world as a Input filter, then you can only store dimmer values for those fixtures in the sequence. This is all done in the Assign Menu.

Playback filters only works by attributes not by layers (Value, Value Times and Effects). E.g. if you have applied a world that only contains the Effect layers, then everything will still playback - but if you have a world that have only fixture 1, then only fixture 1 will be played back.

In previous versions there where a lot of different filters. They are now all combined and can be stored and recalled from the Filter pool. That means that the Store Filter and the At Filter are now combined into one filter.

The filter contains a selection of Attributes. A filter is always active, but the first filter contains all attributes and therefor doesn't filter anything out. The first filter is also locked and cannot be edited.

A Filter can be applied(called) and/or permanent selected. An applied filter have a green bar in the middle. A selected filter have a green color in the name area. You can select a different filter by pressing Select followed by a different filter button. You can call a different filter temporarily by just pressing one of the filters.

A called filter overwrites the selected filter. If you press and hold the At key or the Store key you'll get the a filter pop-up. Here you can create a temporary filter. This can be store to the first available pool button using the Store Filter and Select. Here you'll also find a Reset Filter on Clear button. This will keep a temporary (called) filter active until the programmer have been cleared.

Filters can be used as Input filters. This will limit what can be stored. Filters can also work as Playback Filters for a sequence. This will limit what is executed by a sequence. Let's say you have a sequence that have Dimmer, Pan/Tilt and Color - If you apply a filter that only allows dimmer values then the sequence will only output dimmer values. If you also uses the "Dimmer only" filter as a Input filter, then you can only store dimmer values in the sequence. This is all done in the Assign Menu.

Playback filters only works by attributes not by layers (Value, Value Times and Effects). E.g. if you have applied a filter that only contains the Effect layers, then everything will still playback.

When it's not the first filter that's active, then the At key will flash.

The filter pool is a global pool that's shared by all users.

Masks are used for hiding fixtures and attributes in sheets. There can be a set of criteria that define the mask.

Some sheets allow you to have up to 10 mask buttons in the title bar of sheets (except DMX sheet). This allows you to apply a mask to only that sheet.

You can set the sheet to follow the selected mask. This will allow you to use the Mask pool to mask all sheets (following selected) at the same time.

A mask pool button can be selected by simply pressing the pool element.

The first 6 masks are locked. The very first mask doesn't mask anything.

The tutorials here are designed to help you understand how the console works.

They start with the Basic tutorials and then moves into more specific areas (still work in progress).

This will give you a short tour through all the most basic things you need to know for creating a show, turn on channels, make groups, store cues and make your screens display the relevant data.

On a grandMA2 there are many different ways to get from A to B. But to get the best result with this tutorial, it’s important that you follow the steps fairly precise. You can always experiment on your own afterwards.

I have chosen to use different markings when I want you to do different things.

If I need you to press a hard key (a key that is physically on the console) it looks like this: Setup. If I’m just referring to the button I will put it in single quotation marks e.g.: 'Setup'.

If you are supposed to press a button on the screen or an area on the screens I will write it like this >>Macro 1<<.

If you are supposed to write text on the keyboard I will write it like this: Moving light. I will often tell you to end a command with 'Please'. This referrers to any of the two Please keys on the console (grandMA2 ultra-light).

When referring to a window on a screen you have created, I will mark it like this: CommandLine Feedback.

If you are doing this on an grandMA2 onPC, you need to imagine all the physical buttons, and use the relevant buttons in the program. I will write this as if you were at a grandMA2 full-size.

A grandMA2 full-size can have up to 6 screens (incl. 2 external). I will refer to them as "Screen 1", "Screen 2", etc.

Screen 1 is the 9" Multi Touch Screen. Screen 2 to 4 is the 15.4" touch screens on a grandMA2 full-size (from right to left). 5 and 6 are the external screens.

If you are at a console that only got one 15.4" touch screen, just ignore everything with screen 3 and 4. You will learn to store and recall screen views on the one screen you have. The same thing applies for the external screens. If you don’t have any, just use the one screen you do have.

This tutorial is originally made on version 1.3 and checked again for version 3.1.

Happy Programming.

The first this you need to do is the press the Backup key. Then make sure the >>Internal<< tab is selected.

Now press the >>New Show<< button.

This gives you the "New Show" pop-up. Here you can write the name of the show and change some options.

In the name box, write this: Tutorial_Basic_1

Make sure you check all the boxes in the pop-up. This ensures that we create a new empty show with all default options.

Your pop-up should look something like this:

Then you can press the >>Please<< button.You might get asked if you want to save the currently loaded show. You could be nice and press >>Save<<.

Now close the "Backup" menu by pressing the yellow X in the upper right corner (this is how you always closes temporary windows.

You have how created a new empty show.

Go to the next page to learn to patch dimmers.

Do you want a show without lights? No, not really! I’'ve made a simple design with some general stage wash.

This gives us a total of 40 dimmer channels. Press the Setup key and press the >>Patch & Fixture Schedule<< button.

This gives you a pop-up is called "Layer Name". Here you write: Dimmers followed by a 'Please'.

Then a part of your screen should look like this:

This is all the input fields we need to fill in to add our fixtures.

Now please press the button called >>Please select fixturetype<<.

Now we are going to select the fixture type we want to add in the show.

We need a simple dimmer fixture that only uses 1 DMX channel. This fixture type is always automatically imported, so we just need to select it in the right hand side of the screen.

Press where it says >>2 Dimmer 00 (DMX 1)<<.

Now you need to add the rest of the information.

The focus is right now at the quantity. Write: 40 followed by a 'Please'.

Now we need to give your first dimmer a Fixture ID. We don't want a fixture ID so write 0 followed by a 'Please'.

We do need a to give them a Channel ID. Write: 1 followed by a 'Please'. This gives the first dimmer an ID number of 1, the second one an ID of 2, etc.

Now we need to give the first dimmer a patch. Write: 1.1 followed by a 'Please'. This places the first fixture in universe 1 and DMX channel 1.

Now it should look like this:

Press the >>Apply<< button. You have now added 40 dimmer channels.

Close the two setup screens using the yellow X and press >>Yes<< to any warning pop-ups.

On the next page we are going to look at controlling those channels.

Often it can be an advantage to see how the console reacts to your commands. This is done on the Commandline Feedback window.

We are going to create this window at the bottom of screen 2 (the 15,4" touchscreen on the right side).

Press anywhere in the upper left corner on the empty screen. The "Create Basic Window" pop-up opens. Press the >>System<< tab and then the >>Command line<< button.

You have created a Commandline Feedback window.

It gives you a lot of information.

To resize the window, tap and hold the yellow dots at the bottom right corner of the window and move the window smaller or bigger.

To move the window, tap and hold at the blue title bar of the window and move the window around.

Now size and move your window so it takes up three lines at the bottom of the screen.

To view your 40 channels you need a Channel Sheet window.

Press the upper left corner on screen 2. Then select the >>Sheets<< tab in the "Create Basic Window" and then the >>Channel<< button.

You have now created a Channel Sheet. Here you can see your channels and the values they have.

Your screen should now look something like this (made a bit smaller to fit this manual):

You can store your view on any of the view buttons in the side of your screen.

Now we are going to store our view on the top button just right to screen 2.

Press Store key followed by the V1 key (or the top right empty view button on screen 2 - the one with number 1.1).

This gives you a pop-up. It asks which screens you want to store. Without changing anything press the >>Please<< button.

You have now created a view. Let's give it a name.

Press Assign key twice followed by the V1. This gives you a pop-up. Here you write: Channel followed by a 'Please'.

You can see in your Commandline Feedback window writes this:

This tells you that you have given your view a new label.

On the next page we are going to learn about controlling the values of the channels.

There are many ways to turn on channels on a grandMA2. Let's begin with one of the simple ones. Press 1 At 1 0 0 Please. You have now turned on channel 1 at 100%. Let's look at what else happened. The channel ID "1" has changed to a yellow color and the background behind the value has changed to a red color. Also the value (in this case the intensity) is now in a red color. The yellow color means that the channel is selected and you can change the value. Press At 5 0 Please. Since the channel is already selected you can just give it a new value and it is now at 50%. Now press Clear once. Channel 1 is no longer selected and you can't just change the intensity again. The red background color indicates that the value will be saved if you press 'Store' (don't do it now). Instead press once more on Clear. The only thing left is the value in the red color. This means that it's still in the temporary memory (called the programmer), but it will not be saved if you store. Press Clear once more. Now channel 1 is turned off and it's not in the programmer anymore. Instead of pressing the 'Clear' button 3 times you can keep it pressed for about 1 second and you have cleared the programmer.

There are other ways to turn a channel at 100%. Here's another example: 1 At At. This is a shortcut to give the channel a value of 100%. Press . twice. This gives channel 1 a value of 0%. You can of course also use "At 0 Please". The value is in the programmer and will be stored (if you save a cue). Press Clear until the programmer is cleared. If you have several channels in the programmer and just what to "release" one, you can use the 'Off' button in combination with the 'Channel' button. Turn on channel 1 at 100%. Now press Off Channel 1 Please. The final way (I will introduce to you) is the "Level" wheel. With this you can change the value fast and simple. Turn it away from you and the value of the selected channels goes up. Turn it towards yourself and it goes down.

If you want to turn on several channels at the same time you need the buttons '+' and/or 'Thru'. They are pretty self-explanatory. Guess what you need to press to turn on channel 1 to 10 plus 20 at 20%. This is the fast way: 1 Thru 1 0 + 2 0 At 2 0 Please. If you want to exclude channels you can use '-' (minus). So if you want to give channel 1 to 10 plus 20 but minus 5 a value of 0%, this is the fastest way: 1 Thru 1 0 + 2 0 - 5 . . .

You can also use '+' and '-' to change the value. 5 At + 3 0 Please. This brings channel five up to 50%. 5 At - 5 0 Please. Brings the channel down to 0%.

Now you know how to assign values to channels. Finish this section by clearing your programmer.

On the next page we are going to look at Groups.

Since we are going to make some groups it would be practical to be able to see them.

I find it nice to have it at the same screen (since there's room). So I suggest making the Channel Sheet one line smaller and then press the empty space on the left side.

Again we are presented with the "Create Basic Window" pop-up. This time you need to access the >>Pools<< tab. Here we find the >>Groups<< button. Now you got some empty group buttons right at your fingertips. You could store this as a new view (or store your existing view again).

All the odd numbers in our light plot have a warm color and all the even ones have a cold color. We are going to make some groups with those colors. The first one is all the warm colors from front of house. Press: 5 + 7 + 9 + 1 1 Please . Now you have selected channel 5, 7, 9 and 11. Then press Store followed by the first available group button. Groups cannot contain any value so we don't need to assign any.

Before you do anything else, use your keyboard to write: FOH Warm. Should you have touched anything else (buttons, screens, anything) before typing, you can use a different method to name things (e.g. groups). The function is called "Label" and you access it by pressing the 'Assign' key twice (we already did that, remember?). Do that and then press the first group button again. Now you have the option to change the name, delete it, or type it for the first time. When you are happy press Please”.

Look at your Channel Sheet. Here you can see that the numbers 5, 7, 9 and 11 have the yellow color, meaning that they are still selected. We are done with those four channels, so press the 'Clear' key once.

All right, now I have told you everything you need to know about making groups. In all we need 12 groups. I have gathered all the information you need for making the groups in a table. You have already made group 1, but the rest is a nice little exercise.

Group number:	Channels:	Name:
1	5 + 7 + 9 + 11	FOH Warm
2	17 + 19 + 21 + 23	LX1 Warm
3	25 + 27 + 29 + 31	LX2 Warm
4	33 + 35 + 37 + 39	LX4 Warm
5	1 + 3 + 13 + 15	Box Warm
6	All uneven numbers	All Warm
7	6 + 8 + 10 + 12	FOH Cold
8	18 + 20 + 22 + 24	LX1 Cold
9	26 + 28 + 30 + 32	LX2 Cold
10	34 + 36 + 38 + 40	LX4 Cold
11	2 + 4 + 14 + 16	Box Cold
12	All even numbers	All Cold

When you are done, your group pool should look something like this:

On the next page we will make the first cue.

A light cue is saved in a sequence. The grandMA2 can handle an almost unlimited number of sequence.

We only need one for this tutorial. All cue numbers are in numeric order i.e. cue number 4 cannot be before cue number 3. But the cue can have any name.

First of all we need a window where we can see our sequence. Click on the top left cell on one of your empty screens. If you only have one screen you need to clear it first (by deleting the windows already there - don't delete the ViewButton) and then press the empty cell.

The window we need is called Sequence Executor, so in the "Create Basic Window" pop-up, select the >>Sheets<< tab and press the button called >>Sequence Executor<<. You could save this as a (new) view.

The first thing you should do is to select the first executor. Press:Select Exec 1 . You can always locate your selected fader by its green background color where it says "Seq". In a minute when we assign a sequence to that fader, then the number on the key underneath the fader is brighter. The green LED is on when the executor is on.

Let’s make our first cue. Press: 2 0 At 4 0 Please. Then Store Please. That was it! You have now saved channel 20 at 40% in cue 1 in sequence 1 at executor fader 1.

If you don’'t specify anything else the console assumes you are referring to your selected executor and the sequence assigned to that executor. You can always locate your selected executor by its green background color where it displays the sequence name (now it says "Sequ").

You also got a line in your Sequence Executor window. Most of the columns are self-explanatory - but I will mention some of them. "Number" is of course the cue numbers. "Name" is the name. "Trig" describes what triggers the cue. If we look at our first cue, the trigger is "Go". This means that to execute the cue you need to press a Go key. "Fade", "Out Fade", "Delay" and "Out Delay" shows you the respective times.

Before we make any more cues, let’s change the cue name. If you don’t specify anything the desk names it "Cue" and then the cue number. Press Assign Assign Cue 1 Please. Use the keyboard to write Behind Curtain followed by a 'Please'. A different way to change the cue name is to right click on the name with the mouse. No matter what way you choose - your first cue should now have the name "Behind Curtain".

If you can't see the entire name you can expand the column width by placing the mouse cursor on the line that divides "Name" and "Trig". When you are at the right place, your cursor changes so it now also has a little horizontal double ended arrow. Click and hold the left mouse button while you drag the mouse to your right. Then release the mouse button again. Now your Sequence Executor window should look something like this (I made this view on screen 1):

On the next page we are going to create more cues.

Let’s make some more cues. Press: 2 0 + 2 8 At 8 0 Store Cue 2 Time 1 5 Please . That created cue 2 with a fade time of 15 seconds. Let’s continue with cue 3. Now we’re going to use the groups and the command line.

You need to locate the Command Line on screen 1 or 2. It looks like this:

This is the CommandLine. It can be a fast way to get around the console and the commands. But sometimes the keys are fastest. In the CommandLine type this:

followed by Please . Then type:

followed by Please . Now let's have a look at the commandline feedback and how the console has responded (please don't press any buttons).

What does all this mean? "g" is a short cut to "Group". That means the respond to the first line is:

The "t" in the second line as a short for "thru". The console respond to the second line is:

Mowing on, we are gonna store the cue using the hardkeys: Store Time 2 0 Time 2 5 Please. This is the response from the console:

Now why is this? We typed "Time 20 Time 25". The desk interprets this as 20 seconds Fade and 25 seconds OutFade. Pretty clever, huh?

Notice that after the second cue we don't need to specify the cue number. The desk automatically uses the next available whole number.

In cue 4 we need to take 30% of everything that is on. We do this in a fast and easy way: If Please At - 3 0 Store Time 1 0 Please .

That was fast! By using "If Please" you get the command "IfOutput", this selects everything that has output. Then using "At - 30" you subtract 30% from whatever value the channels had before (of course nothing less than 0%).

Now we're going to make a lot of changes: Group 6 . . Group 9 Thru 1 1 At 6 0 Please Group 7 + 8 At 7 5 Store Time 1 5 Time Time 5 Please .

What is "Time 15 Time Time 5"? If you have a look at your Command Line Feedback” it reads: "Fade 15 Delay 5". This means that you told the desk to delay the execution of the cue with 5 seconds after you've pressed the "Go" button (and then fade at 15 seconds - but you probably guessed that).

With the "Time" command we can assign many different times. A command like: "Time 20 Time 15 Time 10 Time 5" is translated to: "Fade 20 OutFade 15 Delay 10 OutDelay 5".

The last cue we are going to make is a blackout. And we do that with only six button presses: If Please . . Store Please . That was our 6 cues. It was hopefully fast and painless.

The next page we are going to make some changes to the sequence.

We would like to change cue 3 to automatically activate when cue 2 is done. You do this by right-clicking with the mouse (or pressing Edit and then) on the screen where it says "Go" in the "Trig" column in the Sequence Executor sheet in cue 3.

This gives you a drop down box with the following choices: Go, Time, Follow, Sound, BPM, SMPTE, and MTC . Press >>Follow<<.

When cue 2 is done, then the console automatically activates the fade to cue 3.

Let's change the cue names. You know how to do this, so I just made a table:

Cue Number:	Name:
1	Behind Curtain
2	With Curtain Up
3	Build
4	Darker
5	Cold
6	B.O.

If you need to, then expand the "name" column in your Sequence Executor Sheet, so you can see the entire names.

Let's imagine that we’'ve got a lighting designer who has changed his mind. He wants 5% more on the group called "LX 1 Warm" in cue 3. Let’'s go to cue 3: Goto 3 Time 0 Please .

What happened? We called the cue and activated the executor. And we now have a yellow frame on cue 3 in the Sequence Executor Sheet. To go to cue 3 you only need to write "Goto 3 Please". We added "Time 0". This overwrites the fade times stored in the cue and we didn't have to wait for the cue to fade in.

Let'’s move on: Group 2 At + 5 Please . Now the 'Update' button lights up. This means you can update the activated cue. Press Update and without worrying about anything press the U3 key (or where it says: "Tracking Update") so the button changes to "Update Cue Only". Press the X7 key (or where it says "Update Cue") to update the cue. To exit the cue and deactivate the sequence you need to press the top button above executor fader 1.

Let's change some of the times in the cue list. This is how your times should end up:

Fade	Out Fade	Delay	Out Delay
0	.	.	.
15	.	3	.
20	25	.	.
10	.	.	.
15	10	.	5
0	.	.	.

Look at the Sequence Executor Sheet. Right click on the cells and type in the new value ether on "the calculator" on the screen, the buttons on your desk or using the keyboard. The final result should look like this:

Try pressing the big 'Go+' ”button to see how your channels react to the different times.

To save the show, press Backup Backup .

That was it! Now you know the most elementary things. You have learned to create a show, make a simple patch, create views, turn on channels, save and use groups and finally creating a sequence with cues with different times.

This will give you a short tour through all the most basic things you need to know for adding fixtures to the patch, controlling fixtures, creating presets, adding a sequence and using worlds.

This tutorial builds on the first tutorial. I strongly recommend making that one first: Tutorial Basic 1.

On a grandMA2 there are many different ways to get from A to B. But to get the best result with this tutorial, it’s important that you follow the steps fairly precise. You can always experiment on your own afterwards.

I have chosen to use different markings when I want you to do different things.

If I need you to press a hard key (a key that is physically on the console) it looks like this: Setup. If I’m just referring to the button I will put it in single quotation marks e.g.: 'Setup'.

If you are supposed to press a button on the screen or a area on the screens I will write it like this >>Macro 1<<.

If you are supposed to write text on the keyboard I will write it like this: Moving light. I will often tell you to end a command with 'Please'. This referrers to any of the two Please keys on the console (only one on the grandMA2 ultra-light).

When referring to a window on a screen you have created, I will mark it like this: CommandLine Feedback.

If you are doing this on an grandMA2 onPC , you need to imagine all the physical buttons, and use the relevant buttons in the program. I will write this as if you where at a grandMA2 full-size.

A grandMA2 full-size can have up to 6 screens (incl. 2 external). I will refer to them as "Screen 1", "Screen 2", etc.

Screen 1 is the 9" Multi Touch Screen. Screen 2 to 4 is the 15.4" touch screens on a grandMA2 full-size (from right to left). 5 and 6 are the external screens.

If you are at a console that only got one 15.4" touch screen, just ignore everything with screen 3 and 4. You will learn to store and recall screen views on the one screen you have. The same thing applies for the external screens. If you don’t have any, just use the one screen you do have.

This tutorial is originally made for version 1.3 and updated for version 3.1.

Happy Programming.

Before we are doing anything else, we need to store the show with a new name.

But maybe you need to load the show from "Tutorial Basic 1" first.

Press the Backup key and then make sure you have chosen the "Internal" tab. Now press the >>Load Show<< button.

Locate your saved show from tutorial basic 1 in the list of shows. Make sure all the boxes on the right side is checked and then press the >>Ok<< button.

Now we have loaded the show (again).

Still in the Backup Menu, press the >>Save Show As<< button and in the pop-up write this: Tutorial_Basic_2.

Now we have saved our show with a new name and we can close the Backup Menu using the yellow cross in the upper right corner.

Should you get a warning that there's already a show with that name, then you could add your name in front "Tutorial".

We just got 9 Mac 700 Profiles from Martin Professional. And we want to add them to the patch. This is what the new light plot looks like:

All right, let's go. Press the Setup key and then the >>Patch & Fixture Schedule<< button.

We want to add the fixtures in a new layer. So that's the first thing we are gonna add.

Make sure the "Layer" part (the left half) of the screen is selected (the headline has a bright blue background), and then press the 'Add Layer' key (it's the X1 key)

In the pop-up write: Mac700.

Now the console takes us to the Fixture Wizard. The idea is that we have created a new Layer, so we most likely want to add fixtures to it. Press >>Please select fixturetype<<. Now press >>From Library<< (on the right half of screen 1) to import a new fixture type into the show from the console library.

The library is a big list of all the different fixture types know to the console.

The list can be filtered by the manufacturer and by the name of the fixture. There are two input fields at the top part of the window. At the top you'll also find a "Select Drive" drop down. Make sure the "Internal" drive is selected.

The manufacturer is "Martin" and we need the "Mac 700 Profile" in extended mode.

So type "Martin" in the manufacturer filter and simply "700" in the Fixture filter. Now the list is only showing the fixtures with 700 in the name from Martin. The list has a "Mode" column. Here you can see that there are Basic and Extended versions.

Press the one we need.

You window should look like this:

When you have selected the correct fixture type press the >>Import<< button.

The quantity is "9".

For the Fixture and Channel ID we need them both to start at "111". And the patch should begin at the second universe with DMX channel 1 (that makes the first fixtures patch number "2.1") and now press the >>Apply<< button.

But we are not quite done. We need to change some of the Channel and Fixture ID's to match the light plot. When you are done your fixture list should look like this:

And now we can exit both the Edit Setup pop-up (say "Yes" to save the changes) and the Setup menu.

Go to the next page to learn about the Fixture Sheet.

Now that we have fixtures it would be nice to see what they are doing. For this we are going to need the Fixture Sheet window.

I like the fixture sheet on screen 2. That way it's directly above the four encoders. But it's all up to you where you put it on the screens.

When you have room for it, press the empty space where you want your Fixture Sheet. In the Create Basic Windows pop-up you need to select the "Sheets" tab and then press the >>Fixtures<< button.

Now you have a Fixture Sheet. Here your fixtures are (as a default) represented as a list. Your fixture are in rows and the different attributes (like Dimmers, Pan/Tilt, Gobos, etc.) are sorted in columns.

When you press the yellow ball in the upper left corner of the sheet you get the sheet options (it's also here you can delete a window - if you haven't noticed).

You can follow the link below to read details about the Fixture Sheet. This is how my fixture sheet looks:

These are my sheet options:

Tools:

• Preset Control - Off
• Layer Control - On
• Filter Control - Off
• Multi Control - Off
• ScrollBar Horizontal - On
• Scrollbar Vertical - On

LayerMask:

• Select Layer - Auto
• Select Mask - None
• Enable Mask - Off
• Follow Selected Mask - Off
• Save Mask Always - Off

Display:

• Sheet Style - Horizontal
• Font - DejaVu 12
• Readout - Natural
• Symbol Output - Auto
• Symbol Features - On
• Cue Colors - On
• Namefield - Off
• Channel ID - On
• Fixture ID - On
• Columns - 20
• Feature Sort - On
• Fixture Sort - Off
• Enable Marker - On
• Preset Readout - Numbers & Names
• Hide Empty Cells - On
• Merge same values - Off
• MixColor Readout - Default

Title Buttons:

• We are not gonna change this, so they can just keep there default options for now.

Mask (Local):

• We are not gonna use Feature Mask, so they can just keep there default options.

That was a lot of options. If you need to learn the details about the fixture sheet, please follow the link below.

But for now please just move on with the tutorial. On the next page we are going to have a look at how to control fixtures and use the fixture sheet.

The key to control fixtures is this bar:

It's the "Preset Control" bar. With this you can control what preset type you have assigned to the encoders.

The bar displays only the preset types you have access to. You might have noticed that before we added the Mac 700's there was only the "Dimmer" button in the bar.

The bar might disappear when you move focus to something else. Like working in the Sequence Executor Sheet. But you can always bring it back by pressing somewhere in your Fixture Sheet or Channel Sheet.

To control fixtures you need to select them. Let's try with fixture 111. Press 1 1 1 Please.

This selects the fixture, and you can assign a dimmer value using the methods you learned in Tutorial basic 1. Or you can select the "Dimmer" preset type using the bar and turn the first encoder to turn up the lights.

Select "Position" by pressing it. Notice how your encoder changes function according to what preset type you have selected. With the "Position" your encoders look like this:

Turning the encoders changes the values. Turning them with the encoder pressed changes the value faster. if you want to make smaller movement with a turn (increasing the resolution) you can press the "Normal / Fine / Ultra" button next to the value.

Notice how some of the buttons in the Preset Control Bar have a red square and some a gray one. The red one indicates that you have changed values in that preset type. These values will be stored if you press the 'Store' key (don'’t do it).

Press the >>Gobo<< button. Now instead of turning the first encoder, just press it shortly. This is where the "calculator" proves its power. The "calculator" is the pop-up that allows you to input values to attributes using a graphic interface. This is what it looks like with "Gobo 1" selected:

Next to the usual buttons with numbers etc. there is a lot of buttons that changes according to your selections. When gobo is selected you have easy access to all the different gobos. Select the one called "Water".

When our fixture has more than one gobo wheel you can choose the others by using the "Feature" button:

This button has several options. You can press it shortly to toggle through the different options or you can press it and hold your finger on it while you swipe outside the button. This opens a list of all the possible option for this buttons:

The last thing I will introduce you to is how to control colors.

Press the Preset Type button "Color". The first thing you see is the attribute "C1" - this is color wheel 1. This works as all the other attributes.

Now try to select "MixColor" using the "Feature" button. This assigns Red, Green and Blue on the first three encoders. The actual fixtures are using a CMY colors sytem, but the grandMA2 translate this into RGB. This is done to streamline the control across several fixtures that might use different color mixing systems - so you only have to think about one color system. You can control the color attributes manually by turning the encoders.

But it also gives you the possibility to press the "Special Dialog" button - press it now. It should bring you this window on screen 1 (the 9" multi touch screen):

Here you can choose a color by pressing anywhere in the colored area. You can also see how this affects your HSB, CMY and RGB values.

The Q fader is only active when fixtures with other additive color channels are selected. If the Q fader is set to 0% / Pure, the color is mainly mixed from the additionial color channesl, e.g. Amber. If the Q fader is set to 50 % / Max, the colors is mixed with maximum intensity together with RGB. If the Q fader is set to 100% / Primary, the color is mixed only from RGB channels.

Try to press the U1 key (or where it says "Fader"). This gives you this window:

It's three different ways to assign a color to your fixture. Here you can control the gradiant color wheels using HSB (Hue, Saturation & Brightness), CMY (Cyan, Magenta & yellow) and/or RGB (Red, Green & Blue). They are all connected, so other faders will move when you are moving one.

Try to press the U3 key (Swatch Book). The window changes to this:

This can be used to choose a color much like the ones in the books of the leading gel manufacturers.

Notice how your Fixture Sheet changes and always shows you what your fixture is outputting.

Press U4 or tap at >>Raw Faders<<. The raw faders opens:

The raw faders displays all color channels of the selected fixture. Again it shows you RGB even though the actual fixtures uses CMY - don't worry.

Take some time to experiment with the fixture controls. When you’'re done clear your programmer and move on to the next page.

A preset is a way to store a set of values. There are around 10 different types of presets. They are named "All", "Dimmer", "Position", "Gobo", "Color", "Beam", "Focus", "Control", "Shapers" & "Video". Basically the preset type can only store their own kind of info i.e. the "Position" preset type can only store info about Position values.

The exception to this is the "All" presets. They can store info about all the types of values. The Preset Pool windows are a lot like the Group Pool window except if you have nothing selected the first time you press a preset button, the desk selects the fixtures/channels that can use that preset. If you press a second time the desk assigns the values (stored in the preset) to the fixtures/channels.

The last special button you might see is called "Dynamic". This is not a preset type, but it's a pool window that automatically changes type depending on what you have selected in the Preset Type Bar - very nice.

In this tutorial we are gonna use "All", "Position", "Gobo" and "Color" presets. How you arrange them is all up to you. You know how to create and store views.

But one thing that is good to know is that you can decide what color the frame around the different preset pools should have.

You enter the Pool Options by pressing the yellow ball above the preset pool headline:

Here you'll find a button called "Frame Color". Press it and press any if the colors on the left side of the options pop-up. This changes the color on you pool frames. When you are happy with the color please close the option pop-up by pressing the >>X<< in the upper right corner of the pop-up.

When you are done, your view could look something like this:

On the next page we are gonna look at creating presets.

In just a few seconds we are going to store a preset. But to make sure we save them correctly we need to examine the "Store options". Press and hold the Store key. After approx. 1 second the Store Options pop-up appears. The only thing we are interested in is the "Preset Options" they look like this:

Press the buttons until it looks like the buttons above. When you are happy press >>Save as Default<< in the title bar.

Finish by pressing the Esc key twice (we are not storing anything right now).

All right, try placing all your moving lights in different positions.

When you are happy, make sure you can see the preset pool called "Position". Press Store and the first (Position) preset button.

Now instead of values our fixture sheet shows "P 2.1". This refers to Preset Pool 2, Pool Button 1. If you have given the preset a name, then this name will appear instead.

Move your lights to different position. Now press StorePreset 2 . 2 Please. This creates a second position preset. The "2 ." is a reference to the position presets (you may recall the window you created was called "2 Position").

Move your light and make one more position preset. Clear your programmer.

Select the first Mac 700 (Fixture 111). Change the color to a blue one using the Specialized Color Dialog. Press and hold the Store key. In the "Store Options" press the button "Preset Type Default" until it is changed to "Global". Now store it to the first color preset.

So what's the difference to the 2 different store options? All the Position presets we made with the "Preset Type Default" option - and the default for Position is something called "Selective". Notice the red "S" in the preset pool buttons. This means that the presets only applies to the fixtures that actually had values when you stored the preset. The "Global" - Yellow "G" - means that this preset applies to all fixtures of the same fixture types even though you have only created it with some of them.

The last option "Universal" (we haven't used yet) may be used to make presets that applies also to other fixture types than the one(s) used for creation. this functionality applies only to the generic attributes dimmer, pan, tilt and colormix.

Make 2 more color presets. Make 3 different gobo presets. Clear your programmer.

Press: 1 1 1 Thru 1 3 3 PleasePleasePleaseStorePreset 0 . 1 Please. Now you have made an "All" preset that contains all the default values of the fixtures (The "Please Please Please" activates all parameters of the fixtures).

You should have presets that look something like this (I have rearranged the view so all the created presets are visible):

This is what we need for making our new second sequence. Go to the next page to do that.

Clear your programmer. Press the first Position preset twice. Now press Store and one of the buttons labeled "3" around executor fader 3.

Now we got our second sequence. Let’'s build some more into it. Select executor fader 3 by pressing Select followed by one of the executor buttons around the executor fader. Press the first Gobo and Color presets followed by Store Please. Then we got the Save pop-up:

Here you choose how you want to store things. Press >>Merge<<.

That was our first cue. Clear the programmer. Press the second Position twice followed by the second Gobo and Color presets and then Store Please. This time choose >>Create second Cue<< in the Store pop-up.

Make a third cue with the third Position, Gobo and Color presets.

The last cue I need you to make is a cue containing the "All" preset and all the cue times need to be 0 seconds! Clear your programmer.

Select your first sequence. Now press the green name field above the executor fader (where it says "Behind Curtain"):

On screen 1 you see some of the functions for that executor fader - please press the U1 button or where it says >>Function<<. This window can be a bit confusing the first you see it, but right now we are only interested in is the size of the executor. Change that to 2 by pressing the X2 key (or where it says "Width 2").

Now we need to change the button assignment. The buttons and fader can have a lot of different functions (explaining those goes beyond the scope of this tutorial). Press where it says "XF" and in the small pop-up select >>Rate<<.

Press where it says >>GoBack<< and choose the option called >>Rate 1<<. Change the rest of the buttons so they end up looking like this:

Close the Assign Menu by using the yellow X. What is a Rate fader? Well, the rate fader is used for changing the overall cue time of the fade. You can speed it up or slow it down to a complete stop. The times are not changes in the sequence permanently, just adapted to the faders position.

The button called "Rate1" resets the fader to the mid position, where all the times are back at their saved times.Try to move the fader while looking at the Sequence Executor Sheet. Reset the Rate when done.

The '<<<' and '>>>' steps one cue back and forward accordingly without time.

Have you noticed that we didn'’t save any dimmer values to the fixtures in the second sequence? We are going to put those in our first sequence. And we are going to do some sequence linking.

In your Sequence Executor window make sure you can see the "CMD" (command) column.

Right-click in the "CMD" cell for cue 1 and in the pop-up write: Goto cue 1 exec 1.3 followed by a 'Please'. In the "CMD" cell for cue 3 right-click and write: Goto cue 2 exec 1.3also followed by a 'Please'. In cue 4 the command is for cue 3 on executor 1.3. And in cue 6 we need a command to cue 4. When you’re done it should look like this:

Now press the big Go+ key. Notice that booth sequences go to cue number 1. That’'s the command doing its trick.

Press the >>> executor button. Turn on your moving light at full. Press Update. Press the U1 key (or where it says "Original Content Only") followed by the X10 key (or where it says: "Save as Default").

Now there are two possible sequences to update. Make sure you update the one called "Sequ 1 'Behind Curtain'". You can do this by pressing the correct line.

Go to cue 6. Notice that the moving light gets the dimmer value "P0.1". This is actually the value 0%. But to make sure that no matter what, they go to 0, let’'s store this value in the first sequence also. Press: 1 1 1 Thru 1 3 3 . . Update. Now you can see that you also have the option to update the preset. Don'’t do that; just update the cue in sequence 1.

Clear your programmer and try moving back and forward in your sequence to see how the link works.

On the next page we are going to have a look at "Worlds".

One last little treat for you is the Worlds. You can use the worlds to limit your own (and others) access to channels or fixtures. Find an empty space on your screens and create a new window called Worlds(it's in the "pools" section).

Press: 1 Thru 4 0 Please Store followed by the second world button. Name it "Dimmers".

Clear your programmer. Now press: 1 1 1 Thru 1 3 3 Please Store followed by world button number three. Name this "Moving Lights". When you are done it should look something like this (remember you can change the frame color):

Now you actually got three worlds! The two you created and then there is a default world called "Full". This one can't be changed. It will always give you the full world - access to all fixtures and channels.

Select >>Dimmers<<. Now try to press: 1 1 1 Please. It doesn’'t work and they have disappeared from the fixture sheet.

If you select >>Moving Lights<< you can’'t control the dimmers.

You can still run sequences and the cues will run all their content (Dimmers and Moving Light) as if you were in the "Full" world. The only effect the worlds have is what you can select, manipulate and store in your programmer.

You should save your show. You can do this in the command line:

That was it! You have learned to make changes to the patch, controlling fixtures, creating and use presets, linking sequence and creating and use worlds.

A macro-button has several ways to interact with your command-line.

Lets say we have a Macro 5, with the command-line text "Highlight". Pressing this Macro, the following are processed by the console:

:Macro:Highlight

- the result is that Highlight is enabled/disabled, as expected.

But opposed to the normal Highlight Hardkey, you cannot operate this button without destroying what you currently are entering in the command-line. This is because the press of the Macro-button is interacting with your command-line - the macro is called via your normal command-line-input.

Open the Macro Editor, and disable the CLI option (X6) for Macro 5, close editor. Then try to press the macro-button again:

:Macro:Highlight

The push of your macro-button is now processed directly. You can operate it and turn Highlight on and off at any time, even if you are in the middle of entering some other commands.

So let us try to Edit the macro again by pressing Edit and the macro-button.

It is not possible anymore! Even if we have Edit in the commandline, pressing the macro just turns Highlight On and Off.

When we disabled CLI, we told the console that this macro-button should not interact with our commandline, so it does not react to our Edit Command either.

Don't' worry, the disabled CLI only applies to buttons in the pool, and when the Macro is assigned to an Executor or View-button. By using the commandline we can still tell the console that we want to edit this macro, via the Macro keyword, and the ID of the Macro.

Enter Edit Macro 5 in the command-line, followed by Please, to open the Editor when CLI is disabled.

Lets say we have a Macro 3, with the commandline text "Fixture 15". Pressing this Macro, the following are processed by the console:

:Macro:Fixture 15

- the result is that Fixture 15 gets selected, as expected.

What if we want to do something else with Fixture 15, than selecting it? can the Macro we made be used for this as well?

e.g. The syntax Edit Fixture 15 usually gives the dialog for changing patch and default-values for Fixture 15, so as our macro basically does "Fixture 15", how can we use the macro to get the dialog to patch Fixture 15?

Pressing Edit, then the Macro button, we are editing Macro 5, not editing Fixture 15.

To be able to interact with the content of the macro, we need first to disable the macro-button's own CommmandLine Interaction (CLI), as in previous example, then we need to make sure that the macro-text "Fixture 15" is appended to whatever is in the Command-line. Appending a macro-line to the users existing commandline is done by starting the macroline with the @-sign:

You may also use the @-sign at the end of the macro-line, to indicates that the macro shall wait for the user to append some more text, before the line is processed.

By adding the @-sign both in the beginning and at the end, a singleline macro is effectively just putting text into the commandline.

Similar to the SetVar keyword is the SetUserVar keyword. The only difference is that a variable defined with the SetVar is global for all users, while variables defined with SetUserVar applies to the current user only.

With the keyword ListVar and ListUserVar, the Commandline Response Window will list current variables and their content.

:Global: $CHORUSCHASERS = Executor 201 + 204 + 205

You can also Export multiple macros in one xml-file, by exporting a range of macros to one file.

1. Mark 4 physical points A to D on your stage. The 4 points have to span a rectangle.

2. Enter the physics of point A to D depending on the mode:
   • Absolute mode: Select all fixtures and enter the coordinates of point A (X,Y,Z) and the correct distances to the points B and D - C is automatically calculated.
   • Free mode: Select all fixtures and enter the correct coordinates of point A (X,Y,Z), B (X,Y,Z), C (X,Y,Z) - D Is automatically calculated.

3. Focus each fixture to position A using pan and tilt attributes.

4. Select all fixtures again and press the Store button followed by the soft button A. The position of the current selection will be stored for point A.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for points B, C and D.

6. Select all fixtures again and press the soft button Calibrate. The physical positions of all selected fixtures are calibrated now.

But before doing a lot of programming, we need to have a look at the theory behind the effects.

Effects run in a loop between two values. This uses a 'Form' to change between the values over a period of time.

A form could be a sine curve:

In the effect editors we have two options to look at values. One is 'low' / 'high' the other is 'Center' / 'Size'. In the following tutorials we are going to look at both methods.

When using 'Low' / 'High' mode, then bottom part of the form is 'Low' and the top part is 'High'. When using the other method, the 'Center' value will define a value to move over and under. It's the horizontal center line in the picture above. The 'Size' value will make the form bigger or smaller.

In cues and in the programmer, the speed of the effect is often controlled by the 'Speed' value. This can be modified with a 'Rate' or 'Speed' master.

If you need to spread out a group of fixtures to begin different places in the effect loop you need to use 'Phase'. Phase is often described as a number between 0 and 360. Think of the loop as a circle, and the numbers as a number of degrees on that circle.

And this is basically what you need for an effect.

Some forms can also use parameters like 'Width', 'Attack' and 'Decay'.

'Width' controls how much the form should occupy the cycle. A 'Width' of 100% makes the form take up all the time in the cycle. If the 'Width' is only 50% then the form only occupies the first half of the cycle.

'Attack' And 'Decay' is used to 'fade' values in forms that doesn't normally fade (Random, PWM (Pulse Width Modulator) and Chase).

In the following tutorials we will look at:

• Creating an effect in the programmer.
• Creating a template effect.
• Making effects using presets.
• Using effects in cues.
• Editing effects using the command line.
• Changing an effect with a macro.
• Different ways to run and use effects.

You will get the best result if you follow the steps precisely. You can always save your show, play around, and then return to your saved show.

Go to the next page for setting up a new show with some fixtures.

I will not go into details of how to do this (it's outside the scope if this tutorial).

Create a completely empty new show.

Name it "Tutorial Effects" followed by your name.

Create 10 "Mac 700 Profile Extended" from Martin Lighting.

Place then in one line, 5 meters above the floor facing down. They need to have approx. 1 meter between them. Ca. in the middle of the room. They need to be hanged so fixture 1 is at the stage right and they all follow in number, ending with fixture 10 at the stage left.

Create views that gives you a fixture sheet (with the Layer Control Bar turned on), color presets and an Effect pool.

And it might be nice with a view with the "Stage" window.

That's it. Now you are ready to go to the next tutorial page.

When working with effects in the programmer there are some elements that are vital for controlling what's going on.

In the fixture sheet you need to turn on the 'Layer Control bar'. In this bar you'll find some buttons. Press the magenta 'Effect Layers' button so the bar looks like this:

These buttons allows you to control what part of the effect you are controlling with your encoders.

We are also going to use the 'Encoder Effect Toolbar'. It's the one above the encoders (bottom of screen two). This is what it looks like when you are in the Effects Layers:

This is used to control what parameters we are working on and assign values to the parameters.

On the Encoder bar you'll see the 'Special Dialog' button. Pressing it opens (and closes) the Effect Editor on screen 1. It could look like this:

Here we can work with effects in a more dynamic way. We are going to use this editor when creating our effect.

We are going to build an effect that moves the fixtures in a circle. This looks like a figure of 8 when the heads pointing strait down. But when moved off center it becomes a circle.

It's going to be a nice slow movement.

Select all your fixtures by any means you like. I prefer using the keys (Fixture Thru Please). It's important for this tutorial that you select them in the correct order, starting with 1 and finishing with 10.

Make sure you select the 'Position' button in the Encoder Toolbar. And open the Special Effect Dialog.

On the right side of the editor you'll see a 'Pan' and a 'Tilt' button. They have an on or off status. When they are on they have yellow text and a dark yellow background color.

We are going to add some value for both Pan and Tilt. So go ahead and select both of them.

Now press right under where it says 'Speed'.

This opens the calculator. Here we can type the desired speed. You also have the possibilities to select some predefined values. We are going to make an effect with a 4 seconds cycle. That means we need to select the '15 BPM' option.

We also need to spread the fixtures across the effect cycle (Phase). This means that the fixtures will do the same movement, but will be spread out over the entire loop cycle.

Press right under where it says 'Phase'. This again opens the calculator. Here you need to select the '0 THRU -360' option. This takes the amount of fixtures and spread them evenly across the cycle. Because of the way the mathematics work If you want a movement from left to right (looking at the stage) you need to choose the negative (minus) 360 option, not the '0 THRU 360' (positive 360).

At the lower part of the editor you'll see different buttons.

There are two buttons we need to look at.

The one in the lower right corner should say 'Val. Readout Center/Size'. If it doesn't then press it until it does.

The other button is also in the lower row (number four from the right). It can say 'Relative' or 'Absolute'. We need it to say 'Relative'

'Relative' refers to how the values are applied. This key toggles between 2 modes, 'Absolute' and 'Relative'. When it's 'Absolute', the values we use are absolute values. The effect will use those values only. If you change to 'Relative', it will use those values as a reference according to its current location. E.g. if a 'Dim' attribute has a 'Low' value of '10' and a 'High' of '50' and mode is 'Absolute'. Then the effect will cycle between 10% and 50% no matter what dimmer value the fixtures was assigned. If mode is 'Relative', then the cycle between 10% and 50% will use the actual value in the Value layer as a base, and Low and High will be put on top of it. E.g. setting the value of the dimmer to 25%, the cycle of 10% to 50% will result in an output of 35% to 75%.

Now we need to make some changes to the Pan parameter only. So press the 'Tilt' button, to deselect it. Make sure that you only have selected the Pan parameter.

Now press where it says 'Form'. In the pop-up you need to select the one called 'Circle'. In the next small pop-up, select the second line called '18.2 Circle'.

Then we need to change the size value. Press where it says 'Size'. Change the value to '60'.

Now we need to make some changes to the tilt parameter only. Make sure you have selected the 'Tilt' button only.

Press the 'Form' again. Here you also need to select the 'Circle' form. But in the small select pop-up you need to select the top line ('18.1 Circle').

We need to change the size to '40'.

Now the fixtures are moving. But for us to see that in the Stage window, you need to turn them on. Do this by pressing the At key twice. Remember that when the fixtures are pointed strait down, then move in a figure of 8 (it's how the mechanics work).

This dimmer value won't be stored when we store the effect. This is because it isn't an effect value.

Now you can see all the light move.

This is basically all we need for our effect.

Let's store what we got. Write this in the command line:

Followed by a Please.

Now let's check that it worked.

Clear you programmer. Press the effect pool button twice and the turn the fixture on.

Now everything should be moving as before.

Try to tilt your fixtures forward to something like a tilt value of "25" and you will see that it changes from a figure of 8 to a circle.

The effect we have just created is a "Selected" effect. This means that it will only work on the fixtures we had selected when we created the effect.

On the next page we are going to create a template effect using the Effect Editor pop-up.

Make sure your programmer is empty, by pressing the Clear button for more than 3 seconds.

Now press the Edit key followed by the second effect pool button.

This gives you the Effect Editor pop-up. This is currently empty:

To make an effect you need to add an effect line with the 'Dim' attribute.

Press the 'Add' button and in the 'Select Effect Attribute' you need to select 'Dim' and then 'Confirm'.

This gives us the effect line we need:

We can edit the value here, but the nice way to edit this is by pressing the 'Edit Effect Line'. This is what it looks like:

This looks very much like what we used in the first effects tutorial.

Now we need to make some changes to the effect.

You need to change the form. Press where it says form. In the pop-up we need to select the 'PWM' Form.

The standard default speed is a bit fast. Let's change it to 30 BPM.

Since we want the effect to go from 0% to 100%, that needs to be our two absolute values. This is done using the buttons in the lower part of the editor. Here you'll find a button called ether 'Line Relative' or 'Line Absolute'. This button need to say 'Line Absolute'. The other button will say 'Val.Readout Center/Size', 'Val.Readout Auto' or 'Val.Readout Low/High'. This need to be 'Val.Readout Low/High'.

Now we can make sure the 'Low' value is '0' and the 'High' value is '100'.

Instead of all the fixtures to do the same, we want to spread the values evenly across the fixtures. To do this we need the 'Phase From' to be '0' and the 'Phase To' to have a value of '360'.

The standard 'Width' is 100% but, we would like it to be more dark than bright. So moving the 'Width' fader down to '15%' gives us the desired look.

Now all we need is to make it fade out. This is done by turning the 'Decay' up to '100'.

That's it! we have now created a template effect using the Effects Editor.

And since we started by editing an (empty) effect all our changes are automatically stored (or actually updated) in the effect. So you can close all the editors (always a good idea when you are done).

But we should label it. Press the Assign button twice followed by effect pool button number 2. Label it "Dim Effect".

Now we can test it. Select all the fixtures and press the pool button. The effect should now be running.

What we have created is a template effect. Notice on the pictures above that the QTY (quantaty) column says "0". This means that there are no fixtures assigned. So all fixtures that have a 'Dim' parameter can use this template effect. When you choose some fixtures and then assign this effect, you copy the information in the effect pool to the selected fixtures. This information is now in your programmer and can be saved. If you store this in a cue and later change the template effect, these changes will not be used in the cue. This is only transferred to the cues (like presets) when the effect is "Selected" and not "Template".

Next we are going to take a look at using presets in effects.

Before we begin making this tutorial, you need to make two different color presets using the CMY attributes. It's very important that you make Color presets or All presets that uses only the CMY parameters (you can use other parameters- but that's not the point with this tutorial).

I made an Orange color presets and named it 'Orange', I know - it's the logic choice:-). And a blue preset - guess what I called that one (yes - 'Blue' is the correct answer).

We have gone through many of the elements we need for making this effect. The new thing is that instead of using 'Low' / 'High' or 'Center' / 'Size' values, we are going to use references to color presets.

This means that to change colors, you don't need to change the effect - you can simply change the presets. Ergo: business as usual with presets.

Make sure your programmer is empty.

Select all your fixture and then make sure the 'Effect Layer' is selected. Then you need to select the 'Low' layer.

Then you can press the first (Orange) preset.

Now select the 'High' layer and then the other (Blue) preset.

Now all the fixture are at the same place in the effect cycle. We would like the fixture to be distributed out on the cycle.

Select the 'Phase' layer and the 'Color' Preset type and the 'ColorMix' feature. Next to this there's a 'Link' button - press this until it says 'Link Feature'.

Now press the first encoder under the 'CM1' attribute. In the calculator pop-up select '0.0 thru -360.0'. With 'Link Feature' this phase should also be applied to 'CM2' and 'CM3'.

Now press Store followed by the third effect pool button. And label the new effect 'Color Effect'.

And that's it! Test it by clearing your programmer. Then press the effect twice and turn on the lights:

The image above displays my result. There is a magenta color in the transition between the orange and blue. But that's what happens when you fade between the two colors.

If you now change the color in the presets, the effect will use the new color.

In the next effect tutorial, we are going to have a closer look at running effects in a sequence.

Let's try to make some cues.

Select all your lights and turn then on in a red color (please don't use any of the two color presets we used in effect number 3).

Store this as cue 1 on an executor.

Clear your programmer and run cue 1.

Now we want to use our orange/blue color effect. So press it twice to select the fixtures and apply the effect.

Now two things can happen.

If you actually see the orange/blue colors, then you haven't followed the steps precisely ;-) It's ok, keep reading and we'll go through what happens.

If you followed the steps and are on a 2.6 (or later) version, you are now looking at something that looks like a dimmer sine effect.

With this effect running store a new cue (2) with a fade time of 3 sec. Clear your programmer. You should now be back in cue 1.

The reason that your effect didn't look like the orange/blue effect we originally created is the Mode. We made a 'Relative' effect. This puts the effect values on top if the existing values from the previous cue. So adding an orange/blue color on top of a red color will give you a red/black look. We need to change the effect. Press Edit followed by the 3rd effect - this opens the Effect Editor.

We need to change the mode for each line from 'Relative' (Rel) to 'Absolute' (Abs). Select all lines by pressing the top line holding and dragging down to the bottom line and then release the screen. You can do this in any column. Now you can press where it says 'Line Relative' in the bottom line until it says 'Line Absolute'. Now each line in the 'Mode' column should say "Abs".

Close the Effect Editor and press Go. Now you should experience a nice fade from the red color to the color effect fading in the effect in 3 seconds.

That's nice - but let's try to make a cue 3 where we return to same look as cue 1.

To stop an effect in a cue, we need to "stomp" the effect.

Press MA and At at the same time. This gives you the "Stomp" keyword in the commandline. Next press the MA and 4 at the same time. Now you fixtures should be white!

Let's just go through what have happened. MA and At gives the "Stomp" keyword, this is used when you want to stop effects.

Then we presses MA and 4 at the same time. This selects the preset type "Color". So what we have done is taken the effect out of the color preset type.

'Ok, but why is the fixtures white and not red?' - you ask. Well this is because it's an 'Absolute' effect. When you take the stomp value in your programmer from an absolute effect, then it displays the default values (white).

Now store cue 3 with a fade time of 3 seconds. Clear your programmer. You should now look at cue 2 with the effect running.

Press Go.

Now you should see a nice fade from the effect back to the tracked red color from cue.

This is an example of how fixtures can get values from different layers (value layers and effect layers). Let's have a look in the tracking sheet:

The picture above display three different layers, but it's the same sequence and it's the values stored for fixture number 1.

The tracking sheet on the left is the 'Values' layer. Here you can see that the fixture gets a dimmer value and a color (red) in cue 1. These values are tracked through cue 2 and 3.

The tracking sheet on the right is the 'EffectID' layer. Here we can see that the fixtures colors are referencing an effect (number 3 called "Color Effect"). The important part here is that we don't get the values from the effect in our cue, but we are calling the effect (preset) called "Color Effect". If you remember, we stored cue number 2 even though it was an relative effect - we then changed the effect to absolute, but didn't change cue number 2 - we didn't need to.

The middle tracking sheet displays the 'Form' layer. You can see that the color attributes uses the 'sin' form in cue 2. There are two things to notice here.

1. The color of the text is darker then the text in cue 3. This is because the values isn't stored like this - it's a value from the "Color Effect". It just show you what the output form is.
2. There's an "A" in front of the form number and name. This tells you that this is an absolute value.

In cue 3 we have stored a relative (there's an "R" in front of the Form number and name) stomp form. This returns the color to the tracked (red) color from the value layer. So we are actually stomping the Form effect layer.

It's also worth noticing how the colored bars in the tracking sheet helps you to see where the colors gets their values.

Let's try to make a new sequence where we use the relative position effect we made in the previous tutorial (Move Effect).

We need three position presets for this tutorial. Create one with all the fixtures in their home position; one where they all point on stage left and one where they all point stage right.

Create a new sequence with cue 1 that turns on all the fixtures and uses the Stage Left position. Clear your programmer and run cue 1.

Now press the "Move Effect" twice (once to select the fixture, and once more to apply the effect). Store this as cue 2 with a fade time of 3 seconds. Clear your programmer and run the cue.

What you should experience is the effect fading in the size of the circle. all circling around the Stage Left position. So this is a movement (Center/Size values) around the positions from the Value layer (Stage Left).

Now press the Stage Right position twice. Store this as cue 3 with a fade time of 3 seconds. Clear your programmer and run the cue.

What should happen is the fixtures continuing the circle effect but moving the fixture so the circle effect is now circling the Stage Right position.

Now press MA and At followed by the Home preset. Store this as cue 4 with a fade time of 3. Clear your programmer and run the cue.

What hopefully happens is your fixtures fading out the circle effect (because we used stomp) and moving to the Home position (because we stomped in the Home preset).

Let's have a look at the tracking sheets:

The same sheet display the same layers as the previous picture above.

Let's talk about what happens in the cues.

Cue 1: In the Value layer we can see that the fixtures get a position from a preset and they are turned to full (called "open").

Cue 2: The dimmer and position preset are tracked. In the EffectID layer we can see that the positions get the effect called "Move Effect". I the Form layer we can see that its a relative (because of the "R" in front of the number and name).

Cue 3: In this cue we can see that the position in the Value layer is changed to a different preset. The effect is tracked, so the circle movement continues.

Cue 4: In this cue you can see that the fixture gets a new position (Home) in Value layer. In the Effect Form layer we can see that the effect is stopped using the Stomp in the Form layer.

Again I suggest keeping an eye on the colored bars in the tracking sheet. They actually tell the whole story :-)

Controlling the speed can quickly become very complicated. It's important to know that many factors can have an impact on your effects speed.

If you don't have any intention of changing your effect using a speed master or rate master, you should just use the speed column in the Effect Editor to change the speed.

But if you would like to use the effect with a master you need to know a few things.

The default speed for effects is 60 BPM = 1 Hz. All new speed masters also use this as a default.

If you need to use a speed master I suggest you change the speed in the effect to 60 BPM. That way your effect will run the speed displayed at the master.

The speed master is a multiplier with a base value of 60 BPM. The best way to know what´s going on is to do the following.

Make a Speed master 1 on executor 6.

Edit the Move Effect. Change the speed on both Pan and Tilt to 60 BPM and in the Speed Group column select Speed 1.

Now run cue number 2 in the last sequence we made.

Have a look in the Fixture sheet in the Effect Speed layer. The effect should say 60 BPM.

When you move the speed fader up and down the effect speed will follow this speed.

Reset the speed master to 60 BPM by typing the following in the commandline.

Edit the effect so it says 30 bpm in the speed column.

Notice that the Speed Group Master still says 60 bpm, but in the fixture sheet we can see that the resulting speed output is 30 bpm.

If you now move the Speed Group Master up to 120 bpm (fader 6 at 53.3) the resulting speed is 60 bpm.

If you move the Speed Group Master up and down with the Effect Editor open, you can see that this changes the value in the speed column.

If your effect uses a Speed Group Master then the Executor Speed Master for the sequence don't have any effect on the speed. If you haven't assigned any Speed Group Master then the Executor Speed Master, with the exception that it doesn't change the set speed in the Effect Editor.

Bottom line is this: There's a ton of ways to modify the speed used by effects. They are all tailored to different ways to use the console. There's no right or wrong way. Keep it simple and remember that the Fixture Sheet Effect Speed Layer displays the resulting speed. The Effect Speed Group Layer can help identifying any Speed Group Masters.

In the next effect tutorial, we are going to edit an effect using the command line.

You need to have a Command Line window so you can see what you are going.

The two main keywords for this tutorial is 'List' and 'CD'.

'List' is used to display show data. 'CD' is "Change Directory" - it's used to navigate the layers or folders of the console.

Please follow the links at the bottom for more details about these commands.

Every input line displayed in the following tutorial is followed by a Please to execute the command.

We need to navigate to the effects. We do that using the 'CD' keyword

This will take us directly to the effect part of the console.

Now we should use the 'List' to see what options we have:

Now we get a list of your three effects. The number in the parentheses are the number of lines each effect uses:

Effect 2 : 2 Dim Effect (1)

Effect 3 : 3 Color Effect (3)

Our goal is to change the speed of the color effect. So we need to go into the third effect:

A new 'list' revials a lot more:

What you now see is all the lines in the effect (in each row) and all the elements in the lines (the columns). Those with a green headline (like 'Speed') can be changed using commands like assign 1 /dir=. Those with a yellow color are references to other elements. They can be changed using commands like assign form "Cos" at 1. The red color indicates elements that cannot be changed.

Now let's change the 'Speed' in the first line:

You can do another 'list' to check that it changed the rate. Now do the two other lines:

That's it. Now all three line have a speed of 30 BPM.

Return to the "root" of the console by typing "cd /" in the command line.

In the next tutorial we are going to have a look at using macros to edit our effects.

We almost have all the windows we need. The one thing you should add is the macro pool.

Press Edit and then the first Macro pool button.

Press Add (the X1 key). We are going to create a variable called "newSpeed". This variable will hold the new speed time. The first thing our macro should do is to ask us what speed we want, and store it in the variable.

In the 'Text' cell of the macro write this:

SetVar $newSpeed = (What speed do you want?)

Add a new line to you macro. We are now going to navigate to the effect. We leant how to do this in the previous tutorial page. In the macro line type this:

cd Effect 3

That takes us directly to the color effect (effect number 3). Now we can use the variable to assign the new speed to the lines.

Add a new line in the macro and write this:

ass 1 t 3 /speed=$newSpeed

Now all we need is to return to the root. Add line to the macro, and type this:

cd /

Press the 'Label' button and label it "New Speed for Colors".

The macro is done. It should look like this:

Close the editor - again this is a good idea when you are done editing.

And we are done. Make your color effect run and then test your new macro.

There's only one page left. Here we are going to take a look at different ways the effects can be run and controlled.

First we need to take a look at how the Effects Pool window work.

The pool have three different modes, that can all be changed using the pool options (press the yellow bale above where it says "Effect"):

Let's have a look at other ways to run effects.

You can run effects directly in your programmer. This can be useful in one-offs or any situation where you can improvise and there's room to play.

You can build the effect directly or you can use the effect pool (in 'Normal Call' or 'Fast Call') to take the effects into your programmer.

When we previously made an effect in the programmer, we stored it in an effect pool button - but we could have stored it directly in a cue (or updated an active cue).

Values will then fade using the fade times in the cue. You can also change any effect values from cue to cue.

Selected effects you have stored in the effect pool, work as effect "presets". You can call these effects and store them in cues. If you then change the effect your changes will be used in the cue.

You can assign an effect to an executor. Simply by pressing Assign Effect 1 and then an executor button.

There are three special options for effects on executors: 'Off On Overwritten', 'Speed (factor)', 'Speed (master)' and (for sequences) 'Link Effect To Rate'.

You may change these options by opening the Assign-menu for the Executor, press Assign, then the Exec-button, and select Options on the right hand side.

'Off On Overwritten' turns the effect off if it's completely overwritten by new values.

'Speed (factor)' is used to multiply or divide the overall speed of the entire effect.

'Speed (master)' is 'individual' as a standard. This means that the speed stored in the effect is the ones used (plus the speed factor). You can use this button to assign the effect executor to an speed group master (there are 15 possible speed group masters). Try pressing here and select 'Speed 1'. Then assign a speed group master to an executor. Then run your effect and turn the speed master up and down.

'Link Effect To Rate' adds another element to your speed. You can add the rate master. This is like an extra speed factor, that you can use to change the speed of the effect. The more of these elements you use the more complicated it gets to set an actual speed - so keep it simple.

When you press Go+ followed by a pool button, you'll run the effect directly in the pool (only selected effects). You can also achieve this when your pool is in 'Pool Backback' mode. Then you just need to press the pool buttons.

To change the options in the 'Pool Playback'. Press the Assign followed by the pool button (only when in 'Pool Playback'). This gives you the assign menu and you can change the options described above.

Effects running on executors or in the pool have a higher priority than effects in from the sequences.

You can view all the running effect by pressing and holding the Effects key (or create a 'Running Effects' window). This allows you to get an overview of all the running effects. And turn them off.

The effect engine in the grandMA2 has introduced some big changes. The possibility to use presets directly in the effect is a major advantage. Coming from the grandMA series 1, you will notice that the modulators has disappeared. But the new changes to the effect generator allows you to make the same effects in a more streamlined method. But hopefully you'll have some idea of how they work after finishing these tutorials.

MIB is a function which in a tracking sequence will look ahead and preposition attributes of fixtures that are fading in from zero, to automatically prevent "ugly" transitions where you would normally see the fixture move the attributes into position, while the fixture is fading in.

MIB is enabled on a cue-per-cue basis (actually per cue-part), by giving the MIB-property of the cue-part a value which tells the console when it should do the prepositioning.

• a zero or positive MIB-value indicates an specific cue number from where MIB is allowed
• a negative MIB-value indicates a relative cue number from where MIB is allowed

In the Sequence Executor Sheet you will find the MIB-column, where you may edit the MIB-value via normal right-click/encoder-click and enter the value.

An asterisk "*" indicates that a Cue is capable of MIB, but no MIB-value is given, while a MIB-value in red indicates that a MIB-value is given, but the cue is not capable to MIB.

- "MIB-capability" here defined as a cue with one or more fixtures with dimmer-value above zero, and previous state of dimmer-value not above zero (=fixture is fading up) - and one or more other additional attributes (= something to preposition)

MIB is a property of Cue Parts, and its value may be assigned with standard syntax:

A useful MIB-macro could go something like this:

Assign Cue /mib=off

SetVar $mibvalue=("Please enter MIB")

AssignCue /mib=$mibvalue

Pressing the Macro and Please, will disable MIB for the current cue, while presing the Macro, then a number followed by Please, will set the MIB-value for current cue.

MIB uses two general time settings MIB-Delay and MIB-Fade

MIB Delay is the time to wait from a fixture have faded out until it starts to MIB, while MIB fade is the actual time used to prepositioning.

Increasing MIB Delay may be useful for fixtures with slow dimmer or afterglow. Increasing MIB Fade may be useful for noisy fixtures, or if the movement of the fixturebody is visually disturbing for the audience

In addition to the general MIB-timing found under Setup>Show>Playbacktiming, it is also possible via the fixturetype Editor to set individual MIB delay per Fixturetype, and individual MIB fade per attribute per Fixturetype.

When MIB Delay is active, or MIB is "put on hold" the Executor Key backlight will blink fast.

When MIB Fade is active (fixtures are moving to preposition), the Executor key backlighting will blink slowly

Attributes which have MIB'ed will be displayed in the ExecutorID and SequenceID layer of the Fixture Sheet with a slightly paler shade of the usual backgroundcolor (green for selected Executor, yellow for others), to indicate that the source of the value is from a future cue.

When using MIB, the desk is not only tracking values from earlier cues, it is also tracking forward and outputting values from future, non-executed cues. This is sort-of "Back to the Future", with dilemmas you find in time-travel-theory.

e.g

• fixture one is on, and red in cue 1
• turns off in cue 2
• and comes on in blue in cue 10

As we don't want to see the scroll to blue in cue 10, we mark this cue as MIB early.

• everything is fine, fixture one preposition after faded out in cue 2

now let's say we're in cue 5 and want to make some changes...

• On with fixture one, - it's blue - looks good
• update cue only

Next time we play back the sequence, cue 5 does not look the same?

- last time we played back the sequence, fixture one was blue because it had prepositioned to cue 10, however as it is now used in cue 5 it cannot preposition until after cue 6, - and will stay red.

These issues may be minimized by not prepositioning too early, and by activating MIB Never in the Executor Assign-menu if you are to make major changes to your cues.

In a tracking sequence, the content of a cue represent the changes happening in that cue. Any unchanged values will track from earlier cues, and the state - the actual look - of the cue is a combination of what has happened earlier and what is happening in the cue. This tracking philosophy works similar to how the staging, set-design and any props may be handled.

Cue 1: Place sofa on stage left.

Cue 2: Actor1 enters from rear.

Cue 3: Actor2 enters from left and gets seated.

Cue 4: Actor1 exits stage right.

Even though Cue 3 only tells us that Actor2 will be in the sofa, when we are in Cue 3, we also have the sofa and Actor1 on stage. Unless we take out the sofa, it will stay on stage....

In some scenarios, you may want this tracking behaviour to stop. When starting the second act, you don't want any additional props added to first act to stay on the stage, just because you didn't tell the stage-crew to carry these out when you originally created the look of the first cue of second act. - You want this tracking behaviour to Break.

The Break mode of a cue will make sure that any later addition or changes in earlier cues is reverted back to its original state in the break-cue, similar to how a Cue-Only store would work for the next cue.

By default when calling a cue with a normal "Go", only the content of the cue is called, not the tracking state. If you are only using one executor/playback this behaviour is irrelevant, however if you have other executors that have overwritten your state, you might in some scenarios want that calling the cue also calls the tracking state. This may be achieved with then cue-mode Assert. Assert will call the state of your sequence, by using the original timing, and not affect any ongoing fades, (e.g. a 30 minutes sunset still on it's way out).

In other scenarios, you might want to re-establish state, and assert the sequence, but terminate any ongoing fades. The cue-mode X-Assert will crossfade to the current state - with the timing of the current cue. This may be used i.e. if you want to make sure that your zero second Blackout Cue is cutting to black, even if you have to run the cue earlier than usual and the sunset has not yet finished.

The mode property of a cue may be accessed with normal syntax for changing object-properties:

Assign [cue] /mode=[mode]

Example:

AssignCue 3/mode=x-break