Q Light Controller+

software version 4.11.1
I volunteered to do the lighting for our church Easter play which takes place in about 4 weeks. I have been fighting with this software for over 2 week now and still can't figure out how to create a cue list. The lights are all loaded in and are all incandescent PAR's and lekos. I also need to build channel groups, ie; making all house lights to one group, all front wash to another group, etc. The documentation is very convoluted and not very "how to do this" friendly. The on-line tutorials are not much better. If there is anyone out there who can instruct me or reference me to a site that I can use to help me it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much! Bob F.

Hi Bob,

I guessing that you are basically putting on a 'theatre-style' production. Is this correct?

If I was creating this sort of show, I would start by creating a master scene with no lights on (a black out scene if you like)
1. Create a new scene
2. Add all the fixtures to this scene in an order that makes sense to you. Personally I use an order that matches the layout of the theatre space and fixture types but you could use fixture types, washes or profiles etc
3. Call this Master
4. Copy this scene and then set the 'look' of the new scene. Call it Scene 1 (or what ever you want)
5. Copy this one (or the master) and then create the next scene . Call it Scene 2

After you have created a few scenes, you will need to create a chaser.

1. Create a chaser and call it Act 1 or Easter Play etc
2. Add all the newly created scenes

If you are going to basically step through each scene then you need to set all steps to have an infinite hold time. Select all the scenes at once, click the speed dial button and set hold to infinite. You can set the initial fades etc here as well. I usually start with 2 s in and 2 s out and then tweak them individually
later on.

Now go to the virtual console and choose new cue list, right click the new cue list and choose 'widget properties' and then click the green tick to add the chaser to the cuelist.

Now you have a cuelist with all your cues ready to play.

When I am setting up for a show, I tend to create all the scenes I need one after another and then add them to the chaser in buik. I also copy the master (with all faders down) to use as a black out scene.

I don't use groups much with this method as you don't really need them once you have a master scene. But if you want to create them, just go to the fixtures pane, choose some fixtures, right-click (or click the icon with the little down arrow) and choose at fixtures to a group and then choose new group.

If you want a bit more help getting started, share your workspace and I will create a bit of video tutorial if you like and assuming I can find a few minutes to record one.

Cheers
Mark

1. Why 4.11.1, that is an ancient version, current is 4.12.4 and it has a lot of fixes and improvements.

2. Create a cuelist by these steps:

Create a Chaser function, name it e.g. "CUES", so you can easily identify it later in case you use more than one chaser, as this will be the base for your cuelist later.

Create some scene functions, this can be done in several ways:

a) in design mode (green triangle top right):
- in function tab, by creating a new scene, adding fixtures and editing their respective channel values (tick the box at the top of the fader to enable)
- via simple desk, by manually setting your desired levels and pressing the DMX Dump button and naming/saving the scene, (there are additional options there for convenience, like overwriting existing scenes, using only channels with values other than zero, or adding to an existing chaser/cuelist

b) in operate mode:
- similar to 2nd method above, you can use any virtual console widgets present, and/or again simple desk, and dump to DMX once it looks like intended

Once some scenes exist to work with:
- in functions tab switch to your CUES chaser editor by clicking the according left hand tree item
- click the green plus icon to the right, to add your desired functions
- for a theater style cuelist, set the fade in and fade out options at bottom to "per step", and duration to "common"
- click the watch icon at the top to set Common Hold to infinite
- double click the table entries for fade in/out per cue and add your desired crossfade times - fade out affects the change to next cue, fade in the one from previous cue

Once your chaser is ready, go to virtual console and add a cuelist widget.
Double click its inner area or rightclick for a menu to open its Properties dialog
Choose your chaser as function to control

Close the dialog, switch to Operate mode and press Play button of the cuelist widget to activate it, and it hould output the first scene.
The orange arrow keys now should navigate through the list, with set crossfade times. In properties you can "unhide" the left side crossfade slider for manual control/overriding programmed times.

There's a lot more to learn but I hope this will put you on track.

EDIT: I see Mark also wrote a nice quick toot, covering some more/other aspects and adding some good suggestions like the Master scene. there's a lot of nice ideas to find in this forum, to improve one's workflow, once the basics are understood

Hi guys,,,
Thank you so much for taking the time to help me with this production. Your guidance is very comprehensive and I am most appreciative. I’m getting on my laptop tonight to give it another shot
at creating a workable cue list. I’ll write back with my results.

Bob F.

Hi guys…
I’m having success with your instructions and I am so appreciative. I’m still not clear on how to set intensity levels for each fixture in the cue. You indicated using the sliders or the knobs to set levels but I haven’t been able to access that function on my workspace for the cue build. Thank you in advance for your guidance.

Bob F.

If you open a scene, and you select the fixture (tab), there you can find its intensity fader. Adopt as needed.
The scene is automatically saved, so no need to do so. There is also the standard preview if you are not in production mode. So you can switch from one scene to the other to see what happens on stage?
If you work with groups of lights, a slider on the VC in level mode can help.

In my experience putting things inside a frame and using a slider in submaster mode is a more workable solution. But this overseeds the novice knowledge I'm afraid.