Q Light Controller+

Hi, is there any way to add a small fade in and fade out to a flash button?

I want to be able to hit a keybinding that displays a scene for as long as i hold it.
Using flash function works but it seems to ignore any fades.

I need like 0.5 s fade because otherwise the flashes are way to heavy for the music genere.

Do i really have to make frame of type normal and add toggle button, meaning i would have to hit the button twice for a faded flash effect?


Cheers

One way to do it is put the fade into the scene itself.

ShagLight wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 11:50 pm One way to do it is put the fade into the scene itself.

I have tried that, as well as using a speed dial. The flash button seems to ignore the setup fade of the function.

Unless with "scene" you mean something other than function.

I have attached a minimal example of my attempt.

ShagLight wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 11:50 pm One way to do it is put the fade into the scene itself.

This statement is wrong ... flash is what it says and is intended to be: a flash button.

There are some workarounds on the forum. Search a little for them... it is even a hot topic...

I don't typically use the Flash function. Similar to what ShagLight wrote, I create a scene which sets the fixture(s) in question to Brightness I want. I'll add that scene into a Chase, with 0 Fade-In, set the Hold to however long I want the fixture to stay on, then set the Fade-Out to a value that gives me the look I want.

I just played with it. For some reason, fade out works, but not fade in. Try some of the workarounds. No big thing, but it would be nice to have an option on the flash mode to recognize fades.

GGGss wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 10:14 am

ShagLight wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 11:50 pm One way to do it is put the fade into the scene itself.

This statement is wrong ... flash is what it says and is intended to be: a flash button.

There are some workarounds on the forum. Search a little for them... it is even a hot topic...

You are right. For some reason I thought that worked like that. But after playing with it I found that for some reason, it will fade out but not fade in.

I wanted to bring this back up and probe a bit further. The flash functionality is incredibly powerful for someone like me who is programming a light show using MIDI from Ableton Live (more on why it's powerful way below, if you want to read - but it may not makes sense lol).

I don't use the flash button for the purpose of "flashes" (as in instant-on). I instead take advantage of it's momentary (vs latching) behavior. I use it so my color scenes persist as long as Ableton is 'holding down' the MIDI note, but ends the second I release that MIDI note, so I don't have to program the color back off manually. It might sound small but I assure you it's a MASSIVE time saver during the build stage and prevents possible bugs. I considered a loopback system but for all colors across all light zones it's just way more complex than necessary. Using 'flash' this way has been an absolute game changer for building my show efficiently and quickly but as soon as I wanted to start crossfading colors scenes I discovered that the flash mode ignores fade-in times (which are set and changed via speed dial).

I'd love to see if there's a simple fix as I'd like to be able to set my fade times on a per-song basis... otherwise I'll have to switch all my buttons to toggle and very carefully comb through my show, identify every single time a light zone changes colors, and make sure I programmed an 'off' note... then also remember that every time I change my mind on a color, or copy/paste a MIDI region, that I maybe have created an error which turns on ANOTHER color, instead of turning OFF the previous. It can very quickly become a mess (this part can be solved with solo frames, but that then prevents color-scene mixing, and still doesn't solve the ignored fade-in problem).


Only if you're curious: here's the expanded reasons as to WHY IT'S POWERFUL:
Where it becomes incredibly useful is when I have to start, stop, start, stop, start, stop the song in Ableton to tweak MIDI notes, test new looks, etc. while programming the light show. If I don't have flash set on my buttons my lights are constantly getting stuck in a random states of colors when I hit the stop button (always at different times), jump to a different section of the song.... Sometimes I'm starting and stopping the same 2 second part of a song over and over just to try a new combination of colors, motion, brightness, pointing, etc and if I don't use flash I usually have to go back to QLC and hit a 'reset all' kind of button - essentially doubling (or more) my workflow time.

It's also highly problematic when starting in the middle a song section where the MIDI notes to trigger color first 'played' 30 seconds ago. Not only do I have to reset my color states each time but I then have to listen to the entire 30 seconds (needlessly) just to get to the part I want to view - because having 'MIDI chase' on (the function that allows Ableton to send a MIDI signal even if you don't start playback from the beginning of that note press) exacerbates the problem having some colors on, some off, some wrong, etc... Idk if this makes sense but I have my entire color section set up to flash and it has been INSANELY beneficial.

Lastly, if I'm copy/pasting song sections and I paste Chorus 1 to Chorus 2 I may forget that Verse 1 and Verse 2 used different colors, so where as Chorus 2 previously had the correct MIDI notes to toggle Verse 2's colors back off, I've now pasted over those 'off commands' by pasting the other chorus in place. Sometimes I'll copy paste MIDI regions a couple hundred times while building the lighting for any one song... LOTS of time wasted having to find these bugs and fixed them - 2 seconds to paste the new look for a chorus, 30-60+ seconds to find where I'm not toggling colors off correctly adds up fast!