Timings

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Timings are the times in a sequence at which you can command the lights to do various effects - to turn on, turn off, fade up, fade down, and so forth.

 

Timings are represented in the Sequence Editor by vertical grey lines.  For example, the following sequence has timings every half a second, at 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, and so forth:

 

Timings

A sequence with timings every half a second

 

Timings do not have any direct effect themselves on the behavior of your lights; rather, they simply give you a way to specify a start time and an end time for effects on a channel.  The space between two timings can be set to an effect by selecting the appropriate tool (such as the "Fade Up" tool) and clicking on the space (please see "Editing Sequences Using the Keyboard" and "Editing Sequences Using the Mouse" for details).  For example, selecting the "On" tool and clicking the cell between 1 second and 1.5 seconds for Channel 2 results in:

 

TimingsWithOn

The second channel has been turned on, between 1 second and 1.5 seconds

 

Timings do not have to be equally spaced (as they are in the above example).  For example, the following sequence has timings at 0.37 seconds, 1 second, and 3.2 seconds:

 

Timings_2

A sequence with timings at 0.37 seconds, 1 second, and 3.2 seconds

 

Timing Grids

 

A set of timings is known as a "timing grid".  A sequence can have more than one timing grid, with one being shown at a time (or, if the sequence has more than one track, one per track at a time).  The timing grid that is currently shown can be changed by selecting from the "Timings" dropdown box on the Tracks and Timings Toolbar.  There are two types of timing grids: fixed grids and freeform grids.

 

Fixed Timing Grids

 

In a fixed timing grid, each timing is the same length of time from the next timing.  For example, a fixed timing grid might have a timing every second, or every tenth of a second.

 

The timings in a fixed timing grid cannot be moved, deleted, or added to.

 

Freeform Timing Grids

 

In a freeform timing grid, timings do not have to be equidistant.  For example, a freeform timing grid might have one timing at time 1.00 (i.e. one second), another half a second later at time 1.50, and another 2.2 seconds past that at time 3.70.

 

The timings in a freeform grid can be moved or deleted, and new timings can be added.

 

Creating, Deleting, and Modifying Timings

 

Timings can be automatically inserted into a sequence when it is created, in a variety of ways.  For example, you can tell the Sequence Editor to insert timings every so often - for example every half second, or, for a musical sequence, insert timings based on the song itself using various tools like the Beat Wizard, VU Wizard, Tapper Wizard, and MIDI Wizard.  If you tell it to insert timings every so often (such as every half second), it will give you the option to create them in a fixed timing grid or a freeform timing grid; if you tell it to use one of the tools, or not to insert timings, it will use a freeform timing grid.  Please see the New Animation dialog and New Musical Sequence dialog for details.

 

NewMusicalSequence

The New Musical Sequence dialog

 

These tools (such as the Beat Wizard and MIDI Wizard) can also be used after the sequence has been created, by selecting them from the Tools menu.

 

Timings in a freeform timing grid can be moved by clicking and dragging them.  Or, if you wish, this behavior can be turned off by selecting "Lock Timings" in the Edit menu.

 

Timings can also be added, deleted, and resized in a variety of other ways:

 

On the Edit menu:
Copy and paste timings
Insert multiple timings
Delete extraneous timings
Switch timing grid
On the right-click context menu:
Copy timing
Paste timing at...
Paste timing at (centisecond)
Paste timing multiple
Insert timing at...
Insert timing at (centisecond)
Insert multiple timings
Delete timing at...
Delete selected timings
Resize timings to...
Resize timings to equal times
Using the Tracks and Timings toolbar