Auto Sequence Dialog Box

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The Auto Sequence dialog box is launched by clicking on the button with an automobile in it. The automobile button will be in the lower left of each of the effect dialog boxes. The Auto Sequence dialog box has settings that will control the movement and color of the effect as it is moved with the music. If the Auto Sequence dialog box is visible then when you click on the “Add” button of the effect dialog box then an Auto Sequence effect will be added to the time layers. The Auto Sequence effect will have a picture of an automobile in it. The following are the settings in the Auto Sequence dialog box.

 

Settings

Sensitivity

Trigger Type

Movement

Direction Angle

Speed

Use Native Color of the Effect

Cycle Through Colors Below

Freqs (Frequencies)

Creating A Sequence using Auto Sequence Effects

 

Sensitivity

 

This setting sets the sensitivity to the audio file. It is like a volume control. If you are not getting much movement from the song then try increasing the sensitivity. But if you set it too high it could also be less responsive. For most songs, setting the sensitivity to 4, 5, or 6 will work best.

 

Trigger Type

 

“Rapid Fire” is the default and is typically what you will want to use. The more Freqs you have selected in the Auto Sequence dialog box, the more triggers will be produced and the effect will move more

“Single Fire” is good if you want slower movement. Even with many Freqs selected only one trigger will fire. This can be good for effects that have a lot of movement in them such as smooth effects..

 

Movement

 

This is the Movement pattern that will be done on the effects. The movement will happen within the clip rectangle for that effect.

No Movement – The effect will happen in the same location every time it is triggered

Wrap Around – The effect will move and will wrap around to the other side of the screen when it reaches the each of the clip rectangle for that effect.

Ricochet – The effect will move and will bounce off the edges of the clip rectangle for that effect. The movement is like a billiard ball bouncing off edges of a billiard table.

Bounce and Retrace – The effect will move and bounce off the edge of the clip rectangle and will return to its original position and will keep going back and forth along that path.

Burst and Return – The effect will move until the end of a trigger burst and then will return to its original position. If the movement goes beyond the edge of the clip rectangle before the end of the burst then it goes back to its original position

 

Direction Angle

 

The setting controls the direction angle of the movement. The angle can be set in 5 degree increments. The angle is shown with an orange arrow at the center of the green sequencing grid. Note that this controls only the direction angle. The original location of the effect is controlled by the location of the native effect that you create.

 

Speed

 

This controls the speed of the movement in pixels. For example, with the speed set at 1.00 the effect will move one pixel each time it is triggered.

 

Use Native Color of the Effect

 

The effect will always be rendered using the native color of the effect.

 

Cycle Through Colors Below

 

Use this setting to cause the effect to change colors as it moves. You number of colors for it to cycle through can be set to 1-8. Click on a color square and a Color Picker dialog box will appear. Note that even though there are many colors you can choose from, it will always set the color to one of the 8 basic colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white and black. Also note that when setting black it is really a very dark gray.

 

Freqs (Frequencies)

 

This setting controls the frequencies that the effect will be responsive to. Click and drag with the mouse to set or erase multiple freqs. Note that when an instrument in a song plays a musical note, the frequencies are strongest at the note but there can be strong harmonics on either side of the note as well. The result is that any note played in a song can get “splattered” across the freq spectrum. The “splatter” will be wider with higher sensitivity.

These freqs are equivalent to the freqs in the Timing Map dialog box. If you click on the Tools menu and select “Timing Map” you will see the Timing Map dialog box which has a picture of a piano keyboard and shows how the freqs map to a piano keyboard.

 

 

Creating a Sequence using Auto Sequence Effects

 

You can use different Auto Sequence effects throughout your song. The typical approach is to use the same set of Auto Sequence effect for 10-30 seconds of a song and change to another set of Auto Sequence effects at a point where the song changes.

In SuperStar you can only see 8 seconds of the song at a time, so if you want to add or modify Auto Sequence effects that are longer than 8 seconds then do the following:

Select the effects you want to change the time range of. Scroll to the start time that you want and mark it with a left click on the time ruler. Then scroll to the end time that you want and mark it with a right click on the time ruler. Then click on the “Set Group Time Range” button. The “Set Group Time Range” button is on the toolbar and looks like an hour glass with down arrows on either side of the hour glass.