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 Sequencer 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:
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 grid row. You can fill the space between two timings with an effect by selecting the appropriate tool (such as the "Fade Up" tool) and clicking on a grid cell (see Adding Effects for details). For example, selecting the "Max Intensity" tool and clicking the cell between 1 second and 1.5 seconds for the "Door" prop results in:
The Door prop 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:
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. The timing grid that is currently shown can be changed by selecting from the "Timings" drop-down box on the 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 Sequencer 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 File Wizard. If you tell it to insert timings every so often (such as every half second), it will create them in a fixed timing grid. If you tell it to use one of the audio wizards, 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. The audio wizards can also be run at any time after sequence creation.
The New Musical Sequence dialog
In a freeform timing grid:
•Timings can be added during sequence playback by using the "T" shortcut key
•Timings can be moved by clicking and dragging them. This behavior can be turned on or off by "locking" the timings.
Timings can also be added, deleted, and resized in a variety of other ways. See these topics for more information:
•The toolbar's timings section
•The Timing Mark sub-menu on the grid's right-click menu