Zero flx S24 playback mixing

[SorenDK]

Hi there. I´m a newbee to the Zero 88 flx 24S desk having problems mixing scenes running from a cue stack with single cue playbacks. E.g. : I have recorded a cue stack with basic lighting stages for concerts at our venue that I during the show (concert) would like to mix 1) with single playbacks recorded with with different colours from our backlight fixtures 2) with different positions of moving heads. It works fine as long as the relevant fixtures are NOT recorded both in the cue stack and at the same time in a scene recorded to a single-cue playback fader. The changes in light are rather unpredictable and I can not figure out have to solve this. It might be that the option of mixing cue stacks and single-cue playbacks is not the right way to do it? Or could this be solved by record or playback settings? All the best from Denmark!

[kgallen]

Hi and welcome! I'll have a bash at this question, but other users who do "busking" will likely have other tips. The FLX consoles are fully capable of what you want to do.

The key to your requirement is for the programming process to only record in a given playback/cue, those parameters you want it to control. This allows other playbacks, say colour or position, to be triggered on top and to only affect those you desire.

Your programming style will need to use the "Tracking" mode of the console and for you to avoid using Snapshot during record. SmartTag enabled will be the most useful setting to start, but as you become a more advanced user of the console, you might start setting SmartTag disabled for some record operations.

I realise you have programmed a show, but your requirements are best explored by starting off with some basic programming whilst you get the hang of it. From a programming perspective, colour, beam, position are all interchangable. Any examples you do with colour should work using the same procedure when applied to position.

Let's assume you have a baseline show recorded on your master playback (the one the GO button steps through).

Say on one other playback, say Playback 1, you want that fader to change some lights to red.

Clear the programmer with CLEAR-CLEAR

Select the lights you want to change to red with the fixture select buttons. Turn them on to some reasonable brightness so you can see what you're doing. Say 80%.

Change their colour to red using colour palettes or the colour picker.

Don't change anything else on these fixtures, otherwise you will "Tag" other parameters you didn't want to change.

Tap Record and then the Playback 1 button.

Since you want this playback to control colour only, press Setup and tap the Playback 1 button. Select the option "Fader Controls:" to Colour.

There are other settings that we should check, like Release on Lower is enabled, but I am going to assume they are still at the desk default.

Do CLEAR-CLEAR and then get your master playback controlling the lights (GO) so you have lights lit. If you then push up Playback 1 fader (remember to change the faders to Playback mode) then those lights (if they are already lit) should crossfade to red. When you pull Playback 1 fader back down to zero, those lights should go back to the colour they were as programmed in that cue of the master playback. Note that since we set Playback 1 to "Fader Controls: Colour", pushing up this fader won't light lights that were not on from your master playback. If you want that, then Fader Controls: Intensity is what you want for that setting. Then the fader will control the intensity but the lights will snap to red at about 5% fader position (although you can change this time in the Playback settings).

Hopefully that is enough to get you going... and hopefully I got most of the above right and didn't forget an important step.

The manual is here, probably this section is most applicable: https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks

Edward has done lots of training videos and there is at least one that will cover this. I'll see if I can find the most appropriate one and come back here and link it for you...

This is probably the specific one I was thinking of, but it's possible you will need to do some of the others to get an understanding of wider console a little more and maybe the terminology: 

 

Lots of FLX training videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@zero88/videos

 

 

[SorenDK]

Hi kgallen, thanks a lot for you thorough reply! Is has been very helpful. I am now able to combine cue stacks with single playback recordings. For the moment I am programming only fixtures on single playback faders that are not included in the cue stack. With further exploration I hope to solve this too. Best reg