Preset Combining (Stacking)

[Jethrobowdean]

Will, back in February you made the following comments to me:

"Stacked Presets means that you will be able to choose what components to store within a Preset. When saving a Preset, you can choose to store any combination of the Colour (static Colour and Colour FX), Move (static Position and Move FX) and Beam (Beam FX) within the Preset. This means that you can, for example, trigger a Preset that only updates the colour settings without interrupting the current Move and Beam settings. Say for example you are running a Circle movement with a static Red colour and no Beam FX, you could then trigger a Preset which activates a static Blue colour, turns on a Dimmer chaser Beam effect, and does not affect the Circle movement (the movement will carry on without interruption).

It is essentially a different way of thinking about Presets which allows for more flexibility. For example, you could have a full page of 'traditional' Presets, a full page of different Colour presets, another for Move presets and another for Beam presets- you could then combine these on the fly to create all sorts of different looks in just a few clicks."

Is this functionality in the new Beta release and if yes how do you do it? Can you give an example ? And in an effort to become proficient with this new release can you give a brief explanation of the underlying rules, for example, you mentioned in your comments the ability to separate color, movement, and beams into separate "stackable" layers, could this stackable feature also interpolate to separate fixtures? For example, if my base preset sets values for fixtures in groups A,B and C, could a new preset that only impacts fixtures in group D without negating, overwriting those in A,B and C? I'm trying to understand the underlying principles for preset combining ("Stacking"). I have tried a couple things and failed completely. Additionally, I mapped the Global "Flash" Midi buttons on the front of the device and have succeeded calling them via MIDI with one exception: BPM. Are there any special rules or setting to allow BPM to be set via MIDI (via a CC)?

[Jethrobowdean]

Sorry I may have not been adequately articulate in my description of the problem that I am having. If I understand what you are saying correctly I believe that you are saying that a preset that follows another preset will only overwrite, so to say, the dmx values that it explicitly sets a value for and leave any dmx channels with their existing values as they were unless specifically addressed in the new preset. If that is what you are saying that is also what I was expecting but not what I am experiencing. Is there some general setting that needs to be set to allow a new preset to not override everything in the previous preset but only the new values for the dmx channels that it is specifically addressing?

[86bibo]

Hello,
I'm not a Wolfmix employer, but it works definitelly like this in the latest beta. You can simply it in the way, that everything which is set in color and color FX is saved in the "color preset", everything in move FX and possition is saved in "move preset" and everyhing in the beat FX is of course then the "beat preset". Also other settings should be global and saved anyway, independt which group you select during the preset saving. That means all Live Edits, all Wolfmix effects (blinder, strobe, blackout, Wolf Button) in case you have activated in the settings, that they are stored in the presets. I haven't checked it for the dimmers, because personaly I don't store them in the presets, but most probably they are global as well. Due to that, you have to consider that, in case you include such global effects in your programming.
With that approach, these groups will from my perspective never be completely independet, as I have fixtures, where some colors cannot be set by the color or color FX and need Live edits and the same for movements. Also the issue, that you have color "movement FX" in in the color FX but also in beat FX can result in some strange visuals in certain combinations (e.g. if you have a chaser in color and beat fx on the same fixture). But in the end for a lot of scenerios this new option gives you a lot of new possibilities to combine presets or just reduce the overall preset number.

If this don't work like this for your project, you should try to create a complete new one with your fixtures and test if it works there (e.g. with the autogenerated presets). Then you can see, if it is an issue with your old project, a general bug or if this function is just not like you expected.

[Kevin88]

For me as long as the “stack presets” also change the gobos, the positions &/or the live edits. it’s useless.

The way I would want to use these is only to trigger my fx’s. So make beams and movements that are cool to be able to trigger these over your looks. So making looks for your room and interact with these with your stored beams moves etc. But when it changes all the other parameters as gobo’s etc it’s kind of not working logically. At least for me it’s kind of weird now.

Am I the only one here?

[Jethrobowdean]

I’m not sure I understand what either of you have said. When you say “color preset” is that different from a normal “preset”? Is that not named and saved as any preset just with nothing but color or colorffx in it? Live Edits can already be layered but they’re not callable via midi unless they are part of a “preset” but that is where I am losing any ability to layer. Right now in this new Beta I lose everything in my prior preset even if my new preset is for the “color” of one light

[willm]

Hi Jethro,

I have just responded to your original question in a different thread, but I will copy/paste my response here for your reference:

"Hi Jethro,

This is best demonstrated in our in our FW 2.0 introduction video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV02rAw ... el=Wolfmix (skip to around 4:00 minutes).

Essentially, each preset now allows you to store in it any combination of 'Colour', 'Move', or 'Beam' controls. This means for example that you can now be running a standard Preset that contains all of these functions, then quickly change the Colour without effecting the Move or Beam settings. You can then trigger a new Preset that only recalls the 'Move' functions for example (meaning you are now seeing the 'Colour' from one Preset, the 'Move' from another, and the 'Beam' from the original running preset)."

[GregorCologne]

A note to everyone who reads this: THE INFO BELOW IS NOT 100% CORRECT, PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT THIS POST FOR CORRECT INFO!

Hi Guys,

I will try to shed some light into this:

Below, you can see in the the screen that apears when you save or edit a PRESET:



In here, you can specifiy which of the FX shall be saved, and which shall not. (You will get a great example of this if you use the new "Generate Presets" function as that one will give you one page with 'full-fledged' ones including eveything, and also three pages only with COLOR, MOVE, and BEAM FX. Please make sure not to overwrite our existing presets by setting the START PAGE in the left bottom!)

Besides those FX, there are also STATIC things you can save: COLORS, POSITIONS, GOBOS and LIVE EDITS.

So if you deactivate all buttons on the screen above, only all the STATIC settings will be left, and saved. To avoid that too, you have to make sure that nothing is activated anymore, so you go to (static) COLOR and check through all your groups if anything's active, and deactivate that. The same applies to POSOTION, GOBO and LIVE EDIT. So in theory, you can save a completely empty PRESET if you like.

On the other hand, you can also activate all three FX in the screen above, but deactive all the groups in every FX1 and FX2 (six in sum), so if you activate that "empty" PRESET, everything what's running will just go off. At least in theory.

[Kevin88]

Oh now I read gregors comment it can work the way I thought it should! If I’m correct don’t save the static’s and that will be the way it was from your base.

Still this is a bit of a work around an could be easier when a stack preset just only contains the fx’s.

Gone try tonight if it now will work out the way I think I understand an desire!

[Kevin88]

Oh now I read Gregors comment it can work the way I thought it should. If I’m correct don’t save the static’s and than those will be the way it was from your base (look) setting.

Still I think this is a bit of a work around and could be much easier the way I suggested. So a stack preset should just only contains the fx’s. Maybe add the option when you save the preset is it a base of a stack.

Gone try tonight if it now will work out the way I think I understand an desire!

[GregorCologne]

I'm happy that this helped. I also forgot an important thing:

If you activate any FX, or any static setting, lets say a COLOR FX as an example, the Wolfmix stores this as the current "state". As soon as you trigger another COLOR FX, it will overwrite the old one and will become the active state then. This works identically with all other things, too. As long as you won't overwrite anything, it will just stay active. (That's why I mentioned that "empty" - but not really empty - PRESET which will stop eveything that's currently running. (In case you've lost the overview.)

And yes, I already talked to my colleague if it wouldn't be smart to also add any static options when saving a PRESET, but we first need to deeply think about this before we agree to change, or tweak, this system. And you shouldn't forget that this is already huge advantagecompared to the old version. In that one, you didn't have any option to 'split' anything, it was just ALL saved in a PRESET, and was just overwritten with every new one triggered.