16

Customizing

Opening the Preferences Panel

The preferences panel may be opened by choosing Preferences... under the Show Controller menu on a Macintosh, or by choosing Preferences... under the Edit menu on a Windows computer.

The Preferences Panel is divided into three tabs: Files and Folders, Color And Fonts, and Tuning And Fog.  Clicking on a tab will change the contents of the Preferences Panel to give access to the settings indicated on the tab.

Setting Default File Locations

The Files And Folders tab is where the default file locations are set up.  These folders are where Solo Performer Show Controller looks for the indicated items first when opening files.  When the Add Audio File to Play List button is pressed in the play list window, the open dialog box that follows shows the files that are in the folder chosen in the audio files preferences folder.  Similarly, the Play Lists and Light Show folders work the same way.

The Lyrics default folder is where Solo Performer Show Controller looks for lyric files during playback and it is also where lyric files are saved when they are created.  If this folder is not set up correctly, no lyrics will be displayed.  Make sure that this folder points to where your lyric files are located.

The Device folder and Scene folder are the places that Solo Performer Show Controller looks in for setting up the Lightshow Builder screen.  The Device folder should be set to where your light device files are located.  If this is not set up correctly, there will be no light devices showing up in the device menus of the Lightshow Builder screen.  Similarly, the Scene folder should be the set to the folder containing the light scene files that you wish to use in the Lightshow Builder screen.  Only those scene files that are in the folder indicated in this preference item will show up in the Lightshow Builder scene list.

To change a default folder, click the Choose... button to the right of the item that you wish to change, and a dialog will appear for the selection of the folder.

Setting Default Configuration File

The default configuration file may be set in the first tab of the preferences panel.

This file contains the information about how the light devices are set up in the Lightshow Builder window and what addresses are assigned to the 16 channels of light control during the run of a show.  By choosing a default configuration file, these settings will be the ones that will be set automatically every time Solo Performer Show Controller starts up.  It is important that the default configuration file is set to the configuration file that defines your lighting setup.  Note that you could have multiple configuration files that correspond to the various light setups that you may want to use.  Always set the default configuration file to match the current light setup.

Color And Font Settings

The window and font colors of Solo Performer Show Controller may be changed by clicking on the color square next to the item.

The text font used to display lyrics may be changed by selecting a font in the pop-up menu.

Font sizes may be changed by selecting a font size in the pop-up menu.  Sizes may be chosen for the normal lyrics window, and for the full-screen lyrics window.

 

Tuning Settings

The tuning settings are found on the Tuning and Fog tab of the Preferences Panel.

The tuning note playback instrument may be changed by choosing a different instrument from the Tuner Instrument pull down menu on the Tuning And Fog tab of the Preferences Panel.

The pitch of the note that is played back for tuning may be changed by choosing a different note from the Tuner Pitch pull down menu.

Fog Machine Settings

The fog machine settings are found on the Tuning and Fog tab of the Preferences Panel.

The first setting, Fog Machine Action Address, is where the DMX512 address of the on/off action of the fog machine is set.  It is this address that is changed during the show to start and stop the flow of fog.

The Fog On Value setting is the value that is sent to the fog machine action address to turn the fog on.  Similarly, the Fog Off Value setting is the value that is sent to the fog machine action address to turn the fog off.

The three setup address and setup values are optional settings that can be used to send setup commands to the fog machine when Solo Performer Show Controller first launches.

Here's an example of a fog machine setup:

Suppose that we have a fog machine with the following DMX512 description table:

Channel                Function               DMX Setting

1                                                  Off                       0-50

1                         Timer                   51-250

1                         Manual                 251-255

2                         Interval                 0-255

3                         Duration               0-256

4                         Volume                0-255

Now suppose that we want to control these four items using addresses 24 through 27 with Solo Performer Show Controller to put out fog whenever the fog button is pressed.  The first step is to set the DIP switches on the fog machine to address 24.

We will control the fog machine's flow of fog by using the volume channel, which by setting the DIP switches, is now address 27.  When the volume channel's data value is set to zero, there is no fog and when it is set to 255, there is maximum fog output.  We will therefore set the Fog Machine Action Address to 27, the Fog On Value to 255, and the Fog Off Value to 0.

Notice that we have chosen the volume channel to be the action channel for the fog machine rather than the power channel.  Simply turning the power on and off could theoretically control the fog machine.  The problem with this is that most fog machines have a substantial warm-up period, making this method less effective.

To get things set up properly, the fog machine must have its other addresses set up initially.  We will set the power address, 24, to a value of 255 to put the fog machine into manual mode.  The interval address, 25, and the duration address, 26, are only useful when the fog machine is set to timer mode rather than manual mode, so we will just set these channels to 0.

The settings in the Preferences Panel will then look like this:

Alternatively, since this fog machine is capable of putting out fog on a time schedule, we could have set address 24 to 128 to enable the timer.  Then, to put out fog every two minutes, set the interval address, 25, to 128.  When the fog machine does release a burst of fog, by setting address 26, the duration channel, to 85, we will get a 10 second burst of fog.

If this were to be done, the fog machine could be left to run automatically throughout the show, putting out 10-second puffs of fog in two-minute intervals and could be stopped completely by pressing the fog button on the foot controller.