Its 2018! Lets make our showfiles more efficient.

Here’s what you’ll need:
– One thumb drive
– One grandMA2 console on grandMA2 onPC running software version 3.3.4.3
– grandMA3D v3.3.4.3 (Optional)
– The Consoletrainer 2018 showfile (Includes our updates up through Day Ten) so you can play along.
You can grab the software for free at http://www.malighting.com/en/support-downloads/software.html

Software Version used in series: 3.3.4.3

Day 10 of 18 in 2018 is for all of you on the road running a concert tour. It’s very common to program your show as one song per page- it works great.  It’ll be even easier to move around those pages, if we write some macros to get us there.

As always, lets start with backing up our show and renaming it to reflect the day.  If you don’t have the showfile- take a second to download it from the link in the YouTube description, or at my website, consoletrainer.com.

Let’s start with making a view on Screen 2. I’m going to put the Page Executor Pool in the bottom half.  The top half will be my Macro Pool.  In here, you want to scroll to a section with lots of free space around it.  This is where we’ll store our Song Page Macros, and we want to have space to move them around and reorder when we need to.  Store this as a View and call it “Songs.” We don’t have much for pages in this showfile.  Page one has the sequences we’ve been working with in the “18 in 2018” series, and page 2 has the sequence from my Timecode video.  For me, I like to have a “Fixed Page”, a page where I store all of those sequences that I wanted fixed and available to me on all pages.  I prefer this to be page 1, but it can be anywhere.  I’m going to move these pages around so I can slot in a “Fixed” page on page one. Common sequences you might like to fix would be things like Audience Blasters, or maybe performer keys or anything you’d like access to at all times.  For example’s sake, I’m taking the Auras to full- putting them in the “Straight Out” position and giving them a bit of color and zoom.  Now I’ll store it on Fader 1 of Page 1 and call this “Aud” for our example.  I want this sequence on every page, so hit the “Fix” key followed by any button on Executor 1. Clear out, and you can see that this sequence is available on all pages.

Now, we’ll write our first macro- one to trigger the top of the “Simple” sequence on page 2.  There are a variety of ways to write this macro (you can even include variables that reference the names of songs and pages), but I’m a big fan of numbers… so I’m going to show you the numeric method, which is dead simple.  Hit Edit and touch the block where you want to store this macro.  In the Edit window, click “Add.”  Ok, now we can start inserting our command lines. The first one I want is a command to take me to the Page where my sequence lives, so the command here is “Page 2.” My second line will say “Off Page 2 thru.”  You might be wondering why I’m saying this.  OK, I want to make sure that when I start this sequence, that all my other pages are off- EXCEPT for the page with the Fixed Items (Page 1), so I’m including everything from Page 2 onward.  When you use the THRU key and no number following it- the console will assume you want all numbers following the first number.  And yes- I’m including Page 2 (the page with that I’m calling up with this macro), because I’m going to be making copies of this macro for other songs, and this will keep things uniform.  Don’t worry- I can still trigger a look on page 2 from this macro, and we’ll get there in a moment. My next line is going to be “SELECT Executor 15” because that’s where my main sequence resides, and I want my Cuelist View to refresh when I come to this page.  Notice that I didn’t say “Executor 2.15”.  That’s very specific, and WOULD work for page 2, but again, I want to make copies of this for other song pages, and I keep my main sequence on each page’s Fader 15, so I won’t have to make a lot of edits in my new macros. Lastly, I want to trigger my first look with this macro, so I’ll say “Go Cue 1 Executor 15.” Great! For me, this is the bare minimum I keep in my song page macros, so I’ll label it “Simple Song” and close this editor.

The best way to test this is to switch to a different page, and then press the Macro. Perfect.  I’m on the page, my sequence is selected and Cue 1 is live.  If I had another song playing on another page, this macro would have released it.  Let’s make a macro for our Timecoded page.  Simply copy your first macro, rename it, and enter the editor. Since the Timecode sequence is on page 3, update the first line to be Page 3. Now, because I’ve kept my style of always storing my main sequence looks to fader 15, that’s all I have to do. Give it a try.

Like I said, the lines I’ve included are the bare minimum that I want to have in my Song Page Macros.. but there’s plenty more you could add. Perhaps you want to recall a view, or maybe you have a timecoded show and need to trigger a timecode track.  Play around with adding in anything else you want the console to automate by adding more lines.

Here’s the last tip I want to include here.  Because we’re basing our macros on the Page number- do not move your pages around unless you want to update your macros.  Leave the pages as they are- but you are totally free to move the macros around in any order that makes sense.  Some people like them to be alphabetical, or perhaps you want to reorder them each night to match the set list order.