www.limelightwired.com: Learning to program timecoded lighting shows can feel like unlocking the next level of your career. Whether you're just looking for some consistent playback or programming a massive festival rig, programming to timecode removes any doubt that what needs to happen will happen right when it is supposed to.
7 comments:
This was a helpful article, it's nice to see topics like this covered. My first encounter with timecoding was on a hog at my church. It's interesting to me though, because the order they gave for how to program it was different than what I was taught. I was taught working with SIMPTE, and the person teaching me said to first listen to the track, and then go listen again and create a cue exactly where you want it, then come back and build it. This idea always made sense to me, you identify where you want cues and the basic description of them, then you come back and write it, rather than writing and cue and coming back to decide where to place it. But it's always good to hear about other ways to do things, to be able to improve our won ways. I think this article gave some pretty good tips.
I’ve never personally timecoded a show. When I did precollege at UCLA, some of the other LDs did it with guess-and-check autofollows for our final project (lighting design for a song), but I figured that if I was going to be sitting at the console anyway and I could run all the cues in realtime, there was no use in spending extra hours toiling away in the PSD. (Admittedly, I also find hitting cues to music really fun.) I had never heard of live capturing playback before this article but it makes soooo much sense. Looks like there’s some discussion of how to achieve this with macros and other features on ETC consoles on the etcconnect forums. Using plugins and markers also seems pretty common sense—like, hypothetically if you have a midi track, it should be relatively simple to create time based events. Definitely an interesting topic and hoping to learn more about it in the future!
This article was super helpful! Timecode always feels a bit like a mystic realm to be ventured into with caution, but this helped me get a grasp on what the computer is actually doing. I had no idea that programs like Cuepoints exist, and it helps alleviate some of the time consuming trial and error portion of using timecode! I remember trying to figure out timecode in high school as a challenge to myself. The first time I saw it used was while working sound for a dance show. They were running some projections and they time coded certain light cues into the projection sequences. I was fascinated by the way it worked and started researching and figuring it out on the lighting console back at my school. I ended up figuring out how to do very rudimentary things with timecode, but didn’t have the opportunity to implement them into a show. I would love to learn more about the technology and one day use it in a practical setting!
I have heard of timecoding and even seen it done but I never really got to explore the ins and outs of timecoding. In a few musicals I have worked on the Lighting designer has used time coding to take the responsibilities of some really vital timings off the stage manager. I think that this article did a good job of laying it out in a simple way that is easy to understand. I also appreciated the videos provided as I am a visual learner so it helps to see and read to learn faster. I appreciated the lengths the article went to to explain about live recording and pre recorded audio and the pros and cons and which makes more exact cues. I also thought the premise of an external clock was really interesting, it makes a lot of sense to have a clock keeping everything in time to make sure that nothing will experience drift or lag related to one system. I really enjoyed the article and enjoyed the rabbit hole links at the bottom.
I feel like it's a lot easier to timecode lights when it's a concert. (Hopefully) the artist is singing at the same tempo each night, so the cue will always be at roughly the same time. I think it’s a lot harder to do in theater. In musical theater it could work, but most of the time, lines are not delivered the same way every night. It’s a little hard to see frequent uses of time coding in live theater. But I am definitely biased because I have mixed feelings on automating cueing. That being said, when I do timecode, I do it inefficiently, exactly how the article is saying to avoid. I do think this advice is helpful and has its applications in live theater. Especially when done well, timecoding gives the show a whole different immersion.
This reminds me of when I was talking with Ava about her Dance/Light piece, the killer clown one. She timecoded everything. I am very excited to learn more about programming like this if I declare lighting design. My knowledge of programming from high school was a bit limited because of a lack of knowledge at my school, and the inability to drive or go anywhere with a bigger tech theater presence. I wrote a bit about that in my essay to get into CMU as well, I pointed out that I would be the first to jump on new opportunities because I didn't exactly have them in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I figured out how to program basic chase effects on my own with YouTube and the lightboard manual. That was a lot of fun. I wish there was "open board" time in the light lab or something so that I could go in and fiddle around with things like I did in high school. Then again, I understand that isn't a thing probably because people would break something..
First off, this article was a very engaging read, I enjoyed the gifs throughout and the formatting was pleasing. Second, time coded light shows sound so cool. It amazes me how well synchronized everyone is at concerts I go to and now I know it is probably due to time coding the light cues, while it is still being open enough for someone to make edits in real time. I think time coding works well when the artists have earpieces with a metronome to ensure less chance of desyncing. Having the external clock for hazardous cues makes so much sense, though now I wonder how to cancel a hazardous cue that went wrong. Would it be through an external sensor and system that stops the effect with the cue signal still going through, or if there is something internal to the console that checks and stops the cue signal? Or it may be neither, either way I am intrigued.
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