Q-Shift

Q-Shift is a way to utilize “offset effects” quickly and easily for your live shows. It resides within the “Quick tabs” area of BEYOND. Unlike offset effects within cues or within effects, Q-shift utilizes the “Live Control” parameters from the “Live Control” tab in the right tabs area. Because of this, these offset effects have much lower CPU requirements are run much faster than other cue based, or effect based offset effects.

Q-Shift is controlled with touch pads, that operate on a y and x axis. Amog the Y axis you have the effects percentage of utilization, and on the x axis you have an -100 to +100 offset value. The amount of offset is set within the pad properties. The Pads have two modes, 1D mode where it is only the y axis and controls the effect amount, and 2D where both effect amount and shift percentage is selectable. The pads also include 0% and 100% bumper buttons that allow quick and temporary enabling and disabling of the effect live. In 2D mode the shift amount value along the x axis will be maintained and only the effect amount is moved on the bumper buttons. Other parameters of these pads are modifiable in the “Pad Properties” area.

Q-Shift utilizes the “Live Control” tab's parameters as its source for effects. This allows any of the parameters within the live control tab to be utilized to create 1-Shift based effects. The Live Control tab parameters are the only parameters designed to work with Q-Shift.

Added for Q-Shift is the “A” and “B” selectors for the live control tab next to the Global, Cue, and Zone selectors. To create or modify a Q-Shift Effect, select the pad you would like to change or modify until it is highlighted with a light blue halo. Then you can modify both the A state and the B state. This acts almost exactly like an “Oscillating” type of effect within the main effects engine. Set the value you would like for A, and then for B. This will be your “start” and “finish” points for the effect. You can utilize as many or as little of the live control parameters as you would like within each pad. If multiple pads utilize the same parameter, the values will be added together to create the result.

Any delays or the animation between your start and finish points are edited within the “Pad Properties” window. And the Live control tab is just utilized for selecting the Start and Finish parameters of your effect. Be sure to only use the “A” and “B” modes when modifying Q-shift pads, as that is their only purpose.

Pad Properties is where you modify the General parameters of your pads and determine the effect action for your selected “Start” and “Finish” or “A” and “B” data from the live control pad. It can be selected by clicking on the properties button on the top right of the Q-Shift Tab.

In the General tab of Pad Properties, you can Name the Pad which will be displayed within the pad itself. Choose the Pad Color as it will appear in your Q-Shift Tab. And enable or disable 2D Pad operation, de-selecting will enable 1D and selecting will enable 2D control.

Under the “Shifts and wave” tab in the pad properties is where you determine how the effect runs and is applied.

First you have the “Tempo” option. This is one value over another in terms of beats. This work out to be that: 4/1 means the effect length will be 4 beats over one effect length. 4/4 means the effect length will be 1 beat over one effect length. 1/4 means the effect length will be 1/4th of a beat for one effect length.

These can be utilized to modify how your effect timing works in relation to the number of lasers and timeframe you would like for your effect.

Then you have Options for your shift, you can select either of the following:

• Period Shift Per Item (%)
• Period Shift Per Selection (%)

Period shift per item means the amount of percentage of the whole effect will be shifted per zone selected. If you had an effect that lasted 4 beats, and you had 4 lasers, and you wanted the cycle to complete every 4 beats, you would select 25%. This would shift the effect time by 25% per each laser.

Period shift per selection means the percentage of the whole time of the effect is visible among all the selected zones. For the same effect example above, with 4 lasers and a 4-beat effect, you would select 100%. This means all 4 lasers are equally spread out over the entire effect time. If this value was 50%, then only half of the entire effect would be visible at one time over the 4 lasers.

Period shift per item is basically distance between each zone, and period shift per selection is how much of the effect is visible at one time on all selected zones.

Both of these values can be reduced to 1% and to 10,000% giving lots of options.

These values are about grouping and paring zones for your effect.

DIV value is a “grouping” value. If you set this value to 2, then every two zones will act like a single zone on your effect, this works great if you have zones selected next to each other but opposite on your rig, they will mimic each other.

MOD Value is a “total steps” value. That means you can increase this value will turn your selected zones into two groups, every other, so instead of an effect that modifies each zone separately, they will act as two zones. Selected every other from each other.  

Both of these values when set to 0 are ignored and every zone will be seen as its own object to be modified.

The final portion of the shifts and waves tab is selecting the acceleration option between your “A” and “B” or “Start” and “Finish” values you selected for your effect. These movement values are similar to other options within the main effects engine. You may select any from the list below. Some of these accelerations are two-time segments long, so keep that in mind when selecting tempo. Each vertical line in the visible graph is a single time segment.

You can also invert the acceleration, to basically swap your “A” and “B” positions.

The width value allows you to select how many time segments of pause between them. This allows for your effect to basically only effect small portions of your group of zones at one time, giving a more dynamic look.

The destination tab lets you select a zone order you will use for your effect. This is not a selection of which zones will output, however a selection of zones that the effect will apply to. If none are selected, the Q-shift will apply to all zones outputting. If a smaller selection is put in the destinations, then only those destinations will have the effect of the pad, but output will maintain on all the other outputs, without the effect.

This will be very important for selection order. To get the “Symmetrical” delays that users love, you will want to select the order you would like to have the effect apply, this will likely mean selecting from outside in, or inside out. That is where order will matter for your effects.

Something users will undoubtably want to utilize Q-shift for is a simple delayed effect with symmetrical timing. Here is what you do.

Use a DIV Value of 2. Set destination in order of pairs you would like the delay to be within, go outside inward, or inward outward. Or in a circle, either way, ensure pairs are directly next to each other in the destination tab. Utilize whatever other parameters you want; the symmetricalness comes from the DIV value of 2 and choosing pairs. You could also do Quads in time with each other, just use a DIV value of 4, and select groups of 4, in order of each other. Expand from there.  

You will get symmetrical offset effects (that you know and love from MA and other lighting consoles), utilize the tool as you would otherwise.