Timeline
Arrange and stack Loop, Audio, and Movement effect layers against the beat grid.
The Timeline arranges your show. Each layer holds one effect. The layers stack top to bottom, and time runs left to right.
Related concepts: Effects and layers and Beat time.
The Timeline holds chaser and motion layers, which are Loop, Audio, and Movement effects that run continuously against the beat grid. Single-trigger Bump effects go in the separate Bumps panel. When you add a layer here, the effect browser opens, filtered to those three categories.
Interface
Time ruler
The top ruler shows beat numbers, bar markers (every 4 beats), and the time cursor at the current playback position.
Layer stack
Layers stack vertically, and higher layers override lower ones. Layer opacity controls how they combine. A layer group sits in the stack as one header row with its layers indented under it.
Working with layers
Adding layers
Click Add new layer. An effect selector opens, filtered to Loop, Audio, and Movement effects. Choose the effect the layer uses.
The new layer plays on the Stage layout. When the Stage holds no moving head, an effect that moves heads lands on the first layout that holds one. Change the layout afterwards in Layer Settings.
Layer properties
Each layer shows these controls:
- Name. Click it to select the layer.
Cmd-click adds a layer to the selection or takes it out.Shift-click selects every row from the last one you clicked. - Solo, a momentary button. Hold to solo the layer and release to un-solo.
- Opacity Override, a momentary button. Hold to raise the layer's opacity to full.
- Lock, a lock icon that toggles editing off and stays set until you click it again.
- Opacity, a number input for the layer's opacity (0 to 1).
- Fill/Clear, buttons that fill or clear the beat pattern.
Reordering layers
To change the order, drag a layer up or down by its grip handle at the left of the row. Higher layers appear on top. This order covers Timeline layers only, and Bumps have their own order in the Bumps panel.
To reorder from the keyboard:
- Focus the grip and press
Enter. - Press
Tabto reach the layer whose place it should take. - Press
Enteragain.
Deleting layers
Select one or more layers and press Backspace, or right-click a layer and choose Delete layer. When you delete a selected group, its layers go with it. Cmd+Z brings back everything one press of Backspace deleted.
Moving a layer to Bumps
To send a layer to the Bumps panel, right-click it and choose Move to Bumps. The layer keeps its effect, layout, and parameters.
Layer groups
A group gathers several layers under one header row, so one intensity, one Solo and one Opacity Override play them together. Groups hold layers only, one level deep.
You can make a group in three ways:
- Right-click a layer and choose New group from layer. The group appears in the layer's place with the layer inside it, and its name field opens.
- Select several layers (
Cmd-click orShift-click their names) and pressCmd+G. The group takes the place of the first selected layer and keeps the layers in the order they had. - Drag a layer by its grip onto an existing group's row.
The group row
The group row shows a chevron, the group's position number, its name, Solo and Opacity Override, and an intensity input. It has no beat pattern and no lock. Click the chevron to collapse the group to its header row, and again to show its layers.
The intensity multiplies the opacity of every layer in the group. At 1, each layer plays at its own opacity. At 0, the whole group is dark. In between, the intensity scales the layers: a layer at 0.8 in a group at 0.5 plays at 0.4.
Hold the group's Solo to solo every layer in it at full opacity, whatever the group's intensity. While you hold its Opacity Override, the group's intensity goes to full. Each layer keeps its own opacity, so a layer at 0 stays dark.
Moving layers in and out
To add a layer as the group's last layer, drag it onto the group's row. To place it inside the group, drop it between two of the group's layers. To take a layer out, drag it above the group's row or onto the bottom edge of the group's last layer. You can also right-click it and choose Remove from group, which puts it just below the group. Drag the group's grip to move the group with all its layers. A group never goes inside another group.
Group menu
Right-click a group's row for Rename, Ungroup, Duplicate group, Move to Bumps and Delete group and layers. A double-click on the name also renames the group. Ungroup removes the group and leaves its layers where the group was. To ungroup several groups at once, select them and press Cmd+Shift+G.
On a MIDI controller, a group takes one position in the Timeline's numbering, and its layers take none. See MIDI Input for how positions and specific layers work.
Time indicator
The red vertical line shows the current playback position in real time.
Pausing and scrubbing
The play/pause button sits at the left end of the time ruler. When you pause, the show holds where it is. The lights freeze in place and the time indicator stops. Anything you change while paused (a layer's opacity, a color) reaches the lights at once, so you can adjust a look on the held moment. When you press the button again, the show plays on from there.
To scrub, drag along the time ruler. The show moves from where it is, as far as you drag. A click alone leaves it in place. The drag never runs out. If you keep going past either end, the show carries on into the next or previous pass of the timeline. Time-based effects move forward or back with it.
The lights follow the time indicator as you scrub. A drag holds a playing show until you let go, and then the show plays on from there.
From the keyboard, press Tab to reach the ruler. Then use these keys:
←and→move the show a beat.Page DownandPage Upmove it a bar.Homemoves it to the start, andEndmoves it to the last beat.
While Auto Beat-Sync drives the tempo, the transport keeps the show in step with the music. Play waits for the next beat that lines up with the held position, at most one beat away. The play mark pulses until the show starts. To cancel, press it again. After a drag, the show waits for the next beat in step, as it does after Play.
A controller can run the transport through two inputs: Play / Pause and Return to Start. Return to Start moves the show to the first beat of the timeline and leaves a paused show paused. In Mapping Mode, click the play/pause button to bind it, or pick either input as the action of a MIDI or DMX assignment.
Beat patterns
Each layer has a beat activation pattern that sets when the layer is active within each bar. Click a beat block to toggle it, or drag across beats to set a range. A drag that starts on an inactive beat activates the range, and one that starts on an active beat deactivates it. Fill activates every beat and Clear deactivates every beat.
Layer effects
Each layer renders one effect. You choose it in the effect selector when you add the layer. To edit a layer's effect in the Node Editor, select the layer.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
N | Add layer |
Backspace | Delete selected layers and groups |
Cmd+D | Duplicate layer |
Cmd+G | Group selected layers |
Cmd+Shift+G | Ungroup selected groups |
Cmd+C | Copy selected layers |
Cmd+X | Cut selected layers |
Cmd+V | Paste layers as new |
S | Toggle solo |
L | Toggle lock |
↑ | Select previous layer |
↓ | Select next layer |
Related panels
- Bumps holds single-trigger bump layers.
- Layer Settings sets layer properties.
- Beat Matcher controls tempo.