In Live, a single fixture is influenced by many sources at once: a running scene, a chase, an effect, a raised submaster, a quick color, the crossfader… This raises a question: what will the audience actually see? To keep the result predictable, the program mixes the sources by two simple rules — one for brightness, and another for the remaining parameters.
Brightness — the “brighter wins” rule (HTP)
For brightness (the dimmer) the HTP rule applies (Highest Takes Precedence — “the higher value wins”): if several sources ask a fixture for brightness at the same time, the brightest one wins.
That’s why submasters work as pile-on: they add brightness on top of a scene rather than subtracting it. Raise a group’s fader and it gets brighter (if its own level was lower). And Flash is an instant “boost to maximum.”
Color and movement — the “latest wins” rule (LTP)
For color, pan/tilt, gobo and strobe the LTP rule applies (Latest Takes Precedence — “the latest command wins”). Averaging two colors is meaningless (red + blue ≠ a muddy purple in any useful sense), so the winner is the command higher in the layer order — usually your most recent live edit.
Layer order (bottom to top)
Each next color/position layer overrides the previous one:
- Base — the Programmer (or a Blind mode snapshot)
- The smooth transition (fade)
- The active chase
- Effects (the last launched wins)
- Submasters — add brightness (pile-on, HTP)
- The scene fader’s color/position (see “sticky/release” in 07.16)
- The crossfader A/B
- Quick color (a filter on top)
- Solo / Mute — kills the brightness of the unwanted groups
- Speed, the Grand Master and Blackout — over everything
