Playlists

A playlist is the script of your show: a chain of prepared scenes, chases and effects that the program plays one after another — either automatically on a timer or on your GO command. Each item in this script is called a cue (as in theater: “cue 5 — start the waltz”). Build a wedding evening or a stage play once, and from then on you run the whole show with a single button, without scrambling to remember “what comes after the first dance”.

How to create a playlist:

1. Prepare your scenes and chases first — a playlist is assembled from ready-made building blocks.
2. Click “+ Playlist”. The editor opens: at the top, a single row of settings (name, mode, looping); below it, two columns — available elements on the left, steps on the right.
3. Give it a name (“Wedding set”, “Play, Act 1”).
4. Click the elements on the left — they are added to the end of the step list. Reorder them with the ▲ ▼ arrows.
5. For each step set the time (how many seconds it plays; empty or 0 = “infinite”, until GO is pressed) and, if you like, a fade (a smooth transition in seconds).
6. “Save” — the playlist is saved, but the editor window stays open: you can press ▶ right away and check the show (the playlist must be saved for playback). To close the editor, use “Close” (if there are unsaved edits, it will ask whether to save them). The finished playlist appears on the tab; click a card to start it, click again to stop.

Playlist settings (top row):

With music attached, the “Timed” and “Hybrid” modes drive the light in sync with the track (by the playback line). “Manual” doesn’t listen to the music — the light only follows GO; so when you add music, the playlist switches itself from “Manual” to “Timed” (see “Soundtrack for the show”).

Settings for each step (List view):

Transitions between cues (fade)

So the light doesn’t “jump” abruptly between cues, set a smooth transition (fade):

• The general “Fade” in the playlist header applies to all cues at once. Set, say, 1–2 s, and every transition (a scene change, a chase or effect coming in, layers being removed) becomes smooth.
• An individual “Fade (s)” on a step (in the “List” view) overrides the general one for that cue: where you need an abrupt “bang”, set 0; where you want it especially smooth, set more.
• It works the same for scenes, chases and effects. 0 (both general and per-step) = instant switching, as before. A stop cue (■) extinguishes abruptly, without a fade.
• Brightness, colour and head position move smoothly, while “stepped” parameters — gobo pattern, colour-wheel slot, prism, frost — cannot be blended halfway, so they switch at the end of the transition, together with everything else. The shutter (strobe) behaves the same way.

Layers: scene, chase and effects all at once

Normally a new cue replaces the previous one: the second scene starts, the first goes dark. But every step has a “Layer” switch, and it unlocks the main point of playlists — layering:

• ⤺ Replaces — the cue pushes out everything that was playing (the “as usual” behavior).
• + On top — the cue is added to what’s playing, turning nothing off.
• ■ Stop — the cue extinguishes one specific chase or effect; everything else keeps playing.

Scene + chase + effects at once — recipe:

1. Cue 1: scene “Waltz” (⤺ replaces) — this is the base: the general light in the hall.
2. Cue 2: chase “Heads — circle” (+ on top) — the moving heads start circling, the base keeps burning.
3. Cue 3: effect “Flicker” (+ on top) — flicker is added. You can layer as many effects on top as you like.
4. Cue 4: ■ stop “Flicker” — the flicker is gone, the scene and chase keep playing.
5. Cue 5: scene “Finale” (⤺ replaces) — everything before is extinguished, the finale begins.

Timeline view

The “List / Timeline” toggle in the settings row shows the same steps as a time strip with Scene (base), Chase and Effects lanes. Blocks that sit under one another play simultaneously — the layering is visible at a glance.

What you can do with the mouse right on the strip:

• click an element in the palette below the strip — add a step at the end;
• drag a block left/right — change the cue order;
• drag the right edge of a block — change the step duration;
• drag the left edge of a block (only when arranging on the waveform, for scenes and chases) — the cue starts later while its end stays put. So a cue can be shortened from the beginning too, not just from the end;
• the ⤺/+ icon on a block — toggle the “replace/on top” layer (a chase block with “+” sits below the scene block);
• right-click a block — remove the cue from the show (Ctrl+Z brings it back);
• 🔍 − / + — zoom the strip.

A block with “∞” is a cue with no time, waiting for GO; its width on the strip is nominal. “■ stop” steps and the fade field are set in the “List” view.

Soundtrack for the show

You can attach an audio track to a playlist — then the ▶ button starts the music and the light together.

• Attach: “♪ Music” → pick a file (mp3/wav, etc.). Volume — with the slider next to it.
• Start: ▶ “Play show” (or GO / a card click) — the track plays and the playlist runs alongside it. When the track ends, the playlist stops on its own.
• ⚠️ A reference to the file is stored, not the file itself. If the track moved together with the project (the usual case — both live in one folder), the program finds it next to the project file by itself and says so. If it doesn’t, a red “Locate file” button appears in the header: click it and choose the track again. Pick a file with the same name and the trim, the offset and the arranged cues are kept. The light keeps working without sound meanwhile.

Sync to the track (“Show mode”). Open the “Timeline” view when there is music — a waveform of the track appears under the ruler. As soon as you attach music (or drag a cue block onto the waveform), the playlist switches itself from “Manual” to “Timed” mode (a hint pops up) — and the light follows the music. What you can do:

• drag a cue block horizontally onto the waveform — the cue lands at the chosen moment of the track. It snaps to the nearest beat of the music by itself (a green line shows the caught beat while you drag), so hitting the beat needs no aiming. To place a cue between beats (a pickup, a slow sweep) hold Alt: then the fine 0.25 s grid works as before. This is “arranging the light to the music”. The same effect can be placed at several points;
• the green lines on the waveform are bar starts. The program tracks the rhythm along the whole track (the grid breathes with live music instead of stretching one ruler over it). If the pulse is caught right but the “one” sits on the wrong beat, press the » button next to the zoom controls: each click rotates the bars by one beat (four clicks make a full circle), the choice is saved with the playlist and the arrangers respect it. Next to it is a service bug button — two diagnostic strips: how the program heard the track (bars, beats, real hits) and where the cues landed (green mark = on a beat, red = off). Handy whenever the light feels off-beat;
• right-click a block — remove the cue from the show (Ctrl+Z brings it back);
• ▶ starts the show; a playhead runs across the waveform, and the light at every moment matches the arrangement;
• clicking the waveform while the show is stopped sets a start marker — the point from which ▶ begins playback (a blue ▶ flag). You no longer have to always play from the start of the track. Clicking during playback seeks to that point (the light is recomputed for that moment of the track);
• the waveform is a clip on the show timeline. The show is no longer as long as the song: light can work before the music comes in and after it ends. There are two different things you can do with the clip:

— trim it — drag the amber handles at its edges. The cut-off head and tail are dimmed (still visible as a ghost, so a trim can always be undone by dragging the handle back). Cues do not shift while trimming: the content stays where it is on the timeline;

— move it — drag the middle of the clip. The music slides along the timeline, and the cues that sit inside the music slide with it (they were placed on the beats of the song). Cues placed before and after the music stay put. That is how you make a light intro: move the music to the right and space for light opens up in front of it.

Ctrl+Z undoes any such drag at once;

• where the show ends. A dashed «show end» line is drawn on the timeline. The show lasts until the later of two things: the end of the music or the end of the last cue. A cue marked «∞» has no end of its own, so it does not extend the show — to let the light work on after the music, give the last cue a duration (drag its right edge). The «show end» line moves out and the light runs for as long as you set;
• “Reset” (hover — “Reset the arrangement of cues on the waveform”) — return the steps to the ordinary sequence by durations;
• List / Timeline — the view toggle in the header: “Timeline” — the waveform and arrangement; “List” — line-by-line editing (duration, per-step fade, layer, order, removal);
• Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y — undo/redo timeline edits (adding, removing and moving cues); the same ↶ ↷ buttons are in the program header.

Show chases run in time with the track. While a show with music plays, the program drives the motion inside chases by the same beats the cues are arranged on: the timing is exact and you don’t need to turn on “SOUND” (the microphone). If the track’s tempo could not be determined, chases work as before, on the general tempo. You can switch this off in ⚙ Settings → “Show chases follow the track” (the old path — live sound or manual tempo — is right there). The “on the beat” mode still listens to live sound: there the point is the real hit.

The GO button with music (“Hybrid” mode). The light follows the track on its own, but GO stays at hand: press it and the next cue lights up right away, without waiting for its moment. The music is not seeked: the song keeps playing evenly, and the cue’s own scheduled time is skipped, so the light never fires twice. Press GO several times and the cues follow along the strip one after another. When there are no cues left ahead, GO does nothing: the show plays the strip out to the end by itself (to finish earlier, use Stop).

If the light misses the beat (Bluetooth speakers). Sound doesn’t leave the speakers instantly: on a regular sound card the lag is barely noticeable, but a Bluetooth speaker can add up to a third of a second — and then the flashes come slightly ahead of the beats. The correction lives in two places — next to the “Play show” button (a small clock button that opens a slider) and in ⚙ Settings → “Audio delay: light on the beat”; in queues it sits by the launch button. The value is shared: play a show with a clear beat and move the slider until the flashes match the beats by ear (150–300 ms is typical for Bluetooth). Only the light moves — the music, the waveform and the playhead stay where they are. The setting belongs to this computer and its speakers; it is not saved into the project.

Where this is edited. In Program mode with the visualizer on, the show editor doesn’t cover the screen with a window but embeds into the workspace: the visualizer on the left (a live preview of the light), the steps area on the right (timeline or list, in place of the fixtures panel), the palette of scenes/chases/effects below. Drag elements from the bottom palette straight onto the lanes. On narrow screens the interface scales down automatically; on wide ones, larger. The “Close/Save” buttons are in the top-right corner.

Auto-arrange and AI arrange

You don’t have to place cues on the waveform by hand — the program can do it for you. When music is attached, buttons appear in the timeline header:

• ✨ “Auto-arrange” — free, works offline. The program analyzes the track (tempo, beats, bars, energy) and lays the scenes and chases you have already created across the music by itself: chases carry most of it (they have motion), while calm scenes go only into quiet spots — just a few of them. Changes land exactly on bars, and their pace follows the music itself: in quiet interludes a look holds twice as long as usual, in loud and rising parts it changes twice as often, and every transition between song parts (verse → chorus) gets its own change right on the boundary.
• The “change step” selector next to the button (1 / 2 / 4 / 8 bars, default 4) — the base rate of changes: “4 bars” — looks live in musical phrases (~7–14 s), “8” — slow and stately, “1–2” — dynamic. Don’t like the result — pick another step and press auto-arrange again; the choice is remembered.
• ✨ “AI arrange” — smarter, but paid (spends requests from the PRO package, like generation in the AI chat; the cost is shown before you run it). The AI receives the track structure in bar numbers and the list of your looks — so the changes land exactly on downbeats and keep the same selected change step. On top of that the AI can place effects over the looks as short accents (a drop entry, the finale): the effect switches itself on and off at the right bar. Next to it is a Lite/Pro switch (Pro is smarter but pricier; the same setting as in the AI chat).
• “Refine” (appears once cues are placed) — polish in words: write a plain phrase about what to change — “fewer changes in the verses”, “brighter on the drop”, “add strobe on the accents” — and the AI returns an updated arrangement, keeping everything your wish doesn’t contradict. Costs the same as a regular AI arrangement and is also shown in advance.

Both arrangers use the scenes and chases you already have — so first remove the ones you don’t need and keep the suitable ones. The result lands on the timeline as ordinary cues: you can edit it by hand and undo it (Ctrl+Z). If cues are already placed, the program asks for confirmation before replacing them.

Arrangement works best on electronic and dance music with clear dynamics; on flat, acoustic tracks or speech it is weaker (the program “hears” only the math of the track, not the meaning of the music).

Running and leading the show

• Start: click a playlist card (in Program mode or in Live). Click again to stop.
• GO / back: in Live — the big GO button and the «Now / Next» board; in Program mode — the GO button in the “Active” row under the header. Before a cue’s name on the board: “+” means layering, “■” a stop cue.
• The “Active” row shows the entire stack of layers (scene, chase, every effect, playlist) — any layer can be removed with the cross without stopping the rest.

Hyperlists — a queue of playlists

Several playlists can be lined up in a queue: as soon as one finishes, the next starts. That is how an evening of separate songs is built, each song staying its own playlist with its own music. How to build such a queue, run it during the evening and pick it up where you stopped — see “Hyperlists — a queue of playlists”.