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Instruments

The drop-down menu in the top-left corner of every instrument is used to select the fixture tag group the instrument device will control. The menu is populated with all available tags assigned to fixtures in Beam's Patch Editor.

Generic​

While the Par, MovingHead, and Strobe devices are designed to control specific fixture types (and also serve as building blocks for custom instruments - see Building new plugins), Generic offers an out-of-the-box solution for working with a wide range of fixtures, regardless of their parameters.

Using the + and - buttons, you can set how many generic dials are in view. The minimum is 2, and the maximum is 16. You can map each generic dial to a custom modulation parameter within the selected fixture tag group.

On the right end of the device Generic includes two separate envelopes, which you can also route to any desired modulation parameter.

Generic

Parameters​

  • Intensity: direct control of the dim parameter of all the fixtures in the selected tag group.
  • HSL/RGB: direct control of the red, green, blue and optionally white, or cyan, magenta and yellow parameters of all the fixtures in the selected tag group. Click the HSL button to switch to RGB mode. Click the color box to pop up a color chooser to visually select a color.
  • Param 1-16: generic dials that are mappable to any parameter of fixtures that are part of the fixture tag group.
  • Attack: the attack in beats of incoming notes. The time it takes for dim to move up to gain after receiving a note on. dim will stay at gain until the instrument receives a note off.
  • Release: the release in beats of incoming notes. The time it takes for dim to go back to zero after receiving a note off.
  • Gain: the maximum value that the dim envelope reaches.
  • Int < Vel: toggles whether the intensity of the dim envelope is controlled by the note velocity.

Choosing color​

The color controls allow you to select a color that is not fully bright, in theory you can select a color that is black. Note that this will affect the total intensity of the fixture, meaning that the dim envelope can have a lower maximum if the darkness bar in the color chooser is not set to be fully bright:

Color chooser

Controlling individual fixtures or groups of fixtures in a tag​

With the Generic instrument you can control individual fixtures or groups of fixtures within the selected tag by assigning the same modulation parameter to multiple Param dials. The number of Param dials with the same modulation parameter is distributed across the number of fixtures in a tag:

  • If you select a tag with 10 fixtures and have 10 Param dials for a modulation parameter, each Param dial will control 1 fixture.
  • If you select a tag with 10 fixtures and have 2 Param dials for a modulation parameter, each Param dial will control 5 fixtures.
  • If you select a tag with 10 fixtures and have 5 Param dials for a modulation parameter, each Param dial will control 2 fixtures.

Par​

Par is the most basic instrument, supporting intensity and color control. Color control typically only applies to LED PARs.

Par

Parameters​

  • Intensity: direct control of the dim parameter of all the fixtures in the selected tag group.
  • HSL/RGB: direct control of the red, green, blue and optionally white, or cyan, magenta and yellow parameters of all the fixtures in the selected tag group. Click the HSL button to switch to RGB mode. Click the color box to pop up a color chooser to visually select a color.
  • Attack: the attack in beats of incoming notes. The time it takes for dim to move up to gain after receiving a note on. dim will stay at gain until the instrument receives a note off.
  • Release: the release in beats of incoming notes. The time it takes for dim to go back to zero after receiving a note off.
  • Gain: the maximum value that the dim envelope reaches.
  • Int < Vel: toggles whether the intensity of the dim envelope is controlled by the note velocity.

MovingHead​

Parameters​

In addition to intensity and color, MovingHead also supports controlling movement parameters pan and tilt.

Moving Head
  • Intensity: direct control of the dim parameter of all the fixtures in the selected tag group.
  • Pan: direct control of the pan parameter of all the fixtures in the selected tag group. This controls the horizontal rotation of a moving head.
  • Tilt: direct control of the tilt parameter of all the fixtures in the selected tag group. This controls the vertical rotation of a moving head.
  • HSL/RGB: direct control of the red, green, blue and optionally white, or cyan, magenta and yellow parameters of all the fixtures in the selected tag group. Click the HSL button to switch to RGB mode. Click the color box to pop up a color chooser to visually select a color.
  • Attack: the attack in beats of incoming notes. The time it takes for dim to move up to gain after receiving a note on. dim will stay at gain until the instrument receives a note off.
  • Release: the release in beats of incoming notes. The time it takes for dim to go back to zero after receiving a note off.
  • Gain: the maximum value that the dim envelope reaches.
  • Int < Vel: toggles whether the intensity of the dim envelope is controlled by the note velocity.

Strobe​

In addition to intensity and color, Strobe supports controlling strobe-specific parameters stroberate and strobeduration. The color control usually only applies to LED strobes.

Strobe

Parameters​

  • Intensity: direct control of the dim parameter of all the fixtures in the selected tag group.
  • Rate: direct control of the stroberate parameter of all the fixtures in the selected tag group. This controls how frequently the strobe flashes.
  • Duration: direct control of the strobeduration parameter of all the fixtures in the selected tag group. This controls the duration of each flash.
  • HSL/RGB: direct control of the red, green, blue and optionally white, or cyan, magenta and yellow parameters of all the fixtures in the selected tag group. Click the HSL button to switch to RGB mode. Click the color box to pop up a color chooser to visually select a color.
  • Attack: the attack in beats of incoming notes. The time it takes for dim to move up to gain after receiving a note on. dim will stay at gain until the instrument receives a note off.
  • Release: the release in beats of incoming notes. The time it takes for dim to go back to zero after receiving a note off.
  • Gain: the maximum value that the dim envelope reaches.
  • Int < Vel: toggles whether the intensity of the dim envelope is controlled by the note velocity.