When you’re ready to take your sequencing up a notch, explore the use of value curves to give your show that little bit of extra complexity and professionalism!

If you are an xLights user who is just beginning your journey as a lighting enthusiast, these are really great tips to know so that you can work towards being able to incorporate them in the future. However, keep in mind that if you are just starting out, it might be best to stick with regular sequencing and come back to check out this info once you’re ready to take things to the next level.

If you’ve been working with xLights a while and you are ready to take things up a notch these tips are for you!

Value Curves

When you’ve got some experience under your belt and you’re ready to take your lighting to the next level, one way you can do this is through value curves.

Value curves will allow you to generate a faster speed for each measure of the music you want your lighting to accompany.

Where To Locate Value Curves

Any time in xLights if you are sequencing and you see a curved green arrow next to your sequence, that is a value curve! If you hit that arrow you will get a popup screen to work with. It details what the value does for each particular level in your sequence.

With little effort you are able to bring your level wherever you want it and access a number of different curves to choose from. You can apply any of them wherever you want in your sequence with ease and modify them to suit whatever it is you have in mind.

Customizing

In order to customize your value curve choice, it’s fairly easy. You customize by clicking the red dots that appear and dragging them wherever you want them to be. You can add as many points along the middle of the line as you want and you will see it all reflected as you play it back.

Benefits

One cool thing about using value curves is that they are going to work on anything! This means that any time you have a change in the music you can add a value curve to it and modify your lighting show to be absolute perfection.

Another interesting feature is the music trigger ones and spiral wraps. The only thing to be cautious about and keep in mind when working with spiral wraps is that sometimes it can be a little jumpy as the curves are increasing. This is an easy fix if you just keep an eye on it as you’re working and setting it all up so that things run smoothly during your show.

Closing

Value curves are a great way to add some activity to your show or to slow down really quickly if desired. You basically have access to use and enable them on any parameter and then you can make a value curve that works perfectly for your music. It is a great feature that really makes your show next level, and makes it look a lot more complex with only a few clicks.