Build a light show
Stack effect layers on the beat grid, set their opacity, and add momentary hits to build a looping show.
A show in Spectralite is a stack of layers that loops in time. Each layer runs one effect on one set of fixtures, plays at an opacity you set, and turns on and off across a beat grid. You build the running look from a few stacked layers in the Timeline panel, then keep a set of momentary hits in the Bumps panel to fire by hand when the music calls for them. This guide walks that from an empty timeline to a small looping show.
Before you start, patch some fixtures and build at least one position map, the spatial layout a layer renders onto. If you have not set a tempo yet, do that first in the Beat Matcher; the whole show runs against the beat, so Sync effects to music is worth reading alongside this one.
Add your first layer
Open the Timeline panel and click Add new layer (or press N). An effect browser opens, filtered to Loop and Movement effects: the continuous looks that run against the beat grid. Pick a Loop effect for a base wash, something that fills your rig with a steady color or slow pulse.
The new layer appears as a row in the stack. It starts at opacity 0, so it renders nothing yet. That is expected; you bring it up in a moment.
Give the layer its fixtures
Select the layer, then open the Layer Settings panel. Set Mapping to the position map you want this effect to cover. The map decides which fixtures the layer lights and where each one sits in space, so the same effect lands differently depending on the map you choose.
Bring the layer up
Back in the Timeline, each layer row carries a numeric Opacity input from 0 to 1. Opacity is a linear brightness scale: at 1 the layer plays at full, at 0.5 it contributes half its light, and at 0 it is off. There is no separate mute; 0 is how you silence a layer.
Set your base layer to 1. It now lights the rig on every beat, because a new layer's beat grid starts fully filled.
Opacity is linear, so raising a layer from 0.4 to 0.8 doubles the light it adds to the stack. How layers combine once they are up, additively or as an override, is covered in Effects and layers.
Stack a second layer
Click Add new layer again and pick a Movement effect this time, a chase or sweep that moves across the fixtures. Assign it a Mapping in Layer Settings as before.
Set this layer's Opacity to around 0.6. By default each layer adds its light onto the layers below it, so the movement sits over your base wash rather than replacing it, and the base color still reads through. Layers combine bottom to top: a layer only ever affects the ones beneath it.
Schedule layers on the beat grid
Each layer row has a beat grid: one bar is divided into sixteen slots, four per beat, and the effect plays wherever a slot is switched on. This schedule lives on the timeline row itself, not in Layer Settings.
Click a slot to toggle it, or drag across a run of slots to switch a range on or off. Dragging from an off slot turns the range on; dragging from an on slot turns it off. The Fill and Clear buttons set every slot on or off at once.
Leave the base wash filled so it holds under everything. On the movement layer, clear some slots to carve gaps, for example play it on the first and third beats and leave the second and fourth dark. The pattern repeats every time the loop comes around. For the full grid model and its 16-slots-per-bar resolution, see Beat time.
Reorder the stack
Drag a layer row up or down to change its order. Higher rows composite over lower ones, so a bright accent belongs near the top and a base wash near the bottom.
Two per-row controls help while you build. Hold the Solo button to hear one layer alone for as long as you hold it; release to return to the full stack. The Lock icon is a persistent toggle that guards a layer from edits.
Punch a layer to full
Each layer row carries a Sun icon, a momentary override button. Hold it and the layer jumps to full brightness and sits in front of everything below for as long as you hold; release and it drops back to its set opacity. Use it to slam a layer forward on a hit without permanently changing its opacity.
There is no persistent blend menu on a timeline layer. The Sun button is the only override control, and it is momentary.
Add a momentary hit
Open the Bumps panel and click Add bump. The browser opens filtered to Bump effects: single-shot looks like flashes and strobes meant to be fired by hand. Choosing one adds a bump button to the bank.
Press and hold the button to fire it. The bump plays at full for as long as you hold, and releasing fades it out over the layer's hold time. Set that fade in Layer Settings under the bump's properties. Bumps always composite above every timeline layer, so a hit lands over the running show no matter how your timeline rows are stacked.
Save your show
Save the project from Project > Save project, or keep a separate copy with Project > Save copy. The timeline, its layers, their mappings, opacities, and beat grids all travel with the project file.
Next steps
- Sync effects to music drives motion from the beat clock and covers automatic tempo detection.
- Effects and layers is the model behind opacity, blending, and the stack.
- Beat time explains the grid that schedules each layer.
- The Timeline and Bumps panel references cover every control in detail.