Hey Zach, I've been on 7HDX here in LA quite a bit. I run my timelines along the same lines as Mike, although I don't use snapshots at all. When I first got on it, I had no idea about how it worked at all. Source holds for telestrator, etc were beyond me. So all my effects are macros. Here's an example Recall PBUS Reg 1 Set DSK 2 FF WAIT for user command DSK 2 Cut PBUS Play Trigger Preset ME2 WAIT xx frames PGM cut (all selected) WAIT 40 frames Recall PBUS Reg 101 (Habit from GVG) WAIT for user command PBUS Play Trigger WAIT xx frames PGM cut (all selected) WAIT 30 frames DSK 2 Cut Preset ME3 WAIT 30 frames Recall PBUS Reg 1 LOOP There's probably something I've forgotten. But 7HDX is a decent truck, and Steve Silvertooth is the EIC. He knows the switcher better then some operators I've met. He can show you the basics, and probably a little bit more. Like I said, I walked in completely clueless, and had a show done in about 5 hours. Good luck and tell Steve I said hello Jeremy

Zach, If you've used the DD-35 the XtenDD will be very familiar to you. My personal preference when using the DD-35/XtenDD is not use any timelines at all. I use all macros and snapshots. So for a simple DDR transition I recall a shapshot that sets up my key sources, clip, etc. on the PGM/PST M/E then performs the tasks. Between tasks, I insert pauses . If you were editing a macro for a simple transition from ME-3 to ME-2 it would look something like this: (highly abbreviated) SET DSK1 FADEINAMOUNT MINIMUM RECALL PGMPST SNAPSHOT 00 RECALL PBUS MACHINE 1 REGISTER 01 WAIT .4 SECONDS PBUS MACHINE 1 TRIGGER 0 SET DSK1 FADEINAMOUNT MAXIMUM WAIT .5 SECONDS SELECT ME-2 ON PGM/PST WAIT .8 SECONDS SET DSK1 FADEINAMOUNT MINIMUM ONCE YOU BUILD YOUR FIRST MACRO, YOU THEN SIMPLY COPY IT TO OTHER MACRO POSITIONS AND EDIT IT FOR DIFFERENT DURATIONS AND PBUS REGISTERS. It's so nice to be able to just open the macro editor and change the pbus register to another number or change the duration of the pauses. The key is to save all your keyer information into a snapshot so you don't have to put all of that garbage into a macro to which would be crazy anyway. In the define memo menu, I don't have the transition, crosspoint, DSK2,3 options lit. That way it doesn't care what the other DSK's are doing, if they're in or out, etc or what source I'm on. It will allways key my DDR and go to me-2. You need to have auto recall on so it remembers what levels to recall. The DVE has it's own little section in the macro editor for recalls and motion commands. Tiffee