ETC Cobalt Family v7.0.0 - Manual (Page 704)

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The Play mode generally refers to the way the Series gets played back, so between PartDirec and
PlayMode you can change the direction of the channel source but have the steps play back as written,
or vice versa.
Mode
Content Effect can play back it's Series in three modes, Continous, Break and Build. The result
differs quite a lot. Some Series are set to a default mode, because they are designed to be played back
this way.
• In a Continuous mode content effect, parts are always executing a step. In a three color Red-
Green-Blue effect, all channels would be in one of those three colors all the time the effect is
running.
• In a Build mode content effect, all parts execute step 1 before they execute step 2. Using the
same series as above, all parts would become red using the step and attack times until all
channels are red, then they would each step into green until all are green, then they would
start stepping into blue.
• In a Break mode content effect, assuming you have more parts than steps, then part 1 will
execute the "active" portion of the series and when done it will fade into the Background
state (step 0) and wait there (take a "break") until all the other parts have executed the active
steps in the series. When using Break mode, the "sustain" and "release" times on the active
steps come into play - if you think about the stadium "wave" phenomenon at football matches
you'll know what I mean - the active step is to "Stand up and raise your arms" and the
background state is "sit down". The attack time is how long it takes you to stand up, the
sustain time is how long you remain standing, and the release time is how long it takes you
to sit back down again. The background state has no timing of its own, as it is used when the
channel is not doing anything else.
As you see in the example, the step time will control if each step goes into the background
between steps.