One of the things that baffles me is the the layout of the Main Fader pair.  It doesn’t do Grandmaster functions and seems to only offer manual cue timing on the fly.  (If you don’t already know, pull both faders down, press [Go] for your next cue, then notice nothing happens until you move the faders up.  The cue follows the timing of your movement and will not be ready to advance to the next cue until you have completed the fader movement all the way up.)  Imagine my surprise when I filled in for a show in a venue I haven’t been in for a long time and found that the Head Elec had remapped the Main Faders to be Effect Size and Rate.

Once I knew it was possible (I hadn’t), it was suddenly easy to find where you could configure it.  Open Tab 36 Fader Config.  In the upper right hand corner, there is a rectangle labeled Main Fader.  Click it and you’ll see this. 

You want to avoid changing anything but the faders here, since there are rules about what you can and can’t do, but they can be confusing.  Though all options for faders appear, not all of them function, or certainly not how you might think.

Click where it says Master below the tiny grey image of a fader.  

Here you can choose Effect Rate. 

Press where it says Down Fade under the tiny grey fader and choose Effect Size.

A few things to know before we get too excited.  First, apply an effect to some channels.  Before you record, run the Effect Rate fader up and down.  Notice it does nothing to the rate.  Now, Undo and record to a cue on the Main Fader cue list (typically cue list 1, but you might have done something different.)  Now the Rate can be controlled by the Effect Rate on the Main Fader pair.

With the limitations present, I’m not sure how useful this may be to people, but it’s certainly been interesting exploring it.  Let me know if you have figured out another clever use for the Main Faders (I tried to get a Manual Time fader working, and it didn’t seem to be allowed) or a better way to get the most from the Effect Rate and Size that I didn’t cover.  Happy Programming!