Panic
What this does: Panic stops everything the show is sending, in one action. Use it when something fires that should not.
Panic never asks. The 600 ms hold on the Live button is the guard. ⇧Esc and the menu fire at once.
Fire it
Section titled “Fire it”| Trigger | Where | Gesture |
|---|---|---|
| PANIC button | Live page. Classic: header, beside GO LIVE. Flat: top bar, after the transport. | Hold 600 ms |
| ⇧Esc | Any page, any field | At once |
| Live → Panic | Menu bar. Never greyed out. | At once |
| Control surface | A connected controller’s Panic command | At once, on every page, armed or not |
From the Live page:
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Open Live (⌘4).
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Press and hold PANIC. The button fills red while you hold.
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Keep holding for 600 ms. Let go or slide off before then and nothing fires.
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The button shows the time taken (
12 ms) for 2 s. A toast says what stopped.
- Space or Enter on the focused PANIC button holds the same way. Neither reaches Live’s GO.
- Holding ⇧Esc fires one Panic, not many.
- The Stream Deck plugin has no Panic key. Use ⇧Esc on the Mac.
What it stops, in order
Section titled “What it stops, in order”-
Transport. Build stops if it is playing; a parked Build keeps its playhead. Live stops and parks at the track top.
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Live arm. Live disarms. Desk START and RESUME are refused until you arm again.
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Timecode. LTC, MTC and Art-Net timecode go silent. MIDI Clock sends Stop. Panic is silent even when the show’s When stopped is Hold.
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Lane audio pauses. The Sequence Monitor and Video Output windows stop.
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Desk sequences. Every sequence the project’s cue stacks drive gets
Off Sequence "<name>", by name, on every track, hidden stacks included. It goes to every desk joined to the session and every connected grandMA3.
Steps 3 to 5 go out together. A desk that does not answer does not hold up the rest.
On the desk it reads like Off Sequence "01 - Main", one line per sequence, wherever each sits in the pool.
After a Panic
Section titled “After a Panic”Panic restores nothing. To run again:
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Check what fired. Read the toast.
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Arm Live: ▶ GO LIVE (Classic) or Arm (Flat).
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Cue the track. Click its setlist row.
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Press Space (GO).
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On the desk, bring back any sequence the show needs on.
What the toast says
Section titled “What the toast says”| Toast | Means |
|---|---|
Panic (Live button) 12 ms: stopped, disarmed, timecode silent, 6 sequences Off on 2 desks. | Every step answered |
… Off on this Mac only. | No desk is in the session and no grandMA3 is connected. No desk got the Off. |
Panic (…) 12 ms. Not everything answered: … | One step failed and is named. The others ran. |
Panic sent to the host. Local timecode silent. 12 ms. | This Mac is a session peer. The host runs the rest. |
Panic not sent: not allowed for a monitor. Local timecode silent. | A monitor peer. The host was not told. |
Panic not sent: not connected to a host. Local timecode silent. | A peer with no link. The host was not told. |
The name in brackets is what fired it: Live button, menu / ⇧Esc, control surface, or a peer’s name. The log keeps the same line, with every failure. See Diagnostics and support.
What Panic does not touch
Section titled “What Panic does not touch”- Desk control. Desk ON / OFF on Live, and the Stream Deck key that switches it, stay as they were.
- The desk’s own playbacks. Only sequences the project’s cue stacks drive get the Off.
- The project file. Nothing is saved, moved or deleted.
- Media downloads and uploads. They carry on.
In a session
Section titled “In a session”- On a peer: Panic goes to the host, and this Mac’s timecode and lane audio go silent at once. The host runs the rest.
- The peer needs operator or better. A monitor peer, or one with no link, sends nothing and says so:
Panic not sent: …. - On the host: a peer’s Panic runs the full Panic. The toast names the peer:
Panic (FOH MacBook) 9 ms: ….
See Sessions.