xLights Text effect - What is the best way to repeat multiple text patterns on the sequencer timeline ?

Hi all,

I'm just learning how to use TEXT effect on my small indoor matrix (preparing for a much larger outdoor matrix, eventually).

At the moment, i have a simple "Merry Christmas" message assigned as ALL RED text, which displays for 2 seconds, then i have a copy of this text effect immediately after it, which is set to ALL GREEN text, and then i have multiple copies of these 2 effects back to back for around 30 seconds, so essentially it displays "Merry Christmas" in Red. Green, Red, Green, Red, Green........ every 2 seconds....so far, so good.

However, is there a better way to constantly repeat a pattern like this? surely i wouldn't cut'n'paste these 2 effects back to back for a 3 hour duration show, or is that how it should be done?

An alternative is to have one effect but changing the colour value curves to change over time, but I personally prefer just good old fashioned copy/paste.
To get it to repeat for playback (assuming you're using either FPP or xSchedule) you set up this one sequence to be the only file in your playlist, and then just enable repeat of that playlist once triggered.
This is what I do for my tune to P5 panels, it just runs the one ~45second sequence on repeat all night long

Text effect top layer
VU meter bottom layer
Create a timing track where you want the colour to change.


Text effect should be WHITE text and layer blending is "1 is true unmask"


VU effect- select the colours you want to alternate between
Set the Type to "Timing Event Colour"
And pick the timing track that has the times you want the text to flip colour.

Yeah I use copy/paste. Doesn't take too long just imagine you paste it 3 times and now you have 4 copies. Reselect all 4 and then copy paste that a few times...now you have 16 copies...reselect them all and copy/paste again. You can see how it would rapidly grow and filling 3 hours could be done in like 30 seconds. Its just like if someone gave you a penny and said every day I will double how much I gave you the day before after 30 days you will have over 5 million dollars. There was a request for a multiple copy paste like 8 years ago but it never got done.