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Troublemaker reports he is making stages for all the rooms he plays. OK, more work for you. But there may be a valid reason for this work but I see perhaps a better solution.

I've been working for well over a year on a single stage. Let me preface taht I have not been working non-stop, it's more about a bit here and there.

My stages are typically square/rectangular. I'm designing my stage to be a "catch all" sort of thing. By doing things my way, it's better to proesent a "concept" of where I want things, rather than the exact locations. My design lets me get my ideas done within reasonable limitations and oversights.

I find by doing a more conceptual design, it saves alot of effort.

Unless you're a lighting company or your rooms or stages are just totally whack, a lot of this extra work isn't necessary.

With lighting designers, those doing lighting for a living, first off, they aren't using MyDMX. Second, in such scenarios, it is an absolute MUST to have a more thorough information, as it will then often go to the riggers and guys who will be making their drawings a reality!

About the only parts of my scene and room designs that DO NOT work is when I'm doing an outdoor gig, but I still usually get square stages.

Right now I'm preparing for my gig on July 25th at a major outdoor venue, and getting into this venue gives me potential for more opportunities later on. At least I am under shade. I can take advantage of the covering with my movers to shoot them up and have a surface to play with. Otherwise, these things would be rather silly looking and hopefully I don't signal airplanes to land.

The 3D Visualizer is not as intuitive to me. I make it work, that's all that matters to me. Some people take to this easier than others. To each their own. But, regardless of how well you take to it, if you need to do room design in MyDMX, you're going to have to use it.
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My motivation for designing each stage is to incorporate the entire room. Most of my venues are clubs, but of very different sizes. When we do play larger venues or outdoor events, I'd rather leave the grunt work to riggers and engineers. However, as an example, we do a very large room from time to time that allows me to fully utilize the lights from the audience's perspective. Yes, almost all the rooms are square, but a smaller room won't allow me to do a crowd wash without someone (manager) complaining. In those cases, it's better to concentrate the lighting on the stage rather than the audience. With each stage (that is regularly played) designed in advance, I can simply load that particular show et voia la! I'm ready to run. It may be a bit more work, but when regulars come to me complimenting the differences in the show from venue to venue, the headaches wear off rather quickly.

No slight to Chris, though. He's a sound guy...
I think the key phrase in Chris's rant was, "first off, they aren't using MyDMX."

I am by no means bashing MyDMX, it is a great program for the money. However, there are a lot of things on my Hog that make going from venue to venue extremely easy. For example, update a few focus points and all my cues and scenes are in order. The Hog II actually had an XYZ system on it that would just ask for all lights to be aimed DSR, DSL, USR, and USL and would update everything automatically then. They have been talking about adding it to the Hog III line, but haven't yet. It also wasn't spot on a lot of times too, but then again the Hog II only had 4 megs of RAM in it too and was DOS based. As for the effects, I can adjust size, speed, and rate on the fly or update them if I want. There are a lot of venues I just walk into and go. I get a few room specs and that's it. My larger shows, I get more specs and might do a site survey depending on size.

But as far as visualizers, it just isn't worth it time wise for me to sit down and build the stuff in VectorWorks Spotlight and/or WYSIWYG. Venues I am at frequently, I normally do full blown rooms in both so I can show clients some stuff. And I do my 2D plots in Spotlight for just about everything now, but working in a 2D environment is much easier then a 3D one.

Again, its a preference thing. I would much rather spend time programing then building virtual worlds. Of course, I also have the advantages listed above and more with the Hog too. Different strokes for different folks.
Wish I could afford a Hog... I used to work with a production company doing concert production (FOH) on the sound side, but was able to learn a lot from the lighting guys. They swore by the Hog and as you point out, for quick adjustments and easy show updates, it's got the job mastered.

On the flipside, I've been doing "programming" (movers and scanners on the way) as I build the room in the virtualizer. I have a degree in AutoCad, so I'm used to working in a 3d environment. There may be shortcomings in myDmx, but they're overcome by unconventional application of conventional tools. I've enjoyed reading the posts here, mostly because I spent the first two days debating whether to post half of my problems, most of which were answered with a little extra effort and research.
My issue with clubs is that they don't get it.

I see your point, TroubleMaker.

There is a club I'm doing an event at tomorrow night, followed by scooping it up and running to the next club for a second run 30+ miles away. No easy task.

The club owners have repeatedly shown themselves clueless. This place is a sports complex, and the club is a combination bar/restaurant/night club, you know, the typical. It's "concert night" an I gotta keep it down because apparently the DJ blasting 130+db trance crap over the bowlers is top priority, and when I checked, the lanes were empty.

Last event, owner comes up and say "people are trying to have conversations here" during the concert. I said "last I checked, the doors aren't chained and they can leave the room".

I mean, I'm sick of going to places that welcome you in then prevent you from doing your job.

For me with MyDMX, I just need to get a concept of what I'm doing. My environments aren't perfect. I can't visualize this stuff on my own, so that's where MyDMX helps. A general design gets the job done for me. One size fits all. I still have 2 trees of 8 Par 38's each that I have programmed but NOT laid into the stage area of the 3D Visualizer so I have some "spare fixtures" I can play with to provide more fill. I haven't moved my high-tech FX into the truss I placed because it's not essential. I'm more concerned about on/off stuff with those.

I dislike working in the 3D environment because it's not as easy as my time allows me to work. I find myself getting into a work flow, which is the cue for everyone/everything around me to break that. Older pug decides to bark for no reason, younger pug decides to get frisky and wants to play. Puppy pooping in the house despite just being taken outside, baby wants to eat, change, or just flat out scream. Other two kids take this as their cue to start a fight, my visiting in-laws(not parents) take these opportunities to make excessive noise. Wife chooses these times to have a god damn re-run conversation. And then she whines about me being up late. Well, gee, I was up at 8AM and trying to work until 10PM, so when you all cork off to bed, I can finally get some REAL work done. Having said that, I do honestly feel a 3D environment is the better way for someone such as myself to relate to this software. But it's such a struggle, I only want to do it once.

Next week, I have to prepare for my July 25th big event, then after that, full steam ahead for programming for my August 29th event, where I need a 2-6 hour(yes, 2 to 6 hours or MORE) of light show to deal wiht a rave event.
Yea, my company is completely out of clubs now and only does national act stuff. Clubs where a royal pain when we were in them, more more more for less less less.

You know Chris, me and the Pig do hop planes and fly all over the country to do lighting gigs. Sorry, couldn't resist going for the cheap plug lol.
speaking of wich, im in a god awful place rite now... big room , all tile and compound angles. big stage all tile with a low ceiling over.. and to top it off with a huge PING is the 10x30 plate glass window on the back of the stage behind the drums.... its like running sound in a toilet bowl... ear plugs and limiters are a must in this hole.... its a friggin metal band that sux a^s too
Not fun. That is essentially the same construction as a restroom, so let's hope there is no standing water and a big handle on the wall.

You're past just ear plugs and limiters. You've got to study speaker placement, as well as give your RTA a serious workout. Then, I'm sure since you've mentioned it's a metal band, I'm sure you've got two "tone chasers" who don't know squat about tone or chasing, but they have those amps cranked to 11 just in case.

I am getting called in to do consulting for the strip clubs that are being shut down and forced to convert to "legitimate" businesses. These rooms are hopeless. Install some good speakers and amps, and get a decent DJ in there, or rotate DJ's and have theme nights or something. A stage barely big enough to hold a strung out meth hooker is NOT going to suddently big enough to hold a band!

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