Programming Tips - Avo Tiger Classic

[Aaron-Hill07]

Evening all,

 

Being an Avolites user for a few years now and using both classic and titan software; I have a fair amount of experience using them and think I know them inside out; but a show I have coming up is genuinely stumping me when it comes to programming.

 

It's for an outdoor festival for around 10-15 bands per day (3-day festival) so it's going to be busking all the way. I'll be the only desk op as the artists aren't quite up to the standard for having their own LD's along with them.

 

The rig consists of:

 

6 x 1.2k Selecon Fresnels

4 x 4-cell Molefays

3 x Bars of 6 Par 64s (CP62)

8 x Martin Mac 250 Entour

16 x Showtec PowerBrick's (ChromaQ Duplicates)

4 x SGM Palco 3

 

I'll be controlling the lot on a standard Pearl Tiger (not Tiger Touch unfortunately). So, obviously I'll go with the usual colour, position, beam pallettes but it's the lack of physical playbacks I'll find frustrating. Obviously only having 10 faders to control playbacks is quite standard for a lot of consoles; but getting into the habit of using Experts/D4s a lot of the time.. it seems very limiting.

 

Usually, I'd have a few dimmer intensities/chases, shapes for moving lights, blinders, frontlight and then effects on the powerbricks etc as there is a hell of a lot you can do with them.

 

Obviously, at the moment I have to put them over several playback pages. So what I'm looking for, is some advice as to how to program it to get the most out of having pages. Usually in the past I find playbacks getting in the way of one another; for example having three intensities up then swopping pages finding I can't use certain playbacks on that page because they're held by those on the previous page.

 

 

 

 

If anyone can provide any advice or their opinions on how to make the most out of it, it'd be really appreciated!

 

Aaron

[peza2010]

I think with programming in general it's a case of planning, planning and planning.

 

Sit down and think "will I ever need this, while this is running?"

 

With a festival your never going to cover every eventuality, but you can cover most bases.

 

Use groups to your advantage, I tend to work with odd, even, all, as a starting point, and then recall as and when.

 

With it being a 3 dayer, jot down anything you found didn't work on the first day, and try and find a bit of time that night to change those.

[indyld]

Peza2010 gives some good advice on the planning of what you are going to use with what. As important, if not more so, is consider what you will NEVER use together as it helps you decide on your page structure. For example, you never use All Spots at full AND All Spot Dimmer Chase, so they can be lined up on the roller. If you fancy it, consider using stopped chases to create mini cue stacks on the fader (again, like Spot on and Spot Chase) and control the "Hog" way - but I would only put two or three looks in a stack, as the Classic software doesn't make this easy with more.

 

This way, you can create your pages to minimise constant changes and confusing holdovers. You could create pages based on fast/slow, movement/static or even colour combinations that work, meaning you never have all your PAR colours on each page.

 

You can use careful patching to make it easier to use channel handles in show and even effectively create looks on the preset faders (a bit like using a D4/Titan).

 

For instance, with four blinders I would double patch their dimmers onto two handles, odd and even. Then you can bump between them if you want to, or easily push up the two together for that Molefay Moment. Even more, you could double/triple patch up a few handles for each colour wash, giving the option to kick the beams around the roof ( I like using 3 intensity bumps, as most songs are in 4 or 2 and it means the cycle moves around the beat). The question is, do you really need individual control over the PARs in each colour? If the answer is not really, stack 'em up on the preset faders.

 

Speaking of patching, I would probably look to using at least some of the LED in simple RGB mode and again controlling them HTP stacked up on the preset faders. Flexible enough, and always to hand. If you want to do rainbows across a backcloth with the bricks, then obviously those need to be patched as fixtures still. But, it comes down to working out what is best for you.

 

Things like face light I would never bother putting on a playback on a gig this size, I'd just make sure it was patched in a orderly fashion on the presets.

 

The good thing is you are using a simple configuration of moving heads, which means you don't need a lot of playbacks for different fixtures moves etc. How many moves (Mode 2, natch) do you actually need? Some people seem to create endless diamonds and squares and whatnot. Actually a circle, combined with different speeds and adjustable shutter chases, is often all you need. You may decide to create a pan and tilt saw, and add them together to create your circle. Either way, surely most often, you just want some movement.

 

A bit of planning and consideration and 10 playbacks (and a few pages) is plenty for a show like this even with your brick effects (candidates for stacking in a stopped chase or across the roller). In the past I've written some ideas for organising submasters, as well as some stuff on the bare minimum of programming for a weekend festival of bands, for those that haven't seen it:

 

Using Submasters For Busking

Concert Programming in 30 mins

[niclights]

Also, consider that as an outdoor festival there will only be a small part in darkness. For daytime you won't get much out of the 250's. Instead you'll probably find LED's and DWE's pointing out are the only effective tools. Because of this it might be better to keep the 4-cells patched on separate handles but otherwise patching multiple generics onto presets and controlling from there is the way I would do it.

[pbudd]

Depending on where your getting the desk from it's worth while to see if you can get it with the external playback wing. Either you can consider it as an extension to the roller, or when I've used it in the past it can be usefull to put things like the FOH light on it, and some memories for the moles. Then divide the roller up into things like, intelligent dim chases, intelligent movement, colour, and maybe some LED memories. From memory I think you can get the playback wing to either be stationary playbacks or to change with the roller, but this would require looking in the manual.

 

One thing that might be worth noting is as the festival is outside you might want to program different things for during the day and night. During the day with sun shining on the stage the lights that will have the biggest effect will be the LEDs pointing towards the audience during the night the LEDs could be part of a stage wash. This might mean that you have a few pages for daylight and a few for in the dark.

 

Pete Budd

 

P.S. I started writing this before the last response was posted.

[maxjones2000]

Depending on where your getting the desk from it's worth while to see if you can get it with the external playback wing. Either you can consider it as an extension to the roller, or when I've used it in the past it can be usefull to put things like the FOH light on it, and some memories for the moles...

 

 

 

Just thinking about this, is it possible to connect an external MIDI wing to the Pearl and use that as an extension wing? Something like a Behringer BCF2000..?

 

Just a thought, as if this would work, this is a cheap alternative (as the BCF is only £120.00 ish) that might come in useful to the OP. :)

 

 

Also, sounds daft, but this has caught me out several times mid-show. Make sure you label EVERYTHING properly and clearly. I've found that there's nothing worse than getting to a number you've never heard before and then having to mess around trying to remember what certain playbacks/palettes do or attempting to decipher some strange abbreviation that made sense at the time! I also find that putting most playbacks (mainly mover positions) into Mode 2, as I find them much more effective and usable like that as you can alter the time simply etc. :)

[Aaron-Hill07]

Peza2010 gives some good advice on the planning of what you are going to use with what. As important, if not more so, is consider what you will NEVER use together as it helps you decide on your page structure. For example, you never use All Spots at full AND All Spot Dimmer Chase, so they can be lined up on the roller. If you fancy it, consider using stopped chases to create mini cue stacks on the fader (again, like Spot on and Spot Chase) and control the "Hog" way - but I would only put two or three looks in a stack, as the Classic software doesn't make this easy with more.

 

This way, you can create your pages to minimise constant changes and confusing holdovers. You could create pages based on fast/slow, movement/static or even colour combinations that work, meaning you never have all your PAR colours on each page.

 

You can use careful patching to make it easier to use channel handles in show and even effectively create looks on the preset faders (a bit like using a D4/Titan).

 

For instance, with four blinders I would double patch their dimmers onto two handles, odd and even. Then you can bump between them if you want to, or easily push up the two together for that Molefay Moment. Even more, you could double/triple patch up a few handles for each colour wash, giving the option to kick the beams around the roof ( I like using 3 intensity bumps, as most songs are in 4 or 2 and it means the cycle moves around the beat). The question is, do you really need individual control over the PARs in each colour? If the answer is not really, stack 'em up on the preset faders.

 

Speaking of patching, I would probably look to using at least some of the LED in simple RGB mode and again controlling them HTP stacked up on the preset faders. Flexible enough, and always to hand. If you want to do rainbows across a backcloth with the bricks, then obviously those need to be patched as fixtures still. But, it comes down to working out what is best for you.

 

Things like face light I would never bother putting on a playback on a gig this size, I'd just make sure it was patched in a orderly fashion on the presets.

 

The good thing is you are using a simple configuration of moving heads, which means you don't need a lot of playbacks for different fixtures moves etc. How many moves (Mode 2, natch) do you actually need? Some people seem to create endless diamonds and squares and whatnot. Actually a circle, combined with different speeds and adjustable shutter chases, is often all you need. You may decide to create a pan and tilt saw, and add them together to create your circle. Either way, surely most often, you just want some movement.

 

A bit of planning and consideration and 10 playbacks (and a few pages) is plenty for a show like this even with your brick effects (candidates for stacking in a stopped chase or across the roller). In the past I've written some ideas for organising submasters, as well as some stuff on the bare minimum of programming for a weekend festival of bands, for those that haven't seen it:

 

Using Submasters For Busking

Concert Programming in 30 mins

 

 

Thanks for your post - made a very good read and very useful to see your opinions on how to do it; exactly what I wanted!

 

I'll put the fresnels onto presets and just use them as and when; however the benefit of having moles and pars on playbacks is you can use them with flash buttons in run mode which is extremely helpful with the moles especially..

 

I must admit, I think I must have missed things with pearl's in the past as I genuinely don't know what you mean by 'Stopped Chases' and I didn't realise you could do mini cue stacks on faders and how that'd help me?

 

So, how do you do the above is my question?

 

 

Sound like a right newbie now :unsure:

 

Thanks for all the advice.. very strange going from an expert with bucket loads of grouped playbacks to 10.. hmm!

[niclights]

Look in the manual about linked/unlinked chases.

[dosxuk]

Program in columns - instead of having your (e.g.) movements on one facet of the roller, spread them over several pages / facets but all on the same fader. That way the only thing you're blocking is other movements.

 

Run Mode Takeover / Normal - Softbutton A on the LCD when in Run mode. When in Normal, you can flash / swop fixtures using the buttons under the faders.

[indyld]

 

I must admit, I think I must have missed things with pearl's in the past as I genuinely don't know what you mean by 'Stopped Chases' and I didn't realise you could do mini cue stacks on faders and how that'd help me?

 

Well, although they couldn't exactly be described as cue stacks, using unlinked chases could do a number of things for you to make operating easier.

 

It could be that the first step was your All Spot On, with a Mode 2 Random Dimmer Chase in the second step. When you fire the playback, you get All Spot ( the default, the one you want the most ) but when you bump the chase on a step, the chase starts and you can then pull the fader to the correct speed. Another bump and you are back in static. That saves a page change, only uses one playback and can make going from one look to the other easier.

 

Similarly, you could either stack up movement effects in columns which I do using a Pearl, but on a Hog, MagicQ or other more stack friendly desk I might put them on the same fader and cycle through or GO TO to cue up the next move. Or use it to bump through colour combinations. Using Autoconnect or not, and starting the stack from step 1 each time you reactivate the playback gives you some ideas of what would work well, and not so.

 

If you wanna get really cute, remember that chase steps can either be By Fixture or By Channel PER STEP - perhaps not so relevant for this show but I've used this functionality to create marks and transitions that always work outside of a set cue order for unstructured shows.

 

It is a bit of a hack on the Pearl, but I've used this sorta stack thing in a number of ways to make playback less finger fiddly. The issue with relying on it too much is guest LDs (which you don't have) because it's not totally obvious where these things are, in which case I'll keep those pages just for me.

 

The thing that made the Classic Pearl and Tiger, well, classic, is that it seems so simple but all the tools are amazingly flexible and if you look around and find out how innovative operators are using them, you can come up with your own new things. For all it's quirks (and I've been heard complaining about it enough), I'll be sad when that platform finally disappears.