the differents between Grand MA light and Pearl 2004

[Tawnyn]

This is very true, however anyone who can use a Hog, can really use an MA. And theres lots of Hog operators, although AVO seem to be more popular, howver these days most people seem to be able to use MAs as well as AVO desks. Howver I am sure you get some Hog only people turn up at your venue?

try to use a Ma when you are on a festival with 30 minutes programming time during change over. MA people seems to forget that the MA is a theater desk and not a rock console. helf the time you get a guy next to it who hardly knows the desk so you are ...... from start.

2 weeks ago again the same thing Grand MA and a guy barrely able to work with it, then this guy i know, who's probably the best one on Hog in belgium sees the desk and goes "CRAP, there goes my show" MA tells you that hog users have no problems on programming the MA, but strangly enough 8 out of 10 hog guys i know dont like the MA.

its not really fair to compare two different types of desks to another.

sound probably like a rant but it isnt

[neil]

try to use a Ma when you are on a festival with 30 minutes programming time during change over. MA people seems to forget that the MA is a theater desk and not a rock console. helf the time you get a guy next to it who hardly knows the desk so you are ...... from start.

The beauty of the visualiser is that you can program quickly and easily, with the visualiser in the console rather than on a seperate PC or laptop.

Once you have the basics there, its very very easy to change the groups, add extras in. To be honest all you need is the psotitions, as the colours etc are in as autopallets.

MA people seems to forget that the MA is a theater desk and not a rock console

[url]http://www.malighting.com/56.0.html?&L=0&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=48&tx_ttnews[backPid]=56&cHash=8895b1db0a[/url]

How many of those are theatre things??

The MA went onto Liverpool Pops, and has gone on many many other festivals. This year its gone on over 6 festivals with me, plus the rock 'n' roll tours I do, plus 50 or so corporate events.

[Tawnyn]

the beauty about the MA is that you end up getting a guy next to it that has to program for you and dont know the desk.... you dont have a show or hardly get near that what you asked for. you end up switching between pages.. playback pages - execution buttons.. the colorbook screens ( most hated by the Hog users i know )

you need 2 faders for 1 chaser because thats how i get those every time.
you have to put dimers on a playback, so you lose again faders just for dimming front lights, ok i know im prolly one of the few not putting frontlights and such on playbacks to safe faders for better use.

im not telling you that the MA is a bad desk, im telling you that in 80% of the times the guys that there to program for you because they didnt want the Avo dont know the desk and you end up with a bad show.

[niclights]

the beauty about the MA is that you end up getting a guy next to it that has to program for you and dont know the desk.... you dont have a show or hardly get near that what you asked for. you end up switching between pages.. playback pages - execution buttons.. the colorbook screens

That is the overriding reason I went with Avo in the first place and will remain so.

I would be that person programming the desk and always was prior to purchasing Pearls. Programming a desk for someone else to operate is a disaster. Always! Not only is it time consuming, you also have to watch over the op during the show for the inevitable questions which come so far without fail.

That, however, may well not be a consideration for the OP.

I do have a genuine question for Neil:

How easy would it be on an MA to program scenes/chases in blind onto submasters whilst operating already existing memories on other submasters? I do this regularly with the Pearl. Band on stage, use one hand to operate 3 faders. Use other hand to switch to blind and raise preset faders as required to create the new memories/chases.

[neil]

How easy would it be on an MA to program scenes/chases in blind onto submasters whilst operating already existing memories on other submasters? I do this regularly with the Pearl. Band on stage, use one hand to operate 3 faders. Use other hand to switch to blind and raise preset faders as required to create the new memories/chases.

Very easy. Slip the desk into blind and go for it. Using the inbuilt visualiser to see whats happening, where as I assume (having not done it) blind mode in the pearl is working on the fact you have recorded the right groups.

Therfore for positions you need to do it with the movers that are not being used in your curent cues?

Is that of any use?

Perhaps if you are around at PLASA we can meet or something as the MA stand is just next door to the AVO stall IIRC?

Cheers

Neil

[niclights]

I was talking more of generics rather than movers, so groups not an issue.

With the Pearl the preset faders and generics are sitting there and easy for me to pick out and set levels in the traditional fashion while I try to keep some sort of attention on the show in progress! How does this work on the MA?

Anyhoo, would be good to meet at Plasa. I should be around Mon & Tue. I look forward to it!

Regards,

Nic.

[neil]

It depends what you want to do?

* If you want to change the levels it best to keep those things on a sub.

* If you have the levels set and you just want to keep them up, you could add them as a TOGGLE onto one of the executor buttons.

* If you want to do a show happy run, its possible to change the submaster banks for generic banks. Ie you have Page up and down to access submasters, well you can do exacly the same thing for generics. Although its FIXTURE not DIMMER, so if you patch the desk randomly over those faders it will bring up movers too.

If you use the Executor you could have a 'theatre stack' assigned, so would record the stack at an intensity, so 20 steps @ 5% increase, then press the executor to increase the intensity, and se the desk so when it gets to 100% it then steps down again. Alternatively you can set it over 2 executors, so you have an intensity up and intensity down button.

With the Pearl the preset faders and generics are sitting there and easy for me to pick out and set levels in the traditional fashion while I try to keep some sort of attention on the show in progress!

Out of interest is there a secret tip so when I go into takeover, and go to a different page, these generics don't go out?

Cheers

Neil

[niclights]

Hmmm. I have to say that you have effectively told me it is not very easy to do, at least in comparison.

The way to avoid generics dropping after page change is to not press [clear], which is the real reason, rather than changing page. Previous software would load in fader values to anything patched to the relevant handles when you hit the [clear] button, meaning you could at least hastily jump back to the correct page and restore your all important output. But for some reason it now just clears everything.

IMO this is by far the worst and most dangerous 'feature' and the current implementation still makes no sense to me. I have put forward my arguments on this a number of times. Hopefully it will be changed soon.

[neil]

Hmmm. I have to say that you have effectively told me it is not very easy to do, at least in comparison.

Thats fair enough, however generally speaking I usually have a sub usually the last one with all the Source 4s on it. I guess it depends.

Although IIRC you may be able to press something on the touch screen, ie, have a group, and do an GROUP @ INTENSITY thing.

[dombleu]

I agree with Tawnyn.

Nonetheless, the MA is a real state of the art do-it-all console.

With in a world of 1niters where prog time toggles between the "forgotten" and "unavailable" state, starting with a blank console, the MA stands more as a supermarket than a convenience store.

The Pearl as less to offer, but delivery is real quick.

Think in peace!

Dom

[kikixxx]

if you've got a big pre-prog show to play, maybe it's better to use MA...
but in "live", "rock n' roll", when you've got short short time to do something, pearl is quick and easy, trad+auto, a mid-range desk for mid-range shows, the most shows for many people!

i don't know very well the MA but the patch is really strange to do, no?
(clear, shut down, open new show, shut down... blablabla..., is it always the way to do?)

[CoenCo]

setup => full acces => patch
not that hard is it?

A full wipeall is something different, but you only need to do that once for a show, while you boot up the console for the first time.

[niclights]

I'm not entirely sure why the comparison is being made at all. If one were to compare then surely it would be MA versus D4, not Pearl/Expert?

[CoenCo]

well. in price they are quite comparable:
Avo Azure vs Grandma Micro
Avo pearl vs Grandma ultralight
Avo Sapphire/Pearl expert vs Grandma light
Avo D4 vs Grandma
They are just different beasts, both with their pros and cons.

[niclights]

Ooops. Completely ignored the 'light' part in big bold letters. Was confusing with a thread on another forum!