Why I Decided to Buy an MA3 - LETS GO!!

a few weeks ago i made the decision to purchase my own ma3 lighting console and that is such a huge and scary and exciting proposition and in this video i'm going to talk about all those things and more avid viewers of my channel will remember i uploaded recently a video where act lighting sent me a granite ma3 compact xt console to kind of give me some sort of hardware and software interface to give their development team feedback on on future implementations and future features things that we want as users and i was really honored to be a part of that unfortunately the console that act lighting sent to me had some hardware issues they asked for me to send it back and ever since then i have not had an ma3 console to be to be working on i saw this really more as an opportunity because with this upcoming tour with lewis the child by the way come see us out on tour if we're coming through your area i'd love for you to come see the show i really wanted to use that show as an opportunity to see the differences in workflow between creating a show on ma2 and creating the the same show on ma3 like a q4q duplicate just to document the differences in workflow and be able to make content for for you guys watching this video to see okay does it make sense to transition to ma3 for me it finally makes sense to get fully on board with it so i saw you know me having to return the compact xt more as a sign that okay you really need to jump in with both feet which is why i decided to purchase a granim a3 lite yeah maybe the biggest financial decision i've ever made but i think it's really going to pay off in the long term i'm going to talk a little bit more about that and talk about why i am not going to be selling my ma2 so i'm really excited for what the future holds and i'm excited to take you guys along for it so let's head over over to r90 lighting james just let me know that the the console is is there ready for me to pick up and uh and bring back and uh i couldn't be more excited so let's go check it out once again you're totally fine you have nothing to worry about now you on the other hand i think uh i think we might we might need a replacement for the beams by flow [Music] beautiful new toys [Music] you know what [Applause] i think uh at least somewhere on here will be a qr code with uh never going to give you up rickroll oh good yeah because i know someone's going to be like what is that for and they'll scan it and this is important and they'll get [Music] ripped yeah so every time his wife opened the car door [Music] so [Music] [Music] i think it fits perfectly let's see like i don't think it gets uh i think it gets much closer than that i wonder if it'll actually close it does and look at this not only does it close but i can use the cargo cover as well so sick [Music] all right before we uh before we crack into this for the first time i want to let you know that there will be absolutely zero tolerance for any cargo shorts slander that i see down in the comments so let's keep it clean down there all right guys thanks oops also i need to figure out what i'm actually gonna like put on the case i feel like it's like it's beautiful right now and it's super clean but i want to put something like unique and memorable on here so i don't know i've got a couple ideas but let me know down in the comments what do you think i should be uh covering my uh my case with really interested to see your thoughts ta-da some people like uh put down payments on houses uh and other people buy lighting consoles that aren't fully developed yet all right let's uh let's get her up on the on the standing desk and get it plugged into the network it's a little sketchier than the uh the compact xt okay yeah i can still do it okay [Music] don't [Music] this is the dust cover looks like take a look here this little zip lock yeah so this is the dust cover which um this is still the yeah yeah so we'll talk a little bit about the dust cover i think in a different video but it doesn't really make sense to me how this thing goes on because it's like i don't know just like slips over the screen but then like is this really how it's supposed to like clearly that's how it goes but then when you go to like just do that you then take it off and then like it doesn't make any sense to me i don't know never thought i'd be so befuddled by a cover and uh true one to pbg or edison as most people call it sweet what a deal all right let's get some some spicy electrons oh it's on the other side all right spicy electrons into our power flip our main switch and without further ado there we go these backlit encoders by the way were another one of the reasons that i decided to go with the light instead of the compact xt i really was considering the compact xt but it just uh well we'll get into it in a second [Applause] [Music] so [Music] well uh here we are um at the beginning of the day i was equal parts scared and excited for the prospect of owning my own ma3 but as i've gone through the day and as i've seen this nice little piece of hardware uh sitting in my office and i've been programming my my festival template stage kind of on the side here and getting it all set up and and ready to actually delve into ma3 in a real way i've just been more and more excited and the fear that i had the whole past couple of weeks with the whole process of buying the console has has all but vanished and that just makes me really happy to feel that way and this feels a lot different than when i bought my ma2 a couple of years ago when i bought that console uh it was almost purely a utilitarian thing now that i look back on it of course it's really exciting to to own your own console because it opens so many doors and it provides a new revenue stream if you're doing rentals that sort of thing but at the time there were almost no downsides to me purchasing an ma2 whereas right now there's a lot of uncertainty with ma3 so in a way really making a decision to buy an ma3 is it's a different kind of investment so when i was buying the ma2 it was pretty much just a money thing but with ma3 i feel like i have an opportunity to kind of get in on this on this ground floor um and be a part of the development process and and it's more of an investment in in where i want to be in the future as as a programmer and someone who can kind of help shape the way that um that the next generation of lighting control develops and i'm not saying that in a way like i feel like i have the best ideas in the whole world but i know that i love being behind the console and i love doing shows and so it really only makes sense to try to be at the forefront of um of the next the next wave of development and i feel like this is it it's it's funny actually i i'm looking over at my ma2 light right now and i can remember the the first time i actually got to use one and um at the time i didn't know anything about ma2 i didn't know what it was how to use anything on it i couldn't even patch a fixture but i was working at a music festival up in the seattle area and aaron altmark from visual endeavors he's an incredible ld incredible designer and a really really humble dude he let me take control of of the main stage and he was running an ma2 full size and this was in broad daylight at like i think probably four or five o'clock in the afternoon and at an outdoor electronic dance music festival at five o'clock in the afternoon in the middle of summer um let's just say that the light show no one's really going to notice who's running it i just remember being engulfed by this overwhelming feeling of having no idea what i'm doing because up until that point i'd only been doing like one or two maybe four universe shows like that was a huge deal for me at the time and uh being at the board and being able to control i think it was like probably 140 sharpies or something like that and not knowing what i was doing on his show file it just really struck me as a moment of like this is what i want to do and i've always been really envious of the people who were able to get in on the ground floor of of ma2 and those people were able to kind of shape the development of of the the hardware and software for that generation and ever since that experience at front of house i knew that this is what i wanted to do for the rest of my life and it was finally like that final little puzzle piece that just fits in perfectly where you realize like okay this is the path forward and that was the moment for me really i knew that i had to put the hammer down and focus on learning ma2 and that's what i did for four or five straight years using basically just on pc um to learn how to program and create shows in ma2 and the only real problem with that was once i had gotten to a point where i could make a pretty decent show with ma2 and i kind of understood what was going on with it the development process had kind of stopped um and energy had focused into creating what we now know as ma3 and so that's why this is different this time i feel like i am in the right place at the right time to be a part of of this new development and be a part of this next generation like i said and if i'm completely honest with you the uh ma3 software version uh what is this uh 1.4.2 is actually less featured than the current ma2 software i can make a better show on ma2 right now truly i'm thinking of this as less of an investment in where i am right now and more of an investment in where i want to be in three four five years i understand that this topic is even more narrow than the videos i usually put up on this channel which already have an insanely niche uh audience already but i didn't want to make this like a oh look at my brand new ma3 and instead make this a video about why i want to be a part of of this this next what i hope is the next big thing and let's not kid ourselves lighting manufacturers and console manufacturers have a long history of totally screwing things up when they are in the lead and just because ma2 is generally considered you know one of the more advanced lighting control platforms super popular a lot of people use it it doesn't mean that ma3 is automatically assured to be that way and so that's the scary part for me because here we are three years into ma3 and we're just now getting the first what i would consider real version of software that i would put out on a show but one of the things i am super excited about that i'll probably make a video about here um up next with the ma3 we have the possibility of using these uh come on these uh maviz keys so it was a huge issue with with ma2 with being able to use external visualizers aside from ma3d or using one of i think the two software suites that allowed for unlimited parameters visualizer-wise that being vectorworks vision and wysiwyg what you see is what you get from cast software so that was a huge plus the other thing is basically the doubling of all parameters means that um the ma3 light has twice as many parameters as the ma2 light that i have and with 8192 that means that this console can run probably 85 to 90 of the shows that i encounter on a on a year-to-year basis we're talking like aside from like huge festivals where i'm like guest ld but if i am the person who's like designing the show i i have not yet designed a show that would reach over the 8192 cap maybe this year let's uh fingers crossed for that one one of the big things that really kind of solidified my decision to go through with the purchasing process on ma3 is uh the fact that this next tour that we have coming up is going to require two consoles and on the last tour they uh they rented my ma2 lite and we rented an m82 full size from lmg but this time around we'll be able to use both of my consoles and that ma2 rental is also subsidizing the ma3 rental a little bit so that really kind of helps ease the the pain of of putting up that much cash for a console and that's also another reason why i decided to not sell the ma2 because a lot of people were asking over on patreon like okay are you gonna sell the ma2 and then buy the three or are you going to just get like a compact xt um but it really just made more sense to have two lights ma3 light ma2 light over there hey buddy and a big part of that decision was actually just the the physical nature of it so i can one man load an ma2 and ma3 light by myself i can take them out on tour they're not so large that they're unwieldy and i really do think that the light is the perfect console size just my personal opinion so to sum up this already lengthy video i am buying an ma3 not because i expect to get rich off of renting this out for festivals shows tours whatnot although it does help subsidize the expenses of owning and operating this over the next i don't know i'll probably have this for a while but i expect it to last 10 years no i'm instead buying this and really investing in the process because i remember that feeling of magic and that feeling of connection when everything just kind of clicked in my mind like okay this is how it's supposed to be uh and that was with ma2 and that was six or probably maybe even seven years i think it was six years ago um and ever since then i've i've always thought like wow it would be so incredible to to be a part of of creating a system that can create that connection my whole experience with ma2 ever since that day kind of felt like that meme where it's like you know born too soon to explore the galaxy born too late to explore the earth and you're kind of like stuck in the middle where like everything around you has has been explored and discovered and everything that is yet to be discovered is like way out of your reach um so i really kind of like felt like i was sandwiched in this weird time where i just didn't get in to lighting control early enough to be on the ground floor with ma2 but now i'm here with ma3 and it's it makes me really excited to to see where to see where the the software and hardware are going to go and see if i can play any sort of of part in in shaping um how this console can can help create that magic on the stage that uh that i remember from from that day a long time ago and before i go i want to extend a huge thank you to all of my supporters over on patreon i feel like this last year has has tested all of us more than we ever thought we would be tested and uh the folks over there have been instrumental in in helping me get through this pandemic unscathed and given me a couple sanity checks throughout the way so thanks to all you guys over on patreon as well as the folks over on the discord so if you're not a part of either of those make sure to go down to the description and check out the links to participate if you're into that sort of thing otherwise thanks so much for watching and i'll see you in the next video peace

Channel: Christian Jackson

Views: 30,276

Keywords: Stage Lighting, Lighting Design, Event Production, MA2, GrandMA2, LED, Fixtures, Lighting Programming, DJ, CDJ, Pioneer, DJM, MA2 Light, Business, Music, Louis The Child, Zomboy

Id: RJBQ6iB6zy4

Length: 21min 25sec (1285 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 18 2021