Simple Backyard Pyromusical

[Explosionoid]

So, anyone shoot a "Backyard" pyromusical using a 32/64 cue system not computerized? Like, simple songs that lend themselves to random breaks, mines etc but have obvious points where a button push would be appropriate and make people go oooooo at certain times. I have been looking online at some (computerized like COBRA) shows and it seems some of them could be done with just a button push at the right time. Just thinking?

 

[meckman]

I did it 2-3 years off of those simple 12 channel Chinese firing systems that you see on ebay. Worked well for a bit. It got bad when I had 8 remotes trying to fire like 80 cues all scripted out on a spread sheet and the tunes off of an ipod hooked up to a cheap sounds system. Had three of my buddies trying to keep up with the ipod. I scraped all of that and went with a real firing system WPS out of the UK. It was the cheapest cue per dollar for a professional (ish) backyard system that I could find and has work flawlessly the past 4 years. I know Cobra systems are all the rage but they are pricey and I have yet to figure out why people like them other than they like the name and don’t like money.

I knew I wanted to go up to 100+ cues for my backyard ID4 party so I went with the WPS pro system. It was around $1500 after I picked up the pro system, batteries, and cat5 cables. I then was able to pick up 2 “15 loudspeakers, stands, mixer, and cables for all the audio and still come in less than $2k. If I went Cobra I was looking at over $2500 just for the firing system. It did make sense then and it doesn’t make sense now.

Check them out.

front | Wireless Pyro Solutions

wirelesspyro.co.uk

Here was my last ID4 with the pro system and 2 minis.

 

[Explosionoid]

I'm sure after a couple of attempts at what I am thinking I will head your way with something more sophisticated. Thanks for the reply. Nice show too.

 

[MrTheHerder]

I never shot to music without being computer controlled but I did do 6 years of e-fire scripted shows just manually pushing buttons. For what I wanted at the time it worked well but again, I wasn't trying at all to match anything to music.
Sure many of the shows you see online COULD be done manually triggering but we're getting to the point where the question would have to be "why bother." It used to be that computer control was an expensive upgrade to a firing system but now the systems on the market are made with computer control as the primary firing method and only manually fired as a secondary option. Back when you could get a non-scripted Cobra remote the upgrade cost was only about a hundred dollars. For that price it was worth spending the extra dough once and maybe having one fewer case in that show, and then having much tighter shows for the rest of the life of the system.

I know Cobra systems are all the rage but they are pricey and I have yet to figure out why people like them other than they like the name and don’t like money.

I get where you're coming from but there are some benefits to going Cobra. With sales and club discounts the price can drop pretty dramatically from what you were seeing so the cost barrier isn't nearly as large as it is at first glance. Second having domestic support for the product means that if anything did go wrong my cost to ship is much lower and the turn around time is much faster. And, I think what gets most people into it is that there are SO MANY people using them. Unless I'm shooting a show within 7 days of the 4th I'd bet I could borrow 50+ cobra modules for basically no money in my area. That means that if I ever did end up shooting that "once in a lifetime" 1000 cue show I'm not on the hook for the full cost of the system. As the WPS system grows hopefully that will become the case for that system as well but for now I don't think it's there yet.

 

[SkylineJeff]

I've found an easy way to do this with minimum fuss and get maximum reaction from your audience: Get a case of 1.4 mines and several racks for mines ONLY. Put the mines in two stations on either side of your main show, angled out slightly if you have the room. (only a few degrees, not sideways).

Fuse together whatever 1.4 product you think makes sense for the type of music you're using. You can do some really rough time calcs and try to have several segments fused on independent strings to sort of mirror the time of whatever your soundtrack is.

Leave lots of time between song segments if you can stomach it. I'm talking like 7-10 seconds.

Set up your cues so the last 5 or 6 (or however many song segments you have) are at the end or beginning of your buttons (like 24 through 32 or something). Those cues should each be wired to your fused segments as well as mines on each side. Then all the cues 1 through whatever should just be on mines.

Start your show with cue 24 (or the first cue tied to a fuse) as soon as the music starts. Then, depending on how many mines you have, you can hit mine cues on any big musical beat you want. The effect is immediate and if your finger is fast enough, it'll give the illusion that the whole show is computerized from just a few perfectly synced mines.

Each time the soundtrack changes, move your finger to the lower buttons and hit the next fused chain cue. The crowd will remember all the mines going off right in sync with the music, and the rest of the pyro in the air will be seem like it was scripted.

Have fun!

 

[Explosionoid]

That's sort of what I was thinking. There are songs out there that are fun to listen to with some cakes breaking and an occasional big shell but when a certain part or beat comes you can hit the button and it works with the music. Not trying to have every beat a cue. Glad to see someone does that. I think you could hit a note on cue (using quick igniter) and have regular igniters on fused cakes just throwing stuff in the air and every once in a while hit another cued beat. Not going to be professional looking but at least its fun to watch.

 

[john.intelligentinfotech@]

@mechman, stumbled into this thread while searching for people's thoughts or reviews on the WPS system as it's 99% likely that's what I'm going with. In fact I already have a 95cue finale song built in pyro ignition control that I've got probably 8-10 hours of work into now so I'm basically committed at this point.

Any chance you have a spare invite code for WPS membership? Of course I'd pay it forward here on this forum once I get my 3 invite codes.

Nice mustang btw!

 

[Torch]

So, anyone shoot a "Backyard" pyromusical using a 32/64 cue system not computerized? ....

The last show I did before doing scripted pyromusicals was a 32 cue step fire with RFRemotech - being able to step fire through the 32 cues was a bit easier than making sure you were pushing the right cue - I just had to worry about one stepfire button.

I did that for two years before picking up fireTEK. One of the things that attracted me to fireTEK was the remote is the audio player. However, now most just plug an Android with USB into a remote or module and use the FTKontrol app for audio and control. Although finale3D, FWSim, and others support fireTEK, all my shows so fare have been scripted with PyroIgnitionControl.