Planning and Flow Tools (and blogging thought)
Somewhat predictably I am struggling to write down anything real in this blog. In my head the words are there but I find it hard to commit them. I think if I was walking around more I would find it easier, the thoughts flow very freely when I am walking to the shops. I installed a local transcription app on my phone to try and record some of these flows but there is still a kind of performance anxiety that happens as soon as I hit record.
I do have some other ideas for blogs that I want to write. Documentation of my QLab template and my Ableton template is one. I’d also like to learn how to commit versions of these to CodeBerg, so I can keep the current version always accessible to try and get organised. I think that could be a good next step.
For now here is another list of things for me to remember and share.
There are many best practice workflows when it comes to plotting and sharing sound system design (Arraycalc, Mapp 3D, Soundvision, etc…) but it does seem rare that i’m in need of these. I think this is just the kind of “Sound Designer” I am and the work that I do. I’m more often coming from a place of making music, making concepts, working together with other departments to understand what a show is and the direction it is going in.
Often it’s more the case I need to describe something more basic and broad about locations of speakers, desks, computers, maybe a bit of light or video equipment. At bigger theatres I am sending these to sound technicians and engineers who have more experience than me about the building and it’s hardware and i’m trying to describe the idea that should be realised by the design. If it’s a smaller house then it might be a fixed rig or there other constraints could impact on the actual ‘making’ time for me. A lot of the time this is to a gallery curator and not the tech team. I’ve been looking for functional and basic way to plot out my designs or how a whole performances equipment might need to be arranged.
I like the idea of software that could do it all, from a micro level of showing everything plugged into the show computer to a macro description the whole playing area.
As usual I am also concerned with how these plans will exist and continue to be updatable because I don't want too much propitiatory formats to deal with.
Affinity The nuclear option. This is more like photoshop or something like that. I can make whole pdf presentations with it, using vectors and also images. I bought the initial Affinity licence before they were purchased by Canva. Now i’m not so thrilled about using it because of the looming threat of the Canva-isation of the software. For now the free version still works, still opens my older projects and has everything I need. The subscription seems to focus of the AI tools which i’m not really in need of. One day I am sure there will be a pivet to try and force free users further into the subscription model but for now it works. I’m going to keep my eyes open for an alternative.
Inkscape This was my go-to before Affinity. Pretty tricky to use (feels like Blender for vectors) but it’s free and open source and exports into nice clean vector or PDF files. Sometimes I wish I had just kept going with this because i’d be pretty fast with it by now.
Easy Schematic Has a great library of tech already but a little too detailed for my use case. It’s also in browser so i’m a bit concerned it could disappear one day.
Sequence Diagram Another browser based one and also not quite fitting my needs. I think this might be good for sketching out some interactive work.
Monodraw I love this but I think it’s form over function for me. It’s $9.99 and makes very fun ASCII diagrams. I don’t think anymore is actually going to appreciate my little ASCII sketch.
Monosketch As above but more basic, free and in browser. Again, too whimsical for my real use but I do like how ASCII looks.