For all you Hog guys...

Hey all,

The last show we did I brought in a Hog1K. I've been playing around with the HogOS for awhile on the computer and loved it. Working with the Hog1K was even better. Anyways, the show was a talent show type of thing, lots of flash-n-trash. Also there was not a lot of rehearsal/programming time.

What I ended up doing was creating basic looks for each scene which would be put on its own cuelist. I then split the show up into sections and created one page for each section. Almost every scene had some music/dance in it, so I would always add on a cuelist I made of various color choices and various position/strobe effects. If I really needed to I could also pull up a cuelist on a virtual master or used those handy pallette buttons.

Anyways, the question is how do you normally setup/program shows that are tight on programming/rehearsal time but need to look fairly smooth?


Active Member
That's how we ran our show last year, on a Martin Maxxyz. It worked, all in all, pretty well. Each act (band, skit, talent) would was assigned a page. We filled up each submaster a look (sometimes just a single cue!), and would just on the fly go to a specific look at a specific point in the song. Unlike cues, you don't need to worry about the order, so it's very easy to just design something "cool" and then move on to something completely different thats' "cool"--there's no set order, so you can play them back if/when you want.

I know a lot of professional rock concerts work the same way.

This year, I actually ironically was on a Hog, a Hog 2. Since this year I was able to organize everything earlier and really optimize our song, the songs/acts were broken down long before any rental equipment stepped foot into our auditorium. I knew what I wanted to program and when I wanted to happen, so then I really could create cuelists of some breathtaking (if I do say so myself) effects. There's nothing cooler in my mind than the lights syncing up with the song--if there are 8 bass drum and guitar hits out front of a song, I want the lights changing immediately with each of those hits. Makes the audience go wild.

Still, though, I used a hybrid between the two. Each band/act/talent had a separate page attached to it. Some pages had only one sub/cuelist; I simply pressed go when I knew I needed to. Others had many more; I didn't have the time to really mess with loops, chases, etc. WITHIN cuelists, so I just used a separate sub, and when I got done with the cuelist on one sub I played the next one, released the first one, and went on my way.

(Hope that all made sense)


On a Hog 1000 I will setup the preset banks so that I can wing the entire show without any thing programed into the sliders. Granted, I only use the preset banks for moving lights and I do mostly corporate shows, with group and pig + time I can set my timming for differant attributes within a fixture and execute it all on the fly by hitting differant preset buttons one after the other. I prefer a Hog 1000 for a one off over a hog 2. Touch screens do not accept multiple touchs at once.

Matt McCormick


Active Member
This is why a console manufactuer (maybe Vari-Lite if they come back to that whole idea) needs to make a new console that is Apple based and will support MultiTouch screens such as the new iPhone, although much larger of course. Imagine being able to change zoom or iris by using two fingers to pinch or expand the beam on the touch screen. Or rotatating a gobo by take your finger tips, placing them on the screen, and turning them like you would a dial. How about two fingers doing a balyhoo-type movement super-imposed on top of a rendering of the stage and simultaneously having that happen in real time? The possbilities are endless.

ETC sort of did the MultiTouch thing with the Eos, but not really. The snap on plastic frames seem too goofy and breakable.


Active Member
Aye, there are some pretty unbelievable multitouch systems out there that are purely Windows based, that were around a lot earlier than Apple's; Microsoft just hasn't commercially marketed the technology yet.


Well-Known Member
I normally just program everything into one cue list and then run the entire show off of one cue list. I have a nack for crashing a hog. Guy I work with crashed one of ours the other day doing a dance show. It wiped the show disk along with the show. I was running a dance thing last night and crashed the hog2. I also crashed the Hog 3 when i programmed the Beach Boys.

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