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  • It's been more than 4 years since MA3 was launched, my question is: When we will be able to use it for real? I personally purchased one and I didn't really use the MA3 functionalities, only to work with MA2, so we will see some improvements in the near future? Functions as cloning or a good effect engine that are really essential in a desk?

    The desk even starts to look old, with any USBc port, fiber connection or video capabilities. I still hope we can see a change in the near future.

    Thanks <3

  • Most use the MA3 console in MA2 mode. You could even see it at Eurovision. The MA3 software is confusing, unreadable, and fails very often. New goodies are sometimes not as important - as intuitiveness and stability. Even though I have MA3 - it still works on .2 because it is reliable. Shame you stopped this series

    .2 products.

    MA3 is great harware - but poor software.

  • What may be intuitive for you is not necessarily intuitive for someone else, and vice versa. As I said, there are people happily using MA3 now on both small and large shows, and who have had zero issues with stability or "failing." I have heard from many people that they find MA3 quite intuitive. Does that mean the development team thinks the job is done and isn't working on additional improvements both in feature-set and workflow? Of course not! Does that invalidate your personal experience? Certainly not. But I definitely want to push back on this blanket statement of MA3 being unusable and unstable for everyone, because that is absolutely not the case.

  • People all over the world are already using MA3 software, on small shows and large.

    Yeah, for sure people use it, I think that it has a great potential to be the industry leading, but I'm only asking when we will see at least all the MA2 features on MA3, I didn’t mean it was un-usable, only that we'll been waiting for 4 years and at least at the moment it's not what we all thought it would be, maybe we all had very high expectations, but it's true that features as clonning or direct actions is something that is really usefull and we still dont have-it.

    I'm sorry if I've been misunderstood, I didn't mean it wasn't usable.

    I'm looking forward to see what MA has in their mind for future updates

  • FYI, Cloning via command line has been part of the software since the initial release. (Yes, it still needs a nice UI, but the underlying functionality is at least there.) And it was even improved from MA2 in v1.6 by no longer having to clone global presets separately from selective presets.

  • You should just use it and you'll see there are lot of things to enjoy.

    The software is stable.

    For clone, just use recipes or change fixture types.

    There are lot of improvements from MA2.

    But a lot use new approach.

    Don't get stuck on gma2, just make one step beyond.

    But i agree that all this development is very slow, and four years is a long time.

    You should have some training course to discover all gma3 can do for you, yet.

  • People all over the world are already using MA3 software, on small shows and large.

    I would love to know about some large shows using MA3 software.
    Particularly theater-style programming.

    That's were I have most problems.

    As soon as I push it a little bit strange things happen.

    (With push I mean long sequence, update during playback..and other completely normal things)

    Like this last time when half the console froze during show.

    Telia Sky

    Good thing the playback side stayed alive.

    I bought a MA3 Light 2 1/2 years ago with no intention to FIRST learn MA2 and then MA3.
    It was fun for a while, now I've lost the spirit and just waiting for the next update to come and disappoint me.
    Maybe 1.7 is a turning point.

  • Here's a hypothetical for you. Let's say that in 2018 MA had not shown a super early preview of MA3 software, and had just shown the MA2 software running on a brand new hardware platform. Then for the next 4 years there was no official mention of a secret new grandMA3 software that was being worked on, but at the same time there was not really much of any advancement on new features in grandMA2 software. Then in the spring of 2022, grandMA3 v1.0 was released with all the functionality of the upcoming v1.7 (rather than in December of 2019 with the functionality it had). Would 4 years of no progress on grandMA2 software and no official explanation have been more palatable? And that hypothetical v1.0 would have had many more bugs and crashes than the real v1.7 because it would not have been tested in the field, and workflows would be much more locked in without having gotten user feedback about what did and didn't work along the way. Would the reception have been better, the same, or worse? Obviously it's nearly impossible to untangle those questions from the reality of COVID. But it's an interesting question nonetheless, I think.

  • I would love to know about some large shows using MA3 software.
    Particularly theater-style programming.

    Off the top of my head in North America...

    • Carrie Underwood residency
    • Katy Perry residency
    • Billy Joel tour
    • Ricky Martin & Enrique Iglesias US tour

    I know of a couple larger "theater-style" projects that are in-progress using MA3 software, but am not at liberty to share details about them at the moment.

  • Ryan, you know i'm a fellow gma2 and gma3 user, supporting ma-lighting for years.

    But here is an other hypothetical : in april 2018, MA had shown an advanced new system, with most of functionalities working.

    That would have given a pretty much better image of this amazing product, "not really implemented yet".

    Then, we wouldn't have this conversation today, 4 years later.

    I really don't understand commercial policy of MA.

    Cheers.

  • But here is an other hypothetical : in april 2018, MA had shown an advanced new system, with most of functionalities working.

    In that hypothetical I think there would not have been a dot2 at all, and probably not much in the way of improvements in grandMA2 after v3.0. It's the same development team after all - time spent on one system is time not spent on another system.

  • Ryan

    With all my respect, i don't want to argue with you.

    But for me dot2 is a fisher price toy, which brought nothing in console word. And it came out in 2015 (3 years before gma3).

    GMA2 3.0 was presented in 2015 or something (3.2.2.16 in 2016).

    I support MA and gma3, but i really don't understand the way it came, as a 'not implemented yet" product.

    I think this gives a bad image to MA Lighting.

    Every day, i need to explain that gma3 is almost functional and will become better and better, but it's a very hard work.

  • What may be intuitive for you is not necessarily intuitive for someone else, and vice versa. As I said, there are people happily using MA3 now on both small and large shows, and who have had zero issues with stability or "failing." I have heard from many people that they find MA3 quite intuitive. Does that mean the development team thinks the job is done and isn't working on additional improvements both in feature-set and workflow? Of course not! Does that invalidate your personal experience? Certainly not. But I definitely want to push back on this blanket statement of MA3 being unusable and unstable for everyone, because that is absolutely not the case.

    When I wrote that working with MA3 is unintuitive, confusing and uncomfortable (software errors or even failures during work) I meant the OnPC version.

    The console version is definitely more stable and comfortable - because you have many screens plus harware buttons.


    Please try to work on the OnPC version with one screen and any midi controller.

    And then say whether such operation is simple, intuitive and convenient.

    For me, working on DOT2 is very convenient - because I have everything I need on one or even on screens - right at hand - without unnecessary switching of screens / views.

  • Ryan Kanarek Im using frequently Gran MA3 soft and my experience wasn't completely satisfactory, for example: every time I restart the OnPc system that I sold, and install, have to re reassign DMX outputs, usb Configuration and disable the network to get dmx Output. I can't use program time because the software crashed, and can't assign time to a temp button cause failed, with my full size I just use it in ma2 mode (even Some LD like Christian Jackson use ma3 hardware in mode 2), don't misunderstand me I'm not. a hater and believe me I want to use my hardware in ode 3 all the way, but there's a multiple bug (that sometimes say Fixed) that makes my experience not comfortable or reliable.

  • Yes, lots of people use MA3 in Mode2 because they like the MA2 software and it runs well in Mode2. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. And again, I'm not trying to invalidate your personal experience. What I don't like is when broad statements about general unusability for everyone are made.

    Chieffcrew have you reached out to your local distributor about the issues you are experiencing? Simply restarting an onPC system should not require to you have to reassign DMX outputs, I'm not familiar with a crash with ProgTime, I'm don't know enough about your Temp button issue, and I would certainly be interested to what bugs you have come across that say fixed.

  • if 1.7 does: 1. track relative values correctly 2. remove the store /remove cue only bug 3. give the possibility to use relative/absolute layers and individual times as a filter option for assigning it to preset pools 4. give us the beloved tracking shield, I do not really see a big difference in the workflow compared to MA2. the only thing you have to get used to is, that if you want to have a clean showfile, you have to save lots of selective phaser presets, but that's what I already did using selective effects in MA2. it takes a bit longer while programming but it is so convinient to change speed/phase/size/width etc. afterwards, than just having hard values everywhere in the show. looking forward to 1.7 definetely!

  • Being on a Light or Full is obviously much better to most (unless you tend to do or prefer more custom MIDI setups), but I use a command wing, apc40 and a single screen for about 50% of the shows/tours I have to do, so if you need a quick rundown on how or different ways to set this up I would be more than happy to help, but I dont have any problems using MIDI and an onPC setup and as more features get programmed it will just open up more options and ways to use MIDI. My single screen just has a busking layout how I like it and when I need to switch to something else it's just the pushing of a different view with different options on the fly just as in MA2. Sounds like maybe you just need to dial in your main layout/view a little more? During show I rarely need to switch views it seems, but programming is obviously different. Below is how I have mine set up, and the iPad is just the web remote saved to the main page I have all those Execs saved to. Not needed, but I also switch that view from time to time (clock, programming view, etc) and I just link the command lines together to make it easier when doing certain things preshow.


    This is a bit older photo and busking screen/colors, etc have changed, but you get the idea. We were just talking about this last night. A fellow LD found an old photo of him back in the early MA2 days and said he was still running it in mode 1. I think people have forgot that this was even the process when ma2 was released. Covid definitely didn't help feedback for the most part as we just weren't using it as much. For most of us our focus was elsewhere as we just didn't know what was going to become of it and digging deep into the new software just wasn't on my mind. I think that had some to do with maybe a bit slower start, but you also have to remember they are creating it from scratch. It's not being ported over. With everything back in motion I feel it's only going to advance more as now the feedback is starting to come in from all of us using it in so many different ways in action. I use 3 almost daily with no problems. Anyways, just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

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