El Lobo Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 I have to do stage plots for a couple of my bands. I did it before with crude drawings but now I see there are apps that have icons for instruments, etc. Some of them are free but want you to pay for upgrade, some are more costly. I've read reviews and there's lots of criticisms of most programs. Do you use a program for designing stage plots? DOo you like it? I don't mind paying a small fee but I don't want to pay a large one unless I've tried it out and liked it. I'm on a Mac if that makes a difference. Thanks in advancee for any info Quote These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathanael_I Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 I just use the presentation application built into Macs: Keynote. I use the basic shapes: circles, squares, triangles, stars, etc to indicate different types of connections. This has all the necessary detail for a setup crew. I'm sure you can make it fancier, but this gets the job done. You could use any presentation software: google, MSFT, Apple to get this done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Alfredson Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 I use Affinity Designer. It's an Adobe Illustrator-esque vector graphics program. I just make basic shapes and label them. Easy peasy. Quote Keep it greazy! B3tles - Soul Jazz THEO - Prog Rock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Lobo Posted April 7, 2023 Author Share Posted April 7, 2023 Thanks for the ideas. Yeah, that's what I did before - just use shapes and label them. I might try it in keynote. Or even in a photo program. I don't need anything fancy, just something to show sound engineer where things are and what the needs for mics, stands, DIs are. Quote These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CowboyNQ Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 I just use PowerPoint. Easy as. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CEB Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 Stage Plot Pro. It works well. It’s the only software I have ever used for this so I have no frame of reference to compare with any other software. So … there could be better things. When I started using it they gave you a free trial period. If I could figure it out it has to be easy. 1 Quote "It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne "A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!! So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delaware Dave Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 6 hours ago, CowboyNQ said: I just use PowerPoint. Easy as. This ^ Quote 57 Hammond B3; 69 Hammond L100P; 68 Leslie 122; Kurzweil Forte7 & PC3; M-Audio Code 61; Voce V5+; Neo Vent; EV ELX112P; GSI Gemini & Burn Delaware Dave Exit93band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokely Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 I needed to provide one to a sound company and found a dedicated web-based free site (iirc). Trying to remember what it was now. Basically was visio-ish but with music-related icons instead of standard flow chart ones! Edit, found it: Stage Plot Designer It has an input list which is nice for telling them what instrument lines you'll need.https://www.bossradioatx.com/stage-plot-designer/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoken6 Posted April 7, 2023 Share Posted April 7, 2023 1 hour ago, Stokely said: Stage Plot Designer No horns?! Cheers, Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Lobo Posted April 7, 2023 Author Share Posted April 7, 2023 6 hours ago, stoken6 said: No horns?! Cheers, Mike. Yeah, that was my immediate problem with Stage Plot Designer. Fail. Quote These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Lobo Posted April 7, 2023 Author Share Posted April 7, 2023 Thanks for suggestion of using Keynote (Powerpoint equivalent on Mac). I tried it out and it was a breeze. Never used Keynote before. Little bit of a learning curve to get the formatting to work. But generated a usable stage plot for my purposes. Now I'll do one for my main band. Thanks much for the idea. 3 Quote These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GgC Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 Hi El Lobo. Where did you get the icons for this stage plot ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Lobo Posted March 11 Author Share Posted March 11 Hi. Just saw this. The icons come with the Keynote app in Mac. It's the Mac version of PowerPoint. Also, as I remember, I just searched on the web for icons to use in Keynote. Edit: this thread was started a year ago. Since then I've done more elaborate stage plots for 2 bands. 1 Quote These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jejefunkyman Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 That’s interesting, thanks for the hint. I’m going to try Keynote on my macbook. So far I was using the app mentioned earlier in the thread but I had to redo the stage plot completely from scratch every time I needed a different version 🤦♂️ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Lobo Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 I haven't done it in a while. As I recall, I do the plot in Keynote, then save it (or print) to pdf so I can send to sound guy or production person. Search internet for free Keynote icons. Here's one place to start https://thenounproject.com/browse/icons/term/guitar-amp/ Quote These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Lobo Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 Here's a more recent stage plot I did in Keynote. It's a screenshot of a pdf. Quote These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 I use Stage Plot Pro for all my bands. Worth the 40 bucks. Quote My Site Nord Electro 5D, Novation Launchkey 61, Logic Pro X, Mainstage 3, lots of plugins, fingers, pencil, paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Gauss Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 I usually use a sharpie and a piece of paper 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Lobo Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 17 hours ago, D. Gauss said: I usually use a sharpie and a piece of paper old skool 😁 Quote These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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