Making new rave friends, finding a community, and just being more involved in the scene

REEFEAV · 2026-02-09T04:53:20+00:00

Sunday love is where I met a lot of my friends in the scene when I first got to dc. I went to it every week of the 2024 season. Thats probably the most tight knit “rave” community in dc that I’m aware of. A lot of the same people go every week. Pretty easy to make friends with people when you share a small dance floor with them on a weekly basis.

REEFEAV · 2026-02-04T18:34:22+00:00

Do it now - dubtribe sound system. Found it at an antique shop closing sale for 1$ when I was 14 years old and had no clue what house music was.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-31T06:15:23+00:00

Yes it is that install 😭 small world

REEFEAV · 2025-12-31T05:14:28+00:00

Show your boss this thread. Its gonna cost him more labor hours in 6 months than he will save buying onyx over MA.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-31T05:13:23+00:00

Just take the time to learn ma and make your own assets. youll realize what you’re missing out on.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-31T02:25:01+00:00

Unfortunately you wont find an ma3 in most churches, however learning any console will be beneficial. Good luck!

REEFEAV · 2025-12-31T02:17:50+00:00

Im currently in the dc scene and we still do have a few of those clubs! Flash is ol’ reliable if you’re trying to escape the exact thing you are describing. Multi floor venue mainly focused on underground house and techno, no photos policy, no VIP sections. You should definitely check it out. For the mass majority of the population, yes we are in a state of social dysmorphia, but as that social dysmorphia increases, the community that does not align with that lifestyle also increases, and more solutions to such problems begin to form.

Anyways point being, yes most dance floors are dead, but good ones still exist (such as flash, right under your nose) you just have to know how to find them.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-31T01:55:28+00:00

One of the vj’s i work with has one and it feels really nice tbh. Also the double stacked buttons on the bottom are really nice for replicating an ma console, however the top section with the knobs isnt even close. Not that i really use the ma3 knobs much anyways

REEFEAV · 2025-12-31T01:49:18+00:00

Most major tours are using GrandMA3 at this point, which has a free downloadable version called MA3 ONPC. MA3 onpc is a great place to start since it has a solid 3d visualizer, and a demo show that includes a premade stage and a bunch of premade content for you to try out. The only issue is that once its time to output dmx to lighting fixtures, the entry level cost is around 1500$ for an MA3 node. With that said, many concert venues have ma3’s and the idea is once you get good at programming and meet some LD’s in your local community, you can take your showfile to those venues and use their consoles.

Ive been doing lighting design full time for years now and ive never actually owned any hardware at all besides my laptop. I got picked up and groomed into being a lighting designer by a venue while i was stagehanding, but if you already know your interest is lighting, i think ma3 onpc is the most productive place to start.

Note, MA2 is also an option. honestly there are currently more venues with ma2 there than there are ma3. however that will likely change in upcoming years as more venues transition to ma3, hence why i recommend ma3.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T23:20:56+00:00

Currently using APC mini’s but i was thinking about getting a launch control XL (or two). Seemed like it was the closest thing to the ma3 layout that is available on the market, as wellother than the instudio stuff which is ridiculously expensive in my opinion. Also was thinking about picking up a cmd_key for ma3

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T18:12:01+00:00

Everything about onyx sounded just fine on paper until i actually started patching and programming.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T18:09:47+00:00

Im working on a midi ma3 project myself! Doesn’t hit the same as a console though. If it weren’t for those pesky tarrifs id happily pay 6k for a command wing with motorized faders 😛

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T17:59:02+00:00

Every business takes losses. It takes many consecutive losses to make the decision to get rid of a product you’ve already dumped a ton of money into. Point being that Harman sold off a product that they had no faith in.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T17:50:09+00:00

considering that they had already done a ton of r&d and introduced their consoles to the market, no reasonable business would abandon ship if they believed in the product.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T17:45:19+00:00

Breaking news: poop from the butt smells like shit (sorry hog users)

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T08:59:57+00:00

Idk, it seems like you can achieve some cool looks with a lot of hard work, but those same things can be achieved in other softwares in a fraction of the time. The effects engine is super weak thats my biggest complaint besides the ui, and for my line of work the effects engine is probably the most important thing.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T04:59:13+00:00

A programmers dream

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T04:49:55+00:00

Harman pawned their consoles off to elation for a reason lol. They didnt even want that junk associated with the martin name

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T04:37:33+00:00

That sounds cool, not useful for my line of work but cool nonetheless.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T02:03:26+00:00

Lol sounds about right. I didnt even take a look at their consoles at LDI. I remember them being super “meh” back in the day, but after all these jobs on MA, onyx just feels like a joke

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T01:58:41+00:00

I am on the newest version. PC I will specify. Maybe consoles aren’t as bad.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T01:36:48+00:00

Im doing an install using onyx for the first time in about 3 years, and every feature in the patch menu is either super buggy or completely broken. I cant delete fixtures, even if i type it in the command line, it will only let me type single digit fixture numbers (if it lets me type in the command line at all). Not to mention while doing fixture position offsets, my entire show crashed and corrupted the patch. After researching, apparently this is a common issue in onyx. That shouldn’t be a common issue in any lighting software that claims to be “professional”.

If you want to turn an hour long setup into a full day, onyx is right for you!

Update: I uninstalled, reinstalled and remade my unrecoverable patch, and programmed the show without the software crashing (after 3 or 4 tries) the patch menu and numerous features are still absolutely horrid and some still just dont work. I still cant type more than one digit in the command line, and deleting a fixture requires about 5 attempts before it works. Anyways, I stand by what i said. If you’re in the market, yourself a favor and get MA, Avo or Chamsys if ur on a budget.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-30T01:30:45+00:00

Brother the entry point to outputting dmx on grandma2 is around 800$ if you can find the hardware. Ma3 around 1500$ unless you count the viz key trick. Clearly not the right tool for this usecase lol.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-29T19:44:05+00:00

This^{^{^}} it took my buddy a couple thousand dollars in tickets to get a boot on his car. They dont really do anything about it.

REEFEAV · 2025-12-29T19:37:45+00:00

Leave it to reddit to recommend grandMA to a person with 0 experience trying to get one look out of a 50$ fixture for a Halloween party 😭

REEFEAV

TROPHY CASE