Deciding on order

[ajmikola]

How does everyone decide in what order they will set things off. I have 81 boxes of various size cakes and 48 shells. By the time i watch the video of all of them, i have forgotten what the first video looks like or if it would go good together. Frustrating.

[upNdown]

I make a spreadsheet, listing each cake, its duration, and what kind of effects it has
That's a start

[Robbro097]

I like to bring speed and then slow it down and keep going like that a bunch off 200g at once showcase there speed followed by 9 shot 500 afterward to show there size after a 200 makes them look even bigger alotta people like to build the show slow n steady picking up pace as it goes some will say hit em hard n heavy out the gate but if your Audience is anything like mine put it in the air and there gonna b happy and thats what its about

[displayfireworks1]

Are you using a fireworks firing system? Do you have doubles of most of the product?

[ajmikola]

Are you using a fireworks firing system? Do you have doubles of most of the product?

I WISH I had a firing system, I will next year. For now, I am hand firing. I have doubles of alot of stuff, but not everything, some I have 8 of. http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5080&stc=1

[ajmikola]

I like to bring speed and then slow it down and keep going like that a bunch off 200g at once showcase there speed followed by 9 shot 500 afterward to show there size after a 200 makes them look even bigger alotta people like to build the show slow n steady picking up pace as it goes some will say hit em hard n heavy out the gate but if your Audience is anything like mine put it in the air and there gonna b happy and thats what its about

I definitely hear that. I know everyone on this forum is Type A like me and wants to get it right though.

[ajmikola]

I make a spreadsheet, listing each cake, its duration, and what kind of effects it has
That's a start

I haven;t got to the description yet. I am having a tough time with that one
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5082&stc=1

[Berserker23]

I usually go on YouTube and watch every cake and I make notes and start placing cakes in the spots I want them to go, once you get started on a few cakes it clicks and you will have a planned show in no time also if you need the duration of the fireworks go to http://www.wikifireworks.com/

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I also keep a spreadsheet that has all the details including price, shots, duration, item number, manufacturer, etc. I also have a column where I write down the song I'm using it with.

If you're not using music and just hand lighting a bunch of cakes, then IMHO anyway, the order really doesn't matter.

Maybe pick 2 or 3 you think are super and save them for the end.

[DavidthePyro]

I do a spreadsheet too, but I do # shots, duration, speed(duration divided by shots), and 1-5 rating. This way I can do a pattern with cakes like slow-slow-medium-fast-slow, the ratings are important for what Rick said, you just need to save a few 4's and 5's for the finale/lead up to the finale. If you are hand firing, i suggest putting cakes 50-60 ft in front of your mortars so you can ignite a cake, step back, light shells to add fill and height dimension. Unless your shells are going in your finale, I would try to avoid reloading tubes back to back-- give them time to cool/settle between reloads or you may have a drop ignition(lights from embers when dropping into mortar)

[jdels]

Spreadsheet user here too. I've been adding tabs for the last few years, take mental notes during the show for anything to use the following year. As for sorting I start with Finale pieces and take them out, then arrange by color and effect. Mix or group as desired from there.

[ajmikola]

I do a spreadsheet too, but I do # shots, duration, speed(duration divided by shots), and 1-5 rating. This way I can do a pattern with cakes like slow-slow-medium-fast-slow, the ratings are important for what Rick said, you just need to save a few 4's and 5's for the finale/lead up to the finale. If you are hand firing, i suggest putting cakes 50-60 ft in front of your mortars so you can ignite a cake, step back, light shells to add fill and height dimension. Unless your shells are going in your finale, I would try to avoid reloading tubes back to back-- give them time to cool/settle between reloads or you may have a drop ignition(lights from embers when dropping into mortar)

This is great. Will definitely do this.

I made a 36 shot rack for my mortars. Deciding if i want to redo and make 2 8 shot racks and a 16 shot rack.

[DavidthePyro]

If your rack is Dr11 plugged, i would make some single shot poor man's racks with the mortars that come in the shell kits. If your rack is a poor man's rack. I'd definitely make multiple if you'll have some shells in the show and some in the finale.

[ajmikola]

I do a spreadsheet too, but I do # shots, duration, speed(duration divided by shots), and 1-5 rating. This way I can do a pattern with cakes like slow-slow-medium-fast-slow, the ratings are important for what Rick said, you just need to save a few 4's and 5's for the finale/lead up to the finale. If you are hand firing, i suggest putting cakes 50-60 ft in front of your mortars so you can ignite a cake, step back, light shells to add fill and height dimension. Unless your shells are going in your finale, I would try to avoid reloading tubes back to back-- give them time to cool/settle between reloads or you may have a drop ignition(lights from embers when dropping into mortar)

What is threshold for "fast" and "slow"? For instance, what number is cutoff for fast and slow, obviously .19 is super fast. 3 is slow. Etc.

[DavidthePyro]

So like this:

X product 9 shots 32s medium
Y product 27 shots 22s fast
Z product 16 shots 52s slow


Performance rating(1-5)
X- 5
Y- 2
Z- 1

this is all opinion based. The best cake you ever had would be a 5
The worst would be a 1. Deciding speed is all based upon personal experience. What is fast medium slow for you, basically.

[DavidthePyro]

After, then you tally up and make a template. Example

38 cakes total(non finale)
18 fast
15 slow
5 medium

Make a pattern of slow medium and fast on paper and write in a cake next to each speed

[ajmikola]

After, then you tally up and make a template. Example

38 cakes total(non finale)
18 fast
15 slow
5 medium

Make a pattern of slow medium and fast on paper and write in a cake next to each speed

Thank you sir. This has really helped alot!

[MontanaMike]

I try to keep two runs of different "zipper" cakes from going off one right after the other, and I also make note of which cakes have crackle or whistle and I make sure they don't get bunched up. Variety is definitely the spice of life.

Beyond that, I tend to plug things in to where they fit the soundtrack.

My basic procedure is to first make the soundtrack with about 12 to 20 songs (edited down to 90 seconds or less apiece) and I load the music into CSC, then play it and add manual cues where the good "punch" points are. (Downbeats, beginning of the chorus, etc.) Then I look at the amount of time between cues, and put things in that will fill the spaces as exactly as possible. If there are any "long" spaces between cues, I add additional cues to fill in. I always put a false finale around halfway through the show where everything goes dark for about 10 seconds (with some sort of musical "intro" playing in the background) during the dark spot) and then a big blast to kick things off again.

Toward the end of the show I start overlapping two different types of cakes at the same time, and I sprinkle in other things between cake runs, such as a bank of about 80 or 90 roman candles all going off at once, or some other type of effect. Another false finale with about a minute left, then a few more cakes and a lot of canister shells. We have a rack that holds about 24 spinning wheels which we set off during the finale as well.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Probably late to the party with this one but.... In your "Description" column you can paste the URL to the You Tube video. Then you don't need to think about what it looks like. You can click the link and see it perform!