# Free Theatre Software



## Hughesie (Oct 14, 2006)

Hey does anyone know of any good free theatre related software

Lighting Plot designers
Spectrum Analyisers
Visulizers


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## Dustincoc (Oct 14, 2006)

What are your looking for? Sound, Lighting, ect ??


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## Too_Tall (Oct 14, 2006)

The only free software that i use for theatre is LD Calculator lite. It is very useful to figure out different things.

The things that it calculates are:
Photometrics
Electrical Base Laws
Electrical Phase Loads
Electrical Load List
Electrical Voltage Drop
Resistance Color Code
Rigging
Weight Load List
Truck Laod and Volume
General Converter
DMX Address
Database Manufacturer
Databaser Fixture
Database Roadcase

It is very useful especially if your show is going on the road, but in most cases you will only need it to calculate half of the things it is capable of doing.

Other types of software that I use cost money. They are also really good, if you can afford it, or if your school has an extra lisence of the software.
For lights I use VectorWorks
For construction and all the different types of plots and plans I use AutoCAD
For sound I use Cool Edit Pro.

I did not have to pay for any of these because I the theatre had liscenes to all these programs. I would sudgest that if you want these things free, see what the theatre or school has that you can use.


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## Hughesie (Oct 14, 2006)

Dustin i am looking for all types of software i think there is a lot of good sofware out there that people are using that could save people a lot of time

too tall thanks for the software and i will see what my theatre has


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## Van (Oct 16, 2006)

There are several free cad programs out there. They're better than nothing. I'm also a huge fan of Sketch-up even the free version is extremely powerful and extremely easy to use. Google it learn it use it.


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## Hughesie (Nov 13, 2006)

any other free cad programs

maybe more theatre centred?


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## PhantomD (Dec 9, 2006)

Too_Tall said:


> For sound I use Cool Edit Pro.



That is now Adobe Audition.

I have Adobe Audition 2.0 and it is one heck of an amazing piece of software.

I especially like the studio reverbs and the noise reduction profiling capability.

Makes any recording sound great, example a choir I recorded yesterday.


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## evolutiontheatre (Mar 20, 2007)

this isn't a cad program, but there is a board simulator that allows you to build entire shows and then upload it to an ETC board.

It's called ETC Expression Offline. google it.


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## gafftaper (Mar 25, 2007)

evolutiontheatre said:


> this isn't a cad program, but there is a board simulator that allows you to build entire shows and then upload it to an ETC board.
> It's called ETC Expression Offline. google it.



Just about all the theater consoles now have a free off line version of their software that you can download and use on your home computer. Just check out the various manufacturer download pages. Most of these require you to either own the actual console to upload it or to buy an expensive attachment interface from them (commonly called a dongle) to make it work.


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## gafftaper (Mar 25, 2007)

A follow up on trying out consoles by downloading their off-line software:

To try the Strand console software go here and then select the Support tab>Software

To try ETC's Congo, Emphasis, Obsession, or Expression console software go here .... no EOS yet but it shouldn't be long until it's there. 

To try a GrandMA go here

To try a Hog 3 go here


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## soundlight (Mar 25, 2007)

gafftaper said:


> To try ETC's Congo, Emphasis, Obsession, or Expression console software go here .... no EOS yet but it shouldn't be long until it's there.



You forgot Smartfade 

Virtual Smartfade doesn't build shows like the other offline editors, but it really gives you a feel for the operation of the console. I was very skeptical about the idea of a low-budget, two-scene based ETC console until I sat down with VSmartfade...it's actually pretty nice.


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## dbaxter (Apr 4, 2007)

Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net is a good sound editor. Cue Player at http://www.baxeldata.com/freeware.html will manage and play your cues during a performance.
Free stuff for lighting, you might look to FreeStyler. It depends on whether you're using DMX or not.


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## GeneralDoom (Apr 17, 2007)

check out some of the demoes as well, sometimes they are almost full functioning,or have certian limitations as with lightwright


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## marshmolly123 (Nov 8, 2008)

Vectorworks -- You can get a student edition that is free, I believe.


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## Hughesie (Nov 9, 2008)

marshmolly123 said:


> Vectorworks -- You can get a student edition that is free, I believe.



Only for UK/US students.


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