hello everyone, i suggest to go on this new website called http://www.pyrofr.totalh.com thats an amazing website ! he contain lot of good information about pyro !

Thanks for the informative site, Jerome. As you may know, I'm very interested in the chemistry of pyrotechnics, so any additional information is always most welcomed.

Trav.

yeah thats very good to know this chemistry !

Hi Jerome,

I was just wondering; you often talk about "mascletas", not to mention that they have been acknowledged frequently in the past by other members. What is it exactly? What does it look like? I've asked similar questions before, but it's still not clear.

It would be helpful if you had some pictures in addition to a brief explanation of their function(s).

Oh yes, and be sure to enjoy the suddenly beautiful weather on the way.

Thanks.

Trav.

hmm thats pretty hard to explain A good mascleta its a bunch of BIG firecracker look like thats


and the show look like thats

lot of smoke and sound its created by a ton of firecracker ! thats a mascleta !

Hi Jerome,

Thank you for the explanation and photos of their setup.

So they pretty much take place solely at ground level? Also, have they been used by some firms in our competition?

Thanks again.

Trav.

I would like to give you an idea about the mascleta.
Don't get me wrong Jerome but your explanation is a little bit poor.
First of all a mascleta is not only BIG firecracker, is more than this. The good mascleta is not the biggest, is not the louder. To be a good mascleta it has to achieve a perfect increasing pace.

The traditional mascleta has three sections:
1-Mixed (aerieal+ground level): This first level can include dygital sequences. This first section takes 2 minutes.

2-After the mixed begginig there is the body of the mascleta, with big explosions (aereal and ground llevel), the pace increase during 4 minutes.

3 -The end: There is what we call the "Terratremol"(Earthquake), with a lot of explosions more of what you can imagine. (120 Db). After the earthquake there is what we call the "bombardeo" (Bombardment). This is the noisiest section, the sky becomes full of explosions (125 Db), and then the ground level too, more and more until the end.

The end with dygital mines and the square full of smoke (due to the ground level explosions)

Hi Rovira,

Thanks for your additional information as well.

So what you're saying is that a mascleta can involve both a mixture of aerial and ground level explosions and is in a gradual increasing pace within a certain amount of time? Like most other explosions in a variety of fireworks, do the explosions of the mascleta itself give off any sort of distinctive effect, or color, or is it just a constant explosion mass with sparks flying everywhere (as in your picture)?

I'm not sure if I've ever recognized them at our competition (assuming they've been used here by some participants in the past), but their ability to make a lot of noise, not to mention their average duration, would be a great addition to a finale in conjunction with other effects taking place in that particular segment. However, I don't recall ever seeing that kind of quantity of smoke!

It might help, but do you know what the term "mascleta" means (assuming it has a meaning)?

Trav.

Hi Smoke:

First of all---The meaning-----Mascleta comes from mascle . Mascle is Man (home in french)... So it's something strong, hard. Valencian people call to their "marrons" masclets because they are really strong.
Then mascleta is from masclet and masclet from mascle (man, home in french).

¿Have you ever seen a mascleta in Montreal?------NO, sure.
A mascleta is not an effect, is a display. Your competition is a Pyromusical competition and Pyromusical and mascleta are two differents things, they can't be mixed.
What you have seen is some typical effects used in a mascleta. Remember the Ricardo Caballer's finale in 2005 (I was tehre ). They used dygital ground level explosions mixed with peonies. The dygital explosions are used during the begining of the mascleta(sometimes at the end -for example the video), but one typical mascleta effect is not a mascleta.
A mascleta is a kind of display, it has an estructure, if you take one effect you don't have the entier display.

You can't add a mascleta at the end because a mascleta is a display by itself. Moreover, the set up needs a lot of space and in Montreal the space is limitated.

Take a lok at this video, you will see that a mascleta in montreal(mixed with a pyromusical) and at La Ronde is not possible. Also you will see the typical structure :
- Begining: dygital and mixed aerial. (almost the first 3 minutes)
- Body: exploions at ground level and gradual increasing pace ( the nexts 3 minutes more or less)
- Finale: the last 2 minutes (The finale strats with the earthquake at ground level and finish with dygital mines and big explosions on air)

http://www.freakpyromaniacs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4280

Hi Rovira,

Again, thank you for your detailed information and clarifications, my friend.

Most of your explanation did it justice in defining what a mascleta is, particularly when you specified that it was a "display" by itself. I've also noticed by both your description and the video you provided that the explosions were indeed quite gradual in speed, but what was most interesting was that at times there was variation in pace while a distinctive rhythm (or beat, for the sake of argument) was being formulated in between parts; this was most noticeable at ground level.

Regarding the combination of aerial and ground explosions/activity, I've recognized this very well in the video; most of the ground level bursts were assisted, or in combination, with clusters of high level bombs.

The ending was particularly interesting, and you really didn't lie about the amount of smoke present! There was so much going on that I thought the whole place was going to come down! Really, I was very impressed with the drastic increase in both speed and power, only later creating a strong simulation of a localized fog due to vast accumulations of smoke!

A mascleta can be very intense, as I've seen there, and I see why you need so much room to establish them efficiently. It's too bad that they commonly don't have any colors integrated, but what I do enjoy quite a bit is the excessive noise given off throughout, not to mention the massive explosions from the mines via ground level and the assisting high level bombs and the smoke involved. The time duration is also rather satisfying for something like this.

As for the Spanish display of 2005, yes, I do remember their show distinctively, especially considering that the majority of their unique performance ranged from low to mid levels along with a multitude of mines, candles, fountains and many nautical effects.

Will you be attending Montreal this Summer?

Trav.

Hi smoke thank you to understant my information, it's not easy to explain what is exaclty a mascleta, but what I can see is taht you have taken the idea. So i'm happy.

I'm planning to come back to Montreal this summer...Montreal is a great city..I've benn in Pris ,Nyc...but Montreal has something special...Really.

The poblem is the apartment....I'm loking for some home town or apartment in Montreal to share with some friends. There are a lot of vacatinal rentals but they're expensive. We'he found a hoeme town in St-Henry, but I don't like this area and another one in St- Cristophe corner Ontario (I think) this is better.

So this summer I'll be in Montreal .

I think the shedule is quite interesting this year...

Rovira,

I appreciate you taking the time to explain and introduce me to this unique approach in the realm of pyrotechnics, and thanks to you, I'm much more acquainted with a mascleta altogether.

Montreal is truly a fascinating and extravagant city (besides its Winter weather, of course). I hope that everything works out for you when you arrive here in the Summer, but I'm happy to hear mostly that you'll be coming to see the fireworks competition of 2007.

Indeed, the schedule is, as always, quite interesting, but what is even more appealing is the appearance of many firms that haven't been seen for quite some; Mexico alone is quite an astonishment to me.

Will you be able to see all of the displays? If so, I'd very much like to read your comments or reviews on this forum regarding each display in addition to everyone elses.

Cheers,

Trav.