Slightly OT: Show Lighting

[TimR]

Up until recently I've been lighting the band using some old spot lights and a basic 4 channel 'disco' controller from the 80's. Just 4 coloured lamps that chase in time with the music. They worked OK, but got hot and were heavy and a nightmare to setup and pack down.

 

But we bought a pair of these Chauvet color bank LEDs:

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/fixtures/images/ledcolorbank4.jpg

 

I put them up on stands either side of the band just behind the main speakers and they work a treat left to their own devices. I've been leaving them to rotate through their 7 preset colours in time to the music. Their size is misleading considering the amount of light they give off.

 

However, they are DMX compatible, so now I've bought a cheap desk and hopefully will be able to control them and have different preset effects for different songs. The desk has a built in microphone to sync the effects to the music and takes a MIDI input. Maybe at some stage I'll add a MIDI pedal board and some more lights to make a better show. It could also control a smoke machine, but I think I'd rather leave that up to the singer to control manually so she can stop it before we disappear and she can't sing from choking in the fog

 

We also have some non DMX scanners to cover the dance-floor.

 

What do other people do regards lighting their shows? I'm talking mainly self operated systems rather than having a lighting tech but any views would be of interest.

 

[Brocko777]

Our lighting is minimal as best but we have two of the Chauvet set ups with the 4 colored bulbs (not the LEDs) a couple wash spots and some 'effect lighting' that the singer will trigger when needed. Unless you have a light tech I don't feel it is necessary to go to crazy for your light show.

 

Brocko

[jeremy c]

No one I work with is willing to drag lighting to a gig.

 

So we play in the dark. We're just musical wallpaper anyway.

[TimR]

Brocko, how does you singer trigger the effects?

 

Jeremy. I have seen your Tuner

 

These lights are small and the set up time is minimal, there's 2 boxes and 2 stands to carry in. I'm not into hours of setting up and dragging in gear. I am hoping some simple programs will look good.

[Brocko777]

Uumm, he walks over to it and turns them on before the particular song... rrreeeaaallllyyyy high tech!!

 

You could get 3 or 4 of those Christmas chase lights with the 8 different patterns and lay those out too.

 

It sounds silly but I think that it would work... maybe pick up some mirrors in the right size that you want and place them either by or in the path of your lights tada!! Twice as many! I know that isn't what you are asking.

 

I think you are looking for an actual lighting control pod to do fades and color changes on the fly. Here are some options from MF. To have it programmed or computer controlled is going to be time consuming and costly which I don't like either of those phrases.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/navigation/controllers-lighting-stage-effects-pro-audio?N=100001+338431

We basically have enough light on the stage area to see and hopefully our performance does the rest.

If it is something that you need or would like for your group then take the time. TOOL comes to mind for a great visual show, but if your in a pub/bar/hall for a 4 hour gig and not doing any particular video/light show for songs to help with the story I would think about the time involved for the return.

 

Brocko

[b5pilot]

Oh yeah my guitar player was talking about those. Those are pretty nice! Sure beats the 12 par 48's we used to drag around years ago. Now when we need lighting we have some scaled down programmable lighting boxes that use halogen bulbs that are very portable but we are seriously thinking about those.

[TimR]

b5pilot:

The LEDs are good for colour wash, but wouldn't replace spots, but that's not what they're designed to do. The pair give a good wash across all six of us. Bathing the stage in light. You do need two, one either side and they need to be fairly high up on stands close to the band. We have ours just higher than the top of the speakers.

 

 

Brocko:

He presses buttons? WOW how retro!

 

I have a controller that will do fades etc. At the moment I just intend to press the buttons too, it can take a MIDI foot controller, but I've got enough gear to cart for now. Last time I checked our singer still has all her fingers so that might get passed on to her to do

 

Programming it should be simple, I'm only going to have a few better colours than the standard 7 that the LEDs are programmed with, and have them do different chase patterns. Different colours for different moods.

 

 

[Brocko777]

That's cool. I think that is all you'd need to give a nice overall effect throughout the night.

 

Brocko

[The Bear Jew]

We just played with a band that made DIY lighting rig out of old floor monitor boxes with colored work lights in place of the speakers. These lights cast the whole stage in an eerie blue/green glow. They had the lights wired up to a simple footswitch... it made for a pretty cool, albeit slightly limited, effect.

 

We did something similar with white backlights and red footlights many years ago, and that was also effective.

 

However, we were going for a specifically spooky stage lighting... that might not work for everyone.

[Tom Capasso]

We use a cheap set of four colored spots (Par 38?) on a stand with their random box. If the place has enough light, we leave it home.

 

One caution - we bought the cheap Chauvet stand, and one of the main set-screws went bad after a few gigs (it was not mistreated). We haven't looked at how we're going to fix that yet.

 

Tom

[jeremy c]

I bought two strings of rope lights.

 

Total cost: $20.

 

Since we often don't have a stage (we are just jammed in a corner of the room) and the rope lights demarcate our area and help keep people away from us.

 

I just bought two strobe lights at a garage sale for $5. That should keep them even further away.

[b5pilot]

Hi TimR, color wash is mainly what we're going for these days. That's what we use our current lighting for. The bars we work at have very small bandstands if any so a wash is fine. We haven't use those pars in a long time. LED's would run cool so teardowns would be quick and no bulbs to replace would be nice.