Phil Starr

https://www.facebook.com/reel/834906742617867 I've never tried this before and the pictures and sound are compressed to hell on FB but this is something the singer put up. You should just about see the lights illuminating the band tucked in behind the speakers and the two flashing facing the audience. You can also make out the Par Bar behind the guitarist, there was nowhere else to put it given the space. The phone has also corrected the colour which was primary red for the static lights These lights come with an optional diffuser which was fitted which is why you can't see the bulbs

OK I did say I thought you could achieve all of these, I did say thousands to do it well though. I was hoping for you to prioritise A lot of these lights can be quite compact, I carry six of the 1 metre length light bars in a single bag shown above including the mains leads. In small venues I have used two of these pointing backwards and set to static to light the band, two out front on a sequence to light the audience and two at the back to colour wash the stage. I've also got stands so that some of the tunes can be mounted vertically. I also have two small and cheap lasers that mount on top of the light bars and make pretty patterns on the ceiling. You could achieve most of this with the PAR lights described above and these would be more compact to carry. The light spread would be different however. You could also mix the lights of course. The advantage of having six identical lamps is that there is only one system to learn and you can also be certain that the DMX protocols are the same, that's important if you want to link lights so that they perform in the same way. Without DMX they will all do their own thing. This system illuminates the band and you can see what you are doing well, the rest of the stage is bathed in colour or colours if you use a sequence. The real failing is for the audience area, if it is any size at all it needs a lot more light and more going on. I also have a set of four lights on a bar like the Stairville ones but a couple of generations older, they are bigger and bulkier but sit in a case the size of a bass case, so not impossibly big. I've done gigs with just these at the side with one light illuminating each band member and with them running a programmed chase. That looks really dynamic out front and you can usually choose a chase where none of the lights go out completely so you are never plunged into darkness. Nowadays they sit behind the band and give the audience a show in most venues. These are most peoples first attempt at lighting and are really simple to set up and operate mine has a 4-way footswitch and remote control so it's plug in, put on the stand and just select your pre programmed display. Two of these raised really high will illuminate the whole audience area and make a good display viewed from their perspective. Those Stairvilles are the only ones I've found where you can have one can static to illuminate the stage. Two of these would make the band really visible and be good for the audience. They won't do the illumination of the instruments so well. I also really like the system set up in @gazhowe's video a really strong stage wash with smaller spots to illuminate the instruments. The slow fade in the wash I think adds some drama and the band are the centre of the illumination and therefore the show. Thats a little more complex as most of the fades are too fast so you'd be limited as to what lights you could use or have to learn DMX. Fortunately the contollers are really cheap Fortunately all of these things are expandable, you can add lights anytime to fill in what you find is lacking, but its better to have a plan and buy a few 'good' lights that do what you want rather than just the bargain on Ali Express. Time to go out and see what other bands are doing I think.

Hi Tim, Using wi-fi links sounds really interesting, winding up DMX cables every gig is already getting very boring on top of the XLR's. I'd be really interested to know how that works out.

Saved for future development

I'm just starting to use a DMX controller to control our band's stage lighting. There's nothing wrong with using the built in programs but they tend to be disco orientated and literally a bit too flashy for band use. Good for the audience if they are up on the dance floor but nobody wants the lights to flash off in the middle of a tricky bass run If anyone has any practical experience or tips to offer I'd be glad to hear them and I'll save the first post to try and pull together the best tips and build up a wiki/how to help people as new ideas are added.

Yeah, I've had good experiences with U'King branded led's (like the PAR's you linked to)though the ratings are a bit wild with a lot of Chinese stuff. The bulbs are all coming from China though so even the name brands are using the same bulbs. I can't see any colour saturation difference between my ADJ brand name strips and the U'king ones. What you do get with the brands is a more useful set of built in programs and consistency between production runs. I'm going to start a separate thread about DMX, it might be good if you posted the first response. I'm still taking baby steps so I can't offer too much in the way of experience.

Great Post I think this is the right way to look at things, I rushed in as an early adopter and will at some stage replace everything once I know exactly what I'm after. I'm enjoying the experimentation and all of this stuff has decent used value but mine is not an approach I'd advise anyone else to follow, I'm just reporting the latest experiments

I think to an extent you get what you pay for. These are pretty powerful lights and the ability to isolate one light on each side and use it for lighting up the stage whilst the other three in each set light up the rest of the room are worth the extra money, but only if this is the way you use them. The 40deg lamps are also a desireable feature. I don't thnk they are expensive for what you get though not cheap either., DMX is interesting, most bands probably don't use it or just use it as a way of linking lamps in pairs/groups. Having a separate DMX controller is undoubtedly better in terms of the final outcome but There's a steep learning curve and ultimately set up time. It's comparable in time and complexity with setting up a full PA system including monitors and subs and a similar learnig curve to operating the PA with a digital mixer (but slightly less intuitive). To date I've never used my controller at an actual gig. I thought DMX needed at least a separate post.

This is a great illustration of flooding the stage with static colours and adding in some illumination of the instruments. Adding in a little up light/ flood of the drums would have solved the distance problem. I love the intense blue shots. No flashing lights means you concentrate on the band.

Hi Sean I'm assuming that you mean the lights? I haven't really filmed the lightshow as such, I've got a couple of short clips of the 6 led bars I was talking about which I thought was on this thread. I'll look them out later. I've had LED lighting for around 12 years now but I've only recently started to think about how to do it properly and this thread is about starting a conversation with people going the same route. £3-500 is probably a decent stab at how much a gigging pub band would need to spend to get something decent which would improve their 'look' and hopefully their marketability, ie bring in more/better gigs. Having spent at least £500 and still not happy I'd say don't do what I did, have a plan based upon what is out there and what you want to achieve instead. I'm not too bothered, spare lights give me flexibility and I'll sell off all the lights I won't use once I'm happy. The good news is that a lot of the really cheap Chinese stuff is actually really effective and pretty reliable in use. I've only had one item dead on arrival and the UK supplier actually replaced the bulbs! I've got two laser lights that cost me £12 ea and fill the ceilings of venues with dancing green and red dots. So, before spending a penny think about what you are trying to achieve: Lighting to make the band look good Lighting to allow the band to see what they are doing Lighting to improve the audience experience You can probably achieve all of these with £500 but could spend thousands to do everythig well. You also need to think about convenience and set up times and this is my current issue with what I have. Lighting to make the band look good Any lighting will make the band look better, I even know one band who deliberately shine a light out of the windows to advertise that there is something going on inside the pub You need these lights to be in the band area/stage and at least some of them pointing at the band. These can dazzle you if they are too powerful, some activity is useful too but would have to suit the band, A punk band is going to want more active lights than a Jazz trio. Most of the cheap lights are designed for disco's so that the chases are often too busy to be useful. Slow fades are rare. Just bathing the band in red/blue/straw or even white light can be effective here but think about what you want to do before you spend. Lighting to allow the band to see what they are doing Steady lighting is good here. You don't want the fretboard plunbged into darkness or a powerful strobe at the beginning of a difficult solo. You probably want diffuse light too I've had a lot of complaints from band members about being spotlighted (which is what I think) or dazzled (their interpretation ) Most LED lights are pretty focussed so diffuse lighting is rare. Uplighting is usually effective but a trip hazard. Lighting to improve the audience experience Dynamism and sound to light is the thing here. Some of the automatic chases and sound to light is fantastic. Some of my lights really follow the bass line and/or kick drum so keep the lights in tempo. Otheres have multiple led's and seem to rotate. You can also now buy lights that scan automatically for under £50 and some project moving patterns (gobos) through mirror systems. Last warning, I always end up complicating things. All I'm saying is that if you have a picture in your head of what you are trying to achieve you'll spend more wisely. I started with a single bar with four PAR's like the Stairville one @Al Krow linked to. A couple of those ones would be brilliant if you wanted to keep it as simple as possible Two of the lamps can be set to white to illuminate the band and the rest will fill the dancefloor with light. The 40deg angle is ideall for a floodlight. Just putting two lights up controlled by a simple remote is about as easy and straightforward as you can get. I've had a beady eye on those for a while for the band where I do all the sound as well as the lights. My duo partner does the lights while I do sound so the lighting for the duo can be more complex. Gloucester is a bit of a drive but if you ever came over this way you'd be welcome to play with LED lighting over a coffee

How posh is that.😀 I'm jealous

This quote reminds us all about the reality of what we do. We’ve probably all played venues where there is no sound check.Food venues are the worst, I’ve been told no noise until the punters finish eating and had to wait half an hour for ‘Uncle Albert’ to finish his pud on more than one occasion. The other issue is how you are amplifying the band. If most of what the audience hear is from back line you are pretty much stuffed in acoustically poor venues. You can re eq the bass , maybe damp the drums but good luck with trying to get the guitarist to make adjustments 😀 If you are silent stage and using a digital mixer then using your saved settings and global eq for the PA is the only option that makes sense. The room interactions are with just two speakers. You know what you are sending to the speakers is what you want the audience to hear so the master eq is the tool for getting that as good as possible. I suspect most people are doing something in between these approaches, some proportion of the sound coming from backline with PA backup filling in the gaps. In some ways the worst of all worlds. I’d still be using global eq for the PA though as a first resort, In the end you are stuck with the situation on the night and just have to do the best you can,

Cm 🥹😅

Here you go two of the fane's in a 40l cab will do this with a fully rated amp driving 450W into the cab. That's a couple of db louder than most 12's. What it will need is a decent sized port as the amount of air that port will be moving at full power will be considerable. I've looked at using a 110mm soil pipe inside diameter 108mm 111.5mm long as a decent compromise. I'd be rear mounting the port so as not to weaken the front baffle too much.

I've got a spare set of panels and a speaker. I was going to build and document the build sometime soon so I'll have a pair of these. I'm also happy to design a 2x8 for anybody who wants a go at building one. (this is where I'm tryiong to remember if I've already done this design for anyone)