Band Lighting?

[Pbassred]

I want to light a small band (safely). Anyone know of an idiot's guide? Any tips?

I know that there's a shop near me in Harrow ( I live in Herts) but I don't know its name or address.

[BOD2]

Have a look here for a cheap option and discussion of some other aspects

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=14763&hl=lighting"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...amp;hl=lighting[/url]

See if that makes any sense then post some more questions and hopefully it will help.

Good lighting isn't cheap and cheap lighting has its limits so it does need some thought and planning. Don't rush out and buy anything as it might not be the best in the long run (speaking from experience).

[Pbassred]

A good read. I assume that the LED light cant work without a DMX controller?

The reason I wanted a shop was to look at the hardware and ask questions. You can't do that on mail order.

[bassbluestew]

LED par cans do work stand alone, they can either be programmed to do a slow or fast wash or will work sound to light. We use them - don't buy trad Par cans now, they are too high maintenance and just too warm !!

S

[Muppet]

[quote name='bassbluestew' post='207324' date='May 27 2008, 04:00 PM']LED par cans do work stand alone, they can either be programmed to do a slow or fast wash or will work sound to light. We use them - don't buy trad Par cans now, they are too high maintenance and just too warm !!

S[/quote]


Absolutely. Traditional PARs are a pain - I'm on the look out for some LED ones now at a good price. What do you use to control yours Stew?

[nig]

im in a 3 piece pub band and wanted the same thing, we got 2 par 56 cans with clamps, one a side clamped onto the speaker tripod stands to give a colour wash, on or off, cheap and cheerful but makes all the difference.

[BOD2]

[quote name='Pbassred' post='207310' date='May 27 2008, 03:47 PM']A good read. I assume that the LED light cant work without a DMX controller?

The reason I wanted a shop was to look at the hardware and ask questions. You can't do that on mail order.[/quote]

As others have said above, most LED lights come with a basic built-in controller that allows them to operate independently which is good enough for simple effect lighting. Note that if you have two (or more) LED lights working this way they will all do their own thing and not work together. A DMX controller is more versatile but LED lights without a controller are a quick, simple solution.

Stage lighting is often supplied by "disco supply shops" rather than music shops. Check your local yellow pages to see if you have any "disco supplies" locally - or try Google to locate a shop locally.

[yorks5stringer]

[quote name='BOD2' post='207861' date='May 28 2008, 10:26 AM']As others have said above, most LED lights come with a basic built-in controller that allows them to operate independently which is good enough for simple effect lighting. Note that if you have two (or more) LED lights working this way they will all do their own thing and not work together. A DMX controller is more versatile but LED lights without a controller are a quick, simple solution.

Stage lighting is often supplied by "disco supply shops" rather than music shops. Check your local yellow pages to see if you have any "disco supplies" locally - or try Google to locate a shop locally.[/quote]

Got our LEDS from Thomann, the cheapest around, they are mentioned in the thread higher up, around £40 each

[Ba55me15ter]

[quote name='Pbassred' post='206893' date='May 26 2008, 10:19 PM']I want to light a small band (safely). Anyone know of an idiot's guide? Any tips?[/quote]

Make sure you apply liberal amounts of petrol / lighter fuel, but do not return once-lit.

[RichardH]

I had a thought a few days ago...

A couple of these at £3.49 each)


plus

some lighting gels


equals dirt cheap rear colour wash.

What do you reckon? Wouldn't want them pointing at me, but directed up the wall behind the drummer - and especially if we rig them to a dimmer to control the intensity - I reckon they might work OK.

[nig]

Lol, every answer from every angle possible, what more can you want. ;-)

[stevebasshead]

[quote name='RichardH' post='208029' date='May 28 2008, 01:45 PM']I had a thought a few days ago...

A couple of these at £3.49 each)


plus

some lighting gels


equals dirt cheap rear colour wash.

What do you reckon? Wouldn't want them pointing at me, but directed up the wall behind the drummer - and especially if we rig them to a dimmer to control the intensity - I reckon they might work OK.[/quote]

We used about half a dozen of these in my last two bands (although without a dimmer, not sure if they work with halogens???) mounted on pieces of old shelf put on the floor in front of us and a pair clamped on the top of the PA speakers. They're certainly better than relying on the pub's ceiling lights. If you're clever and plug them into a multigang which has individual switches for each socket you could choose to light each song a different colour just by flicking a couple of switches on or off, i.e. plug the one's you put red gels on into one socket, blues into another, green into another. Then put any combination of the three on to create different colours.

Can't beat a proper lighting system of course but as a cheap starter it'll work fine, just don't put the gels too close to the light or they'll melt (guess how I know...)

[BOD2]

[quote name='RichardH' post='208029' date='May 28 2008, 01:45 PM']I had a thought a few days ago...

A couple of these at £3.49 each)


What do you reckon? Wouldn't want them pointing at me, but directed up the wall behind the drummer - and especially if we rig them to a dimmer to control the intensity - I reckon they might work OK.[/quote]

Yes they will work, but be aware that they will get very, very HOT. They usually take a range of bulbs from 150W to 500W - the higher the wattage the more light and more heat.

Don't be in a hurry to move them after you switch them off - you'll burn your fingers and the bulbs will be at their most fragile.

The [url="http://www.theelectronicsshop.co.uk/prolight%20icolor4.htm"]iColor-4[/url] unit uses 4 of the 300W bulbs in a single unit with built-in "colour gels" but these units are fan cooled.

[yorks5stringer]

[quote name='BOD2' post='208190' date='May 28 2008, 04:37 PM']Yes they will work, but be aware that they will get very, very HOT. They usually take a range of bulbs from 150W to 500W - the higher the wattage the more light and more heat.

Don't be in a hurry to move them after you switch them off - you'll burn your fingers and the bulbs will be at their most fragile.

The [url="http://www.theelectronicsshop.co.uk/prolight%20icolor4.htm"]iColor-4[/url] unit uses 4 of the 300W bulbs in a single unit with built-in "colour gels" but these units are fan cooled.[/quote]

Won't the halogens come on if anyone moves.............

Edited May 29, 2008 by yorks5stringer

[bass_ferret]

Just ordered [url="http://www.djanddiscostuff.com/prodpage.asp?prodid=2694"]this little lot[/url] as we have a private party coming up in the back room of a pub with no lights. Full report to follow in due course.

[ianrunci]

We are still using par cans although thats only cos it would mean spending money to upgrade and we are a bit tight

We are only a four piece and we use 8 Par 64s side on, 8 Par 56 on the floor (2 each) and behind the drummer we have a goal post system with 8 par 56s, 6 Par 36 pin spots, two scanners. We also have 4 moving heads on the floor behind us for secial fx depending on the size of the enue and the fee we are on.

The drummer plays with a click from a laptop which also plays all the keyboard parts, we have all this midi's up to two NJD midi controllers. The floor cans are pluged into an NJD floor controller.

To be honest unless your playing large corporate functions and weddings a lot I would think all you need are 4 par 56s on either side of the stage. You could run them through a floor controller like a Ryger or something

[HeavyJay]

I'm in a 50s and 60s covers band who play pretty small pub and club gigs with the occasional wedding and function thrown in. We're looking to invest in a budget lighting rig as some of our gigs would be greatly enhanced by it. Because we're trying to maintain a fairly authentic look, I'm worried that if I get coloured lights it might look a bit too disco but if I just use white lights, we might be a bit washed out (and possibly a little holy ).

My thoughts are to have some lights shining in from each side of the band, some lights either pointing at the drummer or shining up behind him, and some form of light in the faces of the two front-persons, probably from t-bars.

Any advice on this would be gratefully received.

Thanks to BOD2 for directing me here.

[spinynorman]

[quote name='HeavyJay' post='329009' date='Nov 14 2008, 12:08 PM']I'm in a 50s and 60s covers band who play pretty small pub and club gigs with the occasional wedding and function thrown in. We're looking to invest in a budget lighting rig as some of our gigs would be greatly enhanced by it. Because we're trying to maintain a fairly authentic look, I'm worried that if I get coloured lights it might look a bit too disco but if I just use white lights, we might be a bit washed out (and possibly a little holy ).

My thoughts are to have some lights shining in from each side of the band, some lights either pointing at the drummer or shining up behind him, and some form of light in the faces of the two front-persons, probably from t-bars.

Any advice on this would be gratefully received.

Thanks to BOD2 for directing me here.[/quote]

Be wary of really budget lighting rigs, like you get at Maplin, they don't throw enough light to make any real difference.

As a pub band, we found having lights on a T-bar was a pain, it's just more stuff to carry, more time to set up and more use of space you don't have. Also, in a small space the chances of looking straight into a PAR64 and blinding yourself for 5 minutes are quite high. We've ended up with two PAR64 floor cans with gels, one either side of the drums, and a "moonflower" unit aimed at the ceiling, either above us or the audience, depending on the venue. We paid £16 each for the cans and £30 each for the bulbs, so if I were doing it now I'd go LED.

I think you can overdo lighting for a pub band. We've heard several times from landlords about bands that turned up with elaborate lighting rigs, but the performance didn't deliver on the expectation they'd set. My advice would be to start with a couple of lights and get more if you find you need them.

For occasional functions we've hired lights. For my daughter's 21st we had wall to wall floor cans in front of us and robot things on a gantry. Very hot. During Sunshine of Your Love I felt my leg getting very warm and glanced down to see smoke. Turned out it was an over-enthusiastic operator on the smoke machine, but for a minute I was convinced my jeans were on fire.

Edited November 14, 2008 by spinynorman

[Happy Jack]

I've been mining this and associated threads for lighting ideas over the last few months.

I play in a 5-piece blues band and also an 8-piece functions band, both bands playing occasional pub/club/party gigs, nothing special. Certainly not enough to justify going bananas on lighting.

I ended up buying 2 x PAR64 plus 4 x PAR32, together with a single T-bar, all from Thomanns. They all come with 2-pin europlugs, so I also bought a 4-way gang from Thomanns, plus three cheap adaptors from Maplins. The whole lot was less than £200.

I put the T-bar behind/alongside the drummer with all four PAR32's on it. They're all pointing at different parts of the ceiling, they're all set to just change from colour to colour (not connected to anything, either electronically or sonically) and because they each change at different times you get some interesting and unpredictable effects. Each of the four then plugs its 2-pin into the German 4-way gang, which means I only need one adaptor for UK 3-pin sockets.

The PAR64's are then clamped (using long bolts with washers and butterfly nuts) to the PA support poles, one on each side of the stage, each pointing straight across the stage. That creates enough of a colour wash with little risk of dazzle, and if anyone [i]does[/i] get dazzled it won't be me cos I'm backline, innit.

Pretty cheap, very effective, not much heat being generated. BUT. We now use three sockets more than we used to, which can be an isue at some venues. AND. They're a bit of a pain to store and transport. All this lighting kit is not particularly heavy, but it is bulky and fragile. You need to be really sure that it's the [i]last[/i] stuff you load into the van/car.

[OldGit]

Did you see the wiki on this?
[url="http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:industry:stage_lighting"]http://wiki.basschat.co.uk/info:industry:stage_lighting[/url]

[thepurpleblob]

[quote name='Pbassred' post='206893' date='May 26 2008, 09:19 PM']I want to light a small band (safely). Anyone know of an idiot's guide? Any tips?

I know that there's a shop near me in Harrow ( I live in Herts) but I don't know its name or address.[/quote]

You can get kits with two multi-colour floods, stands and a dmx controller for about £500 quid. More than does the job.

BTW... IMHO, don't buy PAR lamps. The bulbs are expensive and hard to get (relatively). The type that take ordinary floodlight halogens are the answer. You can get a replacement bulb for 2 quid from B&Q at 10pm!! Avoid like the plague weird cheap stuff of the Bay. The bulbs can be impossible to get from anywhere!

Edited November 14, 2008 by thepurpleblob

[bobpalt]

Google "Kam led parbar (or par bar)", and you will get details of what looks like a brilliant system of leds for bands. I have just ordered two of them today, to go with the led lights we already use (which are brilliant and came from Thomanns)

[BOD2]

Just to re-interate what's been said previously...

The big advantages of LED-based PAR cans are

1. They don't generate much heat - no more overheating on stage
2. The don't use much power - you shouldn't need any more sockets
3. They cool quicker so can be moved sooner

The only disadvantages are

1. Might not be quite as bright - debatable this one
2. Are a little more expensive and not so readily available second hand


The iColor-4 (or iColor-3) lights are dead easy to setup and use, very compact but still generate heat, and use a fair bit of power. They're fan cooled so they cool down quicker.

If you want slow changing lights (rather than fast flashing) then it's probably better to use a basic controller (e.g. a DMX controller) as this gives much better and easier control of the lights than any "built-in" light controls do. You should also eb able to vary the lighting level (brightness) from a separate controller which is good for different sized venues.

[Delberthot]

We've just invested in a pair of the iColour lights with the extra controller to get better control over them. 4 bulbs on each one.

I can select 1 of 9 colours with the press of a single button. there's also control over the speed, mood of the lighting, it goes on.

Really simple to operate.

We used PAR cans for 12 years and looking back now, unless you have a case for them, they can be a bit temperamental with connections popping out and bulbs becoming disconnected from their connectors inside. They were home made jobbies but made well so that you could disconnect each light separately as they all had euro sockets on them.

[ianrunci]

You can get the [b]Par 56 LED par cans from Thomann for just £23 quid each[/b] or the [b]Par 64 LED cans for 35 quid[/b]. Very cheap indeed and if you buy enough the postage is free too.

As for proper par cans, they do throw a lot more light out than the LED versions but they are also less stable and much hotter

As stated in previous posts the lamps a bit expensive although not all that bad at £11.50 for 500w Par 64s sealed beam inc vat & and about 7 quid for the par 56s
They get very hot and the maintenance is quite high on them and it would cost you about the same amount if not more for one can with a lamp as it would for an LED. Then you have to buy the GELs

It depends on the type of gigs you are doing to how many lights you need. We do weddings and big corporate functions a lot so we need quite an extensive rig including effects for the dance floor if there is no DJ booked. In a pub you can get away with 4 par 56s and that is big enough for most small to medium sized pubs.