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Lights suitable for pub gigs. - advice and recommendations?


Skinnyman
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The band I'm in used to have a couple of equinox mega bars. 4 LED par cans on each with tripods. They're really good units with only two problems. One, they're a royal pain to get onto the tripods (they'll have a finger if you're not careful) and two, they belong to the recently-quit guitarist so we need to replace them.

Given that we only play pubs, the two equinox units were probably overkill so I'm looking for recommendations for something smaller, lighter and, well, easier.

We're happy to let the units run in auto mode so we don't need anything fancy on the DMX side of things (although it's kind of a nice to have feature). I did wonder about a couple of LEDJ 1T36 LEDs clipped to the speaker stands which give a big spread and would wash the stage (well, the corner of the bar were we're set up) but if anyone has any better ideas I'd be glad to hear them....

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We have 4 led par cans 2x64s and 2x56 they're DMX compatible but I don't have them linked. Together with a laser/pattern thing. I hang them all off two T-bars.

Works ok. Pretty cheap solution. I prefer them to the bar type lights as they're more flexible, giving more options with positioning depending on size and shape of pub.

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We just have 4 individual warm white par cans when we play pubs. Two pointing at the drum kit from each side (to make it look nice and shiny) which are on constantly and two more on stands (one each side) pointing down onto the stage area. They're set to slow fade in/out.

It's rare in pubs that you'll be able to get 4x Par Cans T-Bars high enough to be effective and everyone just ends up looking like ghosts bathed in purple or green light. If you must use RGBW cans, one or two cans either side is plenty.

For larger shows like weddings and parties, we'll use 8xRGBW par cans (4 each side on T Bars) set as high as possible as well as a couple of white cans pointing at the drum kit. We have a paid of moving heads but don't really play anywhere large enough to make it worth using them. Effect gets lost without plenty of fog and a dark room.

For pubs, you just need to be lit brighter than the room. No need for anything else!

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I've got the usual parbar system a few bands use. For all the reasons above I wouldn't recommend it. If you can't get it high it blinds you or the audience and it's a total hazard having a top heavy thing like that in an area people dance in. Only for bigger venues really. Look good though.

All you really need is something to create a sense of movement and something else so you can both see and be seen

We also have an ultrabar12 a metre long batten with 12 fairly powerful leds. Put behind the drummer it looks great and really colours up the backdrop. Because it is so compact it offers no hazard and doesn't shine in anyone's eyes. It's set to do it's own thing on a sound to light basis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iXdQjxtNmg

I'm about to add in some ordinary PAR cans just to add some colour to the stage and add enough light for us to see what we are doing. They'll be set either to a fixed colour or a very slow fade between colours. The movement then coming from the ultrabar.

If we start doing functions then I'm going to add a lot more but this is ideal for a pub gig

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