Karaoke Forums

Hey everyone! I am starting planning on my next stage of gear. I am wanting to add lighting to my shows. Up to now, I have relied on the venues and the lighting provided. But a couple of my venues have none, and I think they would benefit from adding lighting for atmosphere. I am definitely NOT a lighting guru at all, so I am open to any good suggestions. Flexibility is a must, meaning whatever gear I get needs to be able to do small shows with limited space, up to larger ones with dance floors that would hold hundreds of people. So, maybe using small tee-trees up to simple trellis' would be the way to go. Dunno tho. Maybe some of you who have some expertise in this area could offer some suggestions on what equipment to get. My budget will be $1000 including controllers, snakes, stands and lighting itself. I have looked around already at some, and have a good start at maybe what I am gonna get. But maybe some of you folks could help me out on some other ideas as well.

Very big thanks in advance to ya'll.

Scott

Some kind of stage lighting makes a tremendous difference even if they are tucked into a corner somewhere. I started with a couple of tee stands something like this
http://www.pssl.com/American-DJ-STAGEAC ... ing-System then upgraded the controller to a full controller like
http://www.pssl.com/Leviton-8-Channel-S ... Controller but there are others that will do the same thing cheaper. This is nice because you can adjust each light individuallt, set 'mood scenes', chase scenes, tap each light if needed.
Dance floor lighting on stage/stage areas can be very distracting to the singer if they are flashing in their face. Sometimes can make a good accent behind a singer on the fllor aimed up toward the ceiling, you don't want it shining into the audience eyes either.

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Lonnie, thanks for the quick response. That first tee stand is almost like what I had in mind for small corners. I have no idea in the slightest about controllers, so advice on what to look for that is simple, small and will work with a variety of situations. I also forgot to add that the controller should be a 1 unit controller if possible. If it can't be a single unit, then I would have to have a separate rack just for lighting. I only have one available unit in my rack now. And that is if I make some adjustments on the amps (taking out a half unit space between each amp).

A simple trellis is one of the options for larger venues, one that i can set up by myself, that I am considering.

As far as the lights themselves go, I honestly don't know which units would give me the biggest impact for the dollars spent.

Any more advise?

Your cheapest and easiest controller option is to go for a 4 ch. sound to light unit.
Maybe $50-60 stateside.
It will allow you to get on with other things until you are ready to move on.

I was thinking of something similar to this idea, except with better lights themselves. These lights look sorta boring if you ask me. But the concept is what i'm looking at.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Lighting-St ... 1155722.gc

I'm not sure why you think those lights are boring, I would actually recommend you start with that kit. Those are Par-38's and they're perfect for what you're looking for. As Lonman already mentioned, you don't want to use dance floor lights for lighting the stage area. All the movers and other DJ style lights are not meant to light a stage. There are some robotic lights that are meant for that purpose but now you're talking about units that cost about $800 a piece and weight way more than that truss system could ever support.

Get the par-38's and buy some gels to give you the colors. The other thing I would recommend is changing the bulbs. Most if not all Par-38 cans (and for sure those American DJ par-38's) come with 150 Watt flood bulbs. I recommend changing them out for 120W spot bulbs which you can find at Menards (just read the box carefully). They have a narrower light pattern which will make the colors from the gels show up better and despite being 30W less won't seem any less bright as a result of the tighter focus.

That kit has the controller and necessary dimmers so it should work out very well for you.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Nothing boring about those lights - nice package. Especially it has a nice controller (kind of like the one I upgraded to) that is able to do all the fun scenes, & chase patterns as well. It will make a huge difference in the singers experience.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

What I mean by "boring", is no motion. I know that the par38 lights are for lighting the singer area, I also want to get motion to the dance floor area. I am not wanting to distract the singers in any way, but wanting to give some excitement to the entire venue. I think you know what I am trying to achieve, but I just dont know how to get there. Thats what im asking, what units would do best for the buck for floor lighting. I actually was planning on putting par cans for the singers, I think thats a given.

The stand that I posted could actually be set up as the tee's only, without the trellis part if not needed. Am I correct? Two of my venues have limited space, so the trellis might not work there.

Take a look at this controller,you can run scenes or chases.You can dim each light you just have to program the controller before the gig.I went with this for my band because it is hands free (when its progarmed).It is made out of plastic but I have had mine for 5yrs+ and used it on the average of 30 weekends a year.

This would not run effect lighting but works par cans very well.It may be more than you need for just 1 tree of 4 par cans but as your light show grows it will do the job.
I have had four, 8 light dimmer packs and one, 4 light dimmer pack running off this controller.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/American-DJ ... 1155478.gc

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SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE LAST TUESDAY

First off, yes you can use that kit as two stand alone trees. I have a similar style Truss system and most of the time I only use the trees.

So if I understand you correctly you're looking to do a combination of stage and dance floor lighting. In that case if you're looking for movement, I'd recommend intelligent scanners that are linkable and can run on sound activation (rather than trying to use a controller). The Chauvet Intimidator series is a nice place to start, 2 or 4 of those (please do things in pairs and keep it balanced) linked together through DMX connections really do a nice job. The lights move well with the music (yes I've used them) and they have a nice array of gobos (shapes) and effects.

What ever you do, please have a plan for how you're going to hang this stuff. One of my biggest pet peeves are the DJ's who do the DJ lighting thing. Basically buy a bunch of one off DJ lights and hang them all hap-hazard on a tree. It looks lame and super amateurish. The easiest way to keep it looking pro is to add lighting in pairs.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Tony, thanks for that info. I just checked out that particular light, and it looks pretty good. Thats the kind of input i am looking for. The price isn't too bad. Although if I purchased that package deal i mentioned earlier, it wouldn't leave much more for a large number of lights to add on. But at least its a start to look at. Thanks again.

One thing to ask while i am thinking of it is, I have heard that the Chauvet line of stuff isn't as good quality as the American DJ lighting stuff. What's your opinions on that as well??

I just sold off four Chauvet Intimidators, the original CH605's. I owned them for around five years but hadn't used them very much for the last two or three years. The effect was alright but nothing spectacular (actually kind of boring after awhile). My main complaint on them was they were bulky and on the heavy side, especially because there were four of them and they looked better if you spread them out. I replaced them with a couple of American DJ Tri Phases and have been very pleased. You get a lot of movement, great coverage and easy to set up. As far as the quality of the Chauvet's, I had no problem with them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DW6echl ... _embedded#

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Quickness of mind will deceive the eye

How does the Tri Phase compare to the Martin Supermoon.
Got one when they first came out in the 80's. Don't have it anymore.
I used to sit it on a chair facing the audience.
I really want to find something that is similar.

If anything I would say the opposite. Both are on the lower end of the spectrum but I have seen Chauvet DMX dimmers and larger movers installed in some pretty high end installations. Personally I own some from both and really don't have a problem with either one.

The tri-phase units that London posted look like they'd do really well for you too. The fact that they're linkable (like the Intimidator) is cool, that way you make sure that the effects are coordinated between the units (they're not each off doing their own thing). The thing you lose with the Tri-Phase are the gobo effects however you are lightening the load on your trees or truss. They also have, as you can see in the video, multiple beams where as the Intimidator is a single beam.

The coordinated effects of the scanners are IMHO cooler than that of the tri-phase, here's the video from Chauvet showing four of them linked in a master-slave setup using sound activated control.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjxPGA2PPbs

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Of course the Tri-Phase (or any light for that matter) isn't going to look anything like what's in the video, without a haze generator. Without that, you'll only see the light on the floor, not the beams themselves. (Unless it's a real smokey club).

Also, you didn't say if you were going to have the lights in front or behind the singer. At my shows I use a Martin SC500 scanner (an intelligent light) mounted in front, and about 40 feet away from the singer, mounted high on the wall. With the controller, I can remotely control the movement of the spotlight, and change the color to set the mood for the song. If needed, I can remotely point it down to the dance floor and put it on "music auto" and it changes color to the beat of the music. With this I have a remote spotlight and a dance light all in one. The SC500 is about $250.00 and the controller is about $150.00. You can run a single light, or several.

I love lights. At one of my clubs, I used to have 27 Martin intelligent lights set up. Yeah, I love lights.

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My first choice IS Sound Choice.

you could set up two or four of those par lights to light the stage, and point the rest to the dance floor on a chase to music setting. the flashing lights help light the dance floor without being too boring. they can really add to the effect of a few cheepo lights. I use five mini strobes (only for short time), a "doubble derby" , a "warp" and an old djscan 250 for motion lights. Im also adding a chauvet lx10 that should be here this week. I don't do a ton of shows where i use lighting but I may buy a second Dj scan. as letitrip said motion lights do look best in pairs. if I like the LX10 i will probably buy a second also. for karaoke uses i usually only use a par 56 on top of each of my speakers pointed to the stage if any lights.
Most of my lighting was bought used so I got what came in the package deal. Ive recently updated to 20' of American DJ dura truss. for most DJ stuff i will only use 15 feet. the extra five is more for if I use it for front of stage truss with a band. Most people don't like dura truss, but being that im a metal worker Ive welded many tabs in place for mounting my controllers ect and a bunch of tabs on the top to mount smaller par 38 cans, pinspots, and the micro strobes. after making these changes its really nice. but I probably wouldn't have bought it if not for the fact that I got it for $30 a section.

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the voices arent real, but they have some good ideas

I would say stay away from the traditional pars and go LED. They are lighter, do not get hot, do not require bulb replacement, and each fixture can be made a number of colors.

http://www.pssl.com/Chauvet-4-Bar-DMX-L ... ght-System

Then for an effect I would go with something like a Raptor, T-Rex or Vue.

http://www.pssl.com/Martin-Raptor-DJ-Effects-Light-ELC

http://www.pssl.com/Martin-Trex-DJ-Effects-Light-ELC-5-

http://www.pssl.com/Chauvet-VUE-41-DMX-LED-Moonflower

You actually missed what I consider to be the biggest advantage of LED's and that is they require a fraction of the power of a traditional lamp. In some of the small clubs with limited power that we all play that can be a lifesaver.

That said, they are also considerably more expensive. A PAR-38 LED not only costs more than a regular PAR-38 it also puts out at best about half the light meaning at minimum you need twice as many to light the same area. Not necessarily a reason to avoid them but something to be aware of.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Is there anything out there that compares to the old Martin supermoon.
It is an effect I had and loved.
Cant find one anymore.