Stage lighting advice

[Jakeboy]

Guys/gals, I am clueless on this topic. I just swapped bassists and the departing player took his big LED par cans with him.

I need some stage lighting for a 5 piece bar/club blues band. I love the LEDs as I sweat plenty hard enough already playing and dancing around onstage.

What do you recommend? Cheaper is better as long as it works. Simple is good.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

[Jakeboy]

No one has any recommendations or advice? Am I on the HFC?

[hamerhead]

Hire a guy.

Seriously though, I'm with you on the LEDs - cool is good. And you won't blow fuses every place you play. Par 64 LEDs are very cool but way pricey. At around $100 a pop, you're in for nearly a grand with stands and everything. Check CL for used stuff. Bands break up all the time. Light guys retire. And good stuff goes cheap.

My last band had crap for lights (something like a single non-LED 64 on each side plus some other random junk) that were just on all night. I found some par 56 cans and put color-changing LED floods in them for some cheesy cheap movement. It was maybe $150 for 8 cans, bulbs, and 2 stands, but that was new stuff. Again, scour CL.

And remember - the crowd sees what's going on behind the band, so you want some movement there. Awesome LEDs on the band is good, but the crowd wants to see some shiny things, too.

[Steve Haynie]

No one has any recommendations or advice? Am I on the HFC?

Well, if the only suggestion I can make is to see what your local music store has on hand, that really is not worth posting.

My biggest problem with lights has been that with minimal lights on the side of the stage the singer in the center is not properly lighted. That position needs something overhead and out front a little. Also, drummers are often left in the dark. Sometimes there are positions on the stage where the light is too bright or not bright enough. A great light rig makes a difference. That is not cheap, nor easy on the power requirement.

Can you buy a set up like the former bass player had?

[Jakeboy]

Thanks for the advice guys......I need to be patient and wait for some good deals to pop up. I was hoping for a $300 easy solution that still worked good. Last night's gig was kinda dark...lol.

[geoff_hartwell]

Check out the Chauvet 4-bar.

It's about $300, maybe $400 new max. Comes with a case, stand, 3-button foot controller and is awesome.

I bought one specifically for the bars that aren't "clubs" with proper stage and lights, and it makes a huge difference in the energy in a place like that.

Super light, super fast to set up, super reliable.

Heres a link at sweetwater:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/4BAR?adpos=1o1&creative=55686349801&device=t&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CNrirqS1nsMCFdNj7AodhGUAuQ

[Jeff R]

My last band used a variety of Chauvet LED stuff like Geoff describes as well. Not only were they easy to transport and set up, lit up the stage very nicely and ran cool temp-wise over you all night, they are much more durable than they look. Took many a drops and falls off ladders and they kept coming back for more. Considering how much used lighting gear takes a hit on the resale market, I'd look for used Chauvet systems if I had to built a set-up on a tight budget.

[sixesandsevens]

Dumb question: Do you use the tripod for front lighting? How do you place it so that it's not in the way?

[Steve Haynie]

Put the tripod against the PA stack if you can.

[hamerhead]

Bungee the tripod against the PA stack if you can.

Fixed.

[anotherfreak]

Craigslist:

http://dallas.craigslist.org/mdf/ele/4835117883.html

http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/msg/4854509093.html

if I were looking, that's where I'd go

[dragan]

love the LED lighting but the 3-4 color >3wt LEDs look alot better than the units with a lot of tiny LEDs. ( and of course are a little more $ )http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/4BARTri?hst=2&hst_ref=L3Nob3AvbGl2ZS1zb3VuZC9saWdodGluZy8=&hst_v=82650852

[tomteriffic]

What Geoff and Ree-shard said. That's a quick and easy (and pretty cheap) way to get up and running. A couple of add-ons as budget permits might be some of the "color bars" that Chauvet makes. They can be stand mounted or floor mounted (no extra standage) and are pretty cheap. Put one on the floor facing up at about 45 degrees, front and center to give your front man some love. The flip side of this arrangement is that it can give the front man a sort of "surprised" look

Depending on the backdrop or lack thereof, you could also put a couple on the floor in back, facing upward to do a color wash on the back wall that adds a 3-D effect and gives the drummer some light, albeit in a silhouette kind of way.

If you must go incandescent, remember that par lamps come in several beam widths. The narrower the beam width, the greater the throw. I used to put the narrow beam widths pointed toward center stage and the broader ones toward the edges. That lit the stage more evenly and got the front man out of the dark.

Now, if somebody would make a four-scene foot operated controller with blackout and chase... NSI used to make one but it was for incandescents.

[dragan]

Id go with these http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/4BARTri?hst=2&hst_ref=L3Nob3AvbGl2ZS1zb3VuZC9saWdodGluZy8=&hst_v=82650852

[Jakeboy]

I bought two Chauvet 4. Bars off a bassist that I used to play with for $500 total. $800 new, so I made out well. They are brand new and were used 5 times. All I need now is the fancy DXC (?) cable so I can daisey chain the two together. They are awesome.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

[sixesandsevens]

I bought two Chauvet 4. Bars off a bassist that I used to play with for $500 total. $800 new, so I made out well. They are brand new and were used 5 times. All I need now is the fancy DXC (?) cable so I can daisey chain the two together. They are awesome.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

After reading a little it sounds like 3-pin DMX cables are designed so that you can use an XLR cable if needed. Congrats on the score.

[Jakeboy]

I tried a mic cable but it didn't work......

[tomteriffic]

I'm told that a super high-quality mic cable will work. But by the time you get to that price point, you might as well get the DMX.

[geoff_hartwell]

I believe you can use a regular Xlr with the 4bar, but you have to do a specific order of plugging in and turning on to get them to operate as master and slave.

You can prob get the manual online, and it definitely has it spelled out for you.

ALSO... Make sure to reinforce the foot switch cable right at the point where it connects to the lights, it hangs and weakens easily. I used yellow electrical tape on mine.

[bambino68]

DMX Cable..?

AS a lighting designer for 28 years, i can attest to using the LED fixtures. There is a lot of variety out there and with technology changing every 6 months to a year, you can get some great deals..