Live Stage Lighting

[gregmon79]

Is this in the right place??

Anyway, I just saw a great show last night. And the band had these boxes that their cabs where sitting on. They matched the width of their cabs and were probably about 2 ft or so tall. They had two rows of maybe 4 lights each.

Now I while I don't think these would be very hard to build, there are some things I need to know more about.....

1. The lights reacted to the music. Especially in really dynamic parts where the music when from quiet to booming. Now the heck are they doing that?? This was at a small venue where I know for a fact that there was no one manually controlling them. So I'm assuming there was a sensor in the lights maybe? I need to know this part for sure.

2. The lights themselves where very bright. Probably leds. Where can I find these? Especially if they are actually lights that respond to sound.

3. Power. What would be the best way to power these boxes?

 

[4Mal]

Many LED 'par' style lights can be set to sound activated. Monoprice and MCM Electronics offer lights that will do it for you. MCM has a Pulse brand generic unit for about $50 that works well. I have 4 of them and they are easily as good as the Chauvets I have. The Chauvets are slightly smaller... I use them as uplight a lot. I'll set 2 under the kit and 2 under the kys, facing back towards the drum. Those are set to change color with the beat. The other 4 are set to slowly fade in and out through the color pallet and are facing up next to walls.
The link below is to the unit from MCM. These are often on sale... They may have something similar in a smaller size.

Pulse Slim PAR56 RGB LED Light | SLIMLITE 56 | Pulse

Power is standard wall plug. Each of the units has a power in/out so the daisy chain. You can run many, many units off one circuit.

These are not super bright but you will want to keep them oit of audience eyes as much as possible...

 

[4Mal]

Weekend Warrior Stage Lighting Discussion

While you're at it, scope the thread above...

 

[s0c9]

FWIW - take a look at cheaplights out of Dallas... they also have some great deals!!

 

[4Mal]

How is the quality on their stuff ? I being in the dollar stretching biz have been looking at that site for a long time. Not a confidence inspiring web effort ...

Have you ever seen one of the 102-WIDE54 ? I was thinking of a couple of eval units and maybe adding a dozen... A 54 x 1 RGBW for $60 if nicely priced, if they aren't junk of course.
And then there is the 102-GL-MAGIC7 which is reasonable for RGBW Y and UV in a 7 x 12 ...

If you find yourself in the neighborhood, inquiring minds need to know...

 

[s0c9]

How is the quality on their stuff ? I being in the dollar stretching biz have been looking at that site for a long time. Not a confidence inspiring web effort ...

Have you ever seen one of the 102-WIDE54 ? I was thinking of a couple of eval units and maybe adding a dozen... A 54 x 1 RGBW for $60 if nicely priced, if they aren't junk of course.
And then there is the 102-GL-MAGIC7 which is reasonable for RGBW Y and UV in a 7 x 12 ...

If you find yourself in the neighborhood, inquiring minds need to know...

Well cheap is cheap I guess .- which extends to an inventory-based web site?? LOL
I bought a couple of their old "colorpal" panels (14"?) from them when they were based out of Houston, TX - a couple of yrs ago. They still work fine, but I seldom us them now, as I'm practically out of the SR biz and all venues we play in have stage lights.
I drive by their Dallas storefront pretty much every weekend, but generally arrange my trips to factor in traffic and not store visits.
Will see if I can stop by there on Sat.. can't Friday.

 

[4Mal]

Traffic ? What is this traffic you speak of ?

Actually in my prior travelling life I experienced traffic in DFW and Huston and New York and Chicago and Phily and LA and Boston and I've been everywhere man... The list goes on... Which is one reason I now live where I do... I would move back to a city in a minute - if someone were pointing a gun at me...

 

[s0c9]

Traffic ? What is this traffic you speak of ?

Actually in my prior travelling life I experienced traffic in DFW and Huston and New York and Chicago and Phily and LA and Boston and I've been everywhere man... The list goes on... Which is one reason I now live where I do... I would move back to a city in a minute - if someone were pointing a gun at me...

LOL - traffic during rush hour on Stemmons (where cheaplights is located) is a first class b*tch!
I try to avoid it.. checking traffic on google map (or waze).. I often end up going down loop12 to 30 east and thru the Canyon to get to/thru downtown dallas.. 'cus Stemmons is so-o-o bad.. which is why I said "try" for Sat.. Sat is often worse than Fri - depending on who's in town.

 

[4Mal]

Of course the cabeat to living where I do is that the upside of music economically is sort of more of a downside... On the other hand I get lot's of afternoons playing for tourists in the vineyards... It could be worse. The real upside here is the outside. It is just a beautiful place...