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Author Topic: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?  (Read 15169 times)

Stephane Desormeaux

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Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« on: March 28, 2011, 09:43:19 PM »

I am a musician playing with bands (2 or 3 at the same time) for the past few years.

We do bars, clubs, private parties, small corporate stuff, etc....

About 2 years ago, after many years of collecting here & there, I had a killer lighting kit for my bands. 4 Clay Paky scanners, 2 Studio Due moving heads, 6 Chauvet colorstrips, and a few led pars.

But, I almost never brought the whole kit to a gig. Too long to setup, and especially tear down at 2h15am saturday night. Plus I saw many bands playing the same venues we had with little or even zero lighting.

I sold everything.

But I do miss it. Especially setting it all up at home to create macros and scenes. Those are super cool toys. :)

I guess I'll just use a few pars, and rent extra stuff if the venue needs it. :(

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duane massey

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Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2011, 09:57:42 PM »

Lighting is fun to play with, and the new LED stuff is really cool, especially if you "roll your own" programs. Lot easier to set up as well, and a lot cheaper as well.
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Duane Massey
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Drew Huber

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Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2011, 10:50:10 PM »

I hate to admit that I'm old enough to remember the day when there were a ton of bands playing the club scene that had some great light shows. I toured with several back in the day as well as some larger acts. Most venues don't pay enough to support a full production anymore.

I have to admit that going LED has sure made it easier to step up the quality of light shows for the smaller acts. Less fixtures and lower power demand makes for a quick setup. 
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Martin Primus

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Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2011, 11:19:06 PM »

When my band bought PA + Lighting, we bought our rig big enough to cover 90% of our gigs...all but the biggest ones.  As such we carry 12 PAR64 LED's for the backline and 4 more for the front (all white).  Very little power draw and creates a nice show.  Nothing too fancy, but like has been mentioned, lights are great except for having to put them up and take them back down every weekend.
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Stuart Pendleton

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Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2011, 09:38:07 AM »

We are a bar band.  I carry 15 ft Global Truss.

Back truss:
4 Martin MX-4 Scanners
1 Martin MX-1 Scanner
6 Par 36 LEDs
2 Lasers

Front lighting:
8 P64 LEDS
2 Martin MX-4 Scanners
2 Martin Mini Macs (one Maestro and one Wash)

Radiance Hazer

We use this in bars that hold 200 people or so.  If we play bigger places we add 20 ft of front truss with the above front lights and then add 6 more P64 LED cans and 2 Mega Bars. The smaller setup runs from a Martin Freekie or DMXIS.  If we use the larger setup, I run Bluelite.
« Last Edit: March 29, 2011, 09:42:12 AM by Stuart Pendleton »
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Matt Melberg

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Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2011, 11:26:09 AM »

I play in a bar band as well, and we carry far too many lights, but damn it looks good!  Setup isn't too bad because I pre wire everything so it's just plug power and DMX and go.  I think it gives the band an edge over others that don't carry stuff of their own.
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Matt

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Stuart Pendleton

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Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2011, 11:41:35 AM »

One of my guys commented this weekend after the hours of setup that it is a LOT of work, but when finished "it looks damn good."  Everything is prewired so we just have to hang the scanners on the truss and mount the movers. Takes a while but who cares when it makes the production stand out. Nuff said.
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James Feenstra

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Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2011, 07:47:02 PM »

the last lighting rig I hung had a little over 400 fixtures in it...

and it wasn't even a rock show :)

you can never have too many lights
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Stuart Pendleton

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Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2011, 09:57:50 AM »

But James, you are a lighting guy for a living, and I am a weekend warrior SOUNDMAN that dabbles in lights. 400 lights won't even fit in my trailer.

I have to admit that I have gotten where I enjoy lighting more than audio, but am not nearly as good at it.  Fifty years of playing music gave me a good ear for what it ought to sound like, but I have only been involved with lights for the last 5 so I have a lot to learn.  It looks easy...until you try and do something more than move a few faders for cans.

I wish I had a better eye for it.  I am still waiting for one of those AHA! moments when it all comes together.  Something about making moving lights look good that escapes me to a certain extent. I find myself feeling like I have gone to a disco sometimes. There seems to be a good balance for the right amount and speed of movement that I haven't honed in on yet, but I am working it every show.

Maybe I need to hire you for a weekend to fly down and go through it with me.....like I could actually afford that.
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James Feenstra

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Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2011, 11:25:57 AM »

But James, you are a lighting guy for a living, and I am a weekend warrior SOUNDMAN that dabbles in lights. 400 lights won't even fit in my trailer.

I have to admit that I have gotten where I enjoy lighting more than audio, but am not nearly as good at it.  Fifty years of playing music gave me a good ear for what it ought to sound like, but I have only been involved with lights for the last 5 so I have a lot to learn.  It looks easy...until you try and do something more than move a few faders for cans.

I wish I had a better eye for it.  I am still waiting for one of those AHA! moments when it all comes together.  Something about making moving lights look good that escapes me to a certain extent. I find myself feeling like I have gone to a disco sometimes. There seems to be a good balance for the right amount and speed of movement that I haven't honed in on yet, but I am working it every show.

Maybe I need to hire you for a weekend to fly down and go through it with me.....like I could actually afford that.
hey now, i'm not that expensive....

although I did book 53 dates during the summer yesterday plus my house gig so my schedules a little packed....

not many people can afford 400 lights, let alone the crew to hang a rig that big...I think it was only about 40 points though, kinda small ;)
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Bands & lighting, lots or little ?
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2011, 11:25:57 AM »


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