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Yep, as everyone else mentioned, using 'analog' lights isn't worth it today.  They need 10X the power of LEDs and can be gelled to a single color only.

LEDs are cheap and easy.  A quick search on Amazon found a kit of 8 lights AND a DMX controller for $250.  Granted, the lights aren't going to be great at that price, but it's an awesome cheap starting point.  You can use that same controller for better lights as you grow.

A 'good' LED par is going to start around $75 each, with the "professional" level stuff 10x that.

For a talkback mic, pretty much anything could work.  However, you need to make sure to coordinate the frequency of the device with the rest of your wireless world.

If you're already using wireless systems, the easy answer is to just get one more of the same.  Makes for easy coordination AND a spare that can be used when an emergency arises.

That's not normal.  You have an internal leak and or a clogged nozzle.  Radiance actually has rebuild kits for the heat exchanger, so other parts should be available.  Great machines that just sip the juice.  Mine have been trouble free for five seasons of use and haven't needed to be rebuilt yet.

Just popping in a comment about panning.  I tend not to, but I’ve seen some comments encouraging it.  Obviously the venue and rig play into this decision.  However, I’ve seen shows where the guitarists were hard panned, and I did not get to hear one guitarist for the entire show.  It was pretty disappointing, my seats weren’t that bad but I paid for the guitar solos and while watching them at a distance is one thing, hearing them would have been nice.    I take this perspective into my gigs.  Two of note were Pearl Jam (20k arena) and Collective Soul (2k ballroom), both guitar-heavy sounds.  When I tried to correct my position for the latter, I ended up only listening to the front fill which only had lead vocal in it (and way too much 4K but I digress).  I miss the magic of live shows before I knew too much.  /panning-rant

Obviously judicious panning is part of being a good live mixer. I pan quite a few things, but I doubt you'd ever notice something missing in the rig if you were sitting on an extreme left or right of the pa. Things like leslie's mic'd in stereo. If you only hear one side of that, then congratulations. You got mono leslie. Verbs, stereo guitars, stereo keys (maybe not piano though), Overheads, etc.

Even with Overheads you'll hear all the cymbals pretty good even through one mic.

Things I don't pan: Voices, mono guitars, bass, just about everything else.

Scott is correct.  If these are PAR 56b cans with incandescent lamps, just chalk up the loss to inexperience.  Buy LED RGB or RGBA or RGBW instruments and a simple 4 channel DMX controller.  You will end up with what you desire without wasting money on dimmer packs (which still need a DMX controller).  Color mixing LED lights are the only way to go at this time.

I typically run shows from Mixing Station, controlling my X32 Rack on stage. I'm looking for a way to plug into the talkback XLR jack on the mixer on stage with a wireless mic that doesn't cost a fortune, since audio quality isn't really important here. Any suggestions?

Two of these and one of these.


That will get you 8 different controllable channels which you can plug your 10 lights into. It's about the cheapest way to do it.  Don't forget some kind of lighting tree/tripod to hang the lights from.

Dave-
I really hope you got those PAR56 halogen lights dirt cheap, because none of the major manufacturers make the lamps (bulbs) any more.
By the time you buy dimmer packs, and gel, and spare lamps either NOS or bad import versions, you will have quite a bit invested.
If you can return them, I advise doing so and instead spending the money to buy cheap LED PAR fixtures. Then you will only need a DMX controller and some DMX cables. You will be able to create any color instead of having fixed gel colors, not worry about replacing lamps, lose all the heat, and have a much more flexible system!

Does anyone know of a laser with USB-C?

Googling "laser range finder with USB-C" comes up with at least a dozen different models from ~$50 and up, some of which even have brand names I've heard of before 

Funny (ha ha..) to show the response of a vocal mic at 2 foot distance.

I do frequent bluegrass.
They all want to stand around a single microphone and shout their vocals at it from a considerable distance -over whatever Mandolin, guitar or banjo their holding.
-probably the only place where I actually care a little bit what a mic does at 2' or more!