Members Cowabungaa Posted January 7, 2014 Members Share Posted January 7, 2014 Hello again, all you technical wizards/lighting artists of the new milennia. It be the very very old bass player who posted last week about playing gigs where your parents met. Those of you who checked out the vids of our old band on YouTube, I hope you enjoyed a blast from the past. BTW...that part at the end of my first post here, the bit about "you young punks"...I meant that in a NICE way. Perhaps a bit jealous, too....wait til you get over 60 and you'll understand......ANYHOW>>>> Ready, Fire, Aim, I'm ploughing ahead building a lighting rig. This old horse seems to want to take it out and run one more time. Can you help?The wisdom shared in the forum has helped immensely in choosing fixtures (I hope). So far, on the way are a couple of Vio Moon projectors, 4 RGBWA 7X15Watt pucks, and some RGBW 7X10 Watt pars for the back truss. A start.We've designed a stage as well. The rear truss can be built up a number of different ways, flexible for stages 20-40' and interesting/oddball. Going to look cool. Probably will go with totem type truss for front lighting since who knows what we can "fly" from venue to venue. Two video screens, a circular and a rectangle. Shopping these items currently. And more lights.What I need right now is some help choosing an interim controller we can play around with stuff on. Not overkill, but not restrictive. Things have changed a lot since 70's-80's. One thing our LD could do back then though was to build a "Look". Then somehow that scene got saved, and was recallable. Individual fixtures or banks of lights could also be operated manually, on the fly, if the band got jamming or whatever, and ok, boom, out go all the lights except 6 1000Watt white Par cans behind our amps, or whatever. DMX stuff has me totally boggled. I have no idea of what can do what. Some of the fixtures I'[m looking at need about 10 channels each, and that's not counting movers, which we'll get as/if the act comes together, more since decent ones cost some bux. Sadly, my understanding of the requirements is so poor that I'm even having trouble figuring out what to buy just to test all the lights out when they begin arriving. Eventually we'll be using something like DMXis (I guess, we've got to get a light guy too)....some videos posted here are exactly what the doc. ordered for us, at least for some of the tunes, and I believe that is what JLB, and perhaps others use.Can you folks here offer suggestions as to what cheapo lighting console might work to get the ball rolling?Chauvet OBEY 70? CROCODILE 2024? Updated 192 CH DMX Controller? DMX512 Light Controller DMX-384A? Chauvet Stage Designer 50? Elation Stage Setter 8?These are all low priced boards I found on ebay recently. The selection at the 1 1/2 hours away from home GC and another big music store near it was count them, one Chauvet wireless 40 and used dimmer pak. I couldn't look at anything, and I'm afraid the sales staffs weren't very knowledgeable. (kindly phrased)Rather than buying from a retail location, I'd like to use the internet and order something this community thinks will help get this project rolling.Somebody, please help me decide what to buy! THANKS!Apologies for the long message.Peace out- Cowabunga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cowabungaa Posted January 7, 2014 Author Members Share Posted January 7, 2014 Hey, how about an Elation stage setter 24? Looks nice enough. P.S. In prior message, GC doesn't stand for Guitar Center. I've bought a lot of Gallien Kruger stuff from them to compliment my old Sunn stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BillESC Posted January 7, 2014 Members Share Posted January 7, 2014 The Stage Setter 24 would probably be the worst choice for control.To control your DMX fixtures and future movers, look at something like Elation's Show Designer 2 CF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members StratGuy22 Posted January 7, 2014 Members Share Posted January 7, 2014 I'm not a light guy, but I get by with DMXIS. It's a software program that uses an included USB - DMX interface. I find it easy enough to get by and control it with either an iPad or a foot controller (Behringer FCB1010) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cowabungaa Posted January 7, 2014 Author Members Share Posted January 7, 2014 Bill, Strat, thanks for the replies and sharing your knowledge.LOL on the Stage Setter 24 comment. It looked like it might do the job....sorta old school.Understood and agreed on the group eventually using a software based control system. We'd prefer 2 identical/identically programmed computers, just in case one crashes in the middle of a performance.But what we need now is just some kind of simple DMX based lighting board to get us up and running, and test the gear as it comes in....some of it on the slow boat from China..... Thanks again everyone. Cowabunga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JV90 Posted January 11, 2014 Members Share Posted January 11, 2014 Why not take a look over elation compuware USB dongle? U have the old 1024 with the soft and it's amazing what can you do, besides the folks from elation could make any light profile in a snap of you don't find the profile into their data base Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cowabungaa Posted January 12, 2014 Author Members Share Posted January 12, 2014 Additional suggestions are deeply appreciated, thanks to JV & Mate for weighing in. For now I'm just getting an inexpensive light controller to test out fixtures. Computer control is the way I'm sure we will go when our lighting rig has been assembled and a crew member has been hired to run it. Peace out-Cowabunga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JV90 Posted January 13, 2014 Members Share Posted January 13, 2014 I think that's true, I can program my color palettes, Chinese mega par profile 64, 4 Chinese 3 watt par 64, High end trackspots, and a friends future light moving heads on my pc with the dongle, it's very easy with it; however, I have tried to programmed with a controller and that's a pain in the "rabo", it would become so hard, unfriendly and a terrible experience that I'm not wishing it to anyone, but I don't have any back up at the moment for it, so I'll have to think to get a hardware controller just in case Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cowabungaa Posted January 13, 2014 Author Members Share Posted January 13, 2014 On the road stuff breaks down at the worst possible moment....and the show must go on. Two computers running the same lighting programming/cues would definitely be something to shoot for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Voltage55 Posted January 13, 2014 Members Share Posted January 13, 2014 I started with Compu 1024. It was using this program that helped me to understand dmx. Which lights are on what channels are all laid out in front of you. Old refurbished laptops are so cheap nowadays that I just bring an extra one on me. In case on crashes I just have an extra computer with the show on a thumb drive. Fortunately that hasnt happened yet. But at the end of the day use what makes you feel comfortable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JV90 Posted January 13, 2014 Members Share Posted January 13, 2014 I have the compu 1024 and is so easy to learn and program all the lights that you want, you guys got me thinking regarding a refurbished laptop and a copy of the compuware soft for a backup just in case, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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