Our light guy is now playing bass for another band so we're on our own after next week's gig. Hazer and fluid should arrive today and I just ordered an Obey 70 and a Fusion FX Tri Bar to add to the 8 par cans that we already have. If my tax refund comes in soon enough, we'll be able to fill in the rest of our truss as well as get some front lighting - hopefully before our March gigs. 
jdboyl72 wrote:A couple of suggestions/ recommendations to consider. If you go with another FX Bar keep them the same, it will look better and be easier to program. I find less different types of fixtures in a lighting rig, especially a small band rig, usually works best.
Have you considered using your conventional pars for front lighting. Simply put amber gels or temperature correction gels on the cans with DMX dimmer packs and you'd have pretty good front lighting. I sometimes use conventional pars (Elation Opti par 30's with amber gels) for front lighting instead of my LEDs. I normally do this for non-bar type gigs like weddings and corporate stuff. Actually, looks much better on video than the LEDs do. If you did this, you could use the money you have now to get a rear truss and some LED back lighting. Right now you can get a pair of Chauvet Colorband RGB strips on ebay for $369. This is a great closeout price. These are like the more poplular colorstrips but with 1 watt LEDs. I've seen them in use at a club in Hammond, LA and they provide a great color wash. They are also not so bright as to wash out any smaller moving heads or scanners you may invest in.
If I were you, my next step would then be to get your scanners (or preferably small moving heads). I'd worry about LED front lighting last. In the meantime you can get by with those conventionals.
Also, dont worry so much about having white diodes for front lighting; the amber diodes are what you really need. Based upon the two fixutures you mentioned, I'd go with the Q6a, I think there's an issue with the bracket (yoke) on the Fab 5; The hole is too small for standard mounting hardware. However, I think you'd be just fine with the Chauvet Slimpar Quad 6 or American DJ QA5 possibly for little less money.
Thanks!
We're trying to avoid using the cans up front because of the heat they put off. We already have a rear truss, and the cans will be used to illuminate our drummer (he doesn't mind them).
I was originally planning on this layout across the truss:
BOTTOM: 2 cans (pointing front) - scanner - blinder - 4 cans (pointing down) - blinder - scanner - 2 cans (pointing front)
TOP: Fusion FX Tri - Bar 2 (or Bar 3) - Fusion FX Tri
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After seeing your diagram, I'll add/ change a few things from my previous post. If I were you I'd go with three of the Fusion FX Bar Tri. That FX Bar 2 or whatever you have in the middle is more of a DJ effect IMO. The TRI and FX 3 are the only two I would use for a band. The Fusion Tri will give you some hard edge beams and an RGB back colorwash. The blinders are an excellent idea and cheap.
I would then use 2 of your conventional pars on the back truss as follows: find the narrowest spot bulbs you can, use no gels, and point them in towards the drummer; almost like you're creating a pinspot effect on the drummer.
Take four of the other par cans (2 per side) put amber gels on them and use them for front lighting. You won't need the other two cans.
Upgrade #1: Get a pair of small moving heads. My favorite right now is the American DJ Xmove 25R (can be had for about $365 per unit if you know who to call). I have attached a few pics of them, this is without haze by the way. I will do a full review of them in the lighting forum within the next few days.
Upgrade #2 - A second pair of the same small moving heads - 4 movers is the way to go in a small rig, way better than 2, and 6 or more can be too much IMO unless you get into vertical trussing and such.
Final upgrade - RGBA LED front lights, 2 per side
Use the first 4 channels on your obey 70 as follows: Blinders, Drum Pars, Front Pars, and Dimmer for the Fusion Bars. That way you have the first four channels of your board set up like a dimming counsel. Very easy for somebody to manually control, if needed.
jdboyl72 wrote:
Thanks! I was going for the FX2 or FX3 so we'd have some white lights/strobes in the mix. The FX Tri will strobe, but I'm stuck with RGB. The moving heads sound great, but are probably going to put the price up over what I can afford right now. Still, it's something to work towards!
BTW - the FX Tri and Obey 70 came today. I just hooked them up and tested them out. I can't wait until I can build the rest of this light rig! I'm like a freakin' kid before Christmas!!!!!!
Got to use the new lights last night!
The setup isn't quite what I had *originally* planned, but it's pretty close. It mutated into two FX TRIs (RGB LEDs and pinspots), one FX Bar 3 (white LEDs and pinspots), one FX Bar 5 (moonbeam/strobe/laser), four conventional par cans on a dimmer pack, two non-dmx LED scanners on a switch pack, and two 500W blinders along with a Haze Generator (ADJ). I got lucky and was able to buy most of it at rock-bottom prices (thanks to a lot of patience and hours of Internet digging). I will be ordering a couple of FAB5's once I get some more moolah, but in the end, I will spend less than $1500 for everything.
I wish I had some non-blurry pics, but you can get an idea of how it looked (sorry, no pics of everything running all at the same time). We got a lot of compliments so that was pretty cool. BTW, we used the house's lights for front lighting. The FAB5s should make a HUGE difference!
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