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  • Mighty Bright DuoFlex LED Music Light Kit

    By Phil O'Keefe |

    Mighty Bright DuoFlex LED Music Light Kit

    Put your gear in the spotlight

     

    by Phil O'Keefe

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    Musicians tend to work in environments with "mood lighting" - nightclubs, concert stages, recording studios - these are not always the most brightly lit areas, and while that's fine for setting a mood or creating the right kind of environment so that you can give the audience a good show, it doesn't change the fact that you still occasionally need to see what you're doing. Fortunately, Mighty Bright has a solution that should interest a wide range of musicians - the Mighty Bright DuoFlex Music Light Kit.  

     

    duoflex-main-17d58d77.thumb.jpg.39eea84f2b22555cb52053f59b4468cc.jpgWhat You Need To Know

    • The Mighty Bright DuoFlex is a clip on light that is designed for musicians. While the company originally started out creating clip-on lights for reading, their products have become very popular with musicians, and they now make and market products such as this one with musician's specific needs in mind.

       

    • The DuoFlex measures 14" x 1.5" x 1.75" overall.

       

    • The DuoFlex comes with a cloth storage "gig bag", and a nice four meter USB to micro USB cable, which can be used with any USB wall adapter to power the DuoFlex.

       

    • The Micro USB power port on the DuoFlex is located at the end of the main housing, on the opposite side of the dual flexible arms.

       

    • Alternatively, you can use three AAA batteries to power the DuoFlex. The battery compartment is located in the main housing, and is accessed through a slide off panel. Just push it down and away from the LED lamp arms and it comes right off.

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    • The Mighty Bright DuoFlex will run for about 15 hours on a fresh set of alkaline batteries.

       

    • There are two LED lamp heads, each on the end of its own individual flexible silicone neck. The necks are about eleven inches long, including the 2 inch long light fixtures at the ends.

       

    • Each lamp head contains two long-life LEDs that are rated for 100,000 hours of use.

       

    • There is a pushbutton switch on the back side of each lamp head that turns that individual head on. The heads turn on at full brightness, and additional depressions of the switch dim the lamps. There are three brightness settings available. A fourth press of the switch will turn the lamp head off completely.  

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    • Each lamp head has what Mighty Bright describes as a "precisely engineered optical grade lens" that is designed to help spread the light from the LEDs evenly, and it does in fact seem to work as advertised. I have another clip on LED light that uses more LEDs, but doesn't spread the light nearly as evenly as this unit does.

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    • The main housing is approximately 3 3/8" long and 1.5" wide. On the back side there is a spring loaded clip that's designed to attach to your music stand.

            duoflex-side-and-clip-2ccd5656.thumb.jpg.2efb3240eec48598316d29c5065db2a3.jpg

    • The clip can open pretty wide (over an inch), and it has rubber on both internal sides of the clip to keep the grip secure and to help prevent it from marring the surface of whatever you attach the DuoFlex to.

       

    • The Mighty Bright DuoFlex has a light output of 40 lumens. The light color is slightly on the warm white side (3000 Kelvin), with very good color rendering.  

     

     

    Limitations

    • No batteries or USB power brick are included - you'll need to supply your own power source.

     

     

    Conclusions

     

    I first tried the Mighty Bright DuoFlex out on one of my music stands in a completely darkened control room, and it easily illuminated the entire stand. With just quick and casual adjustment of the placement of the two necks and light heads, there was no significant hot spots where things were over-illuminated, and likewise, no darker areas either. Adjusting the arms to get the lights to shine where I wanted them was super simple and they stayed where I put them, and the two light heads were easily capable of fully illuminating three sheets of music placed side-by-side. I also like that the two lamp heads can be individually set for brightness to your choice of three different levels.  

     

    But don't mistake this product as only being useful as a music stand light. It works equally well as a pedalboard light, rack mount light or as an amp light - just clip it on to your pedalboard, the side of your rack or your amp's handle and plug a USB wall wart into your power strip and you're ready to adjust your pedal, rack gear or amp settings, even on the darkest of stages. Don't want to mess with a USB adapter or don't have a power outlet nearby? The battery life is long enough that you can make it though five nights of three hour shows without any problem, and the 3000 Kelvin light color is natural and warm, without being overly harsh. If you're tired of hunting around for things in the dark, or the uneven illumination that you get from some other LED lights, turn on a Mighty Bright light and see what you've been missing! -HC-

     

     

    Want to discuss the Mighty Bright DuoFlex Music Light Kit or have questions or comments about this review? Then head over to this thread in the Effects forum right here on Harmony Central and join the discussion!

     

     

     

    Resources

     

    Mighty Bright DuoFlex LED Music Light Kit ($44.99 MSRP, $33.74 "street")

     

    Mighty Bright's product web page    

     

     

    You can purchase the Mighty Bright DuoFlex Music Light Kit from:

     

    Sweetwater  

     

    Guitar Center    

     

    Musician's Friend    

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    phil-3eaec998.jpg.ec83a2095264d9a59178ab939e4a0397.jpg

    Phil O'Keefe is a multi-instrumentalist, recording engineer / producer and the Senior Editor of Harmony Central. He has engineered, produced and performed on countless recording sessions in a diverse range of styles, with artists such as Alien Ant Farm, Jules Day, Voodoo Glow Skulls, John McGill, Michael Knott and Alexa's Wish. He is a former featured monthly columnist for EQ magazine, and his articles and product reviews have also appeared in Keyboard, Electronic Musician and Guitar Player magazines.  




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