Moderators BATCAT Posted August 24, 2012 Moderators Share Posted August 24, 2012 A little ways back I posted some lighting questions and got some much-appreciated advice. I've made my purchases and I have gigs coming up. I'm just not sure how I'm going to arrange it all. Now I'm inviting you to put yourself in my shoes and tell me how'd you'd do it... WHO YOU'RE LIGHTING: A guitar/bass/drums trio. The music is on the moody/spooky side and the lighting should reflect this. 40 minute set. WHAT YOU'VE GOT: -1 Chauvet Colorstrip Mini-2 par 56 cans with primary color gels-1 small fog machine -very basic house lighting at your disposal and the ability to make one simple request for how it's set, as in, only one color, dim, entirely off, whatever. SETUP: The band will have about 10 minutes to set up, including lights, with no backlining. The stage is small but easily accomodates a trio. Everything will have to do ON or around the stage itself. YOUR SECRET WEAPON: A power strip with remote control and a person in the audience who knows the set and is willing to learn cues within/between songs and come to a rehearsal before the show. This means anything plugged into the strip can be turned on/off to highlight moments during the set. (I know this may sound "ghetto", but the remote has great range and does not require line-of-sight, so hey, it works!) If you want to play the game then tell me- what would your scheme, with what you have to work with here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stangconv Posted August 24, 2012 Members Share Posted August 24, 2012 I have no input to this at all... Except that you're not gonna do much with 3 fixtures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted August 24, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted August 24, 2012 I have no input to this at all... Except that you're not gonna do much with 3 fixtures. As posted, it's a quite small stage and I have house lighting to supplement. I find it hard to think there's NOTHING cool I could do. (I have some ideas already, but thought I'd throw this out there) I mean I'm not trying to do Nine Inch Nail's stage show... I just want to add some exciting up-lighting for a small club stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chicken Monkey Posted August 25, 2012 Members Share Posted August 25, 2012 I know zero about lighting, but I know about stretching meager supplies too far. If you get too fancy, you're going to look like a kid putting on a magic show. I don't know your specific gear, but I'd have the house spotlight the singer, use the rest for ambient stage lighting, and maybe have the smoke machine on remote for a key moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted August 25, 2012 Members Share Posted August 25, 2012 A little ways back I posted some lighting questions and got some much-appreciated advice. I've made my purchases and I have gigs coming up. I'm just not sure how I'm going to arrange it all.Now I'm inviting you to put yourself in my shoes and tell me how'd you'd do it...WHO YOU'RE LIGHTING: A guitar/bass/drums trio. The music is on the moody/spooky side and the lighting should reflect this. 40 minute set.WHAT YOU'VE GOT: -1 Chauvet Colorstrip Mini-2 par 56 cans with primary color gels-1 small fog machine -very basic house lighting at your disposal and the ability to make one simple request for how it's set, as in, only one color, dim, entirely off, whatever.SETUP: The band will have about 10 minutes to set up, including lights, with no backlining. The stage is small but easily accomodates a trio. Everything will have to do ON or around the stage itself.YOUR SECRET WEAPON: A power strip with remote control and a person in the audience who knows the set and is willing to learn cues within/between songs and come to a rehearsal before the show. This means anything plugged into the strip can be turned on/off to highlight moments during the set. (I know this may sound "ghetto", but the remote has great range and does not require line-of-sight, so hey, it works!)If you want to play the game then tell me- what would your scheme, with what you have to work with here?10 minutes to set up? Everything, including personal gear? Ouch! As for the actual question, the pars with bastard amber gels somewhere by the speaker columns angled in towards the performers and the colorstrip, if possible, hung from the ceiling centered just in front on the stage pointing back and down a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted August 28, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted August 28, 2012 I turned the lights off at our rehearsal space and played with the ideas I've gotten here and some of my own. For anyone interested, here's what I settled on and we rehearsed with and what well do for the show (unless we get it set up and it looks wrong and obviously needs to be adjusted) We'll have the house do dim red light only. The Colorstrip Mini is about a foot in front of the kick drum, washing up on the drums. It'll probably be red too, but I might switch that at the venue depending on how it looks there. I put yellow gels on the cans (no gels was too much) and aimed them nearly vertical and slightly out and to the side, behind the drums. The cans are on the remote switching power strip, and out lighting "crew" has learned the cues for when to turn them on/off, using the remote from the audience. The all-red "scene" looks really sinister, and with everything on it's kind of "fiery" looking. I'm sure the fog will help a lot. I will post some pics after Thursday's gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chaff67 Posted August 28, 2012 Members Share Posted August 28, 2012 Sounds good except... If the house lighting will be dim red then I don't see the red-only colorstrip having much of an effect on the drums. Personally I would go with a sound activated effect (make sure to turn the sensitivity down so that only the kick drum activates the switch) or a slow fade (I think it's setting #21) if you don't want the lights switching on every drumbeat. Make sure to get some pics or video! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted August 28, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted August 28, 2012 Sounds good except...If the house lighting will be dim red then I don't see the red-only colorstrip having much of an effect on the drums. Personally I would go with a sound activated effect (make sure to turn the sensitivity down so that only the kick drum activates the switch) or a slow fade (I think it's setting #21) if you don't want the lights switching on every drumbeat.Make sure to get some pics or video! Thanks for the ideas. I played with the sound-activation in the manner you mentioned- my problem is that if the unit is idle for more than a few seconds it starts doing its own thing. I feel like this would be sort ridiculous between songs, and I haven't figured out how to turn this off. I could put the strip on the remote controled surge protecter too, but our light person hasn't learned cues for the ends of all the songs yet, so that would have to be a few shows down the road. As for the red, uplighting the bass drum looks pretty spooky and cool, but I have the same concern. I just haven't found another color combination I'm really fond of... the red/gold seems to be working really well. I might just do the whole-spectrum setting, but it might be too much light for something that's always on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted August 28, 2012 Members Share Posted August 28, 2012 I would suggest getting a dmx dimmer pack for the 2 par 56s and a foot controller to control both cans and the colorstrip. I have one of these I only used once or twice that I'd be more than willing to part with pretty cheap: http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_31552_ELATION-DJ-FC-400.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted August 28, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted August 28, 2012 I would suggest getting a dmx dimmer pack for the 2 par 56s and a foot controller to control both cans and the colorstrip.I have one of these I only used once or twice that I'd be more than willing to part with pretty cheap:http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_31552_ELATION-DJ-FC-400.html The cans aren't LED. Something to move up to eventually, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted August 28, 2012 Members Share Posted August 28, 2012 The cans aren't LED. Right. That's why you would need a DMX dimmer pack. They run about $70-80 new and will usually run up to 8 cans on 4 different DMX channels. So you can keep adding cans to your show. Or you get the LED cans and you won't need the dimmer pack. The power-strip-with-remote-control option just sounds like it would be fraught with problems and end up being much more trouble than it's worth (if not actually dangerous.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted August 28, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted August 28, 2012 Right. That's why you would need a DMX dimmer pack. They run about $70-80 new and will usually run up to 8 cans on 4 different DMX channels. So you can keep adding cans to your show.Or you get the LED cans and you won't need the dimmer pack. The power-strip-with-remote-control option just sounds like it would be fraught with problems and end up being much more trouble than it's worth (if not actually dangerous.) I'm hoping to upgrade to LED cans a ways down the road. The stages we usually play are quite small, so I don't think I'm going to need to add a ton more. Maybe a couple more mini colorstrips eventually... (plus we have th house lights as a "base coat") Believe it or not, the remote worked great, judging by rehearsals. The only issue was a very slight delay, so you have to "rush" the switch a tad to be right on the changes. (the cans on the remote only go on or off maybe a dozen times through the set.) But the range is good and it doesn't require line of sight, so it should be easy for someone in the audience to control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted September 4, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted September 4, 2012 Here's a pic, though I don't know how faithful it is to how it actually looked as it's just a crappy phone one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Miko Man Posted September 5, 2012 Members Share Posted September 5, 2012 Believe it or not, the remote worked great, judging by rehearsals. The only issue was a very slight delay, so you have to "rush" the switch a tad to be right on the changes. (the cans on the remote only go on or off maybe a dozen times through the set.) But the range is good and it doesn't require line of sight, so it should be easy for someone in the audience to control. Note that LED lights are an "instant on", but ordinary incandescent lights take a moment for the element (filament) to heat up to full operating temperature and intensity. The lag or delay you are experiencing might be due to your mix of LED and regular lighting instruments. Mark C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chaff67 Posted September 5, 2012 Members Share Posted September 5, 2012 I see that you decided to go with a different color on the drums. It definitely gives more contrast and compliments the red and yellow lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted September 5, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted September 5, 2012 I see that you decided to go with a different color on the drums. It definitely gives more contrast and compliments the red and yellow lighting. It was a last minute impulse. The venue itself was super-red so, the red didn't look so good. Trying to getting the lights (and fog machine) set up along with my bass stuff in 5-10 rattled me a little and I think my playing suffered a bit early in the set, but now that we're dont it once I don't think it'll be as much of an issue. The remote worked without a hitch and I think it added a lot to the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sharkbait Posted September 5, 2012 Members Share Posted September 5, 2012 The live shot lighting looks like a 1960s Italian horror movie. (compliment!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted September 5, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted September 5, 2012 The live shot lighting looks like a 1960s Italian horror movie. (compliment!) I'll take that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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