Comments on: Band Stage Lighting – Make Your Gig A Concert

By: Kev

Kev — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:22:36 +0000

Please help- im new to this!
Basically i have just bought 2 EUROLITE SLS-183/10 led lights.(dmx in/dmx out at the back)
i want to control them with a footswitch,what do i have to do to connect!

Thanks,i need this simple as possible…

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:03:49 +0000

I am having a band with drums, 2 guitars, and keyboard.

I am not sure what is required from the electrical box ie:

I have 220 capabilities but only have set up for the following::

i have 1 single pole 30 amp breaker ; 1 single pole 20 amp breaker; and 2 single pole 15 amp breakers; will that be enough to supply for the bands lights and amplifier’s

thank you for your help

By: Jon Cope

Jon Cope — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 01:03:36 +0000

@Jabels
I know its a late response but if your looking for a cheap easy setup, run 2 t-bars with Red, Green, Blue and open White, then you can make anything you need, (Think Large LED’s), If your feeling special turn two OW’s out to the audience and you have blinders, and on the do front, have fun, on the dont fun, make sure you drink but stay sensible (on a techie scale)

By: MCTash

MCTash — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:28:58 +0000

Hi folks,

Any help most welcome.

I am in a Dad rock band.

We have 2 x kam parbar and would like to have the tempo of the lighting changed by the drummers ddrum trigger/alesis D5 module set-up, it seems we need to invest in a dmx controller with midi functionality. I have scoured the t’interweb and can not seem to find a good recommendation.

Kind regards

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By: Rob Sayer

Rob Sayer — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:47:21 +0000

Hi Bruce, 15 – 18 meters is a fair old way, meaning you not only need to think about light output (500w would do something, 1000w would be much more punchy), but beam angle as well. LED spotlights are in their infancy at the moment and are not going to be within church budgets I’d suggest. Either way, antique wiring is never good, whatever electrickery you are plugging into it.

By: Bruce Kaplan

Bruce Kaplan — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:31:37 +0000

Hi, Rob,

Thanks for the informative site!

I am producing a small folk music concert series at a local church (USA) and the room is lovely, but the lighting inadequate. Its an octagonal shaped room, about 15-18 meters from side to side, with a wooden prism-esque dome ceiling. The potential for hanging a bar is poor, but there are a few small sort of soffits all the way across from the “stage” from which we could hang a spot light or two. Using LED lighting would be ideal from a heat and power point of view, as the church is old, and the wiring almost antique. But I wonder if there any that will through enough light that distance, or do we need to go to some sort of 500 or 1000 watt lamp. Any suggestions? Thanks, Bruce

By: jabels

jabels — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:35:47 +0000

any advice out there for a first time LD cutting their teeth on an old 80s metal band? colors,dos and donts etc?

By: Steve K

Steve K — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:46:45 +0000

It seems there are a lot of us about (here and in other forums) who are trying to find a simple dmx/foot controlled stage solution, for not much dosh.

I’ve been trying to find a DMX controller which will respond to a MIDI foot pedal and although there are lots around that will do this, the details of how they work seem to be thin on the ground. Even the manuals are of not much help.

It seems the main question I should be asking here is this:

I want to trigger chases on a DMX controller via a MIDI pedal and have them controlled by the ‘sound/music’ facility in the controller. If I set the DMX controller to ‘sound/music’ mode then select chases via MIDI will the ‘sound/music mode’ remain active or do I need to re-select this each time I change chases?

Does anybody have experience of this? Can anybody give me the name of a DMX controller that can work this way?

Cheers

Steve

By: John Valyo

John Valyo — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:51:41 +0000

We are a “Dad Band” that play on stages that average 10 X 18 feet. Though we play driving rock, we use a simple self powered Behringer PA and look for a simarlily simple lighting system that works itself (we have no lighting tech). Reliable, easy to move, and effective without being overkill, is more important than budget. And, BTW, I need to purchase the lighting system this week….our gig is on Sat 1/30. Many thanks. regards, JV

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:38:48 +0000

I’m in a 5 piece band and we run our own sound and lighting from the stage. One person runs 5 bars of 4 par 64s with a dedicated DMX controller/pedalboard. I run 2 Quad Gems used for back lights and 2-4 moving spots using a tabletop style DMX controller sitting on my amp which as you probably suspect gets tricky as well as distracting to watch on stage. The few dedicated foot controllers I’ve seen are, in my opinion, too limited. I’m trying to find a way to control the intelligent lights with a DMX controller that can be managed with a foot console of some sort. Ideally I’d like to construct “x” number of scenes for “x” number of songs per set and trigger them sequentially (or at least as no-brainer as possible). For example, say for the first song I need a few scenes: 1) spot on keys (250s) and a audio triggered sync from his keys triggering a pattern on the quad gems. 2) Guitars come in spots switch to guitar 3) vocals come in color change and spots on vocals.. etc. etc. I’d like to have a pedal board of say 10 buttons where maybe the first bank has the first 5 buttons set for each of the scenes above where I can just hit each button with my foot as the song progresses. I know life can get more complicated with this approach but that’s the basic goal I’m trying to achieve. My lighting controller vendor says this is not possible (or as least we not aware of how to do it since they appear to focus from the perspective of a dedicated lighting person). I can’t believe there isn’t a controller that can be manipulated in a standard way using MIDI pedal board or something similar. Is there a simple way (ok ANY way) to control either a hardware controller or PC based software via a foot controller? Does any one have any experience with this?

Thanks,
Steve