Flipping the lights round on the four bar: that's absolute genius. I spent ages reconfiguring the settings in my controller to achieve that.
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Weekend Warrior Stage Lighting Discussion
- Thread starter Stinsok
- Start date
Flipping the lights round on the four bar: that's absolute genius. I spent ages reconfiguring the settings in my controller to achieve that.
Be curious to see what cases you guys use for your different light bars, I am using some keyboard cases currently for mine, I have 2 bars with 2 ADJ Profile Panels and 2 bars with 4 ADJ Mega Profile Par lights, the biggest hassle for sure is wiring up each light for each show, Yorkville has some nice little light bars that are a self contained deal mostly, but quite pricey but I keep thinking I should of just anti'ed up on those for ease of use.
Hi mate,
I have the Chauvet 4bars and they came with carry cases. I put the rest of my lights in soft padded cases designed for the purpose. Wouldn't want to chuck them in an aircraft hold or even the back of a van. They come with me in the car and that's fine for my local / amateur purposes. You're right that the 4bar type stuff is easier to wire up as it's just one DMX cable and one plug. Mine are a few years old now and the quality's okay. I'd imagine the newer models are great, considering how LEDs have come on.
I went with the 4bars simply because of ease of use vs bang for the buck....
One starting address for the entire appliance.
One DMX IN and one DMX OUT.
A fitted case for the lamps on the fixture so no disassembly. (Yeah, cheap case but with a bit of care, last a bit)
Wireless capability built in. I have enough cables to worry about already.
My primary job is slider munky. I did not want to buy into a 'time magnet' on set/show/strike.
The coolest part of the 4bars really is the one starting address for all four lamps instead of four individual lamps... With the way my 4bars are set up, ONE Scanner button. One starting address instead of four Scanner buttons/address blocks....
One starting address for the entire appliance.
One DMX IN and one DMX OUT.
A fitted case for the lamps on the fixture so no disassembly. (Yeah, cheap case but with a bit of care, last a bit)
Wireless capability built in. I have enough cables to worry about already.
My primary job is slider munky. I did not want to buy into a 'time magnet' on set/show/strike.
The coolest part of the 4bars really is the one starting address for all four lamps instead of four individual lamps... With the way my 4bars are set up, ONE Scanner button. One starting address instead of four Scanner buttons/address blocks....
I bought a pedal board zipper stomp case (Road Runner) to secure my controller, hub, power supplies, DMX cab CTRL -> Hub, and my USB wireless dongles and spares for the 4Bars). If the $bar cases ever take a dump, I'll run em over to a local upholstery shop and have him repair/recover em.... or even reproduce em with that tough foam rubber and thick vinyl shell...
Alright gang, I need some advice. I'm looking to spend about $300 on lights for the band. We are a five piece rock and typically play in bars without any support. I'm looking to step it up a little and add some lights. I've been using three of the cheap water lights off of amazon (around $20) just to add a little something. I usually turn the motor off (stopping the water effect) but let it cycle through the colors and point them at the wall behind us.
Now I'd like to add to that. Should I get a light stand and a few other lights? Two light stands? Led pars or some effect lights (moon flower/mushroom light), a fog machine? Wash lights? Light bars?
I'm looking for portable, without a large footprint, set and forget, but something that will look good. The water lights don't look bad for how I'm using them but a lot of the cheap things like that look cheesy.
The water lights: https://www.amazon.com/Eyourlife-Po...instruments&sprefix=water+light,mi,276&sr=1-8
Now I'd like to add to that. Should I get a light stand and a few other lights? Two light stands? Led pars or some effect lights (moon flower/mushroom light), a fog machine? Wash lights? Light bars?
I'm looking for portable, without a large footprint, set and forget, but something that will look good. The water lights don't look bad for how I'm using them but a lot of the cheap things like that look cheesy.
The water lights: https://www.amazon.com/Eyourlife-Po...instruments&sprefix=water+light,mi,276&sr=1-8
As an Amazon Associate, TalkBass may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via links on this site.
I'm also a big fan of the 4BAR systems for their ease of setup/teardown, portability, and bang-for-your-buck performance. You can purchase cheaper LED Par fixtures like this one Invalid Link Removed but you'll still need lighting stands, cases, and DMX cables (if you want to sync them). Plus you can't daisy chain the power on these so you're looking at a separate power outlet for each one which can just be a bit messy.
The 4BAR comes complete with a stand and cases plus you have one power plug and all the lights are already sync'd together so you can "set it and forget it" with some built in programs or use a basic lighting controller. It also comes with a footswitch that performs basic functions.
A new 4BAR is way over your budget but you might be able to find a used one.
The 4BAR comes complete with a stand and cases plus you have one power plug and all the lights are already sync'd together so you can "set it and forget it" with some built in programs or use a basic lighting controller. It also comes with a footswitch that performs basic functions.
A new 4BAR is way over your budget but you might be able to find a used one.
I recently picked up a pair of low mileage 4BAR PRO"s off the local CL for $400 for the pair. Already had two so 4 total now, currently running two stacked together on the same stand, one pair on each side of the stage. I can program each individual light using an Obey 40 controller. Set up takes around 15 minutes. Easy and quick to setup and take down.
I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention it to date, but maybe rock bands are so accustomed to playing in dive bars with less than optimum conditions that they take it for granted. My experience with a 65-piece orchestra, a full concert band, and a jazz/swing big band is that as soon as you turn lights on, the musicians complain that they're shining right in their eyes. Then, when you turn the lights down enough that the eye glare is tolerable, they complain that no one can see them.
Playing in a rock band there is no need to look at music (IMO, others may disagree) and the only time I think the that the lights are too bright is when I can't see the booty shaking.I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention it to date, but maybe rock bands are so accustomed to playing in dive bars with less than optimum conditions that they take it for granted. My experience with a 65-piece orchestra, a full concert band, and a jazz/swing big band is that as soon as you turn lights on, the musicians complain that they're shining right in their eyes. Then, when you turn the lights down enough that the eye glare is tolerable, they complain that no one can see them.
This only happens when a venue has proper spotlights, quite a rare occurrence with the type of venues we normally play.
Usually we provide our own lights and PA and as I schlep the lights and most of the PA the lights are the minimum that we can get away with. Nobody complains because they know that the first one to suggest more lights will get the job of schlepping them (and our existing ones if I have any say in the matter).
I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention it to date, but maybe rock bands are so accustomed to playing in dive bars with less than optimum conditions that they take it for granted. My experience with a 65-piece orchestra, a full concert band, and a jazz/swing big band is that as soon as you turn lights on, the musicians complain that they're shining right in their eyes. Then, when you turn the lights down enough that the eye glare is tolerable, they complain that no one can see them.
Oddly enough, a lot of people in "rock"-related bands DO complain about the lights being bright - to me, at least. It's typically small-timers who are used to no lights at all, or something very minimal. Some people would rather just stand in the dark for some reason.
I would agree with that. I joined a band recently and they had some decent lights so we used theirs. I noticed they were really dark and you couldn't see the band faces. plus they all behind us as well. I asked the drummer who owned them and his reply was he didn't think the audience wanted to see them anyway???
Our singers complain about the lights so I do my best to get them up high enough so they’re not directly in their eyes. Usually when they see how good they look in the lighting as opposed to darkness they stop complaining!
This forum has been quite helpful in learning what I'm up against in my pursuit of adding lighting to my band's setup. Fortunately, I've started to see an occasional outdoor gig here and there recently during such times. So I just ordered 2 sets of the Chauvet DJ 4BAR LT Quad BT. I would like to learn DMX at some point in the future, but the allure of controlling the lights from a Bluetooth app was too tempting to pass up. Plus, only having to setup up a power cord for each fixture instead of running wired DMX or spending more on wireless transmitters and receivers seems like a great time saver. I already play bass in the band as well as run sound, multitrack audio recording, 3-4 angles of video recording, and all the post-processing for the audio and video endeavors of the band for social media. I already have two tablets on a mic stand in front of me on stage at all times for cameras and mixing. Adding some pre-fab scenes with some basic changes via the app will be a great way to get my feet wet into the realm of stage lighting.
We have a rehearsal at my home studio on Monday. I look forward to surprising the guys in the band with a colorful practice session.
We have a rehearsal at my home studio on Monday. I look forward to surprising the guys in the band with a colorful practice session.
To my knowledge, the only thing separating their EZ Link series from they're BT series is that the EZ stuff is battery powered. But both use the same BT Air app. The app is pretty limited, but very functional and easy to use. Granted I've only had the lights for a week, but the learning curve for the app and lights was very brief. Exactly what I was looking for to control lights while playing. I look forward to adding more BT fixtures once some gig money starts picking up again.
