Small lighting?

[Chronos]

Hey forum guys, complete newbie here.

I'm a British musician working in Spain.

One of the guys I work with has decided that we need our own lights (because some places we play don't have them, others are just rubbish) and has given me the job of looking for it, as I am younger and apparently understand technology better than him... but I have absolutely no idea about lighting. To understand the extent of my ignorance, I just learned the word "Par Cans"

 

I'm looking for something very simple. 8 lights (sets of 2 together), running off a program from a laptop

 

Since our show is all run off a laptop (using a dj program to play the music) I was wondering if there was some recommended hardware and program that would play my songs, and I could set the lights to the music and save it so it does the same thing each time.

I've been looking on Enttec. No idea if they are any good or not, or what to get from there, but some sort of USB device that will make the lights work to the music sounds fantastic for me since my hands are bound to a guitar and my feet are already bound to a pedal.

 

Also it would be nice to know what lights I should buy as well so there are no compatibility issues. One of the Venues just gave me a Showtec Lightfoot lighting pedal and 4 starville led cans to try out, and I'm not sure (due to being completely ignorant to this) but from what I've seen on other sites, these two products do not work together. I did spend a good few days learning about dim switches and how to link it all up and I still can't make it work. So some advice on what to buy would be good. In fact, if you just tell me all the things I should buy that would be groovy :)

 

Any recommendations?

[Gerry]

Hi Chronos

Welcome to the forum.

Where in Spain are you?

Spain is a large country.

Cheers

Gerry

[Chronos]

Hey Gerry thanks!

 

That would be Benidorm. about 4 hours away from you by train I believe.

[Tigglet]

You might want to look at some of the lights by LEDJ. They make some fairly lightweight ones. I have 4 LEDJ alupar zooms. They kick out a lot of light (I've used 4 of them to flood a stage 7m by 7m with bright colours) they can be controlled by a computer via the protocol known as DMX but they can also be set to run sound to light mode and will run to the beat of the music. You can connect them all up with one as the master and the others as slaves and they all change at the same time. the sensitivity of this is also controllable on mine. do pm me if I can be of any further help.

[cedd]

I'm pleasantly surprised by the LED offerings from American DJ. We use a number of their par64's and they kick out a lot of light for not much money.

 

When it comes to controlling it all the big question is how you get everything talking to one another. There is some excellent PC based software out there (my personal favourite being Chamsys MagicQ PC) but if you're wanting it to do something pre programmed to run with your music then you're going to have to either find a piece of software that does both (music and lighting control), or find a way of getting 2 pieces of software to talk to one another. This may end up being by midi, but it gets quite messy and complicated. Simplest suggestion I can think of is to tell both your music and lighting software to use the same PC keyboard key as a "go" button. That'll both start the track and start a pre-programmed and timed lighting sequence simultaneously.

 

For 8 par's it seems a little overkill though! There are some foot pedal lighting controllers designed for bands that might fit your needs a lot better if you can just free up a band member's feet to kick the pedal occasionally. All depends how clever you're wanting to get and if you're wanting something to light the band up, with some occasional colour changes, or if you're after a full on light show. 2 very different beasts.

[Chronos]

Thanks a lot for the responses guys, I'll be checking out those ! Very helpful

you're going to have to either find a piece of software that does both (music and lighting control

 

yep, any ideas on that mate? thats exactly what I would like

 

Basically we have 15 minutes to set up on stage, no sound check no nothing. I have a dedicated mixer to make sure it always sounds good, and I dont have time to set up lights. My idea is a system where the lights will always be on the ceiling, waiting to be plugged in, I need a program that will play both my music, and allow me to program the lights to each individual track. There must be something like this out there, it doesn't sound too difficult in terms of programming, and I can't be the first person in need of this.

 

Cedd, Perhaps 8 is too many cans, that was just me thinking for the future. I only really need 4 I believe... and a strobe would be lovely at some point

[electronicsuk]

Presumably if the lights will always be on the ceiling then you have some kind of residency? With the greatest of respect, any kind of computer control for 4 par cans and a strobe really is akin to the old sledgehammer to crack a nut cliche. If you're determined to have computer control, Chauvet ShowXpress will probably be one of the more sensibly priced solutions out there. I haven't used it myself so can't pass comment on how easy it is to use, but it certainly seems to have the feature set you need.

[boatman]

Have a look at the free version of ShowMagic. We've used it for a couple of fairly short sound & light shows. The free version lets you use 24 DMX channels and if that isn't enough as least you've been able to see what it's capable of before paying for an upgrade.

[Chronos]

Hello ElectronicsukThe reason I want a computer control is because I use a computer to play the backing tracks. The most practical thing in my mind would be that the computer would have a program that played the backing tracks and did all the lights that had been preset without the need of anyone else, because quite frankly, there isn't anyone else to do it.

Yes we have a residency, but in the same way a squatter is a resident of a factory. If we make a good show with the least amount of money/people, we won't be kicked out and lose a daily place to live... I mean concert.

 

Surely there is a program that does both syncronized lights and sound... or am I asking for too much here?

 

Have a look at the free version of ShowMagic. We've used it for a couple of fairly short sound & light shows. The free version lets you use 24 DMX channels and if that isn't enough as least you've been able to see what it's capable of before paying for an upgrade.

 

 

That's more like it! Please tell me, is 24 DMX channels enough for 4 cans?

[electronicsuk]

That's more like it! Please tell me, is 24 DMX channels enough for 4 cans?

 

Easily.

[Chronos]

Fantastic.

 

On the website I read this.

 

"Backing / Click Tracks

Can all be stored and played back instantly in ShowMagic running on a PC or laptop."

 

 

Exactly what I am looking for.

 

 

Now I'm guessing I need some sort of USB that will connect the lights to the laptop. Any suggestions on a good/reliable one?

 

 

[boatman]

Fantastic.

 

.

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Now I'm guessing I need some sort of USB that will connect the lights to the laptop. Any suggestions on a good/reliable one?

 

ShowMagic supports both the Enttec Open and the Enttec Pro interfaces. The Open device uses the resources of the PC to generate the DMX stream so, depending on the software load, can be a bit erratic. The Pro device generates the DMX stream internally and just requires the PC to update the data, so is much more stable. It really depends on how much you are prepared to spend.

[Chronos]

Fantastic.

 

.

.

Now I'm guessing I need some sort of USB that will connect the lights to the laptop. Any suggestions on a good/reliable one?

 

ShowMagic supports both the Enttec Open and the Enttec Pro interfaces. The Open device uses the resources of the PC to generate the DMX stream so, depending on the software load, can be a bit erratic. The Pro device generates the DMX stream internally and just requires the PC to update the data, so is much more stable. It really depends on how much you are prepared to spend.

 

Looks like I'll be getting the Enttec Pro Interface then. I sent and email to Enttec asking if they have any programs such as this. I just received an email saying they do, and sent a link that goes to the main menu, and another that doesn't open, http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif I'm going to assume they made a mistake there. I've sent another email asking for the name of the program rather than the links since they didn't work and hope for a response.

 

 

@Boatman

I've downloaded the demo of MagicShow, it looks impressive but I'm not understanding it very well. I mean I haven't got any lights or equipment to try it out yet, but I don't see how you can make the lights do a certain routine by just pressing the play button on the music track.

[timsabre]

Enttec's software similar to Showmagic is called D-PRO

 

http://www.enttec.com/?main_menu=Products&pn=70571

 

For the non-lighting person I think Showmagic is easier to learn.

[Chronos]

Enttec's software similar to Showmagic is called D-PRO

 

http://www.enttec.co...oducts&pn=70571

 

For the non-lighting person I think Showmagic is easier to learn.

 

If it is easier then I will use Showmagic instead. My main question now is can Showmagic be programmed to do lights automatically to music that has been imported into it? So I can just record a lighting show onto the music, and when I press the button to play the music, the lighting show will do it automatically? Will Showmagic or D-PRO do this?

I've been looking at demos of both on youtube and I see that they are both good programs but the guys are clicking lots of buttons to do different things during the show. Is there a choice to make it do everything by just clicking one button? Since I am performing as well as doing the lights I cant be clicking buttons while playing guitar and singing.

 

Is one of these programs able to run backing tracks and able to program all the lights to it so all I have to do in the end is click Play?