Basic band lghting

[bitofagiggle]

Hey guys, I've got 4 LED Par 56's which I whack on a slow fade for my band in small venues with no lighting. Only problem is they're all stand alone so obviously fade of their own accord rather than together. Wanted to buy a small DMX controller to make them fade in sequence and maybe program in a couple of effects and chases. Need to stay cheap but would like something I can grow into a bit (Possibly adding some scanners or even small moving heads when I've got a bit of spare cash). Something which can run a series of scenes on repeat would be good so I can just set it up and the start of the gig and leave it to run. Any suggestions for a board that's easy to learn to program for someone who hasn't done DMX since college?

 

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

Cheers, Tom.

[david.elsbury]

Jands stage CL? designed for led's

[paulears]

MagicQ, and the sixty quid dongles - then a cheap 3 button floor pedal to trigger cues - one for song by song changes for a bit of variety, and then one for 'chat state' between songs, and the other for a blame or flash or effect. People say none of the software lighting controls are simple enough - but to be able to cope with adding the huge choice of lighting products, you have to accept a bit of basic programming will be part of the deal - and all the software systems can do so much compared to any attempt to use hardware devices, which nowadays can't hack it any more when you buy a new bit of kit.

[peza2010]

MagicQ, and the sixty quid dongles - then a cheap 3 button floor pedal to trigger cues

 

How are you interfacing a pedal board with the 60 quid dongle??

[Joe Bleasdale]

Sounds like a job for an über cheap foot controller that outputs DMX and allows recall of some simple pre built scenes. Keep it simple?

 

Any form of actual desk is probably over kill. And PC & Dongle for this situation...? Come on....

 

Thanks.

[Don Allen]

The Showtec Led Commander at 80 pounds is one of the cheapest led desks that can do chases, fades and can be midi controlled from a midi foot pedal as well as sound triggering. There are lots of

on you tube to see what it can do.

 

You can also use it for conventional dimmers with 8 channels per device page and can do movers but is not designed for it. The desk did evolve from the early scanner desks. Does not have the inbuilt swatch book that the Jands Stage CL has.

[paulears]

This is the proble, with cheap led kit needing maybe 5 channels but a mix of http and ltd you need proper controls. What cheap simple controls can have their channels properly mapped?

 

As for the foot switch, you can set Magicq to use keyboard presses to activate any button you like, but the downside is that key is then missing for labelling. I just picked 3 keyboard symbols I never use. I then programmed the foot switch to use these keys. Job done.

[musht]

Even cheaper than 8 can control LED Commander, Chauvet Obey 4 (45 quid) no foot switch but seems to tick rest of boxes.

 

http://www.chauvetlighting.co.uk/obey4.html

[tomscott]

We supplied one of these for a local venue recently, it turned out to be a really nice little control, cheap too.

 

If you've got led lighting, you can soft patch to match the legend on the fader, so each one does what it says. There are 16 scenes and 16 chases that can be programmed and then fired from midi so with a little bit of programming you should be able to do a reasonable little light show.