Martin Mac 250 or Robe 250?

[drowner77]

I am a solo singe and want to get into moving lights. From reading this board I have come to conclude that Robe or Martins are the way to go.

 

Of these models, which is the best. Also, with the ROBES what is the difference between the 250 Wash and the 250 spot?

 

What controller would you suggest. It needs to be pretty easy as my girlfriend does the engineering and that is her requirement.

 

Is prgramming the lights exeedingly difficult? Can they be programmed to run by Winamp?

 

Any other suggestions would really be appreciated.

[Guest AdamJames]

Also, with the ROBES what is the difference between the 250 Wash and the 250 spot?

 

As the name would suggest, the spot projects gobos (patterns) and a spot of light, where as the wash, would wash the stage of a colour. Of course not literally, as its dependant on the size of the stage.

 

What controller would you suggest. It needs to be pretty easy as my girlfriend does the engineering and that is her requirement.

Dpends on budget. For £500/600 maybe the Zero88 Diablo. Or for £2000 a fat frog. Or for £7000 a Pearl 2004.

 

Is prgramming the lights exeedingly difficult? Can they be programmed to run by Winamp?

 

Depends on how techncial you are your girlfriend are, and how easily you pick things up. From Winamp, you could take an audio feed, into your controller, providing it lets you do this. Otherwise flash buttons and submasters are mainly used.

 

Any other suggestions would be really appreciated.

 

Let us know your budget etc

[drowner77]

Well our budget is around £2500. We have been trwling ebay and other sites.

 

As for a controller we want something that will let is use winamp from our laptop.

 

If using winamp is it possible to make it so that each song has its own light show?

[Guest AdamJames]

If using winamp is it possible to make it so that each song has its own light show?

 

No.

 

Winamp is for audio, not lighting!

[peter]

Winamp is primarily for audio, but there are a few applications out there which will allow you to output DMX signals as well as control Winamp - in particular Sandnet, which allows you to assign Winamp as a fixture to your console and control it via DMX. There are also a few projects based around the Enttec DMX interface, which enable Winamp control.

[JDLX]

would be a lot easier and cheaper to get some scanners and run them on audio or if you want more control you can pick up a controller for about 100 quid.

[MrDan]

Is prgramming the lights exeedingly difficult? Can they be programmed to run by Winamp?

 

Our controller has an API which allows you to run sections of preprogrammed shows from third party applications. E.g. we have a sample which allows you to run a lightshow synchronized to a playlist of Windows Media Player. You can also write your own sample to synchronize with Winamp or any other audio/video player.

 

Let me know if you want more info about that.

 

Dan

[drowner77]

Dan, more info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

 

JDLX, what scanners would you suggest and what contoller?

[MrDan]

Dan, more info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

If you have a computer running Win2K or WinXP then you can download a free copy of our software here. Once you've installed the software then you can download samples from our automation API here (Sorry this site is still under constrction, but it contains all the information you need). "WMP List Sample" is the one I was talking about. It is only a sample and can be modified to your preference, but it in itself is already very powerful.

 

If you have more questions you can also email me direct.

 

Hope this helps,

Dan

[ThaiLD]

Can you GET MAC250 for under 2500 quid? or Robe Spot250 for that matter? or anything thats not a chinese copy?

[Jon T]

yes, having seen a certain well known website selling 2x mac250 used for just over 2k including flightcase etc you can get them for well under 2500, seeing as a single used mac250 unit is around £970.

[lxkev]

why martin? why Robe? what do u want to do with these lights? have you any other lx gear?

[the kid]

As Kev said why movers. From the vid on your site - assuming that it is you and your kit, you might be better off with some small profiles source4's or selecon's with some "T" bars.

[drowner77]

Kid, thanks for visiting the site. However, that video is about 2 years old and we have moved on considerably. I am no long doing sound from the stage and thos lights have gone.

 

We wanted moving lights for the cool factor, but talking to a lighting tech friend, he said that he felt that the moving heads are over used and the best light shows still use old fashioned par cans.

 

Can you expand on your suggestion? I would really appreciate it. We want some wow factor, but are not married to the idea of moving head lights.

 

Thanks again for visiting the site and I hope I did not embarrass myself too much.

[Bad_Rock]

Drowner stop stealing my questions :P :P :P :P

 

Hehe first with the Ps 15's now with the moving heads. ( I posted one about Robe/ futurelight/ martin a few weeks ago) :P

 

I would suggest you use your budget to buy some other fixture a bit less expensive.

 

If you buy 4 moving heads from a decent chinese manufacturer it will make a big difference even vs Robe or Martin if you have only 2.

 

Also if you get like 4 decent moving heads you probably will have still some budget that you can complete with a couple of scanners from the same brand that cost less and do the same things ( same gobos, same movement, same brightness, etc). Also if u hang thm at the end of the stage ppl might not tell you are using scanners and of course they wont think u were broke and u couldnt afford the last 2.

 

I think after having 4 or 8 moving heads there will be the time to think if Robe or Martins.

 

Peace!!!

 

Bad Rock

 

P.D.

 

Are your Yamahas still alive? :D