I was wondering what suggestions you would all have in terms of a VERY basic, very low cost lighting setup. I currently have my sound equipment set except for a rack which I should be able to get from the $$$ I'll make doing a school dance on the 4th, but I'm going to need to figure out lighting in the near future.
I'm looking for suggestions as to how I could get the most bang for my buck... Which pieces of lighting make the biggest impact but won't set me back a billion dollars?
any help would be so appreciated. Thanks all!
Full Version: Lighting
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Some of the most effective lighting doesn't have to be the most expensive 
. Usually the best lighting to start up with are "Moonflowers", these are multibeam effects which flood a dancefloor with coloured light which automatically rotates and changes colour to the music.
If you are able to buy more than one of the same effect, then try and find a lighting efffect which has DMX. DMX means that the effects can be daisy-chained (linked together) using a simple lead - so that they all synchronise together. This is one of the most effective, yet competitive ways of getting a lightshow together.
Being based in the UK, I am not sure what effects are available in the US
. So I could reel off a list of suitable products only to find that non are available to you locally 
.
You may like to check out Chauvet Lighting - I am familiar with their products and they offer some very good lighting at realistic prices. They even have a list of US dealers on their website.
I am happy to offer a 2nd opinion on any lighting that you may find, so if you need any help or advice choosing an effect, then please post a link to the site and i'll take a look at it for you.
. Usually the best lighting to start up with are "Moonflowers", these are multibeam effects which flood a dancefloor with coloured light which automatically rotates and changes colour to the music.If you are able to buy more than one of the same effect, then try and find a lighting efffect which has DMX. DMX means that the effects can be daisy-chained (linked together) using a simple lead - so that they all synchronise together. This is one of the most effective, yet competitive ways of getting a lightshow together.
Being based in the UK, I am not sure what effects are available in the US
. So I could reel off a list of suitable products only to find that non are available to you locally .You may like to check out Chauvet Lighting - I am familiar with their products and they offer some very good lighting at realistic prices. They even have a list of US dealers on their website.
I am happy to offer a 2nd opinion on any lighting that you may find, so if you need any help or advice choosing an effect, then please post a link to the site and i'll take a look at it for you.
Just to add a little, if you can afford to spend a little extra on lighting always go for DMX as it easier to work with and more versatile. You will thank me if you buy DMX and not Stand alone.
There are two main types of lighting effect - (well OK, there are hundreds, but lets keep this simple 
)
In no particular order, theres the type which looks nice at the audience/dancers look at your disco. These include Light screens (bulbs in boxes), 4 way spot lights (either in vertical columns, or horizontally on the floor), star clothes, name lights, infinity/tunnel lights, LED lighting, silk flame lights etc..etc..
Then there are the lights which just look like boring metal rectangles to look at, but project coloured beams and patterns (known as Gobo's) onto the dancefloor, walls, ceilings etc. Such units include moonflowers, lasers, moving mirror, spinning barrel, or moving head effects. This effects also give off a mid-air "beams" or "ray" effect if used in smoke, or haze.
The second type of lights often come with DMX (a lighting "control language"), which enables units to be controlled, and synchronised, with respect to colour changing simultaneously, or pattern/gobo changing in sync etc. Some cheaper lights offer a Master/Slave option to accomplish the same thing, but some are often using their own special language/signals, rather than a standard, like DMX.
It should be noted that many of the second type of lights require a hazey or smokey atmosphere. However, not all venues allow smoke, or even haze. I play one venue which has optical smoke alarms, even a rented haze machine with the lightest "weight" of haze fluid, on the lowest practical setting, triggered the smoke sensors. Such venues often fall foul of their insurance policies if they turn off, disable, mute, or exclude a zone (EG: The function room) on their alarm panels, so you may find that a smoke machine, and lighting that relies on a mid-air effect is a waste in such venues.
Also, be sure to look for lighting which will compliment both faster/hectic parts of the music, as well as the slow songs, or instrumental breakdowns/ambient sections of dance tracks. Nothing makes me cringe more when Im out (as a guest) to be doing the ol' cuddle-n-turn-around-slowly-with-your-eyes-shut dance, with 4 whopping great spinning barrel effects giving my partner and I a suntan.
Also, although its down to opinion, its more versatile (In my opinion) to have say, 6 x $100 lighting effects, than 1 x $600 lighting effect. The audience would get bored with the same lighting running all night long. Besides some (most? Chris?) lighting have "Duty cycles" listed in their manuals eg: To be used for 10 mins in every 20, or "5 mins on/10mins off" etc. Such duty cycles are often(?) quoted to prolong the life of the bulb and the effect.
Remember too with lighting that you can only run so much off of a domestic wall socket. Here in the UK, you can pull 3120 safely out of a standard wall socket. So, switch on 8 x 500 watt flood spots at once, and you'll probably loose a fuse somewhere. I dont know what limits there are where you are.
)In no particular order, theres the type which looks nice at the audience/dancers look at your disco. These include Light screens (bulbs in boxes), 4 way spot lights (either in vertical columns, or horizontally on the floor), star clothes, name lights, infinity/tunnel lights, LED lighting, silk flame lights etc..etc..
Then there are the lights which just look like boring metal rectangles to look at, but project coloured beams and patterns (known as Gobo's) onto the dancefloor, walls, ceilings etc. Such units include moonflowers, lasers, moving mirror, spinning barrel, or moving head effects. This effects also give off a mid-air "beams" or "ray" effect if used in smoke, or haze.
The second type of lights often come with DMX (a lighting "control language"), which enables units to be controlled, and synchronised, with respect to colour changing simultaneously, or pattern/gobo changing in sync etc. Some cheaper lights offer a Master/Slave option to accomplish the same thing, but some are often using their own special language/signals, rather than a standard, like DMX.
It should be noted that many of the second type of lights require a hazey or smokey atmosphere. However, not all venues allow smoke, or even haze. I play one venue which has optical smoke alarms, even a rented haze machine with the lightest "weight" of haze fluid, on the lowest practical setting, triggered the smoke sensors. Such venues often fall foul of their insurance policies if they turn off, disable, mute, or exclude a zone (EG: The function room) on their alarm panels, so you may find that a smoke machine, and lighting that relies on a mid-air effect is a waste in such venues.
Also, be sure to look for lighting which will compliment both faster/hectic parts of the music, as well as the slow songs, or instrumental breakdowns/ambient sections of dance tracks. Nothing makes me cringe more when Im out (as a guest) to be doing the ol' cuddle-n-turn-around-slowly-with-your-eyes-shut dance, with 4 whopping great spinning barrel effects giving my partner and I a suntan.
Also, although its down to opinion, its more versatile (In my opinion) to have say, 6 x $100 lighting effects, than 1 x $600 lighting effect. The audience would get bored with the same lighting running all night long. Besides some (most? Chris?) lighting have "Duty cycles" listed in their manuals eg: To be used for 10 mins in every 20, or "5 mins on/10mins off" etc. Such duty cycles are often(?) quoted to prolong the life of the bulb and the effect.
Remember too with lighting that you can only run so much off of a domestic wall socket. Here in the UK, you can pull 3120 safely out of a standard wall socket. So, switch on 8 x 500 watt flood spots at once, and you'll probably loose a fuse somewhere. I dont know what limits there are where you are.
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| Besides some (most? Chris?) lighting have "Duty cycles" listed in their manuals eg: To be used for 10 mins in every 20, or "5 mins on/10mins off" etc. Such duty cycles are often(?) quoted to prolong the life of the bulb and the effect. |
These "Duty Cycles" often only apply to the cheap 'n' cheerful effects which use bulbs of 300W and above. Examples of these effects include some of the bottom end Chauvet Effects and the mass produced over sold "Mushroom" type units. Basically if it cost's £50 then its going to come with some form of duty cycle notice.
IMO - these types of effects shouldn't be used for professional purposes - the duty cycle is often a sneaky way of making sure that the effect gets through its warranty period, or because low cost motors and components have been used in the manufacture
. Better to keep these budget effects in the bedroom where they belong!.Most professional lighting doesn't have any form of duty cycle and can be run continuously (You have to work all night - why should your lighting be any different?). Can you imagine what it would be like if your CD Player or Amplifier had a Duty Cycle!!!. We would all turn into bands overnight each taking 20 min breaks every 30 minutes!.
Good Effects to look out for are NJD, Martin, Constella and Abstract. You may find a company called "Acme Lighting" producing effects - these are now available in the UK but found a good market in the US some years ago. Most ACME units are worth looking at, if you can find a dealer locally.
You may get some further information from looking at the lighting on my website. I don't export to the U.S (Yet) but it may give you some idea of what the effects look like
I have two units which have a recommended duty cycle. Both were in the £80~£120 price region, metal casings, fans etc.
A Double ball - rotating effect, which I've seen identical models being sold under various names. It contains 2 x 300 watt bulbs and does get HOT! I was told when I purchased it from a now-closed DJ shop (gawd! they're getting rarer than vinyl shops!) that I should run it for 20 mins on, 5 mins off. mind you...with 600 watts of light being produced, I tend to use it for chorus's only...too much light on a dancefloor is a bit of an atmoshere killer.
A Gobo-moonflower effect - "Goboflower II" which had a loose sheet of instructions with it recommending periods of no more than 30 mins on, before a off period of 10 mins.
A Double ball - rotating effect, which I've seen identical models being sold under various names. It contains 2 x 300 watt bulbs and does get HOT! I was told when I purchased it from a now-closed DJ shop (gawd! they're getting rarer than vinyl shops!) that I should run it for 20 mins on, 5 mins off. mind you...with 600 watts of light being produced, I tend to use it for chorus's only...too much light on a dancefloor is a bit of an atmoshere killer.
A Gobo-moonflower effect - "Goboflower II" which had a loose sheet of instructions with it recommending periods of no more than 30 mins on, before a off period of 10 mins.
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| A Double ball - rotating effect, which I've seen identical models being sold under various names |
Gary...my sincere condolences, and to think that I used to respect and look up to you!
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| recommending periods of no more than 30 mins on, before a off period of 10 mins. |
I used to go out with a girl who had the same routine!
I would still advise the avoidance of buying any effects which have a duty cycle. I used to sell some effects made by a french company which used to literally cost £'s - on the surface they were good effects and looked impressive with their powerful lamps and low price tag, but the amount of returns and loss of goodwill resulting was frightening!. Most D.J's have at least one of the popular Globes, Mushrooms, hedgehogs and the mirror ball replacements and for 10 mins at the end of the night, or during a fast dance track is okay - but NEVER rely on them to provide your main dancefloor lighting!.
Gary if it makes you feel better Chris made the same comments when I revealed I had TWO of them, one on top of each speaker stack. I do agree though chorus's only, or as you go from quiet into Livin La Vida loca!
Spin
Spin
Well, both those units and other similar units have been working well for about 3 or 4 years now. Except one Goboflower II, which is either suffering from a dead transformer, or a loose wire.... Im always a bit warey of touching transformers with my Multi-tester (or with anything else for that matter).
If I scraped the lot, and just got one big light, such as an Abstract VRX, id have one single point of failure.
Lots of "little" £100~£150 lights gives more variety, and if someone in the audience whinges about one light, I can just stop using it for that show without losing too much.
If I scraped the lot, and just got one big light, such as an Abstract VRX, id have one single point of failure.
Lots of "little" £100~£150 lights gives more variety, and if someone in the audience whinges about one light, I can just stop using it for that show without losing too much.
Gary, Sounds like you need a repair and PAT test, give me a ring, I check mains with my fingers 
Mr Tom, thats Phantom,
If your heading towards the wedding market, CHAUVET, 2x bobs, and 2x abyss and a couple of "disco" effects. Don't go OTT (over the top), the only person that can see the effect is you, the punters eh sorry guests haven't got a clue.
Always remember the KISS rule - Keep It Simple Stupid. KISS gives the most outstanding effect at a wedding........well it works for me.
I'm planning on comeing over next year, YOUR buying the beer.
Mr Tom, thats Phantom,
If your heading towards the wedding market, CHAUVET, 2x bobs, and 2x abyss and a couple of "disco" effects. Don't go OTT (over the top), the only person that can see the effect is you, the punters eh sorry guests haven't got a clue.
Always remember the KISS rule - Keep It Simple Stupid. KISS gives the most outstanding effect at a wedding........well it works for me.
I'm planning on comeing over next year, YOUR buying the beer.
About the cheapest BIG IMPACT / CHEAP COST lighting that I've ever used is to get 16 of those 150watt (or 500watt) Patio lights (the small, black, rectangular ones, with the 5 inch long bulb in them).
I went round to view a hall which I was booked at to play in a (then) months time, as I'd never played there before. The hall was huge - you could have set up 4 portable Badminton courts in this place - I know this for a fact because they had 4 portable Badminton courts set up in this place. I knew my sound system would handle it, but thought that my lighting wouldnt provide enough light to the room - and the LAST thing you want at any gig, is any of the cold, white, atmosphere killing florescent lighting being flicked on.
So, I got myself two T-bars, with 4 bolts either side of the top hat mount, and mounted 16 x 150 watt halogen patio lights on each bar. I then wired these using choc-blocks (screw in terminal strips), to a bulgin plug and ran both T-bars off of a 4 channel controller.
Each T-bar had its halogens wired to the controller channels as follows.
1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1
===========
4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4
The controller loading was (4 x 150 watts per channel, per T-bar) x 2 = 1200 watts per channel. So IF i'd let the controller switch on ALL four channels, the plug/outlet would have seen 4800watts (bye bye fuse), so I kept it on either Sound to light (which only rarely triggers all four channels), and just simple chases using only 2 or 3 channels lit at any one time.
Over here the halogen fittings are £3.99 each, with the bulb, so 16 of them (enough for one tripod, as pictured above) would set you back about £64. High temperature filter gels are normally £5 per sheet, get four colours = £20.The T-bar, wiring, bulgin socket, would probably be about £20~£25. So around £105 for nearly 2500 watts of lighting.
Then you take your pick of 4 channel controllers £40 upto almost any figure you want.
I went round to view a hall which I was booked at to play in a (then) months time, as I'd never played there before. The hall was huge - you could have set up 4 portable Badminton courts in this place - I know this for a fact because they had 4 portable Badminton courts set up in this place
. I knew my sound system would handle it, but thought that my lighting wouldnt provide enough light to the room - and the LAST thing you want at any gig, is any of the cold, white, atmosphere killing florescent lighting being flicked on.So, I got myself two T-bars, with 4 bolts either side of the top hat mount, and mounted 16 x 150 watt halogen patio lights on each bar. I then wired these using choc-blocks (screw in terminal strips), to a bulgin plug and ran both T-bars off of a 4 channel controller.
Each T-bar had its halogens wired to the controller channels as follows.
1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1
===========
4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4
The controller loading was (4 x 150 watts per channel, per T-bar) x 2 = 1200 watts per channel. So IF i'd let the controller switch on ALL four channels, the plug/outlet would have seen 4800watts (bye bye fuse), so I kept it on either Sound to light (which only rarely triggers all four channels), and just simple chases using only 2 or 3 channels lit at any one time.
Over here the halogen fittings are £3.99 each, with the bulb, so 16 of them (enough for one tripod, as pictured above) would set you back about £64. High temperature filter gels are normally £5 per sheet, get four colours = £20.The T-bar, wiring, bulgin socket, would probably be about £20~£25. So around £105 for nearly 2500 watts of lighting.
Then you take your pick of 4 channel controllers £40 upto almost any figure you want.
What do you guys think of the datamoons.
How much are they worth these days both 2nd hand and new
How much are they worth these days both 2nd hand and new
I am looking at a lighting package that has the following American DJ products:
2 Light Savers
1 Reflex
1 Saga
1 Strobe Ball
1 Rotoball
1 Fogger for free
What do you guys think of this? I still dunno if I could get it or not, considering 500 dollars is a lot of money for 4 lighting effects and a fogger.
2 Light Savers
1 Reflex
1 Saga
1 Strobe Ball
1 Rotoball
1 Fogger for free
What do you guys think of this? I still dunno if I could get it or not, considering 500 dollars is a lot of money for 4 lighting effects and a fogger.
I use a couple of Datamoons, they're brilliant. I picked my two up from my local nightclub so I don't know how much they are new, crank'em up with abit of haze and they look great. 
I'm trying to get a distributor based in the U.S interested in joining an advising on the forum. Since I am in the UK it's difficult to address equipment and distributor related questions in the U.S . So it would make sense to involve a collague who can advise & offer prices on relevant topics.
. So it would make sense to involve a collague who can advise & offer prices on relevant topics.
HEY GUYS LONG TIME NO SPEAK!
i got 2 datamoons and they are a awsome lighting effect!!
i cant think were id be without them!
if you got enough money you should buy a PAIR! then link them using a dmx lead
i paid £300 for my 2 and a dmx lead they might seem expensive
but believe me and some ppl might back me up here they are a good light!
from ajsounds
i got 2 datamoons and they are a awsome lighting effect!!
i cant think were id be without them!
if you got enough money you should buy a PAIR! then link them using a dmx lead
i paid £300 for my 2 and a dmx lead they might seem expensive
but believe me and some ppl might back me up here they are a good light!from ajsounds
get a couple of twister 4s..... nice little lights and do a big job!
sorry chris we bought the datamoons before we discovered your site and yes we did miss a good deal 
as the subject of datamoons & twister 4's has risen we are looking to buy a pair of twisters soon (any good deals on these chris ?
) what controller can we get to control both sets of effects and level of control will we have over them, can we slow down the speed of the beams for instance Thanks for any advice folks Ajsounds ( Adam & Mike )
Abstract Twister 4's are currently £325.00 / Pair or £182.00 each + Carriage
Datamoons are currently on offer for anybody interested @ £259.00 / pair + Carriage
Datamoons are currently on offer for anybody interested @ £259.00 / pair + Carriage
Datamoons, who needs anything else.................
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