Guys,

Hope you can help? I'm after some advice !!

I have a fair few parties at home and so last year bought a few lights.

TBar
Soundlab Vasco x2
Soundlab Varna x1
Wild Tech Kaleido x1
Strobe x1
4Channel Sequencer x1 (for a bit of colour wash)
Smoke Machine x1

Because of 'recycling', I'm thinking of moving on the Vasco's & Varna. Any thoughts on what to replace them with? They'll need to be sound activated & not really sure of my budget (I'm easily swayed!!).

What would be considered a good sensible setup for a starter rig (purely for home parties) in terms of how many scanners/moonflowers etc, etc. Are there any rules about how many of one and how many of the other?

Apologies for the long post &
Thanks in Advance (Great Site by the way!)
Stace

If your working at home parties I guess the main factor is the size of the room you are working in.. With lighting effects/wash colours etc the idea is to fill the room with suitable light. I have alsorts of lighting and depending on the venue depends on which lights to take.

I use abstract/Mad for most gigs however when I work in a larger venue I like to wash the walls with colour for this purpose I use i colours.

I know storge is a problem with most of us however themore lights you have to choose from is better.. You don`t want to many and you don`t want not enough. As I said at the top each venue is different and requires different lighting.

Steve,

Thanks for the quick response.

The venue shouldn't change, its my house !!!

I was kind of hoping that you might suggest that I get rid of what I mentioned earlier and buy for example, 2 Moonflowers or 2 Scanners or ..............

Very open ended question, I know but just need a little direction !!!


Thanks Again in Advance
Stace

Really open ended yes. you don't tell us room sizes or how you mount the lights.

Having done a couple of house parties myself I would say that anything that gives a good spread of light would be useful to you. Personally I found moonflowers a bit narrow in terms of the effect. A bit tunnelly ...

Have a look at the impossibled. This has a really wide spread and you could fill a room with one mounted properly. This will be the effect i will be taking to my NYE party round my friends house.
Scanners and Barrel effects can also cover a large area too, but are more expensive generally and need to be used in multiples to get the best effect.

The impossibled is the one in the middle on these pictures.
http://www.wfsd.co.uk/photos.htm

Thanks.

I did mention in my original question I have a T-Bar, everything is currently mounted to that. Room size will be around 25' x 25'.

Do you have the same lights on all night or am I better, for example getting something like the impossibled & a couple of small scanner to alternate?

I think everyone is different here in how they swtich lights. I use a DMX controller to swtich the lights on and off and chase patterns etc.

I'll use Impossibled and Par Cans, then bounce to scenners, then bounce to barrells, then i might run them all together.

Thanks for the info.

Im not sure whereabouts you are in the UK.

But I have two Acme Dynatwins for sale and also a KAM Mandarin Dragon.
Might also have 3 Constella Chamelion 4s for sale too.
Let me know if your interested.

Nick

i would recomend the 100w version of acme dynamos(or dynatwins) for that size room and the impossiled.

You can get 2 acme dynarocks for £200 with a controller, I think they're a great effect and also quite small and light for a barrel scanner

Thanks guys,

Went to my local DJ shop today and checked out what they have.

LED definately seems the way forward, especially in a home environment. Means no recycling and allows me to push the TBar as high as I can get it, because I don't have to worry about heat.

Will def buy the ImpossibLED to replace the Varna but could do with something to replace the Vasto's. Looked at the ACME Penguin Barrel's............ Is that something I should be looking at ? Or do you have any better suggestions?

I'll probably set the next party up so the retro sounds are accompanied by the WildTech Kaleido and the Sequencer (for colour wash) and will kick off the ImpossibLED etc for the dance tunes.

What would you put to accompany/compliment the ImpossibLED? Scanners / Moonflowers / etc / etc ??

As you can probably tell, I don't have a scooby doo !!!


Thanks in Advance
Stace

I've just bought a miracled and I'm really pleased with it. It will work off sound activation, a CA-8 controller or dmx. I paid £119 for it so it didn't break the bank.