Band lighting

Chris_J

Who's setting up lights when gigging? What does your lighting rig look like and how complicated is it to setup and operate?

I'm not meaning installed venue lighting with an engineer, but those self sufficient gigs where you're supplying and doing your own PA and lighting.. or a mate is.

For pub gigs we're quite happy attaching some led pars to the speaker stands, but for larger gigs we're considering something.. more. Anyone gone down this route and got any advice?

Roland

This will give you a starter: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/228749/

AntonHunter

Roland said:

This will give you a starter: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/228749/

Would love to see pics or videos (on that thread or here), sounds like you're all over it!

Musicwolf

Here's what I do for my three-piece band, playing pubs and small clubs.  We use backing tracks, and this allows us to sync lights to the performance, but some of the processes may be applicable to conventional bands.

I have one bank of four, LED, PARs on a stand.  I also have two a couple of single PARs which can sit on the floor or be suspended from a rig.  I usually attach them to the back of the FoH PA cabs (which have M10 mounting points).  Everything is linked with DMX cables.

I have a cheap USB - DMX adaptor, that I picked up from Amazon, which plugs into my Windows laptop.  The same laptop which is handling playback, digital mixer and switching Helix / Kempers.  Running on the laptop is free software called QLC+.  This allows me set lighting scenes and then link these scenes to MIDI notes.  The backing tracks are handled by Cantabile software, which you can think of as being similar to a DAW, allowing me to run multiple audio and MIDI tracks in sync.

When I write the backing track in Cubase (we record all of our own backing tracks) I also 'write' a lighting show (i.e. A MIDI track).  Each track starts with a command to turn off the 'all lights white' command and ends with an 'all white on', this way the stage is light between songs.

The hardest part was not how to control things but rather the creative side of producing a light show with just six RGBW PARs without just repeating the same sequences for each song.

If you don't have a backing track you could still employ MIDI to DMX commands and 'play' the lights live with a MIDI keyboard if you didn't have a dedicated DMX controller.

maltingsaudio

Keeping it simple my mates band in Shepton Mallet Prison , 4 bars of LED pars running sound to light, 
https://youtu.be/BDpfXptJQb0?si=GGT1-NCsxxqQbrax

Snags

At the moment a couple of LED pars, a couple of small ball lights, and one or two larger dome lights. Larger ones on the floor, the others clamped to speaker poles.  Also a couple of strip lights for ambient colour wash.

We do have a t-bar but haven't had a stage big enough to use it yet - or at least, not one where the venue didn't have their own lights anyway.

ESBlonde

I run a pair of LED strips front Left & Right, usually hung from the FOH cabs if the room doesn’t have handy points. A bar of 4 cheap LED par56 on a tripod behind the kit and a simple dome type ‘disco’ lamp on the floor spewing shapes. Everything linked to a DMX controller with pre made sequences. I run the simple sequences slow mostly and swap every couple of songs. It looks professional in clubs and bars without being heavy, bulky or complicated to set up. 

P.S. I also carry a couple of light ropes, one white and one coloured. These are simple( if chintzy) to deploy on occasions. Like a garden party in a gazebo, thread the rope through the frame. Simple and safe, no tippy tripods or danger of heat damage. Also when there is no stage I will deploy a white rope to define the front of the performing area, side benefit is lighting people’s faces without them complaining they can’t see their iPad/pedal/fretboard!

Gulliver

The set-up my band uses is a bit hodge-podge and cobbled together (like the people in the band) but I've been working to improve it recently.

We use 2 Equinox MaxiPar Tri Mk2 LEDs - one attached to each speaker stand, pointed towards the band so that there's a bit of light on us.   I also have a set of 4 1m LED battens that I bought used from a DJ with a flight case - these are stood vertically between amps / drums - pointed towards the audience.   These are all controlled with an ADJ myDMX Go - which is a wireless DMX adapter that works with an iPad app.  I really like the app because you have very simple, but limited control over light set ups.  It will automatically cycle between different effects and set ups, and can be set to a specific BPM, or sound-to light from the iPad.

There are also a few random LED Pars that get dotted around on random sound-to-light, pointed towards the ceiling for a bit of ambience.   I would really like to add a bit more lighting on the band, and maybe some moving lights if we started getting corporate/wedding gigs - but I get complained at by the singer already for how bright the MaxiPars are, so adding more light would probably tip him over the edge!!

Musicwolf

By way of an aside............

I used to play in a band where the bass player was really into lighting in quite a big way.  He had loads of gear and, whilst lighting certainly adds something to a performance, this was maybe a little too much due to set up time, clutter and, on more than one occasion, we launched into our first set with one PA cab un-plugged due to a mix up with plugs.

There was one gig where he'd been allowed to use his smoke machine (a lot of venues don't allow them).  Suddenly the bloody thing went off - and jammed.   He took his bass off, leaped off the stage and frantically began un-plugging things.  Meanwhile, the room filled up with a dense fog.  Such a pity that no one was videoing it at the time.

Fez

We have a T bar if space allows I slave one ADJ LED Par off another set to sound to light then four others mostly set to fades. I need to look at getting some more though.

Chris_J

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I'm currently trailing a Maestro DMX unit. It is basically a DMX controller that reacts to your playing (speed/kick drum and intensity/volume) making changes to your lighting within the parameters set (colour(s), vibe, excitement level etc). You save these as profiles and you can have as many profiles per show as you like and select or bank through them with a midi controller etc.

They claim AI, in that it listens to your show and makes informed decisions based on the music, but that remains to be seen.

I'm treating it as an auto show for the whole lighting rig, rather than each fixture being on a fixed colour, or auto and just ending up with a mess. I don't have to program DMX which is a bonus, but it's not quite as plug and play as they would have you believe, due to a fair bit of manual work to get everything running and reacting the way you want.

Early signs are promising for what I'm looking for though.

I've set a midi controller up to toggle blinders, strobes, blackout and some of the dials for master brightness, excitement level for different fixture groups, though I doubt I'll have time to play with that much whilst drumming.

I do co run a small venue and do sound for local festivals, so the lighting rig is likely to be set up for those events too and I can see the on the fly control being useful in those scenarios.

The lights include 2 large gravity T bars at the back of the stage (with 4 pars 4 moving zoom wash), 4x led battens, 2 moving spots with gobos/prism and 2 led wash panels at the front of the stage with barndoors for lighting the band. It's a lot to set up so can't see it all being used regularly, but elements of it likely will do.

robinbowes

Chris_J said:

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I'm currently trailing a Maestro DMX unit. It is basically a DMX controller that reacts to your playing (speed/kick drum and intensity/volume) making changes to your lighting within the parameters set (colour(s), vibe, excitement level etc). You save these as profiles and you can have as many profiles per show as you like and select or bank through them with a midi controller etc.

They claim AI, in that it listens to your show and makes informed decisions based on the music, but that remains to be seen.

I'm treating it as an auto show for the whole lighting rig, rather than each fixture being on a fixed colour, or auto and just ending up with a mess. I don't have to program DMX which is a bonus, but it's not quite as plug and play as they would have you believe, due to a fair bit of manual work to get everything running and reacting the way you want.

Early signs are promising for what I'm looking for though.

I've set a midi controller up to toggle blinders, strobes, blackout and some of the dials for master brightness, excitement level for different fixture groups, though I doubt I'll have time to play with that much whilst drumming.

I do co run a small venue and do sound for local festivals, so the lighting rig is likely to be set up for those events too and I can see the on the fly control being useful in those scenarios.

The lights include 2 large gravity T bars at the back of the stage (with 4 pars 4 moving zoom wash), 4x led battens, 2 moving spots with gobos/prism and 2 led wash panels at the front of the stage with barndoors for lighting the band. It's a lot to set up so can't see it all being used regularly, but elements of it likely will do.

How are you getting on with this @Chris_J ;?

We really need to get some basic lighting for gigs for our 8-piece punk/soul/ska covers band, esp. if we start doing more exclusive functions.

R.

Roland

AntonHunter said:

Roland said: This will give you a starter: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/228749/

Would love to see pics or videos (on that thread or here), sounds like you're all over it!

.

This is a static before we go on. You can see the colour flood, interest lights on the ceiling, and spot lights on the singer, bassist, and myself.

Danny1969

We have a lot of lights, to the extent we have a separate smaller van that is just for lights. There's a lot of parcans, some floods, a load of moving head lights on bars and some small little robot type things that go on the floor. Our engineer has a lighting rack with DMX desk in the top

We call this approach shock & awe The sheer amount of equipment impresses them more than the music

This is FOH and lights guys

Kittyfrisk

Danny1969 said:

We have a lot of lights, to the extent we have a separate smaller van that is just for lights. There's a lot of parcans, some floods, a load of moving head lights on bars and some small little robot type things that go on the floor. Our engineer has a lighting rack with DMX desk in the top

We call this approach shock & awe The sheer amount of equipment impresses them more than the music

This is FOH and lights guys

Don't you ever get a wicked urge to break into 'Stairway to Heaven' halfway through the tune? 

Moltisanti

Holy shit, seeing all this makes me realise just how little I know about lighting, it's a massive part of the production and I am clueless.

stickyfiddle

I love stage lighting and a lack of it is part of why I don’t like playing pubs as much as clubs & theatres… 

My lot has no lights right now but aiming to do bigger stuff where it’s someone else’s job  

@danny1969 I’m fully in agreement that looking the part is half of where people see value

robinbowes

I want to figure out what minimal spend will get my band on the right track. I own/run the PA/mics etc. so I don't mind adding some lighting (although I'll need a bigger van if I do!). So, here's the question:

We are an 8-piece soul/ska/punk band, with 3-piece brass, keys, 2 guitars, bass, drums, one main vocal, 2/3 backing vocals.

What should we buy to illuminate us and look good? Spots on the main members? Some sort of music-related movement would be good, with the option for manual control.

Where to start?

Roland

@robinbowes You can do it for around £500. The things I would focus on:

1. Spotlighting the singer and soloists. For this I’m using cheap incandescent spot lights bolted to the top of the PA speakers so that they shine down on the singer. Housings are £12 each from Thomann. I don’t know where you’d get the incandescent bulbs, most bulbs today are LED, which don’t have the same impact. These are always on. I could use a foot switch, or DMX controlled switch, to turn them on and off. For a brass section it could be as simple as a line of LED bulbs, or a small garden floodlight, on a piece of wood at their feet, or a stand at the side.

2. Mood lighting: choosing a colourway for each song, and pulsing with the beat. I’ve got two LED bars, about £80 each from CPC. They’re controlled by DMXIS software running on a cheap Windows tablet, £100 secondhand. I used to control changes from an FC1010 midi footpedal, also £100. Nowadays I send midi from my AxeFX. We place these to suit the venue. In the picture they’re perched on dado rails. Normally they lie in front of the singer, or hang down from the side of the PA speakers, bolted to fly mounting points. I mainly use fixed colours, and occasionally standard moving patterns. DMXIS has the ability to write its own moving patterns. I have ambitions to do this.

3. Interest lighting. I’d like moving spots, but most pubs don’t have the space. We use KAM lights, which I’ve had for around 15 years, either pointed at the ceiling, or at the audience.These are also DMX controlled. Our drummer has some party lights which he puts around his kit.

The whole lot fits into my car alongside the PA and my guitar gear.

Snags

Depending on the venues you're playing, you can do something that's "OK" for a lot less than £500.

Starting simple, a couple of sets of relatively cheap par cans that you manually set to cycle through colour fades, and a couple of ball efforts that will do sparkles/swirls based on the music can create a reasonable colour wash and dynamics for pub gigs. You just have to think about placement a little.

Obviously it's nice to use DMX, lasers, t-bar sets, strobes and all the rest of it, but if you're playing boozers where a 4 or 5-piece is already cramped for stage space, and you're supplying all the PA, backline and lighting, and don't have dedicated operators, sometimes you just have to be realistic. Or at least start small and gradually build on it.

Danny1969

The thing with lights and PA is you don't have to use all the gear all the time. When we were doing pubs in that band some were large enough to warrant a lot of gear, others not so much. DMX is a serial bus, you can run out of addresses for individual control but you tend to gang devices so they all switch together to a certain extend. So you can can program a chase but use less lights on that chase if you want to. 

Back in the eighties we used 1000 watt parcans and TRIAC dimmer packs. The dimmer packs were controlled by a lighting desk that was 4 feet wide. You couldn't actually plug the dimmer packs into normal mains as the current draw was too much. You had to find a cooker socket or something else on a 40 amp circuit. Even then you could trip the fuse if all the lights were on at once. 

Modern LED parcans are nowhere near as bright some are better than others. The low throw bodied ones tend to be a lot better but they are dearer to buy.