gazhowe

I like that. Is that behind the speaker grill?

Here's a short video of one of the t-bars in my new lighting setup when I was first testing the lights in my garage. Those four lights cost approx £150 in total (excluding t- bar, power and DMX cables). One par is permanently set to white light to illuminate the guitarist while the other provides a stage wash. The two moving heads provide visual interest. The pars can be set up like that using their internal features however DMX control is needed to make the moving heads move slowly and keep them pointed at the band. IMG_2308.mov

Many of the LED output ratings on AliExpress seem to be exaggerated so I've been careful to look for a UKing product code (e.g. ZQ02356) and check the spec on the UKing site before buying via AliExpress. The prices fluctuate quite a bit and the ads can be quite misleading too (e.g. a picture of 4 lights but the price is for 1 light) so it pays to take care before you 'checkout'.

Our current lighting setup is as follows. Two T-bars (gravity stands), each with 2 x pars (UKing ZQ01069) and 2 x moving heads (UKing ZQ02021) Two floor standing moving heads (UKing ZQO2356) Two floor standing pars (LEDJ 7Q5) ADJ 4 stream DMX with ADJ Airstream pro app on iPad Martin Magnum 800 smoke machine The aims were as follows and I'm please to say that we've managed to achieve all three. All of the UKing lights were bought from AliExpress and were cheaper than buying direct from UKing. 1. Get brighter stage lights than we previously had. 2. Make the light show more interesting. 3. Fund it all by selling our existing lights

@TimR DMX cabling is a pain I could do without so I'd be interested to know which brand you buy, which lights you are controlling with them, and how well these work in practice please. A friend of mine (also a bassist) is has bought the Chauvet wireless dmx system but won't have the opportunity to try it before the new year. I'll report back when I hear how that went.

I’m not an expert on using DMX but have been using it to control my band’s stage lighting for approximately 10 years or more. Rather than explain what DMX is and how it works (there are YouTube videos and other online content for that) I thought it might be useful to list some things to consider based on my personal experience. Setting up and controlling your lights Think about what you are trying to achieve with your stage lights. Are you happy with static colours and/or the same colour changing features throughout your set without the option to turn all your lights off (and back on) at the same time? If so, you may be able to achieve this with features built into your LED lighting fixtures without the need to use DMX to control your lights. You can always buy a DMX controller later if you wish. Who is controlling the lights? If you or another band member are controlling the lights from the stage area you will almost certainly need a controller that has some basic colour chase and Blackout features built in (or ability for you to create chase sequences) that can easily be started and stopped without impacting your ability to play your instrument. PC/laptop DMX controller or standalone DMX controller Standalone DMX lighting controllers can be the quickest and easiest way to get started with DMX lighting and be easier to use on stage than a PC/laptop-based DMX controller. These controllers will have limitations that may mean you need to upgrade sooner than you want, e.g. limitations in the number of different fixtures they can control, the number of DMX channels that can be used per fixture and/or the number of DMX channels in total that are available. PC/laptop-based DMX controllers are less likely to have these limitations and, provided they are still supported by the developer, may be updated with additional features at a future date. Future proof where possible Before choosing your lighting controller, look at the number of different lighting fixtures you have, how many DMX channels each fixture uses, and the total number of channels you need to control all of your fixtures. If you are buying a standalone DMX controller, consider buying one that has much more capacity than you currently need. If you are like me and often want to upgrade to better lights (particularly moving heads that use more DMX channels) it could save you the trouble and cost of needing to buy a better controller to use the new lights. Consider buying a PC/laptop-based DMX controller to reduce the risk of needing to upgrade your controller when you add or upgrade your lights. Some fixtures have multiple options for the number of DMX channels they use for control, e.g. 8 channel mode, 16 channel mode, 24 channel mode. Look at what each mode offers in the fixture instructions and decide if you really need to use the maximum number of DMX channels for control. Setting DMX addresses – it’s tempting to speed up your initial setup by giving the same DMX address to multiple lighting fixtures that will do the same thing (e.g. up lights) rather than give each fixture its own individual address. If you want the option to control each light individually to create more complex shows at a later date you will need to spend time reconfiguring all of your addresses, so I recommend save time in the long run by giving each fixture its own address when you first set it up. Start simple? If you are going down the DMX control route, consider whether you need to control every fixture via DMX, e.g. do you want some ‘always on’ lights. If so, could you use in-built control features for these fixtures, and use DMX control for other fixtures until you become more confident with DMX? Cabling DMX leads and audio leads work differently and shouldn’t be used for anything other than their intended purpose. Assuming they are all black they will be impossible to tell apart so consider putting white electricians’ tape (or another bright colour) on your DMX leads. DMX cabling from your lighting controller is done on a daisy chain in/out basis from one fixture to another. If you have multiple lights on a T-bar, consider using short DMX cables permanently connected to these lights to save time setting up and stripping down. It’s recommended to use a DMX terminator (basically a XLR connector) on the output of the last fixture in your DMX chain. DMX connections via Wi-Fi can be prone to interference and dropouts. Wired DMX connections are more reliable but can take longer to set up and strip down. Troubleshooting If you’ve connected all your lights to power and daisy the chained DMX cables correctly but nothing works, try turning your controller off and on and disconnect and then reconnecting the DMX cable plugged into your controller, then wait a few seconds. This often works for the ADJ 4 Steam DMX that I use. Before you start investigating potential cable issues, check whether the DMX channel on each fixture is correct. I once spend 45 stressful minutes immediately prior to show time investigating cabling issues only to discover that a band member had inadvertently pressed buttons on several lights which changed their DMX address and caused them not to work. If some of your lights are working as expected but not others, start investigating and swapping cables from the last light that it responding to DMX as expected. DMX connectors in lighting fixtures can fail although this is rare. Don’t discount the possibility when troubleshooting but I suggest leaving this check until last. Have a backup plan. If your DMX lighting control fails altogether you can set each lighting fixture to a static colour or a chase using its built in features to get you through the gig. Make a note on your phone or take the instruction booklet for each fixture to gigs to avoid the need to look for instruction manuals online at the last minute!

All good advice @Phil Starr. I've been using lights with DMX control for years and I'm happy to chat with anyone to share some lessons I've learned. For example; when thinking about DMX control it's a good idea to consider potential limitations of your controller as that can be expensive in the long run. I've had to buy a different controller several times as the one I had wasn't capable of providing the number of DMX channels required to run or get the best out of new lights I'd bought. I'm not an expert on software based DMX control but the software based system I'm using has eliminated that problem and extra expense.

If I was getting my first lights and thinking about a cost effective and simple lighting setup I would go for two t-bars with four led par lights on each. If you buy something like these (see link) which I've just bought they have in built programs that you can use without a DMX controller. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008004713042.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.25bbVKU1VKU1Rs&algo_pvid=1bc30bb9-c2b7-480c-be00-c870d3deadb0&algo_exp_id=1bc30bb9-c2b7-480c-be00-c870d3deadb0-2&pdp_ext_f={"order"%3A"46"%2C"eval"%3A"1"%2C"fromPage"%3A"search"}&pdp_npi=6%40dis!GBP!295.38!87.73!!!295.38!87.73!%40211b819117645836065426848eb613!12000043230307734!sea!UK!0!ABX!1!0!n_tag%3A-29910%3Bd%3A32eab0d4%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895%3BpisId%3A5000000194912328&curPageLogUid=rOphz0wl8iEz&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch|query_from%3A|x_object_id%3A1005008004713042|_p_origin_prod%3A

We have a couple of LEDJ 7Q5 pars that work well as uplights for the drums but stopped taking them to gigs due to grumblings within the band about the amount of gear we are taking to gigs (which is a fair comment 🙂). I think we may need to revisit this. Funnily enough, I've recently replaced everything in that lighting setup apart from the drum uplights (not in the video) and the lighting control (iPad / ADJ 4 stream bridge) with lights bought from AliExpress. I'm still applying the same principles; 1. Lights on stands pointing down where possible to avoid dazzling band members. 2. Static colour and slow fade colour change stage wash lights (it's not a disco 😉). 3. White lights on band members. 4. Moving heads to add effects/interest.

Can anyone recommend a similar app (preferably free) for iPhone please?

We are using the two original LEDJ Q Colour filters for stage wash. Those new LEDJ fixtures you've just purchased are more powerful so I suspect they will do the job nicely.

Here's a few clips we recorded pre-gig last year as a bit of a show reel. The while lights on guitar/vocal/bass work well with a reasonably bright stage wash. The one pointed at the drummer didn't cover the distance between t-bar and kit to illuminate the drummer well (I usually hide him with smoke anyway😄). You'll see from the clips with a dark (blue) stage you need to be reasonably disciplined where you stand as it's easy to move out of the white light. Hope this is useful info.

We use four LEDJ 7Q5 pars, one for each band member. They set to white light and are mounted on t-bars and pointed at everyone's midriff to avoid blinding. We've tried placing these on the floor but found that they always blind you at some point. https://www.djanddiscostuff.com/ledj-7q5-led-uplighter-7-x-5watt-rgbw-quad-leds-p1264

I stopped using a Class 3B laser several years ago for this reason. In smaller venues it's very difficult to operate these in accordance with the safety guidelines and any public liability insurance you may have is unlikely to cover you if you can't provide evidence that you have operated it in accordance with the safety guidelines.

Haha, no worries.😊

On reflection and based on my own experience I should have said: "Provided that you aren't using the same frequency for both systems in theory you should be fine. In reality, a wireless IEM system is more likely to have issues due to either the quality of system used or environment (i.e. other devices competing for the same frequency band)." 😉

I'm using a Sennheiser EW-D guitar wireless system and a Sennheiser XSW IEM wireless system. The guitar wireless receiver and IEM transmitter are housed next to each other in the same 2U rack. I've no experience with AKG equipment. Provided that you aren't using the same frequency for both systems you should be fine. Any performance issues will more likely to due to the quality of system you use and/or environment (i.e. other devices competing for the same frequency band). Do you have any particular concerns or questions about using both types of system together?

Happy to help.

I've just bought a MXR pedal from Lee. It arrived when promised and was well packaged. Great comms throughout made this an easy transaction. If you are considering buying from Lee you can do so with confidence.

Really enjoyed listening to those. Both tracks sound great. 😎