LED lighting.

[Phil Starr]

19 hours ago, Sean said:

Which ones are these, Phil?

Do you have any photos or videos of them in action?

Hi Sean  I'm assuming that you mean the lights? I haven't really filmed the lightshow as such, I've got a couple of short clips of the 6 led bars I was talking about which I thought was on this thread. I'll look them out later.

 

I've had LED lighting for around 12 years now but I've only recently started to think about how to do it properly and this thread is about starting a conversation with people going the same route. £3-500 is probably a decent stab at how much a gigging pub band would need to spend to get something decent which would improve their 'look' and hopefully their marketability, ie bring in more/better gigs.

 

Having spent at least £500 and still not happy I'd say don't do what I did, have a plan based upon what is out there and what you want to achieve instead. I'm not too bothered, spare lights give me flexibility and I'll sell off all the lights I won't use once I'm happy. The good news is that a lot of the really cheap Chinese stuff is actually really effective and pretty reliable in use. I've only had one item dead on arrival and the UK supplier actually replaced the bulbs! I've got two laser lights that cost me £12 ea and fill the ceilings of venues with dancing green and red dots.

 

So, before spending a penny think about what you are trying to achieve:

• Lighting to make the band look good
• Lighting to allow the band to see what they are doing
• Lighting to improve the audience experience

 

You can probably achieve all of these with £500 but could spend thousands to do everythig well. You also need to think about convenience and set up times and this is my current issue with what I have.

 

Lighting to make the band look good

 

Any lighting will make the band look better, I even know one band who deliberately shine a light out of the windows to advertise that there is something going on inside the pub  You need these lights to be in the band area/stage and at least some of them pointing at the band. These can dazzle you if they are too powerful, some activity is useful too but would have to suit the band, A punk band is going to want more active lights than a Jazz trio. Most of the cheap lights are designed for disco's so that the chases are often too busy to be useful. Slow fades are rare. Just bathing the band in red/blue/straw or even white light can be effective here but think about what you want to do before you spend.

 

Lighting to allow the band to see what they are doing

 

Steady lighting is good here. You don't want the fretboard plunbged into darkness or a powerful strobe at the beginning of a difficult solo. You probably want diffuse light too I've had a lot of complaints from band members about being spotlighted (which is what I think) or dazzled (their interpretation  ) Most LED lights are pretty focussed so diffuse lighting is rare. Uplighting is usually effective but a trip hazard. 

 

Lighting to improve the audience experience

 

Dynamism and sound to light is the thing here. Some of the automatic chases and sound to light is fantastic. Some of my lights really follow the bass line and/or kick drum so keep the lights in tempo. Otheres have multiple led's and seem to rotate. You can also now buy lights that scan automatically for under £50 and some project moving patterns (gobos) through mirror systems.

 

Last warning, I always end up complicating things. All I'm saying is that if you have a picture in your head of what you are trying to achieve you'll spend more wisely. I started with a single bar with four PAR's like the Stairville one @Al Krow linked to. A couple of those ones would be brilliant if you wanted to keep it as simple as possible Two of the lamps can be set to white to illuminate the band and the rest will fill the dancefloor with light. The 40deg angle is ideall for a floodlight. Just putting two lights up controlled by a simple remote is about as easy and straightforward as you can get. I've had a beady eye on those for a while for the band where I do all the sound as well as the lights. My duo partner does the lights while I do sound so the lighting for the duo can be more complex. 

 

Gloucester is a bit of a drive but if you ever came over this way you'd be welcome to play with LED lighting over a coffee 

[Phil Starr]

On 27/08/2025 at 08:40, gazhowe said:

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. 

 

This is a great illustration of flooding the stage with static colours and adding in some illumination of the instruments. Adding in a little up light/ flood of the drums would have solved the distance problem. I love the intense blue shots. No flashing lights means you concentrate on the band.