Lighting and Sound System Recommendations?

Okay so a few questions..

1. Budget?

2. Expected Audience? (Age/Music Tastes)

3. Number of people?

4. What have you got already?

bob6397

Hi Danny!

Here’s a lighting recommendation, FWIW. Recently I added a lighting thing called an IRC GigBar and have been favorably impressed with it. It has a laser on top that puts moving patterns on the ceiling, 2 LED color washes, 4 strobes, and some motorized, multicolored things on the ends that project multiple beams. It goes on a single tripod that’s included, and has a radio controlled foot pedal that lets you change the program – including one that is music triggered. One of these things does a pretty good job in a medium sized room (around 100 people) and two would take care of a pretty big room. It comes in two nice carry cases and is easy to lug around. As a mobile DJ with a tweaky back, I really appreciate that! I got mine from Sweetwater but I’ve seen them at IDJ Now as well. About $450 USD.

I agree with Chuck. I went to a wedding (as a guest) where the only lighting was a Gig Bar and the dancefloor never had more than a dozen people on it (it was a very small wedding) and at that I found the lighting was very underwhelming.

But we all have to start somewhere I guess.

Frankly, and this comes from many years of running with a mobile show, to do light well, you need at least an extra person for setting up (unless you like being at a 4-hour gig for 9 hours) and controlling the lights. Automatic settings isn’t all that and music trigger only takes you so far. We used to have at least one but often 2 guys to setup lights and 1 would handle the DMX controller during the show. Clearly we brought more than 1 gig bar to a gig, but just to show that light is a serious commitment and should be treated as such, provided you want your lights to add to the customer experience and not seem like an afterthought.

What I believe does contribute well even with lower budget gear is dropping (battery-operated for easy use) LED bars, 4 would already make a huge difference, along the big walls in a room and have them slow chase/color change or even permanent color uplight the walls. This changes the atmosphere completely and is highly noticeable with a relative minimum of gear. Also it’s very easy to setup and to operate (here automatic can work). People that walk in will sense the difference immediately after stepping into the room.

Another trick that can help is having another set of these LED bars, set them on the floor at the booth or the sides of the dance floor, aimed over the floor. This will give you are relatively high light yield even from smaller fixtures, it will clearly mark the dance floor and make it “alive”.

One of the big issues with light, is that it’s effect is usually not visible in the air, only where the beams hit a solid surface, like floor, ceiling, wall or people. Laser for example doesn’t “do” much for a room unless there is a medium in the air that makes the beam clearly visible. Often times smoke machines are used for that, but they are really unsuitable for that purpose. Smokers are an effect and the smoke quickly dissipates. I have noticed an increased anti-smoke machine sentiment on dance floors here.
What you do want to use is a Hazer. This makes a very fine mist with a very long “hang-time”. Also you can run a hazer permanently without overdoing it. While you can not see the mist itself, when a light beam hits the tiny moisture drops, it will become very visible and make your light gear much more effective. The bad part here being that while a smoke machine can be had for under 100-150 euro, a good hazer starts around 1000 euro. And if you can afford to spend 1000 on a single hazer you can afford to spend money on some more serious lighting gear. And presto, suddenly you are looking at 5000+ in lights (our mobile show had well over 25000 in lighting and truss materials).

The (relatively) low end lights that I think do well are the American DJ Revo (a combination of 3 and 4, one aimed at the floor, the other aimed at the ceiling), the new “mini” LED moving heads (don’t get the absolute cheapest but move up one series) and the new American DJ Dotz bars/blocks/spots. Together with the LED bars for uplighting, you can – imho – get better effect with those than you can with the gig bar.

I explained why I think lasers – and to a lesser extend moonflowers – are somewhat of a waste of money at the low budget end and without haze.

At the end of the day, as I said before, it’s up to you, your wallet and your eyes. If you feel it works, go for it.

I’ll repeat my warning that it is much easier to “degrade” your image with a sub-par light setup than it is by not bringing lights at all. So please keep an open eye for rental option. After all, nobody says you have to OWN everything, right? Especially not when you are just starting out.