# My band & new toys. Fire effect...



## robare99 (Jan 9, 2012)

New toys!! Back in the day (1993ish) we used home made pyro. Terrible idea, and luckily by the grace of God no one ever got hurt. I'd never even dream of doing something like that again. Basically we used gunpowder charges, which gave us a bit of flash and some smoke. 











Seemed like a good idea at the time. Again, in retrospect it was a bad idea. Fast forward to nowadays and I picked up a pair of fixtures called Fog Fury Jett, by American DJ. It's basically a smoke machine with LED's around the nozzle. Is a RGBAW fixture so you can make the "flame" any color. I kept it simple due to time constraints, and had red at 100% and Amber ay around 25%. The nice thing is you can run it for a good 10 seconds or so, and it's absolutely 100% safe. You could stand over top of it if you wanted. Chauvet has the Geyser RGB. Costs a bit more. As you can see it really puts out and is an awesome effect!! Full DMX control 






Smokes the hell out of the building though lol. We did our last song all in silhouette.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Pretty cool effect actually. The new one that is.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

It's quite cool, but as different from flash and concussion pots as a univibe is to a Leslie.

We used to run lots of pyro back n the 80s.

No way would we be allowed to do that knd of a show these days.


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## Hamstrung (Sep 21, 2007)

That effect is way cool! Nice playing too!

BTW, where did you buy them and how much are they?


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## robare99 (Jan 9, 2012)

GuitarsCanada said:


> Pretty cool effect actually. The new one that is.


No doubt. The olden days ones weren't near as impressive as we thought lol.



Milkman said:


> It's quite cool, but as different from flash and concussion pots as a univibe is to a Leslie.
> 
> We used to run lots of pyro back n the 80s.
> 
> No way would we be allowed to do that knd of a show these days.


True that. We always thought it was pretty neat as a band. But man, so dangerous. Especially after seeing the Great White tragedy. Not the same but 80% of the effect with 0% danger.



Hamstrung said:


> That effect is way cool! Nice playing too!
> 
> BTW, where did you buy them and how much are they?


Thanks. I'm the fatass playing the Ibanez Jem. I had a brain fart at the second note of the outtro. I bought them from Long & McQuade. $440 each. They were talking about putting some into rental stock.

American DJ - High Velocity Vertical Fog Machine W/ RGBA LEDs

I just ordered a couple gallons of quick disapating fog juice. Here's a video, big difference. It doesn't hang around as long. makes it much more usable.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

robare99 said:


> True that. We always thought it was pretty neat as a band. But man, so dangerous. Especially after seeing the Great White tragedy. Not the same but 80% of the effect with 0% danger.


I'd call it 60% of the effect with 0% danger.

A concussion isn't just something you see. It's something you feel.

So is the heat from a flash pot.

But, in the real world, we just can't really blow shit up anymore.

I love that there are safe alternatives.

I've known people who were injured trying to do pyro.


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## robare99 (Jan 9, 2012)

Milkman said:


> I'd call it 60% of the effect with 0% danger.
> 
> A concussion isn't just something you see. It's something you feel.
> 
> ...


True. There's nothing with this that has any concussions. Our sound/light/pyro guy was really high once (nooooo, really?) and had the pyro armed. We were in the middle of a song and when he plugged in another charge it went off and up his arm. He went running out, we checked on him after the song. His arm was red and no hair left but no real burns lol. His gf was pissed that we played the rest of the song.

You can change the color of the "flame" and it runs way longer than our pyro ever did.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

It's interesting to see the new technology available for lighting and specials.

I still (for sme reason) miss the old dimmer packs, pin matrix light boards and par 64 lamps.

We used to melt stuff. Drum heads were common casualties. I even had two keys on a DX7 melt enough so that they stuck down if you used them.

I also remember a band asking me why they kept blowing celestions. I noticed that they situated their concussion mortars right in front of their Marshall 4 X 12 cabs.

They were shredding speakers in a weird way. The paper and voice coils were actually coming out (not being pushed in).


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## robare99 (Jan 9, 2012)

I have a PG800 program module for my old Roland JX8P synth that's kinda melted from a light. Crazy about those concussions!! Good times!!

I run my light rig off two 20A circuits on my Distro, and that's just because my wash lights get a little finnicky if I put too much on their circuit and they pop the odd fuse. It's neat how instead of gels and single colors, each light can be a number of colors.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

robare99 said:


> I have a PG800 program module for my old Roland JX8P synth that's kinda melted from a light. Crazy about those concussions!! Good times!!
> 
> I run my light rig off two 20A circuits on my Distro, and that's just because my wash lights get a little finnicky if I put too much on their circuit and they pop the odd fuse. It's neat how instead of gels and single colors, each light can be a number of colors.


Yeah the RBG mixing capabilities are absolutely awesome. The flexibility of these systems absolutely crushes the old incandescent lamp systems.

I did a benefit for breast cancer and the host asked if I could produce pink lighting.

No problem and no gels to buy.


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

I just pitched 4 Par64 light cans because nobody wanted them. I still have a few new bulbs for them that I should get rid of also. I think we paid $60 a piece for them if I remember correctly. If anyone wants the bulbs, they can have them.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Guitar101 said:


> I just pitched 4 Par64 light cans because nobody wanted them. I still have a few new bulbs for them that I should get rid of also. I think we paid $60 a piece for them if I remember correctly. If anyone wants the bulbs, they can have them.


You can't give the old incandescent stuff away anymore. The power requirements are one of the biggest reasons, not to mention the set up time.

In a permanent installation I think they still have a place (quickly diminishing), but like printed newspapers and 35mm film, that place is almost gone.


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## robare99 (Jan 9, 2012)

One place I provide sound for replaced all their par cans and old lighting with new LED fixtures. Got rid of all the truss. Cleaner setup and must save so much with power costs


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Milkman said:


> It's interesting to see the new technology available for lighting and specials.
> 
> I still (for sme reason) miss the old dimmer packs, pin matrix light boards and par 64 lamps.
> 
> ...


Ah, the days when we could just blow things up wherever we wanted.


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

Milkman said:


> You can't give the old incandescent stuff away anymore. The power requirements are one of the biggest reasons, not to mention the set up time.
> 
> In a permanent installation I think they still have a place (quickly diminishing), but like printed newspapers and 35mm film, that place is almost gone.


Yes, I'm sure your right but there must be somebody, somewhere that still uses the old systems. If only I could find them and give them these bulbs as they are NOS. I'll hang onto them a little longer just in case as they don't take up too much room in the drawer their in. I have other stuff too like a Brother Midi Disk Composer (MDI-40) that I used to store my synth samples on the old 3 1/2" computer disks. But that's another story.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Guitar101 said:


> Yes, I'm sure your right but there must be somebody, somewhere that still uses the old systems. If only I could find them and give them these bulbs as they are NOS. I'll hang onto them a little longer just in case as they don't take up too much room in the drawer their in. I have other stuff too like a Brother Midi Disk Composer (MDI-40) that I used to store my synth samples on the old 3 1/2" computer disks. But that's another story.


I hope so. I'd look at churches, small theaters et cetera. There must still be some par 64 cans in service somewhere and as you know, those bulbs do burn out.


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## robare99 (Jan 9, 2012)

GuitarsCanada said:


> Ah, the days when we could just blow things up wherever we wanted.


Or using an insect fogger as a smoke machine. It would only throw a 15' horizontal flame across the stage maybe twice a night. 

Hardly at all. Lol


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

robare99 said:


> Or using an insect fogger as a smoke machine. It would only throw a 15' horizontal flame across the stage maybe twice a night.
> 
> Hardly at all. Lol


LOL, before we could afford a fog machine we did that.

It worked pretty well, but the drummer had to light it and fire it off when he had a chance.

Ours didn't shoot flames, but it was an open flame on a stage full of rock gods.


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## robare99 (Jan 9, 2012)

Mineral spirits with some peppermint extract lol


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

By the way, your singer does a heck of a job on TNT.

The band sounds great all around.


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## robare99 (Jan 9, 2012)

Thanks. I had a bit of a brain fart right at the ending run. He does a great Bon Scott. Here's a recording if Dirty Deeds from another gig we played...


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