# stage lighting



## bluesmostly (Feb 10, 2006)

Question for some of you giggers out there. 

What do you know about small, compact, LED lighting systems?

We usually do our own sound and lights and the lights we have are the old fashioned giant metal pot lights that are heavy and gobble up lots of energy, but mostly, we are sick of hauling them around. The other singer said he saw a set of LED's for stage lighting at L&M that was light and compact but cost $1400! 

I would love to get rid of the big of lighting rig and have a light compact set up.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

A friend's band uses the new LED lights and they LOVE them... for all of the reasons that you mention.


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

bw66 said:


> A friend's band uses the new LED lights and they LOVE them... for all of the reasons that you mention.


Same here. The nicest thing about them for me is they are not so frigging _hot_!!!


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## fudb (Dec 8, 2010)

They're not cheap up front, but don't forget low power bills, and extremely long bulb life will add up over the life of the fixture.

I've had good success with Chauvet brand for good prosumer fixtures, not the cheapest out there but worth the extra 10% IMO. American DJ is cheaper, but still decent. The Yorkville stuff I haven't used, but the warantee will be good probably..


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

http://www.bigclive.com/ripple.htm


I read this the other day, thought it apropos to the thread


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## ronmac (Sep 22, 2006)

I have used the new Yorkville set and like them. Great on-board features and easy set-up an tear down. I successfully lit a 16x24 stage with a set on each side.

Rental is the way to go on these until the price becomes a little more reasonable.


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## Guitar101 (Jan 19, 2011)

There are LED conversion kits available for the par 64 cans if you don't mind lugging them around but it sounds like your trying to get away from just that. I have 6 cans and the controller sitting around that haven't been used for ten years. I may look into the conversion kits. They are worth nothing as they are.


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## ThePass (Aug 10, 2007)

Our singer picked up a set of four, with the tower and paid nowhere near $1400 at L&M.

They are awesome. No more tripping breaker's at gigs and waiting for somebody who knows where the panel is to show up, ect. As mentioned above they are not hot.

They are also programmable (somewhat I suppose) they 'dance' to the beat, or are full on, ect...ect...comes with footswitch.

I highly recommend them.


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

There is a full set of Yorkvilles with stands and controllers on Windsor Kijij for $700 if anyone is interested.

http://windsor.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...-Yorkville-Lighting-System-W0QQAdIdZ332183116


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

A good LED set up is not cheap, but they don't require dimmer packs, 220 power, don't get hot and don't cause the noise problems associated with traditional incandescent rigs.

Additionally, the flexibility is amazing. Consider that with a typical par set up with 16 Par 64 lamps, you have one colour available on each lamp unless you run up and switch gels.

With the same 16 Par LED set up you can have all 16 pars any colour you can imagine (mixing Red, Blue and Green) or any combination of colours and program the scenes to your taste.

Another cool feature is that if you're running a board out front, you can use a channel on the snake to control the lights.

This is my set up. It cost more than you may want to spend but it's light (sic) and flexible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy64MmHHk2k&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Big_Daddy said:


> There is a full set of Yorkvilles with stands and controllers on Windsor Kijij for $700 if anyone is interested.http://windsor.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-...-Yorkville-Lighting-System-W0QQAdIdZ332183116


This may seem obvious, but the lights in this ad are not LED.


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

Milkman said:


> This may seem obvious, but the lights in this ad are not LED.


Oops. Totally missed that.:zzz:


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Big_Daddy said:


> Oops. Totally missed that.:zzz:


Nothing wrong with trying to help.

My LED Rig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy64MmHHk2k&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

That is sweet! Can you run down all of the gear you are using?


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## Chubba (Aug 23, 2009)

Milkman said:


> My LED Rig
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy64MmHHk2k&feature=youtube_gdata_player


yeah - Nice set up! I played with a few guys who worked for a sound and lighting company and would never have really thought about how much a good lighting setup can add to a show without their interest in it.


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## bluesmostly (Feb 10, 2006)

that looks great Milkman, I know you do alot with live sound and music, can you recommend a good basic LED stage lighting set-up?


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

That rig is:

16 X MEC Par 64 LED
http://www.musicexpresscanada.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=238

16 X MEC Par 38 LED
http://www.musicexpresscanada.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=115

2 X Chauvet Mega Moon
http://www.chauvetlighting.com/mega-moon.html

1 Chinese Laser (mine is green but same model)
http://www.musicexpresscanada.com/product_info.php?products_id=208

1 Chinese control board. Mine is now discontinued but not dissimilar to this
http://www.musicexpresscanada.com/product_info.php?cPath=5&products_id=153

Chauvet Follow spot
couldn't find a link.

American DJ Fog Machine with wireless remote
http://www.americandj.com/ProductDe...&Category=Lighting_DISCONTINUED&txtSearch=fog machine
This is all controlled via DMX technology. I'd like to get a new controller at some point to better exploit the potential of the set up.

I have a 220 disconnect that almost never gets used anymore because these lights don't draw much current.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

bluesmostly said:


> that looks great Milkman, I know you do alot with live sound and music, can you recommend a good basic LED stage lighting set-up?


Thanks man. I outlined my set up in the previous post. I think you have to decide on what you can afford, but a good starting point is the par 64 LED cans (as many as you can afford) and a simple controller.

You also need to mount them to something. I like Yorkville Sound T-Bars and stands. They're strong and light. If you use that set up you'll want to buy the Par cans in multiples of four. Four T-Bars allows you lots of flexibility in your set up without requiring truss sections. 

Cabling is less intensive than with incandescent rigs. I use Furman power bars. They each have six outlets and a nice long cable. That get's you AC to each stand.
Furman
http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=SS-6B
Then you need to link all of the lamps in series via DMX cable (which is pretty much the same as XLR).

So you chain them all together and set each lamp with it's own "address" generally with dip switches located on each lamp.

Cool stuff.


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## bluesmostly (Feb 10, 2006)

thanks alot Milkman, that is a great help!


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