Centre Stage Discos
I am totally with you on that, but there are two of us and that makes things much easier. Maybe one day we might even invest in wireless dongle transmitters and receivers so we can halve the cabling going to the lights. It's the spaghetti which is the time consuming factor. We take TWO large cases of cabling out with us. One is for lighting, the other for sound, speaking of which, we usually take a 7kW RCF rig out with us, subs and tops, and that weighs a ton.
Agreed about most people not giving a wotsit about what equipment we use, to a certain extent. Some really DO, but they are in a minority.
Agreed about most people not giving a wotsit about what equipment we use, to a certain extent. Some really DO, but they are in a minority.
Posted Sun 26 Nov 23 @ 2:32 pm
kradcliffe
When I started back on the mobile scene I got a gig bar. Did the job for a couple of months but was only use for small venues. The foot pedal control gave you some leeway but it still wasn't great.
I then ordered a couple of Chauvet Intimidator Hybrid 140SR heads which were a lot more complex than I realised. Two gobo wheels, two prisms, spot wash and gobo. They also have motorzed zoom. I ordered SS with them but it couldn't handle the complex programming they need. At that point I realised I needed a comprehensive DMX program to run them so that's when I got Showxpress with the module.
With full DMX you can control the head movement, lamp dimming, colours etc where with an automated solution it just "does stuff".
As I said it took hours of learning and also a training course to learn what I needed to, but now the 140SR do everything I need them to and I now have a pair of lightweight Equinox Vortex for smaller venues and they were easy enough to program with ShowXpress after having had the experience of mapping the larger ones.
The 140SR were around £1300 each but people DO notice how good they are and frequently comment on the brightness and vibrancy of the colour output.
The other benefit is that I can run the basic functions of either lights from within VDJ with one bank of custom buttons for the 140SR and one set for the Vortex.
I then ordered a couple of Chauvet Intimidator Hybrid 140SR heads which were a lot more complex than I realised. Two gobo wheels, two prisms, spot wash and gobo. They also have motorzed zoom. I ordered SS with them but it couldn't handle the complex programming they need. At that point I realised I needed a comprehensive DMX program to run them so that's when I got Showxpress with the module.
With full DMX you can control the head movement, lamp dimming, colours etc where with an automated solution it just "does stuff".
As I said it took hours of learning and also a training course to learn what I needed to, but now the 140SR do everything I need them to and I now have a pair of lightweight Equinox Vortex for smaller venues and they were easy enough to program with ShowXpress after having had the experience of mapping the larger ones.
The 140SR were around £1300 each but people DO notice how good they are and frequently comment on the brightness and vibrancy of the colour output.
The other benefit is that I can run the basic functions of either lights from within VDJ with one bank of custom buttons for the 140SR and one set for the Vortex.
Posted Sun 26 Nov 23 @ 3:44 pm
schmidi_0
Centre Stage Discos wrote :
I am totally with you on that, but there are two of us and that makes things much easier. Maybe one day we might even invest in wireless dongle transmitters and receivers so we can halve the cabling going to the lights. It's the spaghetti which is the time consuming factor. We take TWO large cases of cabling out with us. One is for lighting, the other for sound, speaking of which, we usually take a 7kW RCF rig out with us, subs and tops, and that weighs a ton.
Agreed about most people not giving a wotsit about what equipment we use, to a certain extent. Some really DO, but they are in a minority.
Agreed about most people not giving a wotsit about what equipment we use, to a certain extent. Some really DO, but they are in a minority.
I've been very happy with Chinly brand wireless DMX transmitters/receivers. About $25 a receiver and $35 a transmitter. Never an issue over 100s gigs. I still use cables on up-lighting runs and my light stand, but wireless is awesome for long runs.
Posted Sun 26 Nov 23 @ 10:58 pm
schmidi_0
groovindj wrote :
I usually don't bother, as TBH the audience doesn't give a monkeys whether your lights have been programmed or they're running a built in show.
As long as there's a bit of colour and movement, job done.
Many years ago I used to take out loads of lights and fill up my goalpost overhead bar. I don't do that now either. Too much work setting up, and over kill for small/medium events. Especially now with lights being brighter, two lights with some movement and maybe two floods and that's it.
Again, the audience don't care what lights you've got, how much they cost etc. as long as it looks like a disco. So if you've got say two lights with movement and two floods to add some colour to the venue, that's it. Start with the floods, then turn on the movement when they hit the dancefloor.
As long as there's a bit of colour and movement, job done.
Many years ago I used to take out loads of lights and fill up my goalpost overhead bar. I don't do that now either. Too much work setting up, and over kill for small/medium events. Especially now with lights being brighter, two lights with some movement and maybe two floods and that's it.
Again, the audience don't care what lights you've got, how much they cost etc. as long as it looks like a disco. So if you've got say two lights with movement and two floods to add some colour to the venue, that's it. Start with the floods, then turn on the movement when they hit the dancefloor.
So true! I'm definitely my biggest critic. For me, it's only important that I can easily switch the overall light "mood" of the room. EX: a handful of dance light programs -> slow jam (more chilled) program, and back. I'd love to have some wild high end setup, but washes/up-lights and 2-4 fx are all I realistically need for any 1-300 person gig.
Posted Sun 26 Nov 23 @ 11:03 pm
Centre Stage Discos
The SoundSwitch Control One has arrived, together with the dongle and the latest software has been installed.
In the limited time I spent on this yesterday evening, I have managed to connect a single Chauvet Swarm FX5 and a couple of Equinox Fusion Scan Max 3s. Still trying to get the Kinta HP working.
I won't post any questions yet as I am still getting my head around the initial connections and setting up, but there is some progress. Rome wasn't built in a day. ;O)
In the limited time I spent on this yesterday evening, I have managed to connect a single Chauvet Swarm FX5 and a couple of Equinox Fusion Scan Max 3s. Still trying to get the Kinta HP working.
I won't post any questions yet as I am still getting my head around the initial connections and setting up, but there is some progress. Rome wasn't built in a day. ;O)
Posted Mon 27 Nov 23 @ 11:52 am
Centre Stage Discos
Everything is working now. All fx, lasers (Swarm 5FXs), motors, movement, etc. It took from Sunday and I have watched dozens of SoundSwitch videos (and others) about how to tame it. This is just what we were looking for. We are VERY impressed!
All in all, it's taken a few hours each day to become familiar with the operation of the software - and there's still a bit to learn. Some might have been able to take to this more quickly, some more slowly, but it was quite a learning curve for us - exactly as we had expected. Without the excellent, no-nonsense SoundSwitch video tutorials we would never have got there. There are also a few other really useful Youtube channels offering instructions and tips.
One thing I didn't master was the creation of new fixture profiles on their cloud, but it turned out they weren't necessary. I did have a play with this but what I saw on the Fixture Manager software did not match what I saw in the lighting effect's manual. That's not SoundSwitch's fault, that was down to my lack of understanding of of the control addreses, etc. Accessing the Fixture Manager cloud was slow at times too ... REALLY slow.
I can see that having the Control One was not necessary at all but I am glad we got it. It's great to have that instant control from a separate unit and not have to constantly alt+tab between Virtual DJ and SoundSwitch, fiddling around with mouse clicks, etc. It's a bit of a luxury but I think it's worth it.
Now to create some routines and project files.
All in all, it's taken a few hours each day to become familiar with the operation of the software - and there's still a bit to learn. Some might have been able to take to this more quickly, some more slowly, but it was quite a learning curve for us - exactly as we had expected. Without the excellent, no-nonsense SoundSwitch video tutorials we would never have got there. There are also a few other really useful Youtube channels offering instructions and tips.
One thing I didn't master was the creation of new fixture profiles on their cloud, but it turned out they weren't necessary. I did have a play with this but what I saw on the Fixture Manager software did not match what I saw in the lighting effect's manual. That's not SoundSwitch's fault, that was down to my lack of understanding of of the control addreses, etc. Accessing the Fixture Manager cloud was slow at times too ... REALLY slow.
I can see that having the Control One was not necessary at all but I am glad we got it. It's great to have that instant control from a separate unit and not have to constantly alt+tab between Virtual DJ and SoundSwitch, fiddling around with mouse clicks, etc. It's a bit of a luxury but I think it's worth it.
Now to create some routines and project files.
Posted Wed 29 Nov 23 @ 9:36 am