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Thread: Laser recommendations?

  1. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    I have a lighting supplier in China whom has sold me tons of stuff, but all it shows are photos, so it gives no real idea of what the light can do!

    Blue Aran are local to me and have tons of Laser World kit, so I can always pay them a visit. Youtube I guess also has a lot of examples.
    I wouldn't take too much notice of Youtube videos, they are almost invariably produced by the manufacturers and always in optimal conditions (blacked out room with haze) and we all know they're not the conditions we find in a real world gig. IMO experience to get the sort of effect in the photo you posted you will need a 2W (or above) laser and one of those would need to be under proper control or you may perform unintended eye surgery. You will also need to invest in decent software, Quickshow, Pangolin or similar will give you good control and are relatively easy to use. Best advice I can give you is to go and see one working in a real world environment, ie a bit of ambient light present.
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  2. #12
    Creature's Avatar
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    not to put a damper on anything, but most halls n pubs no longer allow smoke or hazer machines

    S when looking at lights and having them demo'd to you, make sure they do a clear run as well.

    We all know average lights can be made to look excellent with some haze : ) but are utter crap without it
    new website domain name... http://www.dejavuroadshow.tk/

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    Really? They don't come much more upmarket than Toby, as far as I can see.
    Exactly what I was thinking!

    Quote Originally Posted by Corabar Steve View Post
    Listen to this man, what he doesn't know about lasers isn't worth knowing.
    When I saw "laser", Chris was the guy that came to mind!
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  4. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris1984 View Post
    A suggestion is if you have a high powered projector have you tried software that produces laser like effects from it which the right haze in a smaller room can be quite effective.

    how will you control it?
    I had thought about my projector and that may be a solution, I need to look at that a bit closer.

    I would want to control a laser ideally on my Cuety controller, which although a bit fisher priced (compared to some laser control units) should have most popular makes of laser on as prefixes so all the lighting can be controlled from the iPad then. Sound to light would not cut it.

    Quote Originally Posted by DazzyD View Post
    Exactly what I was thinking!
    Quote Originally Posted by Corabar Steve View Post
    ... when you don't patronise other members.
    Yes, to be honest, I would certainly spend (and have the budget for) several thousand on a laser if it was that much better and applicable to the applications I require it for. I don't think its necessary, for the type of events I do, but I may be proved wrong the more I explore this avenue. I bought a better projector as everyone warned me off Chinese ones, or lower lumen projectors. It's also a popular upsell and looks great for monograms, so worth the cost. if I bought a £5,000 laser and it was sitting in the garage bar 3-4 events a year then that would not be such wise move.

    Quote Originally Posted by Creature View Post
    most halls n pubs no longer allow smoke or hazer machines
    I am fortunate enough to only work at only a few hotels and all of them allow haze. not had anyone tell me to turn it off in other venues either as I use Haze very sparingly so its barely visible. I can imagine pubs and halls, get have-go-harrys with a Maplin smoke machine and set the alarms off, so they are pretty hot on policing that as its disruptive, especially in a hotel or restaurant, but even social clubs have different areas that are not connected to the function.
    Last edited by yourdj; 14-03-2017 at 10:22 AM.
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  5. #15
    Resident Antagonist Benny Smyth's Avatar
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    I'm gonna go off the track slightly and say "don't do it." I know the point of the thread is to help suggest lasers over saying whether you should get one or not, but having seen enough suggestions of which laser to get, I'm gonna advocate not buying one in this post, and apologies if this is not welcome.

    I've voiced my opinions on lasers a fair few times in that those aimed at the mobile disco market are crap and old hat, and you'll only ever get a decent laser for considerably more of that pretty paper that we like to receive but not hand out.

    Four friends of mine (all mobile DJs) over the last few years spent considerable amounts on lasers, ranging from £2k to £4k. All four of them regret it and have since sold them off.

    The rooms we perform in as mobile DJs aren't big enough to fully appreciate what can be a fantastic effect from the very expensive units, and can make lasers look crap because of it. Unfortunately, the lasers that do work in the room sizes we cater for are absolute crap in themselves.

    On the occasion where we do get a chance to perform at an event where such a fixture would be the knees of the bee, chances are you'll be working with someone else's light and sound and I doubt they'd be too chuffed if you asked the question "Can I put my laser in the middle of this please?"

    I'm all for looking at festivals, clubs and theatres to get inspiration for lightshows, and working out how to get the same effect on a smaller scale. At the moment, I don't believe that the technology is there to have that uh-mazing laser effect for the mobile DJ, but there are lots of fixtures out there that can create a nightclub wow factor in leiu of a laser that will work for the mobile DJ.

  6. #16
    Ezekiel 25:17 funkymook's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Benny Smyth View Post
    I'm gonna go off the track slightly and say "don't do it." I know the point of the thread is to help suggest lasers over saying whether you should get one or not, but having seen enough suggestions of which laser to get, I'm gonna advocate not buying one in this post, and apologies if this is not welcome.

    I've voiced my opinions on lasers a fair few times in that those aimed at the mobile disco market are crap and old hat, and you'll only ever get a decent laser for considerably more of that pretty paper that we like to receive but not hand out.

    Four friends of mine (all mobile DJs) over the last few years spent considerable amounts on lasers, ranging from £2k to £4k. All four of them regret it and have since sold them off.

    The rooms we perform in as mobile DJs aren't big enough to fully appreciate what can be a fantastic effect from the very expensive units, and can make lasers look crap because of it. Unfortunately, the lasers that do work in the room sizes we cater for are absolute crap in themselves.

    On the occasion where we do get a chance to perform at an event where such a fixture would be the knees of the bee, chances are you'll be working with someone else's light and sound and I doubt they'd be too chuffed if you asked the question "Can I put my laser in the middle of this please?"

    I'm all for looking at festivals, clubs and theatres to get inspiration for lightshows, and working out how to get the same effect on a smaller scale. At the moment, I don't believe that the technology is there to have that uh-mazing laser effect for the mobile DJ, but there are lots of fixtures out there that can create a nightclub wow factor in leiu of a laser that will work for the mobile DJ.
    I agree - if you can use smoke/haze then there’s plenty of other lighting options available.

    I think the best option so far is using your projector, plenty of clips on youtube like this....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oComWw9XrNk

    And there's free software like MusicBeam - so as you already have a projector you can be up and running a laser style show for £0.
    Last edited by funkymook; 14-03-2017 at 12:27 PM.

  7. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by funkymook View Post
    I agree - if you can use smoke/haze then there’s plenty of other lighting options available.

    I think the best option so far is using your projector, plenty of clips on youtube like this....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oComWw9XrNk

    And there's free software like MusicBeam - so as you already have a projector you can be up and running a laser style show for £0.
    First time of seeing these for me and I have to say I'm amazed. They are very convincing!

  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by funkymook View Post
    I think the best option so far is using your projector, plenty of clips on youtube like this....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oComWw9XrNk
    Not massively into lasers personally but that, I LIKE

    Unfortunately as is always the case with YouTube, you end up watching loads of other videos, and it seems there's all sorts you can do with projectors. How long before someone launches a light fixture which is just a projector with a few pre-programmed modes on it?

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by yourdj View Post
    I had thought about my projector and that may be a solution, I need to look at that a bit closer.
    I would want to control a laser ideally on my Cuety controller, which although a bit fisher priced (compared to some laser control units) should have most popular makes of laser on as prefixes so all the lighting can be controlled from the iPad then. Sound to light would not cut it.
    the issue with this is there is no feedback or real control. as long as yu take the appropriate saftey measures and have the paperwork to back it up you could be ok - but it will fail any laser inspection if you dont have things like esop and masking etc....

  10. #20
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    If you don't want to splash out much money the Laserworld EL-230RGB offers a lot for little over £100. It's got 12 channel DMX and you can control colour, pattern, size, rotation etc. I'm assuming that it will be possible to set it to some shade of blue and achieve something like the effect that you want.

    I bought one myself recently and haven't really used it yet. I think I might have a go at building a DMX profile for it on my Wifly tonight and I'll be able to tell you more after I've had a play with it.

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