LED lights - good or rubbish ?

[ppentertainments]

Lets rock the boat a bit !:D :D

With all the craze seem to be for LED lighting, I am wondering what your opinions are of them. I have never tried LED par cans before but the others have not impressed me at all.

I started with a LED boogie, next the impossibled, then have just purchased a Kam Swingfire. Result - think it will be my last LED purchase. I find the lighting 'boring' and once people on the dance floor you only really get dots flashing on and off. Would like to try an LED scanner to see if it would bring a bit more movement but on the whole am quite unimpressed so far.

Anyone agree / disagree ??

[OllieJames]

I like the LED Parcans, as it means you can have lots of colours without using gels. I think the swingfire is a pretty boring unit, as there aren't many LEDs in each cluster, whereas in the ADJ Quad Gem (Acme Miracled) there are many LEDs in each cluster, offering a better light show.

I think the impossibled is also a good fixture, but i don't think that the LED scanners and moving heads are my cup of tea, until they introduce gobos, and the price goes down a fair bit!

LED wash effects such as the ADJ Mega bar etc, are very good for uplighting too.

[Steve Hart]

Hi,
The led lights are so much brighter and sharper than the standard lamp lights. I see your point where there is loads of led dots all over the dance floor :) . I've currently got 6 led lights including 2 revo 3's which do fill almost any venue we perform at. Think it will be a while before the led's come out in a decent gobo format.

Cheers Hart Promotions

[djsteve10]

Well the LED lighting effects are very good in my opinion, ImpossibLED's are very good and fill any venue, Also the LED par can range is very good and is very very versatile, For example you can either use LED par cans as moood lighting around the venue lighting up the walls or you can have them mounted on your rig chasing to the beat of the music changing colours.

[tc1ooo]

I've bought an Acme LED Boogie, only used it a couple of times & put it on ebay. I got an Acme MiracLED last week in exchange for a haze machine that was faulty. I'll probably give that a try & end up putting it on ebay as well. I think the effect is quite good, but the colours are really boring, red, blue, green & white, it's a bit like going back to the 70's.

[Vectis]

I've bought an Acme LED Boogie, only used it a couple of times & put it on ebay. I got an Acme MiracLED last week in exchange for a haze machine that was faulty. I'll probably give that a try & end up putting it on ebay as well. I think the effect is quite good, but the colours are really boring, red, blue, green & white, it's a bit like going back to the 70's.

Which is EXACTLY what I use my ImpossibLED for. A large proportion of my gigs call for lots of 70s/80s musical fayre and this effect is great for giving that retro 'disco floor' look.

I also have a couple of the LEDJ bars under DMX - I've tried them on chasing patterns and they're OK but I find myself using them in darker-than-average venues for lighting up Bs & Gs to improve the quality of video recording - set them to a colour to fit in with their scheme or put them on a deep blue - lovely. I also use them for backlighting.

I have a few Loopytubes too - and these are great for adding interest to tripods and uprights on the smaller rig when we can't mount video screens etc.

I've tried a couple of the other effects and agree that too many dots is overkill. I'll be trying scanners/rollers when my current Acme ones eventually give up the ghost (not for a while yet hopefully) but until then, unless something stunning is launched, I'll be taking a raincheck.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I think the trouble is with the cheaper LED effects is that they are only three colours. The patterns are clever though.

[Excalibur]

Which is EXACTLY what I use my ImpossibLED for. A large proportion of my gigs call for lots of 70s/80s musical fayre and this effect is great for giving that retro 'disco floor' look.

I also have a couple of the LEDJ bars under DMX - I've tried them on chasing patterns and they're OK but I find myself using them in darker-than-average venues for lighting up Bs & Gs to improve the quality of video recording - set them to a colour to fit in with their scheme or put them on a deep blue - lovely. I also use them for backlighting.

I have a few Loopytubes too - and these are great for adding interest to tripods and uprights on the smaller rig when we can't mount video screens etc.

I've tried a couple of the other effects and agree that too many dots is overkill. I'll be trying scanners/rollers when my current Acme ones eventually give up the ghost (not for a while yet hopefully) but until then, unless something stunning is launched, I'll be taking a raincheck.

Well I can thoroughly recommend what I have, the Revo Roll, and the Kam 800 LED fixture, the square one. I was fortunate to be able to try Justin's LED Pars and Impossibled, and they weren't what I wanted. My aim is at least one more of each of what I have, maybe the Cubists as well, and perhaps a couple of filament barrels. For the first time, I have a coherent policy for lighting. Now all I need is the budget!:( :( Wonder if there will be any good offers at DJSN? Let's hope somebody can show me how to use use them. ;) ;)

[mike8863]

I have 2 boogies and impossibled and I too find the dots a bit boring, but they do fill a room, i compliment them with my old xtc's and or acme duets with colour filters removed. Got a couple of smartscans, but not used them yet......!!!.

[blitz]

I got a revo 3 and it's not really my cup of tea, it's a bit maniic on s2l with the c8 controller I've not played about with it on dmx yet so I might get it more to my liking, I only really use it for kids partys or to light up the roof in bigger venues,
The wife hates it lol

Led pars on the other hand I love, don't get to use them as much as i want in the uplighting roll but can get some really nice effects and change the look of a venue.
Usually use 2 on the dance floor as colour changers to give some ambiant light at most gigs

[daz226]

i get asked all the time to use my led lights as the customer's love them but i have started to mix it up a bit now using my kam scanners mixed with led parcans and a miracled with 2 impossled pointing to the roof the effect is awesome. I am getting the led moving heads next week and that will be the last lights i buy this year.

led lighting is the future and it can only get better

[tc1ooo]

[QUOTE=vectisvibe;255138]Which is EXACTLY what I use my ImpossibLED for. A large proportion of my gigs call for lots of 70s/80s musical fayre and this effect is great for giving that retro 'disco floor' look.QUOTE]

The only problem is if it's a dark floor they hardly show up.

[ppentertainments]

i get asked all the time to use my led lights as the customer's love them but i have started to mix it up a bit now using my kam scanners mixed with led parcans and a miracled with 2 impossled pointing to the roof the effect is awesome. I am getting the led moving heads next week and that will be the last lights i buy this year.

led lighting is the future and it can only get better

If we are honest I think a majority of the time the customer has little interest in the lighting - as long as there is some colour. Yes, I have had customers compliment my lighting (occasionally) but I don't think anyone can say they get asked all the time for specific lighting. (waiting to be proved wrong now :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ). Lighting effects are mainly to please the dj I think.

[Alex - Cream Ents]

Nothing LED wise has blown my skirt up enough to actually buy as yet (except for LED Cans)...however the technology is improving rapidly.

LED Cans are useful and a pleasant addition to any rig providing either dancefloor washes or architectural / uplighting in a small simple unit...

Give me an Abstract "Rave" (remember them!!) any day of t'week.

[Daryll]

I try to mix `n` match.
1 Impossibled 2 x ADJ sprectrum FX and either 2 x datamoons or 2 x Acme falcons, also use 2 x LED par cans, I do love the cans.

Daryll

[spin mobile disco]

I have noticed that the new led moving heads using gobos are becoming a lot more versatile. They are using a 14watt led to provide the light and different gobos wheels as with many normal halogen or dischage effects.
Mind you having seen a couple first hand they are not as bright as 250watt effects but im sure this will change soon as the technology moves on.
They are however very light (3kilos) very smooth movement and the colour variations are much better than halogen due to using rgb mixing on the tri colour led. In a very dark venue they would be very effective.
But I have to ask myself howe often do we get it that dark these days. Same problem with lasers really.

However I do own 2 immposibled's that I like very much as they have such a wide focus they can really give a good effect. I am also on my second set of 4 led par cans, and compared to my original led par cans the light increase is quite considerable. Well worth the money in my opinion. Great for setting the mood if you don't mind playin g around with a dmx controller. But the master slave mode isnt bad all in all.
As for the other lights avaialbe, the one that can project messages is really just a take on a scrolling sign and as already mentioned they are mostly just dots when it comes down to it.
I think LED's are great but I don' think they are the be and end all of the market yet. As they are still a new use of an old technolgy I will still wait to see how they last long term. Moisture build up for example rots led legs and as they generate no heat they cannot dispell any moisture in the unit.
Not a huge problem most of the time but those winter gigs - hot room - cold car - warm storage - cold car - hot room etc i can see a possible problem there.

[theoloyla]

I have bought a Boogie and another small LED light. I love them. The colours are so much brighter and sharper and they are light and dont get hot and should not need lamps replaced plus run on their own programmes. I fill in with my normal spotbanks, uv, mirrorball, Martin oil wheel and Abstract scanner. I think my lighting is definately better thanks to LEDs.

[flatliners]

i thought punters wernt intrested in lighting you might think the lights are boring to you but 100,000 hour lamp life ( 11 years running constantly ) good value for money i think there great .eventually i am gonna get 2 invincibleds. mike from phase one says they are a really good effect