Best budget lights for a newbie?

[womble]

Hi there,

I bought a load of kit off someone who wanted to get into the mobile dj malarky but then changed their mind, I've checked out all the gear and I knew that the lighting that came with the stuff was pretty poor, well very poor (I think the guy had spent under £100 in maplins on 4 items) so it will be going straight on to ebay probably along with a couple of bass bins... So I was wondering, what to get in terms of lighting? I see so many things like this:

clickety click (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-LED-TWISTER-DISCO-LIGHT-for-DJ-Party-Karaoke_W0QQitemZ370161056949QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK _ConElec_LightingLEDsStrobes_RL?hash=item370161056 949&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1690%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318)

But don't have the first clue about how good these things are... I've been considering getting 6-8 par cans and a controller along with something like the above, would that be any good?

I have two T Bars with a goalpost across the middle, but will have nothing to put on them. I don't want to spend a fortune, as I'm a newbie and will build my stuff up once I get up and running, but appreciate the importance of buying quality...

Cheers -appreciate any help.

Chris.

[andyw]

my advice and it depends how much you want to spend is look a the impossiled and a set of dynamos(not the led ones though) this will give you a good light show

[Excalibur]

my advice and it depends how much you want to spend is look a the impossiled and a set of dynamos(not the led ones though) this will give you a good light show

While technically this is budget, it may be a lot more than the OP wanted to spend. ;) ;)
I'll have a think.

[Dynamic Entertainment]

Womble - What sort of budget are you looking at spending (roughly)? Like Excalibur said, theres budget...then thes budget, whith a couple of hundred quid difference.

[andyw]

the budget is important but he might be better keeping what he already has and upgrading when he got the budget to do so rather than throwing good money after bad,in which case the impossiled would be a good addition at about £120.

[DJ James Lake]

I'd recommend a couple of American DJ Mystic Leds

[womble]

All I got with the rig was 2 T Max 6 lighting effects (£35 in maplins, and don't look great) and a couple of mini strobes that would fit in your pocket! I have a vivid fogger so was looking for something to throw some light onto the dancefloor, I guess my budget would top out at around £300 for now. Then maybe upgrade in 6-12 months once I've gigged the rig a bit.

Just checked out the impossibled on youtube, that's pretty good for £110 isn't it...

[Excalibur]

All I got with the rig was 2 T Max 6 lighting effects (£35 in maplins, and don't look great) and a couple of mini strobes that would fit in your pocket! I have a vivid fogger so was looking for something to throw some light onto the dancefloor, I guess my budget would top out at around £300 for now. Then maybe upgrade in 6-12 months once I've gigged the rig a bit.

Just checked out the impossibled on youtube, that's pretty good for £110 isn't it...

Many people think so.

Also check out

http://www.djkit.co.uk/product.php?id=4328&cat=288
http://www.djpro.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=1680

I'm sure plenty of advice will be forthcoming. ;) :D

[DeckstarDeluxe]

all i can say is dont go blowing the budget on as many different lights as possible. Forget smoke machine for now too. I dont think many experienced djs here would argue with that....

Impossibled is a good shout but consider what you want your show to look like. Alot of different LED lights that are just "spots". Idealy you want a show you can dmx easily so maybe some scanners would be the way to go. There are some bargins to be had on this forum!

[501damian501]

Admin note: DiscoSteve can agree with it all he wants, but nobody's going to see it (here) any more due to Damian still not grasping the forum rules on text speak

[Dynamic Entertainment]

I agree with damien on this one. You can use the goal post span, without the t bars attached with the miracled in the centre and 2 dynamos on each side, or even leave the miracled at home for small venues and use one stand as a tbar with the dynamos on. If you can then stretch to a second miracled then you can have the t bar with 2 miracleds and 2 dynamos (i use 2 miracleds on a bigger rig as centrepiece and if you assign the slave as a 2 unit show, you get a good show as sound to light as the 2 units act as one bigger unit and not 2 units in sync)

[womble]

Some great advice - I love the look of the miracled and the impossibled and also the scanners, with regards to dmx - do i need to have a controller to make the lights "work together" or if i link them up will they act as one unit even if sound controlled rather than dmx controlled?

Also - what are peoples opinions of the laser crabs?

Much obliged,
Chris.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

All you need is a dmx cable to link the two lights. One light will act as the "Master" and the other will be the "slave. You can buy a ca 8 to plug into the master and program what you want the light to do and the slave will copy.

However, you have to make sure the lights are "dmx" lights. Also its rare for two different lights i.e an impossibled and a mircaled to work together if you hook them up using dmx. The impossbiled led would work quite well on its own but if you have scanners or two mircaled leds then i would invest in the dmx cable.

[Dynamic Entertainment]

All you need is a dmx cable to link the two lights. One light will act as the "Master" and the other will be the "slave. You can buy a ca 8 to plug into the master and program what you want the light to do and the slave will copy.

However, you have to make sure the lights are "dmx" lights. Also its rare for two different lights i.e an impossibled and a mircaled to work together if you hook them up using dmx. The impossbiled led would work quite well on its own but if you have scanners or two mircaled leds then i would invest in the dmx cable.


Sorry Decks, you cant pprogramme the lights with a CA-8 controller. All they allow you to do change little bits of pre-programmed running. I.e, for the dynamos you can make them strobe, run through gobos and blackout. With a miracled, you can sroll through the pro-programmed sequences (i think) strobe, and black out.

Most lighting that is DMXable will run master/slave as long as they are the same lights (like Decks says you couldnt run a dynamo into a mircaled, then back into a dynano and get the second dynamo to copy the first), thats when you need a dmx controller.

Dodgy piccy below may make sense

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Sorry when i say program i mean you can change the pre designed programme that is inbuilt into the lights, not create your own programs or "scenes".

You need an more advanced dmx controller however to create your own "programs" but that is going beyond the budget i belive in this case.

[wensleydale]

1 x miracled
4 x dynamo scanners

and u,ll have a nice little set up.

good call.