Strobelights kick serious ass

[Synthead]

If anybody wants to really get the crowd going, strobelights are the ultimate solution. When you're in a strobe, it's so trippy you wouldn't believe it - it's like being drugged out without drugs :zany: you can dance any way you want and whatever you do will always look cool. It's like adding effects in the production of music, only adding effects to the crowd ... just don't flash em all night or you'll make people throw up and have seizures :freak:

most of you guys might know this already but I had to put in my $0.02 ;)

[Reticuli]

Strobes, Stinger Lasers, and lots of blacklights are the only DJ lighting that I like. Oh, and a hazer/ continuous fogger.

[d3vi0uz]

Originally posted by Reticuli
Strobes, Stinger Lasers, and lots of blacklights are the only DJ lighting that I like.


only lights i like are tha red strobe pattern on my platter, tha pop up light and that green light at tha 0% .

[Reticuli]

hehehehe. I hate it when strobes are too bright though, like it's daytime. I like dispersed, dim strobes, so you get the effect but not an assault. I remember one time at Ra they had some strobe cannon thing right in front of the DJ's table...not fun. They need to be on the ceiling, little ones, at least a couple.

[igni ferroque]

You gotta build up to the assault, but nothing says climax like a wall of six 750W American DJ Neutron Stars.

:banana:

[Eugene Axe]

They're ok as long as they stay on the crowd - the damn things make my head hurt...

[Monomer]

strobes are cool, but at our local venue, the floor has a white/black pattern on it

NOT cool after a long time

[igni ferroque]

Yeah... strobe lights shouldn't be used for a long time. More like a few seconds at a time with several minutes or more in between.

In the meantime, lasers & fog are the only way to go.

[Designer]

At the club were running 3 DMX controlled 1500Watt ST9's and they're well bright., luckily I put them on the trussing above the booth and to the sides so if i'm DJing or running the lightin I don't get blasted in the face,

Check out this tread, I found a 15,000 Watt strobe a few days back:

http://www.djforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25029


I always start off really slow, just single pulses in time to the 1st beat in a bar, then wind up to every other beat, then every beat. Then to climax te scene fade right up to about 5-7 Hz for a 1 bar section. Then off with the strobes and back on with the scanners/yokes.
:)

[jamesnet]

Can I get some Atomic 3000 DMX? They only draw 20A a piece at full draw...
Makes wiring buzz in the wall..

[Designer]

You're obscessed with Martin, :D, only jokin'.
I'd just get some Geni ST9 DMX's, they're about 1/4 of the price and just as good build quality wise. And from a spectators view you cant really tell the difference. The'yre 1500W, the Atomic's are brighter but as you get to that sort of level you cant really tell the difference anyway.

[jamesnet]

Lol, well, it is all about the service.. I live 20 miles from one of the authorized service centers :)
You can't beat the atomic's fades and spikes, and they just came out with the "Multi-unit Coupler" Mwahhhh

[Designer]

Convenient being that close to the service centre. I think our nearest one is about 150 miles away. At the club we use Martin lighting but not exclusively (use some Geni strobes, and we've started looking at some Studio Due struff) which can be a real pain with wiring as some stuff needs hot/cold pins reversed on the XLR's. Personally i'm now considering maybe getting a couple of MX-4's. The MX-10's look real good but i'm dissuaded by the price tag. Just thinking of adding a couple of fixtures with some extra effects like frosting and prism.

[jamesnet]

Ah yes, the MX-10, Why not for for a Mac 250? I think they are close to eachother in price,
Plus no lumen loss from the mirror...
Am I talking off a cliff? I also downloaded the sweetlight software, working on it now..
I am very impressed with the bigger rackmount interface...

[Designer]

Well, i'm still open to idea's as to wether to go for the Mac 250 but I think the pan/tilt times will be faster on the MX. I'm trying to get something faster with a view to replacing my ageing Shiva's, Or I might just keep and use them all. I've already got 3 yokes being delivered (hopefully next week if my supplier gets their thumb out of their a**).

BTW do you know anywhere to get custom gobo's made? I was discussing this with my club manager and we were toying with the idea of gettig gobo's made with the club name on them, just for a starting routine at the beginning of the night so a few scanners could be aimed at the dancefloor and a couple onto the walls (the pan/tilt will reach far enough).

[jamesnet]

Yeah, I have them made all the time for studio spots, those are lithos, but I am sure they do gobos, What kind of fixtures?
Also, you are right, the 250 will not be faster.. The mx-10 will be faster..

[Rodion]

Has anyone been to Tresor in Berlin? The basement dance floor has ONLY strobelights...it's pretty crazy, you don't know where you're walking, you think there is a path then suddenly someone will light up directly in front of you...it was hard for me to handle but now i would probably enjoy it more after aquiring a taste for the music, which was some hard ass dark techno.

[Designer]

James - Were using Roboscan 518's lookin at getting about 8 or more.

Rodion - There's a place near me like that, they only use large par cans + loads of strobes, looked alright but they only play stuff like Mudvein and that and everyone in the club had enough metalwork in them to be picked up by a scrapyard lifting magnet, not really my scene.

[jamesnet]

We have 4 518's they are good lights, but are lacking some features that the newer ones have, but they are bright and reliable. You can get the rotating gobos made for them, but they are not indexable, so you would have to re-align the logo manually every time you wanted to shine it. unless it didn't mater

[Designer]

They were the best ones available when we bought them, that's before the 918's came out. Never had any real problems with them apart from needin a new mirror on one when it got broken by some muppet throwing something at it.

[jamesnet]

I think the 918 has indexable gobos, yep, just checked.. You can pick up some used 918's for 1,500-2K USD I would buy 918's all day, but they lack color mixing.

I am trying to get ahold of one of these:
http://www.martin.com/product/product.asp?product=fingers
Lightjockey playback wing...

[Designer]

Like the hardware equivalent of Virtual fingers in LJ,

By the way, how do you assign cue's to be triggered from virtual fingers? Got the audio sync working usign the audio analyser but couldnt trigger cue changes from fingers.

[jamesnet]

Can you control any of the sequences with fingers?
I had to turn on the "Control Panel" for the virtual fingers and assign it in there.

I signed up for a two day LJ training in Miami in September.. Hopefully I will come back the guru on this...

[Designer]

Bet that was expensive!

[jamesnet]

150$, then airfare and hotel, not bad at all..

[Designer]

Thats very reasonable, some of the training courses i've been on like 4 day ones cost over £1000 for the training + hotel (normally around £90+ per night) and a hire car.