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View Full Version : Need help starting a setup. Budget is currently around $400



Atomisk
02-16-2012, 09:45 PM
Hey guys, I'm looking to start a setup that has a lot of potential to expand. most gigs (where I need lights) are 200-300 people, rarely more than 400. Can anyone recommend a decent setup to get started with? I'm not really sure what I want, I just know I want a quality setup that is well balanced and can fill a room of 400-500 people easily, and has a lot of points of expansion.

DYM
02-16-2012, 09:51 PM
I woud expand to about $600ish

Pickup a T-Bar and a Chavet ColorbandTRI... that would work for 300 people.. then you gan always add effects, or lasers, or scanners, blah blah blah, but get that wash down first!

fueledbymusic
02-16-2012, 10:18 PM
This may give you an idea.This light set up cost $700, but that includes the truss. These are led based. 2 ADJ triled mushrooms $100 each, 2 chauvet led par cans $50 each, mini laser $30, Chauvet mini strobe $20, Chauvet Colorbank $60, moonflower $70 and the light switch system $85. I dont think this would cover that many people. I guess theres single lights to cover a large areas, but costs a pretty penny and are energy hogs
http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee435/fueledbymusic/DSC01285.jpg

DJ BONES
02-17-2012, 01:07 AM
I just ordered a 4bar+4play for a little over 400.. pm me for the source..
I dont think theres a better choice for a dj who doesnt want to get to heavily into lighting and needs a quick setup and breakdown, but still wants something nice..

Atomisk
02-17-2012, 08:12 AM
I woud expand to about $600ish

Pickup a T-Bar and a Chavet ColorbandTRI... that would work for 300 people.. then you gan always add effects, or lasers, or scanners, blah blah blah, but get that wash down first!
So the colorbandTRI, this would be considered wash lighting? Will this give me a nice base to build off of? And for the truss, do you have any recommendations? I'm also looking for recommendations on lasers/fog machines/strobes/other lights. I'm looking for quality pieces of equipment that will last me, but I'm certainly not looking for anything "top of the line", just something between consumer and pro lines... Kinda like the cdj-400 of lights, I guess.

DYM
02-17-2012, 10:01 AM
So the colorbandTRI, this would be considered wash lighting? Will this give me a nice base to build off of? And for the truss, do you have any recommendations? I'm also looking for recommendations on lasers/fog machines/strobes/other lights. I'm looking for quality pieces of equipment that will last me, but I'm certainly not looking for anything "top of the line", just something between consumer and pro lines... Kinda like the cdj-400 of lights, I guess.

Yep I would recomend that! Don't go for a cheap truss, go for a CRANK T-BAR... get the ColorbandTRI and maybe look for a LED derby/kinta/multi moon flower effect.. my advice is stay with Chavet.

Will post pictures of an example later tonight.

Atomisk
02-17-2012, 10:26 AM
Yep I would recomend that! Don't go for a cheap truss, go for a CRANK T-BAR... get the ColorbandTRI and maybe look for a LED derby/kinta/multi moon flower effect.. my advice is stay with Chavet.

Will post pictures of an example later tonight.
Yeah, I've been looking at a lot of chauvet stuff. Besides the ColorbandTRI, do you have any recommendations for lasers/other lights? And I was looking at some pictures of the ColorBandTRI, is it possible to mount it on top of the CRANK T-BAR? I saw some pictures of that, and I just want to make sure everything works together. Also, what's the deal with DMX? Do I have to worry about that now or is that something I should wait to expand into?

DYM
02-17-2012, 12:04 PM
Alright.. you get a T-Bar... you attatch it to the top of a tripod, perferably a crank up speaker stand. Next you het some sort of light fixture, in this case the TRI... it comes with 2 brackets. With these 2 brackets you get 2 O-Clamps... these will attatch to the t-bar without any damage to your gear, then they attatch to the brackets.. the brackets will attatch to the light, bam everything is succure.

That will take up the entire t-bar... I would suggest another Chavet effect light and mount that with an additional O-Clamp to the actual extendable tripod... it looks super clean and nice when you velcro down your wires...


DMX... I don't use it right now but I'm looking into it.. Bassically it gives you total control of your lights and exaxtly every thing they do. It costs a bit more though.

fueledbymusic
02-17-2012, 02:02 PM
DMX... I don't use it right now but I'm looking into it.. Basically it gives you total control of your lights and exaxtly every thing they do. It costs a bit more though. Its mostly with lights like led par cans that you have total control. The others only lets you control things like the speed only. Thats what I read somewhere. But I dont know if todays effects light have more fuller control like the par cans or not. DMX does require a cable ran from the controller to each light. Except if the par cans (for example) are linked to one another. In other words controlling several led par cans with one channel.

Synaxis
02-17-2012, 02:37 PM
I woud expand to about $600ish

Pickup a T-Bar and a Chavet ColorbandTRI... that would work for 300 people.. then you gan always add effects, or lasers, or scanners, blah blah blah, but get that wash down first!

I going to disagree with DYM here for a minute. Forget about the Colorband Tri, and get the Colorband PIX:

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/colorband-pix.html

It's significantly brighter, and has more features, for around the same price. If $300 is too expensive, get the ColorRail;

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/colorrail-irc.html

It's also brighter then the Colorband Tri, and you can get one for $200.

Start with either one of those, and then choose choose two effect lights to compliment it.

Maybe something like this: http://www.americandj.com/ProductDetails.aspx?Category=&ItemNumber=1899

Or this: http://www.chauvetlighting.com/cubix.html

And maybe a mirror ball type effect: http://www.chauvetlighting.com/hemisphere-5.html

You don't have to worry about DMX right now if you don't want to. That's going to add at least $150 to buy a decent controller. But essentially, DMX allows you to control your lights. If you want to make everything blue, you program a button on your controller, when pressed, will change all your lights to blue, green, yellow, cyan, ect...
Or if you have a scanner, DMX allows you to put a spotlight on someone, or something like a cake, but giving you total control of the mirror.

Your budget is pretty small for 300, people. I would be looking at around $2000 at least, to buy some uplighting and at least 2 cheaper moving heads.

LiveWireCS
02-17-2012, 03:33 PM
I like the Colorstrips. Super bright and wash a room easily. I have two linked together and make for a great effect. Plus versatile! You can go horizontal or vertical with these. Grab those and maybe a majestic would be a great start.

DYM
02-18-2012, 07:07 AM
@Synaxis - Ahh didn't know about that one, thanks for pointing it out!

DYM
02-18-2012, 07:12 AM
Ok here is a picture with a Colorstrip Mini and an ADJ Majestic on a T-Bar:

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4707/26843519791349026118512.jpg

DYM
02-18-2012, 07:17 AM
What I will be doing soon is upgrading that Colorstrip Mini to apparently now the COLORband™ PIX... DMX it the the Colorstrip Mini and wash the wall behind me with the Mini. Then I also have 2 ADJ Triballs on my speaker stands.. those will be upgraded to Chavet Hemisphere 5's and those will also be DMX. Then I just have my ADJ Majestic in there, and will probably add 2 mini lasers or 2 jewl effects.

EDIT: When does the COLORband™ PIX become available for purchase?

Dix
02-18-2012, 07:18 AM
DYM, thanks for posting that pic of the Mini. I hear people talking about the mini's & I want two of them for the top of my tree, but no one has ever posted a pic of them that I have seen. It gives me a pretty good idea.

Thanks again & I +rep for that...

DYM
02-18-2012, 07:38 AM
Thanks bud, yea you could easily put 2 on the top of a tree... I have the other "branches" for my t-bar but I just don't use them... Just make sure you get 4 O-Clamps for 2 Minis :tup:

Synaxis
02-18-2012, 10:58 AM
What I will be doing soon is upgrading that Colorstrip Mini to apparently now the COLORband™ PIX... DMX it the the Colorstrip Mini and wash the wall behind me with the Mini. Then I also have 2 ADJ Triballs on my speaker stands.. those will be upgraded to Chavet Hemisphere 5's and those will also be DMX. Then I just have my ADJ Majestic in there, and will probably add 2 mini lasers or 2 jewl effects.

EDIT: When does the COLORband™ PIX become available for purchase?

Well, they were just recently announced at NAMM 2012, and Chauvet has already released some new products. I believe they should be available within a month.
They also have a Half version, called the Colorband PIX Mini, essentially the same length as the ColorStrip Mini.


DYM, thanks for posting that pic of the Mini. I hear people talking about the mini's & I want two of them for the top of my tree, but no one has ever posted a pic of them that I have seen. It gives me a pretty good idea.

Thanks again & I +rep for that...

Like I mentioned: http://www.chauvetlighting.com/colorband-pix-mini.html

You may choose to get two of the minis if you want to point one to the right, and one to the left. Just note that buying two of the minis will cost you $100 more then buying the full sized PIX bar, despite the fact that 2 PIX Minis = 1 Full PIX.


Thanks bud, yea you could easily put 2 on the top of a tree... I have the other "branches" for my t-bar but I just don't use them... Just make sure you get 4 O-Clamps for 2 Minis :tup:

I can't stand those additional branches! :argh::argh::argh: They take way to much time to set up then it's worth. I would rather just use another T-bar.



@Synaxis - Ahh didn't know about that one, thanks for pointing it out!

No problem! I just wouldn't want you to buy a product that Chauvet may be discontinuing soon, only to find out a month later that you could have bought something better for your money. I've had that happen...

DJHoss
02-18-2012, 03:31 PM
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4707/26843519791349026118512.jpg

The History Channel?!?!

fueledbymusic
02-19-2012, 09:41 PM
Ok here is a picture with a Colorstrip Mini and an ADJ Majestic on a T-Bar:

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4707/26843519791349026118512.jpg reminds me of my Chauvet DJ bank.

Atomisk
02-20-2012, 12:21 AM
What's the deal with clips? What else do I need to buy besides the lights/stand? And connectors or pins or crap? Someone said something about an O-clip... Do I need them for each piece of lighting I have?

DYM
02-20-2012, 01:34 AM
Ok I just used a yellow box to HIGHLIGHT... no History Channel boys.. alright the O-Clamp.. I'll post a picture of a clamp tomorrow, don't have the fixture with me to show you it together though.

What it does is allows you to safely attach your lights to a truss/t-bar without any damage done. For instance, if you use a G-Clamp you can strip/puncture the trussing/stand. Each has its own use. Just do a quick google :)

instinct
02-20-2012, 03:11 PM
I just know I want a quality setup that is well balanced and can fill a room of 400-500 people easily, and has a lot of points of expansion. Budget is currently around $400

First, double your budget. Then double it again. That will be a start.

DYM
02-20-2012, 04:36 PM
First, double your budget. Then double it again. That will be a start.

No, no.. He can do it for just under a grand.