

- #BAND STAGE LIGHTING DESIGN HOW TO#
- #BAND STAGE LIGHTING DESIGN SOFTWARE#
- #BAND STAGE LIGHTING DESIGN PROFESSIONAL#
If we still don’t believe we’ve turned a topic inside out, we occasionally wind up standing on sound stages and visiting factories to cover all bases.
#BAND STAGE LIGHTING DESIGN PROFESSIONAL#
Once we’ve wrung everything they know from our in-house resources, it’s time to turn to our network of outside resources composed of professional musicians, technical lighting masters, college professors, scenic and stage directors. On the other hand, many of our staff members could write encyclopedias on stage lighting and other aspects of stagecraft and we turn to them to author reports like the one you’re reading, forwarding those facts and figures through a gauntlet of staffers. We like to flatter ourselves on occasion by thinking we know all there is to know about every aspect of the music business, but that lasts only about a minute since our staff members aren’t shy about challenging findings if something seems rotten in Denmark. We would like to help you figure out where to put your bucks and your confidence by making lighting stand recommendations you can take to the bank, and we’d also like to teach you a bit about this equipment niche that can make or break a performance. Leaving an audience in the dark isn’t just a show killer, but it could easily be a career-ender, too, which is why your ability to evaluate, choose and buy appropriate lighting stand equipment elevates your credentials from the doofus who didn’t get it right to the Brainiac on the team. Lighting a stage is a critical task, whether it’s for a Shakespearean comedy or heavy metal band.


He’s got plenty of entertaining stories to tell, but when it comes to choosing stage lighting equipment, he gets serious.
#BAND STAGE LIGHTING DESIGN HOW TO#
It’s just free and the older builds support entec which is the cheapest reliable interface.Brit Rob Sayer knows a thing or two about how to light a stage-not just because he’s been doing it most of his adult life but because he teaches the subject at Bath Spa University in the UK, in-between his demanding career as a freelance stage lighting designer and blogger about all things music-related. Onyx was my go to if the board at the school/venue was the worst thing ever, but I hate it. I knew enough to get a show running during a rehearsal until my lighting guy came in. I did a lot of run and gun theatre, so I can use a lot, but I’m good at none.
#BAND STAGE LIGHTING DESIGN SOFTWARE#
You could use switches and have a friend sitting there sliding them up and down (I know this sounds insane but it’s pretty much how older lighting systems worked.) the best option is dmx dimmers, it’d be about $100 for 4 channels for cheap sets, but gives the most control.Īs for software I can’t speak much on that.

If you want to do the lightbulbs like this you’ll need a dimmer. You can go with led pars but the cheap ones won’t be bright and they’ll break often. There are plenty of off-the-shelf lower end units for around $100, these will work fine for your purposes, as would one of the many DIY options with Arduino or Raspberry Pi.ĭefine “low budget” I’ve done low budget for $500 I’ve had low budget for $5000 the basic pieces you’ll need is a computer to run dmx, an interface to get the signal to the lights, and lights. If you wanted to use an iPad, there’s a few decent apps available, like Luminair or Vibrio, both will be more than sufficient to run a few dimmer chase effects, but you do need a router and artnet/sACN node to output DMX. If you want to save more money, you can find the LOR units used on eBay all the time in the $100-$150 range, or look into holiday lighting Facebook groups/marketplaces, most people who bought tons of these have fully converted to pixels now so they’re always for sale.Īs far as control, LOR has their own stuff that you might want to look into in the beginning, but they also take standard DMX, which any lighting controller will output. Holida圜oro also has similar models as well. Light-o-Rama has a whole line of 8 and 16 channel units from fully DIY to solid and UL recognized. Cheapest way to do this is use dimmers designed for synchronized holiday lights.
