Lighting for concert

[withoutfear]

We are hosting the rock band disciple this Thursday and they aren't really asking for much on the lighting end. I use 33 led par64 cans with chamsys magicq for control. Any suggestions on busking this show. They don't have a light tech on this tour but I would Like to give them something. I.e. Strobing, fading, snapping, blackouts ect. I don't really know much of their music besides the hits. How would you handle it?

[waynehoskins]

Here's what I'd do, something along these lines.

Step 1, write the lead vocal frontlight channel to a submaster, probably the first. I'd be tempted to put L201 in it. Focus it as tight as you realistically can. This unit is the only frontlight you need, most likely. Maybe a second if there's a second lead vocal place.

I was about to talk about what sorts of color to drop in the rig, and then saw it was LEDs, not conventionals. Much more flexibility there with the LEDs.

I'd do a decent colorwash from wherever you can, with decent coverage. Could be sides or backs. I'd do sides for the general wash if I could, to save the backs for:

Back specials on each position.

Drum kit specials.

I like to have some "ACL"s in the rig as blinders. Not sure how well LEDs will do for this. Use sparingly, but as appropriate for effect. Generally open white.

Presuming you have the units to spare, can you get some on the deck at the backline, shooting just over audience heads?

Then there's fun stuff you can light up on the set.

Write a bunch of submasters. I'd write several pages, each being a basic color scheme. Put each "zone" of units on a handle (you should have less than 10 zones including the money front, probably). You can do things with complementing colors - e.g., for a fast song, magenta wash with amber backs. Write many such pages. Pick an appropriate page for the song.

Write some stuff into the effects engine. If you have scenic units, write a bunch of effects on these. They can be fun.

Something on those lines is good for busking. Then, there are the hits. You can probably precue these, if you have the albums on hand. Generally a verse cue, chorus cue, bridge cue. Then there are bumps and effects and all you can add on top of these. With a couple of days to do it, you have plenty time. I lit a Tim Hawkins comedyshow tour stop earlier this year with only hours between load-in, "how are we setting up the rig?", brief cueing session, and curtain. Rushed, sure, but not bad.

I know I've seen some stuff on the web on how conventional rock-and-roll shows used to be lit, in the 120k-and-Avolites days. Might be worth a search and a read.

[Esoteric]

What you need to do is divide the units into their systems and put each system on a fader with effects on a separate fader.

As far as the rig, my suggestion is to make the rig look as cool as possible. What does this mean? Well instead of thinking "I need backlight for each of the band positions I will just stick a light up and behind each"I tend to think "I need backlight on each of the band members, so I will make a straight back position (6 lights, in a row, focused directly downstage from the upstage most position equally spaced), I will make a cross back position (come 10' downstage and maybe 5' lower in height and do a row of 6 units, spaced equally, but this time every other unit crosses over the one next to it), and I will make a "pod" position (something circular directly overhead with 6 units in a circle focused out). All of these can count as "backlight" for the artist, but each is a very different look.

This is rock and roll, it is an entirely different ballgame than theater. In rock and roll we generally don't talk in terms of back light or side light, but rather in how to be creative with the rig while at the same time lighting the stage. Lighting the stage is fine, but lighting the stage with a rig that looks cool is even better.

[james tucker]

Hi there... That is awesome that you get the opportunity to rock some lights for Disciple. I've run lights for them a few times when they played at Murray Hill here in Jacksonville... All we had were 30ish par cans for bax and 8ish front lights.

What does your stage look like? Do you already have hang positions? Any other lights?

I am doing lights in a few hours with a rig consisting of 26 led pars.

You can get some nice looks with some creative programming and a nice LED plot.

I am going to make some assumptions about your setup...

>16 pars on an upstage hang position (truss, pipe, etc) this will be the majority your back light... concert lighting is VERY back light heavy. 12 lights pointing downstage, 4 at drums. You can hang the lights in such a way to give you fake ACL(ish) clusters of 4...

take a look at this awesome back plot that I made using my keyboard, based on a 32' span on truss:

The 8's are your DS backs
The D's are your drum lights
The -'s are just spaces

----8888--DD--8888--DD--8888----

>8 pars for clustered side color for the folks downstage.... assuming you already have other fixtures lying around, I would try to get 5ish pars or lekos to give you 5 front light specials, or turn them all on give you a fake DS wash. Definitely toss some L201 on your fronts.

The 8's are your side lights
The W's are your DS "white" wash lights
The -'s are just spaces

8888-W----W----W----W----W-8888

>remaining fixtures I would use to light up some scenery or blinders.

I would NOT place random fixtures on the stage as they might get killed....

On Chamsys

Make these groups for LEDs
>front leds
>all bax
>drums
>bax random order (hold the all button and hit the random on the pop up, great for making random chases)
>scenery?
>blinders?
>ALL

Individualize ALL your back/drum/scenery LEDS!!!! you will be able to make some freaky chases (see below). For this plot, the only lights that should share addresses are your front lights.

Do you have a wing?

I have a PC wing, this is what I would start with as far as programming playbacks:

1 - front leds intensity (add a .3 fade and release)
2 - back leds intensity (add a .3 fade and release)
3 - other leds intensity (add a .3 fade and release)
4 - back LED dither fx cue stack... Make separate cues in the stack with cosigns on R/G/B channels to layer on top of your palettes. Play with the parts/segments/order/spread to make some different efx. The FX looks on this playback should fade and not snap. 3 cues... 1 for red, 1 for green, 1 for blue.
5 - back led SNAP fx cue stacks.... same as above but using the Pulse effect.
6 - strobe/dimmer efx another FX playback with a variety of dim chases, and pulses on the strobe channel of your leds... if your LEDs do not have a master fader or strobe.... it would be useful to patch in virtual intensity's for your leds.

Notes:

Make some useful palettes.... at least 4 warm, 4 cool - 3 color look palettes.

In setup, set Tap to Time to "S buttons" you will now be able to tap the time of each of your efx live.

In your FX playback... zero old FX - yes... set for cue timing... fader controls FX size - yes

Set crossfader as a busking rate master in the setup menu... you can manually choose the crossfade time with the fader from 0>10 seconds

Do you have a good hazer or fog machine? If not... rent one, seriously.

hope this gets you started.

[Esoteric]

Hey James, I was wondering if I could get you to write a Chamsys blog entry for my blog. It is something that I have a lot of trouble explaining to people for some reason and I would love to feature something from you explaining how to do a particular task in Chamsys.

[james tucker]

Mike Mc Awesome....

I am quite flattered... I am actually (and slow as Christmas) working on the same thing for my little blog.

[james tucker]

Here are a few pictures from a worship event with mostly LEDs and a few pars ran off Chamsys.

>26 Divine Leds (4 front, 8 bax, 4 truss upright, 10 for house above crowd)
>6 Chauvet Intimidator LED 350s movers (first time working with them, really impressed)
>5 random par 64s from the church's plot
>Chamsys PC wing with touch screen CPU
>Radiance Hazer

The entire service was busked with the playbacks in the above post with the addition of 3 moving light related playbacks:
>Mover intensity
>Intensity FX (fade, snap, ramp)
>Move FX (fig 8, circle, pan sine, tilt sine)

Typically I like programming cue stacks per song and having a punt page, but there was no time to do anything song specific.

hazer and house lights were ran off of executers.



(photos are provided by Justin Stricklin)