Advancing the Music Show Production Value

My journey of creating a high-value production continues with lights

Show me a room with musicians who aren’t gear-heads and I’ll show you an empty room.

Musicians spend a huge amount of time, thought and money - not necessarily in that order - into their gear. I started my gear journey with one key set of goals; to be self-reliant and to not need to hire out production help, like a sound person, for my small tap room shows, to have high-quality sound production and be able to scale or transition to a larger production.

Now, don’t get me wrong. A good sound person is critical for a great show on a stage in a lager room or outside with a lot of people in the crowd. They help level out the sound and ensure that it sounds good in all areas of the venue. But, for small tap room, pub and brewery shows - where you usually are playing in a corner - having your own method to provide your own sound, sound check and regulate is key. Not only that sound people will take almost half or all of your booking fees away from your profit.

After years of tweaking, purchasing, tinkering, purchasing, refining and then settling; I’ve finally have the sound rig that makes my solo show sound amazing and scalable when I need to grow to larger venues. I’ll write a post on that sometime in the future.

I’ve grown so confident of my sound rig that this year I’ve transitioned my focus to a new area that I’ve always wanted to grow into - LIGHT PRODUCTION. I’ve always been a fan on how the big stage productions deliver this incredible and magical experience with lights to music productions. Sometimes the lights alone are the most memorable aspect of an amazing rock show.

The same objective applies here - to be self-sufficient, high-quality and scalable. I’ve started my journey in light production on the same course I did with sound - asking myself; what do I have now? Can I DIY anything? How to build something that I can manage while performing?

I have some old speaker stands that I converted into a t-bar for lights. I went to the local hardware store and purchased some PVC fittings and some hardware to make a safe rig to hold three DMX ready lights. After constructing the t-bars I began researching lighting methods and solutions to manage the lights while performing on stage.

I found a small and fairly inexpensive control module that has a foot-switch to activate scenes, fill, strobe and black out. Perfect! I then purchased four inexpensive LED stage lights that are DMX ready and one pin light to brighten and colorize the most interesting thing in the room around my stage (a ceiling fixture, a statue — my amp).

I’m very happy with the results after testing the set up and pre-selecting lighting scenes for my next gig. It will add about a half hour longer of set up and strike time but I’m sure it will be a nice surprise for both the venue and the people who attend the show.