I am just getting into lighting for my band, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
My band mostly plays clubs with lighting, but we want to have our own lights for the following reasons:
1. At the few places that don't have lights, we would like to be able to bring our own
2. Eventually, we would like to train a light guy to do our light show for us, and he will probably need a consistant interface to do this well
3. Even further down the road we would like to sinc up the lights via MIDI to our music
4. We also want to get a fog machine to bring to every show we do, as the house never seems to supply fog.
So here are some questions I have:
1. If I want to dim lights, do I need a "Dimmer Pack" in addition to a DMX controller?
2. Can Fog be controlled through a DMX Controller?
3. What controller is good to start out with? I am looking at the DMX Operator. The Operator II doesn't look that much better for the money, but maybe I don't know enough about it to see the differences.
4. How can I direct the lights, for example, I want to move some lights to focus in on the guitarist for a solo, then move them back to normal. Do I need a special light for this, or just a motor that attaches to a regular par can?
I am thinking of starting with 2 trees worth of lights, one on each side of the stage, maybe 4 lights on each tree. I am willing to go used on as much as possible to keep the price under $1000. What components are best purchased used?
Thanks in advance,
Jeff Simpson
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