Lights

[Errant Tiger]

I'm about to move into an apartment of my own, which means that I will probably be spending a lot more time getting high and playing music. Can anyone recommend an affordable "lighting effect" that I can use to make myself feel extra-psychedelic?

I'm inspired by seeing this

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-aud ... 7000000000

but all this talk of "DMX control" confuses me.

Thanks!

[harpies]

Get the critter and guitari unit and project it. much better than a par can.

Dmx is really easy though. Each light has a number of channels and you assign them to the controller, so each slider controls one of the channels. A light like that probably has 7-8 channels, one for each color, one for brightness, one for patterns, one for strobing. Dmx is helpful when chaining a big system, especially moving head lights, but a lot of lights also have sound activated patterns you can use without dmx.

[tremolo3]

Don't forget the disco ball.

[John Matrix]

Honestly if you just want some far out swirly goodness the cheapo halloween store lights are probably enough. My band uses one on stage even and it looks pretty cool. I dont remember what it's called exactly but if you search for "wave led light" on Amazon you'll see a bunch of similar things.

[zeravla]

I bought one of these and it's not bad for what it is. Should hold you over until you figure out what you really want at least.
https://www.guitarcenter.com/VEI/Party-Starter-Bulb.gc
Looks like this
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80x-ivU_4QE[/youtube]

[xGAMBLERx]

white you get a blade runner effect pink looks pretty psych trippy,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_zzxOUUHk0

short strobe blasts tucked behind amps & stuff in dark room are rad, i have this for my pedalboard but it wasn't cheap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HipxStqM9Q

i always thought those cheap novelty tesla coils looked cool on top of your stack, but this dude went full on lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83spVawPnQg

[Errant Tiger]

Thanks for the tips, everyone. Though as I'm contemplating the list of things I absolutely need to outfit my apartment, I think I might just resort to punching myself in the eyes for awhile before buying anything else...

[Blackened Soul]

Well the real cheap way to go is christmas/halloween lights, put them at the top of your walls along the perimeter of your ceiling, just pick a neat color/colors, I have my bedroom in orange and the living room / band rehearsal / studio big live room in multicolored Once we did red in a vocal both we make-shifted out of purple foam baffles.. Also can you really have enough lava lamps?

[Errant Tiger]

Well the real cheap way to go is christmas/halloween lights, put them at the top of your walls along the perimeter of your ceiling, just pick a neat color/colors, I have my bedroom in orange and the living room / band rehearsal / studio big live room in multicolored Once we did red in a vocal both we make-shifted out of purple foam baffles.. Also can you really have enough lava lamps?

Yeah, I've got plenty of xmas lights, I'm just looking for a little more swirl. I hadn't thought about a lava lamp or six, though!

[goroth]

We always get total shit boring lighting at gigs so I'm really interested to see what we could do ourselves (without having to go full on The Ocean and program an entire set etc).

Snaxing this thread.

[qersty]

Go old school and do overhead oil projections! Really sick old school psych effects. I think you are supposed to be able to do it with slided too but i dont know how to get the oil in there. Thats how the light guy at UFO supposedly did it

[qersty]

https://www.instructables.com/id/Oil-projector-machine/
Didnt take long to learn tho

[lordgalvar]

Get some black lights and look at the glow from the previous tenants. (Seriously, clean it)

Marker on lightbulb and a rotating table too.

[Blackened Soul]

Well the real cheap way to go is christmas/halloween lights, put them at the top of your walls along the perimeter of your ceiling, just pick a neat color/colors, I have my bedroom in orange and the living room / band rehearsal / studio big live room in multicolored Once we did red in a vocal both we make-shifted out of purple foam baffles.. Also can you really have enough lava lamps?

Yeah, I've got plenty of xmas lights, I'm just looking for a little more swirl. I hadn't thought about a lava lamp or six, though!

I think I have around 13 of the things.. I got them because I wanted to film them for music vids
I have something similar to this https://www.pssl.com/products/eliminato ... juEALw_wcB

but that's more for band stuff... as goroth was hitting at, if you want cool lighting you have to have your own... We did a lot of gigs where we ended supplying the lights cause of lame venues and peeps..