80's disco style/vintage effect looks

[len]

Looking for some vintage-y disco effects. Ideally:

1. low power consumption so LED is ideal
2. Smaller. This is for a party in a space about the size of a house, so it doesn't need to be stadium bright.
3. Doesn't need to actually be vintage, just output an 1980's look
4. Preferably rentable in Chicagoland.
5. I'll buy some stuff, but I'd rather rent since this is stuff I'm not likely to need again.

Suggestions?

 

[robmerow]

To me nothing says 80's lighting like Par 64s gelled with slightly crispy majenta, red, blue, and green gels. But this goes against your low wattage.
Really, anything LED is going have the opposite "feel" of vintage.

Maybe some Par38 cans with LED Par38 2700k white LED lamps in them, and gel those. Then you get the low power without the saturated colors. Cans are easy to rent, and par 38 bulbs always come in handy.

 

[JohnD]

A major staple of discos of that period was lots of rain lights aka pin spots. They were sometimes powered via not code compliant devices which switched both the positive and neutral for matrix effects. And yes there was nearly always a mirror ball or some other centerpiece.

 

[Wheezy]

Are you looking for 80's or disco? Disco was pretty much dead in the 80's, when lasers and haze began taking hold.

Disco looks require pin spots and mirror ball mentioned above, as well as rotating ball lights and lava lamps.

 

[JohnD]

Are you looking for 80's or disco? Disco was pretty much dead in the 80's, when lasers and haze began taking hold.

Disco looks require pin spots and mirror ball mentioned above, as well as rotating ball lights and lava lamps.

Golly gee, my age is showing, you are correct except that loball dance club owners were known to keep using the stuff they already had.
I also believe the correct response is "Disco isn't dead, it just smells that way."

 

[Les]

Man, I used to buy lights like this all the time when I was younger. I wasn't around for the disco age, but I remember a local skating rink that hadn't changed its rig since about that time.

They had lights such as the Double-Derby:


and of course the cool chasing striplights with a mirror ball in the center (Litelab Starburst):


Other common effects were Par 36 helicopters, beacons, and 'scanners':




If you were really slick, you might have a Vertigo or better yet, a Mystic. I used to have both, but they were borrowed and never returned.



Many of these are available in LED now, but they just don't have that look, maaaan.

I imagine they'd still suffice, though .

Maybe build a color organ from a sheet of fluorescent troffer diffusion?

 

[JerseyMatt]

To me nothing says 80's lighting like Par 64s gelled with slightly crispy majenta, red, blue, and green gels. But this goes against your low wattage.
Really, anything LED is going have the opposite "feel" of vintage.

Maybe some Par38 cans with LED Par38 2700k white LED lamps in them, and gel those. Then you get the low power without the saturated colors. Cans are easy to rent, and par 38 bulbs always come in handy.

This.. However you'd have to program quick fades into your chases, because LEDs are instant on/instant off. If you want authentic incandescent chase look with LEDs, they need to light quickly but 'fade out' over a second or so in order to mimic the cooling filament.

 

[len]

Man, I used to buy lights like this all the time when I was younger. I wasn't around for the disco age, but I remember a local skating rink that hadn't changed its rig since about that time.
View attachment 13905

Exactly the kind of stuff I had from my days as a club dj in the 1980's. I can duplicate a lot of those looks with equipment I already have, which is what I really need to do. Thanks.

Disco was never dead. It just went back to when it was fun, when it was underground.

 

[techieman33]

Monoprice has some cheap mirror balls with motors and LEDs built into the motors. http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=612265