Hi Guys, my first post on this forum so be gentle.
I've had a scan to see if this is a repost and can't find anything specific to my problem but if I've missed something I'll apologise now.
I'm currently playing in and providing sound and lighting for a club band in the North of England, I've been sound engineering for a few years and have all my gear sorted abd no what I'm doing with that, but my attitude to lighting as an engineer was always "I put up my Icolors and they go flashy flash, you want more than that heres a number for a good lampy" Unfortunately now the band I'm in requires a little more than I'm used to providing and have no money to pay said good lampy.
Lighting wise the setup currently is very simple, two icolor 3s provide wash and then a lazer for effects. We can't use the lazer at the moment because I have no means of controlling it and just on sound to light it goes nuts and is totally inappropriate to most of the set. Eventually we want a set up where I have five led smartcans dmxed up with the lazer and possibly the icolors for additional wash, then maybe... eventually... two movers for extra flashy flashy wow factor.
I would ideally like to just hook this lot up to my laptop which is onstage anyway to play the walk on and walk off music. I've been recommended ShowMagic as a free software to control everything, but I have no idea what DMX to USB dongle to buy and everything is looking ver ver expensive.
Essentially we'll probably only have about ten different scenes, fast song, slow song, big impressive chorus etc, then just que them up in order and hit a button to go to the next one (a foot switch would be ideal).
I'm aware that gear costs, but my budget is more miniscule than modest and I don't want to pay over £100 for, what looks to me like, a piece of cable and two connectors. Can anyone recommend a piece of kit that will do what I need for buttons please. I don't need it to be awesome, I just need it to do what I've said above and not break.
May your wisdom and experience dimiss my ignorance. Thanks in advance.
I've had a scan to see if this is a repost and can't find anything specific to my problem but if I've missed something I'll apologise now.
I'm currently playing in and providing sound and lighting for a club band in the North of England, I've been sound engineering for a few years and have all my gear sorted abd no what I'm doing with that, but my attitude to lighting as an engineer was always "I put up my Icolors and they go flashy flash, you want more than that heres a number for a good lampy" Unfortunately now the band I'm in requires a little more than I'm used to providing and have no money to pay said good lampy.
Lighting wise the setup currently is very simple, two icolor 3s provide wash and then a lazer for effects. We can't use the lazer at the moment because I have no means of controlling it and just on sound to light it goes nuts and is totally inappropriate to most of the set. Eventually we want a set up where I have five led smartcans dmxed up with the lazer and possibly the icolors for additional wash, then maybe... eventually... two movers for extra flashy flashy wow factor.
I would ideally like to just hook this lot up to my laptop which is onstage anyway to play the walk on and walk off music. I've been recommended ShowMagic as a free software to control everything, but I have no idea what DMX to USB dongle to buy and everything is looking ver ver expensive.
Essentially we'll probably only have about ten different scenes, fast song, slow song, big impressive chorus etc, then just que them up in order and hit a button to go to the next one (a foot switch would be ideal).
I'm aware that gear costs, but my budget is more miniscule than modest and I don't want to pay over £100 for, what looks to me like, a piece of cable and two connectors. Can anyone recommend a piece of kit that will do what I need for buttons please. I don't need it to be awesome, I just need it to do what I've said above and not break.
May your wisdom and experience dimiss my ignorance. Thanks in advance.
