Introduction:

Lights are a highly important component of a Dj’s performance and there’s so many options in the market that selecting the best dj lights can be daunting task.

Unless you want to create a special mood and take the entire experience in your own hands, you’re going to have to look into special lighting.

Investing in strobes and other FX will assure a holistic approach if you’re as well looking forward to working at a wedding and special occasions, and no necessarily concentrate on the music exclusively.

This approach has a rather entrepreneur-ish perspective to it. 

There are a large amount of companies to choose from in the lighting perspective. Some are more famous than the others, and most of the times it’s justified.

QUICK RUNDOWN

If you are in a hurry these are our TOP Picks for the best DJ lights:

1. Adkins Profesional Lighting: LED Battery Powered Wireless DMX

2. CHAUVET DJ Swarm Wash FX 4-in-1 RGBAW

3. DragonX 4 Bar LED mobile DJ Stage Lighting Packages

4. MFL 10w LED Moving Head Light RGBW Mini Moving Beams

These lights work great and are of a fantastic value compared to the bigger brands such as Chauvet, etc. This particular light is four colors (Red, Blue, Green, White). The moving heads use four single colored LEDs. The pattern of the light is a block of 4 squares each of a different color. Although they are tiny, they have an amazing stream of light to them.

5. CHAUVET DJ SlimPAR 64 RGB LED Par Can Wash Light | LED Lighting

This Chauvet product is very bright and, just as most of the more expensive and/or contemporary lights, is easy to setup. To use them properly, it would be best if you used at least a five channel controller to take profit of all of the features it can deliver. However, this handy wash is easily commanded in three- or seven- channel of DMX mode. SlimPAR 64 contains 180 RGB LEDs in a thin casing that doesn’t demand too much space at all. For added ease, it also offers motionless colors and color mixing with or without a DMX controller, and the power linking simplifies the set up process.

6. SUNY Professional Green Blue Laser Blue LED 24

7. Roxant Pro Mini LED Strobe Light with 24 Super Bright LEDs (BONUS)

What type of spaces and events will you be working with?

What type of mood do I want to create?

Do I want to excite people?

Does the mood have to be mysterious or solemn?

Will I be working indoors or outdoors, maybe both?


How much power will I need to have my lighting work properly?


Will I have access to AC power and how many sockets will there be available?

Will the spaces I’ll be working with have their personal lights?


Who will be responsible for handling setup and controls?


Will I be programming setups?

Concept

The main reason you’d of use stage lights if you’re a DJ in the first place is to show the audience what in your vision should have been happening in case the music played was played by an orchestra/ band/ artist, and so forth.

Because Dj’s are usually unseen within their performance, and they are normally concentrated on the decks and the mixer, it’s not very frequent that they actually have a very engaging act with the crowd.

So it is important that the light projects the emotions that the music intends to convey.

Create a mood

One of the important uses of stage lighting is to maneuver the audiences emotions. A DJ set with no lights involved tends to be bland. Lights are an important asset when the light engineer wants to project three-dimensional elements on stage using two-dimensional objects.

Many high-end clubs have construed entire installations and concepts behind lights, and are able to shape the entire mood, idea, and philosophy behind a certain party. Some examples would be ARMA17, Tresor, and Berghain.

Focus

Another crucial function of lighting is to channel the attention of the crowd to one area or and to direct their focus away from another spot. Many artists like Aphex Twin, for example, totally distract the audiences attention from himself, instead of creating a special atmosphere with high-end lighting and live video installations.

This is generally achieved by exposing and accenting the areas that are supposed to be highlighted in bright light and applying rather dimmer light on the areas that the audience has to be distracted from.

Sometimes, removing light totally can also be an option.

Types of Lighting Effects

There are different DJ lighting effects on the market, and the classes of lights haven’t really changed that much for the last 10 to 15 years.

Derby lights are an interesting and accessible way to bring some life and action in your show. This type of equipment can disperse bright beams through an entire area.

Some Derby lights on the market nowadays can multitask and perform different fx like black light, strobes, automatized programs, and sound triggered patterns. If you’re looking for an impressive light that does different types of effects, derby lights are a choice that will definitely satisfy your needs.

Strobes and lasers have pretty much become more present and accessible in terms of price in recent years. Stobe lights utilize a pulsing light beam. They generate a pulsating effect that can be applied in a great number of ways.

Lasers create a powerful color beam. They often have incorporated display programs, and some are sound triggered, so you’ll have a nice sync with the music.

Top tier laser lights can even generate 3D effects and a wide array of other intense fx. Lasers should be coupled with fog machines to achieve a more intense and powerful effect.

This type of lights will usually be applied to enhance the ambiance to a lighting scheme. This particular type of lighting will create soft washes on the walls and floors of the venue.

As you have probably noticed, we’ve pretty much touched base with the rather inexpensive end of the light spectrum. The reason being that DJ’s should rely on hardware that is inexpensive (not synonymous with cheap) and accessible, gear that can deliver an experience that will lay a clever emphasis on the music, before all. Of course, at the very beginning of the review we’ve spoken about great clubs like ARMA and Berghain, but please bear in mind that almost none of the DJ’s playing gigs there travel with their own lights, unless it is a highly conceptual and costly performance. We’ve spoken of a setup of tens of thousands of dollars. Given the perspective, that you’re looking to spice up your DJ set at a local bar, a party at your school or whatever small to medium venue, all of the lights that we have briefly reviewed should suffice, without a doubt. Happily, modern technologies long and elaborate light performances can be efficiently pre-programmed with software and run smoothly using a DMX controller letting you produce entrancing effects. By properly assessing your needs and the various options that are available to you, choosing the ideal set of DJ lights is simpler than ever before. Convine them with a good DJ controller, speakers and mixer and you’ll be ready to rock your next gig. If you find this guide usefull please let us know in the comments below. Best of luck!