[SML] Moving Light Colour Mixing philosophy question

[Jon Ares]

I'm following this - I'd love to hear from "those that know" why CMY
flagging is still so prevalent. My theory has been that it comes down to
lumens, or perhaps "perceived" brightness, and engineers have found that
it's still easier (cheaper?) to start with a super-bright tuned "white"
source, then go back to subtractive color mixing to give it color. But
that's just a guess.

Historically, and in my experience, the CMY mixing does a better job of
creating nice pastels and face light.

My (former) space has a mix of ColorSources, Source Four LED Lustre 2,
Source4WRDs with gels, and Chauvet Maverick profiles. The Source4WRDs with
gels, and the S4LED2s gave the best delicate face light, followed by the
Chauvets (but the Mavericks are so bright, it's hard to compare them).

Very interested in hearing some facts on this....

 - Jon

On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 8:42 AM Riter, Andrew via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

> Hi everyone
>
>
>
> I’m demo-ing some Chauvet moving lights, and when comparing them to my
> in-house coloursource4 units, came up with this question:
>
>
>
> Colour additive LED intelligent lighting is typically RGB or RBGL / RBGW
> etc.
>
> But Moving lights (with a white source) with the dichroic flags are CYM.
>
>
>
> Why are subtractive colour systems CMY and not RGB?
>
> Why are colour additive system RBG and not CMY?
>
>
>
> (this is based on my experience, and maybe there are lights out there that
> are additive CMY…)
>
>
>
>
>
> Anyone know the reason or have a theory?
>
>
>
> *Andrew M. Riter*
> Assistant Technical Director, Head Lighting Technician
> Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
> The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus
> 6265 Crescent Road | Vancouver BC | V6T 1Z1 Canada
> Phone 604 822 2372
> andrew.riter at ubc.ca
>
> [image: UBC E-mail Signature]
>
>
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-- 
Jon Ares
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