The way the lighting calculates was improved in P9/PP2012 over previous versions to improve accuracy, so what worked well in P6 will look different now. If your lights are too bright, try reducing the intensity - it's at 100% now, so try 65% to start with. I'd also suggest just using the main light to start with, and getting bagginsbill's free Light Meter prop (https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/file-cabinet) which is the best and easiest way to judge light intensities properly.

Another way to stop a render blowing-out too quickly is to switch on HSV Tone Mapping in the render options - in practical terms this is a rough highlight control. 

Also if you do go with the specular light setup as posted you may get unexpected results with shadows disabled. I'm not sure if you'll need it unless it's for specific effect.

If you want to add a colour tint to a render I'd also suggest trying an IDL Sphere with an appropriately coloured material on it and keep the lights white, and compare the results to using coloured lights, see which suits better.

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