How long does it take?

[bear-foot-bass]

I play in a five piece pub / party classic rock type covers band. Drums, bass, 2 guitars, lead vocals also plays acoustic guitar as well sometimes. We have 4 vocal mikes, guitar cabs are miked, drums are miked. Because we like to put on a professional appearance we have lights that we use unless in the tiniest of pubs. We are lucky in that the PA is owned by the guitarists from previous bands they have been in and do we don't have to fund buying or renting one.
But the downside is that because they have a shedload of gear they insist on using it, and are wannebe sound engineers.
We need to arrive at least 2 hours before live time / end of sound check time to set up all the gear. The guys would really like to double this. I say life's too short and if we can't load in, set up and be ready to go in an hour - especially for a standard pub gig something should go. Should it be? Am I being unreasonable?

Would welcome your thoughts.......

[skankdelvar]

4 hours for a set-up?

Even allowing for varying circs, venues etc, I think I'm with you on this one.

Edited May 4, 2009 by skankdelvar

[Protium]

4 hours is excessive IMO

[Clarky]

We are a trio (guitarist/lead vocals, drummer/backing vocals, me on bass) and, if we don't have a soundcheck, we are usually set up in about 15 minutes. This has the major advantage that we can turn up to gigs in obscure places or at obscure times and virtually plug'n play. 2-4 hours sounds fine for Pink Floyd but ....

[beerdragon]

Playing in pub covers band we usually take about 45 minutes to an hour, takes me about 15/20 minutes for my TE amp and two cabs and tuning pedal and two basses on stands and tuning up. then i give our k/board player a hand, and the PA set up, we have a female singer so all she carries in is a mike and a loud voice. our drummer has a large kit so he takes the longest. its probably a bit longer than an hour, which, for a pub band is terrible really.

[Deep Thought]

Usually about an hour, but that's in a leisurely fashion without rushing. I dare say we could do it considerably quicker if the situation called for it-we've certainly gotten everything [i]off[/i] a stage in less than ten minutes to make way for the headliners.

[Kiwi]

unloading and setting up the PA and sound checking used to take 2 hours minimum for my former band which was a 9 piece

[BOD2]

4 piece with a full PA and lighting - we used to take about 2 hours. But that was only because I had to connect every cable myself while the others stood around chatting, getting in the way, and feigning ignorance.

It could probably have been cut down to 1 hour if everyone pulled their weight and worked as a team.

Working as a team is important. If we'd got our act together and I'd been "allowed" to setup while the other 3 unloaded the gear (instead of me unloading it too) then that would have made a big difference too - it's much quicker to setup when you don't have to keep walking around people.

4 hours seems ridiculous and is the sort of thing the band could easily get slagged off for !

[LukeFRC]

hmmm at my church where i play....

get in, set up stage, set up PA, Lights, band equipment (ususally 5 piece min), projector set up, line checks, sound check, levels and eq, mon mix and then a chance for the band to get their only practice and run through of the songs.... 45 min - 1 hour.

for my gear i can lug a ashdown stack onto the stage find power leads plug in and tune up in, dunno, 10 min?.... why take longer?

[LukeFRC]

though will add there is a wee team to help set stuff up and run PA and AV stuff.

[Mr Fudge]

Luckily we need no more than 5 mins for a soundcheck as we have been playing together in a multitude of venues for 20 + years. However from van to "stage" we are looking at 1 and 1/2 hours and that is non stop. 1.5K rig, with big bloody tops and very, very heavy bins, 4 vocals, 3 keyboards, 1 bass, 1 electric, 2 acoustic, lights, and thank god our drummer saw the light and went electronic years ago. Add a flight of stairs or having to factor in by passing the odd noise limiter and we struggle to get up and running for show time. Sometimes we have to fore go a soundcheck and just start.

Edited May 4, 2009 by Mr Fudge

[phil_the_bassist]

definitely excessive, i'm in a 5piece with a d&*khead guitard who owns the PA and doesn't know how to set it up or use it, and i think the hour we take is waaaay too long.

Life's too short, theres more important things (like Beer) to be doing (aka Drinking)

[johnnylager]

2 guits, 3-piece drum kit, me, no PA - 20 minutes including soundcheck, parking the motors & first trip to the bar. Time is lager.

Edited May 5, 2009 by johnnylager

[Adrenochrome]

We take just over an hour to set-up and about 20 mins to soundcheck.
We have quite a bit of kit with everything (inc. all drums) miked-up, plenty of lights etc.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

30mins if rushed and its somewhere we've played before. Up to an hour if not rushed.

[casapete]

My band allows 90 mins for setting up wherever we play. 7 piece outfit - guitar,keys,bass,drums,trumpet,sax and vocals - with a large 5k PA and lights. So much better to set up leisurely without rushing and get it right. Lots of venues we play require an element of compromise as to where and how we set up, and this alone can take a while to sort before we've got anything in. If we get it done in an hour,then 30 mins to chill/get a drink/eat etc etc. If we don't get done on time, then soundcheck gets aborted and we 'wing it' for first few songs-never had any catastrophies yet!

[crez5150]

Most of the gigs we do are 350 people plus so we allow two hours...... that's enough for lights/pa/line check and sound check.

[OldGit]

4/5 piece with all using backline plus in the FOH and monitors and lights.
There's also a couple of people playing several instruments so each of those has to be sound checked and balanced etc.

We like 2 hours, and most of that is pulling the gear in from the cars and plugging it all in.

If it all goes well we then get 20 mins or so to run through new tunes and stuff before the doors are opened and the punters come in. I hate sound checking on front of the punters.

[quote name='phil_the_bassist' post='479520' date='May 4 2009, 10:59 PM']Life's too short, there's more important things (like Beer) to be doing (aka Drinking)[/quote]

I'd rather be playing, warming up and getting the sound just right than drinking beer any day ... YMMV

[waynepunkdude]

About 10 mins and then we are waiting for the drummer for the last 7 mins.

[OutToPlayJazz]

The OutToPlayJazz band usually takes 15 mins. 30 if I'm providing the PA. Otherwise, with most of the other outfits I play with it's usually about 30 mins. Blondie UK with the massive PA & all the keys stuff was about an hour on average.

[bassace]

However long it takes, a band should always aim to be set up, soundchecked and the stage cleared before the first punter comes in. Not always possible, I know, something to go for.

[Funkmaster]

It's about 30 mins or so for The Welsh T Band (inc simple lights). Thankfully the singer spends most of this time smoking or it might be longer!

45mins probably for The Roosters as that's a bit more complicated a set-up.

I've a little 6K PA rig that I sound engineer the occaisional folk festival with - van to set-up and room rung-out time for that is about 2hrs 30mins singlehanded - well I use both [i]MY [/i]hands but there's only me doing it! And I always think that set-up time is way too long!

[stingrayfan]

1hr. Most of that is the PA, to be honest. 3 of us all have powered wedges and mics. Plus a couple of mics on the drum kit = lots of cables. Usually I set my bass stuff 10 mins before we go on!

[51m0n]

Couple of hours tops.

Working out where everything goes is the biggest issue. Lots of monitors, reasonable PA (we can go really big but dont have to normally). Then there the drummer - whose PA it is, because him and I do the majority of the PA he is then left with his kit to set up afterwards/during the end of the PA set up. Which means this all takes longer. We dont rush mind, but we dont stop either. Otherwise we're knackered in time for the show, which is not good!

Soundcheck is a luxury we never seem to get to, which annoys me, since usually we dont get a soundcheck as we end up waiting for someone to turn up who wasnt involved with the heavy gear.

If we do a soundcheck it takes about 15 mins.

If the venue had its own (decent) PA we would be set up in about 20 minutes I reckon, ready for a 15 minute soundcheck

On the other hand if I'm depping I can be there from car to stage and ready to go in 10 to 15 minutes tops...

Edited May 5, 2009 by 51m0n

[clauster]

We're at about 2 hours - 2 guys do desk, IEM and DSP rack and run the multicore back to the stage. The rest get pa cabs in position, connect up amps, wireless mic rack. Then instruments and amps come in and get set up and mic'ing up/DI gets done. Then 10-15 mins for soundcheck. We'd probably save some time if we had a simpler FOH desk.

But, along with Bassace, we like to get this all done before the majority of the punters come in, so we try to arrive at pub gigs for about 4. Also gives us time to chill out, have a pint and some food between get everything up and running and starting the gig.

So we're ususally at the venue for at least 4 hours before we start playing.