mrtcat

Most function bands pump out the same old shite every week. Rather than the difference being defined by ability I would suggest it is defined by approach. Most function players are more focused on it being an income provider and for that reason they look harder at efficient earning and squeezing as much income as possible from their musical ability. It doesn't make them better just different in their approach. There are tons of great musicians on the pub scene who have the chops but not the desire for function work and that's all that separates. There are however loads of pub players who would struggle with all the guff that goes with function playing (lots of travelling, early arrivals, hanging around for hours on end, awkward clients, being comfortable and competent to play songs that haven't been rehearsed live, very late nights, bridezilla, endless rigging up and tearing down, venues with appalling acoustics, ridiculous noise limiters and on and on and on). If you're a great player but want some social fun and far less of the crap then pub playing is a great way to tick those boxes.

Pop rock covers band playing mostly functions. We average about 90 gigs a year. This year we will be 70% weddings, 29% Corporate and 1% pub. When looking for a band my main criteria was that it must gig at least 4 times more frequently than it rehearses. Last rehearsal we did was in 2019 so I'm very happy with a ratio of about 200 - 1.

Thank you all. I'll contact both ACE and Tube Uk today. Much appreciate your suggestions.

Can anyone recommend a local PA hire company in the Manchester area. We have a gig for approx 450 people and need to arrange PA and lights hire. Gig is early May. Any recommendations gratefully received.

I just can't get on with Ashdown amps. I really wish I did but I just don't like the core sound and I don't like the EQ section. Pity because the customer service is excellent.

Benchmarking against old trace stuff is pointless. This is a completely different amp from a completely different manufacturer. It's nice that they have said that they have tried to recreate the classic trace tone and I hope they were successful. I would probably prefer to buy an amp from a smaller company that built them in the uk purely because any issues could be resolved without involving distributors and that was a big draw for me when I bought a trace amp years ago. I still have a nice old trace head but I don't use amps live very often because silent stages suit my band so much better so I'm not in the market for a new one.

I updated last night. Some nice additions including the bronze bass distortion.

Definitely worth looking for the positives though. Our agents know we can work well with limiters and venue pa systems because we use an electric kit (we use one for every gig now) no backline and in ears so we pick up lots of gigs that other bands can't do. Other bands will catch up though. At the kind of mid range wedding venue these things are here to stay and we will see more and more in the future.

The bride and groom will have been made aware of this from the start. Venues aren't daft. There will be a contract with this all clearly stated and there will be a huge cancellation fee if they try to pull out and use another venue.

All the bands on the Alive Network books are asked to highlight these limitations to the agency so they now have a really solid database of problem venues and the individual issues at each one. They let the client know before they book a band so at least we don't have to break it to them in the pre event check or on the night.

There won't be. Venues with the in house system wont need bands to sound check in advance. They know their system will look after the volume.

Yep, these "zone array" systems are getting more and more common. If you use in ear monitoring and electric drums then, as a musician, you can still enjoy it. You just have to forget that the pumping fat mix you are hearing is absolutely nothing like the flat, dull and thin sound that the punters are being subjected to. I just think that, if the bride and groom are daft enough to book a venue like that and then pay £2k for a band, that's their lookout. Work is work as far as I'm concerned and I won't worry about things I can't control. Luckily our agents are all over this and know all the worst venues. They explain the realities of the system to clients at the time of booking so it never comes back to cause us a problem.

When you take your in ear monitors out mid song and can listen in to the conversations on the dancefloor.

The venue will have been sold the system by a sound company that specialises in selling over the top gear and then limiting it to meet the client's volume limit. They then make sure the venue thoroughly buys into the "if it sounds bad it's the band's fault" way of thinking.

Because any venue that has a "no live music" policy is cutting its sales potential in half. Having a system like this makes clients believe that they are a great place for a wedding with live music. On paper it looks great but the reality is that, by the time the client realises, they will have paid in full and it's too late to back out. That's why the info sheet is like a sales pitch.

Basically we run with absolutely no backline and fully electric drum kit. If you back everything off so that you're not engaging the limiters you can actually hear plectrums hitting strings, drumsticks hitting plastic cymbals and the vocals are way too loud for the mix because the natural volume of singing voices is louder than the overall output from the system. Like EBS_FREAK says, the gear is quality but the way it's set up just chokes all the life out of it.

There are literally dozens of venues with that name. I redacted the group name that would identify which one the info sheet refers to.

These are the ones that make me chuckle the most when we get them. Sounds like an incredible system on paper but in reality they sound worse than a pair of old wharfdales. Designed to completely compress the sound with brick wall limiters that suck the life out of everything. The bride and groom will have been told that the venue has an awesome set up and that any failure to sound amazing is entirely the band's fault.

Sadly they're unlikely to go for that. There are lots of bands out there that are prepared to work with noise limiters and do so regularly who will happily do the gig on the venue's terms and the venue know this.

Noise limiters are pretty much the norm at wedding venues, especially the newer ones. You either work with it or don't do as many weddings. We do over 100 a year and probably about 50 have a limiter of some form, 20 have a zone array system or similar (you plug your mixer into their system and it squashes all the life out of it to get you under their limit) and half a dozen will only allow pre approved bands. We have two venues where we have had to do the daytime sound check weeks ahead of the wedding so they can approve us. Both of those are in Northamptonshire where we are based because we wouldn't go farther afield for an unpaid sound check. The up side is that we get a lot of bookings at these local venues. The down side is that it sounds pretty average for the punters. Especially you need electric kit and in ears if you want to enjoy playing these gigs. To the op I'd say dont dismiss it if the venue is nearby. It could lead to more work on your doorstep which, with the rise in fuel prices, might be a godsend. No matter what the bride tells you, she will have been made aware that they only allow bands that will sound check ahead of the date at the time of booking. These venues may not care about bands but they do care about the reviews they get and won't be dropping bombshells on their customers. Anyone refusing to work with limiters in the wedding industry will see their work dropping off as these become more and more common.

Theoretically playing for DeVere hotels in Reading but, with omicron doing its thing you never know. Pretty sure ticket sales for the event are way down. Either way, unless force majeur comes into play, NYE is a decent player even if we end up staying home.

I've massively simplified my gigging patch for my main function band. Starts with a touch of compression and then split signal at 400hz with lows going to a woody blue and the highs to a matchless guitar amp. A couple of different eqs (one for overall and the other that i use when I use a pick) and then an Aguilar 8x10 ir. 4 snapshots all with progressively more drive on the matchless. Works well for indie pop rock stuff.

Thanks so much. Yeah that Phil x and the drills version is absolutely killer. The bass tone is really gnarly on it but it works so well for their version.