How long to you take to set up ?

Emp_Fab

We seem to take an eternity and I'm looking to speed things up.  For example, last night's gig, we met at 'HQ' where we store most of the kit at 5:45pm and loaded up the van.  The venue was local, so only a 15 min drive.  We finally had everything up and ready to soundcheck at 7:45pm - so that's 1h45 to unload the van and set up.  We're always rushing to try to squeeze a soundcheck in before the kick off and plenty of occasions we've started late and still not managed it.

How long do you take ? - and do you have any plan ?  We just seem to unload the van all at once, so everything is in a pile inside the venue, then we all do our own thing - and get in each others' way.

Jalapeno

Emp_Fab said:

we all do our own thing - and get in each others' way.

Yep, and drummer sets up first and then spends an eternity practicing paradiddles driving us (me mainly) nuts

p90fool

Once we've loaded in, about 20 minutes until we're in tune and hitting the first chord of the first set. 

We only do a line check and then go, there's not really any reason to move any knobs from where they've been for the last ten gigs with our simple setup. 

We always choose an opening song where I have some hanging chords, so I can move the odd fader on the fly. 

Musicwolf

4 piece covers band.  Drums, Bass, 2 x Guitars, 2 x Vocals, own PA mixed from stage.  We played a small pub on Friday.  We were the only band, arrived 7pm, ready to play by 8:10pm.  Although we were able to park reasonably close to the entrance the pub was already crowded and the usual problems of the space not being cleared entirely before we got there.  It was a really tight space and we were tripping over one another whilst setting up so 70min is quite a long time.

If we have room to swing a cat (not part of the act these days) we can normally set up in 30 min or less.

EricTheWeary

We were about an hour from arrival. Assuming we all arrived at the same time carry the drums in first then whilst he sets up bring in the PA, then bass, keys and guitar gear. Sound check was minimal - half a song really.

Jalapeno said:

Emp_Fab said:

we all do our own thing - and get in each others' way.

Yep, and drummer sets up first and then spends an eternity practicing paradiddles driving us (me mainly) nuts

Yes, some of that. There seemed to be no point at which the drum kit was sufficiently set up that he could help with anything else. 

Jalapeno

EricTheWeary said:

We were about an hour from arrival. Assuming we all arrived at the same time carry the drums in first then whilst he sets up bring in the PA, then bass, keys and guitar gear. Sound check was minimal - half a song really.

Jalapeno said:

Emp_Fab said:

we all do our own thing - and get in each others' way.

Yep, and drummer sets up first and then spends an eternity practicing paradiddles driving us (me mainly) nuts

Yes, some of that. There seemed to be no point at which the drum kit was sufficiently set up that he could help with anything else. 

They must be related

kennedydream1980

It takes us around 30 minutes, that includes a quick sound check.

Roland

If the venue is providing pa and lights then it’s a couple of trips to the car for personal gear and a few minutes to plug together. If we are providing everything then 60 to 90 minutes depending on where we can park, how much space we have to work in, and whether we all arrive on time.

A couple of years ago we hired a village hall to practice setting up. As a result we identified what kit we actually need at a venue, ie complete set up plus spare cables, and boxed it accordingly. We also agreed who looks after what - I do PA speakers and lights, bassist does desk and wireless transmitters, keys does mains cables and speaker cables, drummer does drums and drum mics. If there’s space then we lay the boxes in a line in front of the playing area so that it’s easy to find the cable you need.

Tear down we’ve found it quickest if we all stop for 10 minutes after playing while we relax and talk. Then we pack personal gear, followed by our share of the band gear. We all end up folding cables and picking up the litter. We can tear down and load in 50 minutes.

Keefy

When I had my own 3-piece, load-in and set-up was 45 minutes tops. I took the same time to set up my guitar rig and the PA (Bose L1 - very quick to do) as the drummer with his kit. Bass player was always late but still managed to set up in time!

maltingsaudio

Unloading it all at once and putting it in a pile in the venue and likewise piling it all up in the venue the loading it all out at once is the safest way of doing things from a security point of view. 

It takes us about 2 hours to put a full PA in comfortably befor the band arrives and about an hour to take it out. 

In in my experience, barring real equipment problems, the drummer always takes the longest to set up and always looks the least bothered that he/she is taking a lifetime to set up.

poopot

Depends where we play but...

we unload thendrummer first and start getting his crap unpacked, we all set up his stands etc for him so he can stick them where he likes...

I then set up my rig... then we get the PA up... and finally we unpack the bass player from his box and he sets up his rig... 30mins tops... 

again, no real need to soundcheck... we all know our levels...

Lestratcaster

Get to venue, unload everything (or breakables depending on whether its a headliner slot or support). Usually we do soundcheck but can make do with a line check. We use a backing track run off a laptop so that is tested if a soundcheck isn't possible.

We normally get 15-20 minutes changeover/set up time and most of the time we can set up within then, there's normally some kind of backline issue somewhere usually the backing track. Guitars and stuff are usually straightforward with heads and cabs as we're not at the digital stage yet we take a bit longer. So I would say 25 minutes in total for us to set up our gear and be ready to play.

Emp_Fab

There doesn't seem to be much importance placed on soundchecks here....  does this mean you mostly have a sound guy / gal to mix for you ?

Or....  are you all committing (to my OCD brain !) the cardinal sin of setting up, checking there is noise, and play - and mix from the stage yourselves (and only then if someone moans that the vocals are too quiet or something !) ??

EricTheWeary

Emp_Fab said:

There doesn't seem to be much importance placed on soundchecks here....  does this mean you mostly have a sound guy / gal to mix for you ?

Or....  are you all committing (to my OCD brain !) the cardinal sin of setting up, checking there is noise, and play - and mix from the stage yourselves (and only then if someone moans that the vocals are too quiet or something !) ??

If playing a pub/ venue that already has people in it it’s just not a very welcome thing. 
Although whenever I’ve played a venue with an actual sound person they haven’t been that interested beyond initial noises and then refining over the first couple of songs. 

Grunfeld

Emp_Fab said:

Or....  are you all committing (to my OCD brain !) the cardinal sin of setting up, checking there is noise, and play - and mix from the stage yourselves (and only then if someone moans that the vocals are too quiet or something !) ??

It's not a cardinal sin!

We play week in week out so we know the ball park.

We're all wireless so we can run out and get things sorted quickly. 

I know frequencies and on occasions have said e.g. "cut 400Hz" if there's a problem but usually I'll keep my beak out of it. 

Tbh I'd rather the drummer invested in a decent mic for the kick drum.

Guitars and bass:  15-20 mins from load to play.

Drums: about 30 mins.

Singer likes to get there 2 hours early. 

sticker

Grunfeld said:

Emp_Fab said:

Or....  are you all committing (to my OCD brain !) the cardinal sin of setting up, checking there is noise, and play - and mix from the stage yourselves (and only then if someone moans that the vocals are too quiet or something !) ??

It's not a cardinal sin!

We play week in week out so we know the ball park.

We're all wireless so we can run out and get things sorted quickly. 

I know frequencies and on occasions have said e.g. "cut 400Hz" if there's a problem but usually I'll keep my beak out of it. 

Tbh I'd rather the drummer invested in a decent mic for the kick drum.

Guitars and bass:  15-20 mins from load to play.

Drums: about 30 mins.

Singer likes to get there 2 hours early. 

Also the noise levels of punters at 7pm are very different to those at 9pm for instance , so your carefully soundchecked band levels are useless when it's time to play .

Roland

Emp_Fab said:

There doesn't seem to be much importance placed on soundchecks here....  does this mean you mostly have a sound guy / gal to mix for you ?

We’ve been playing together for a long time. A lot of our gigs are repeat venues. Our starting point is the saved desk settings from the last gig. We do a line check followed by one song to confirm the balance is OK.

Unless one of us has got a new guitar or amp then we don’t need to do any more.

John_P

I like to get there before the band and have all the PA set up ready, mics rung out ready to go.  
Takes me about 40 mins from pulling up depending on the access.    
Band usually takes about 20-30mins to set up by which time I’ll have mic’d the kit, cabs and connected any di’s.    If it’s my band then hopefully the singer will have set up the lights in that time.  
Then I’ll load up a saved mix (or similar if it’s new band) and run through some line checks and approximate eq tweaks for about 5 to 10mins.   Play a couple of tunes and adjust the mix.   Being digital has made the adjustments very very quick as i know I’ll be in the right ballpark and have better eq options available to correct any issues.  

I never skip or rush through the mixing though - for the sake of a few mins it’s worth it imo. 

For me it’s less stressful to just arrive a bit earlier but some bands I drop for arrive last minute and throw it together and I hate that.  

Two things come to mind that make it quicker - having a rough mix already saved that just needs eq, gain and overall levels tweaking, and making sure everyone is fairly disciplined with bringing their gear in and placing it where it should go and cracking on instead of a big pile of mess that slows it up as they trip over each other.  

Legionreturns

Slow fuckers! 

When I setup my YBTB rig, it's done in 45 minutes, tops. That's on my own. 

Electric drums, PA, 2 Guitars, Bass, Keys, 2 Mics, Lights, Trio+ and FX board, R16 mixer for levels...and I still manage to sound check everything myself. 

Keefy

Legionreturns said:

Slow fuckers! 

When I setup my YBTB rig, it's done in 45 minutes, tops. That's on my own. 

Electric drums, PA, 2 Guitars, Bass, Keys, 2 Mics, Lights, Trio+ and FX board, R16 mixer for levels...and I still manage to sound check everything myself. 

Wtf is a YBTB rig?

EricTheWeary

Keefy said:

Legionreturns said:

Slow fuckers! 

When I setup my YBTB rig, it's done in 45 minutes, tops. That's on my own. 

Electric drums, PA, 2 Guitars, Bass, Keys, 2 Mics, Lights, Trio+ and FX board, R16 mixer for levels...and I still manage to sound check everything myself. 

Wtf is a YBTB rig?

You Bring The Band.