'How long does band sound check take?' All your set-up questions answered

Happy August, wedding planners!

Summer sees us in full swing here at Tailored, providing amazing wedding entertainment to happy couples in gorgeous rural estates, city hotels and stunning countryside barns right across the country.

At this particularly busy time of year, you’ll find our office team working around the clock to ensure every one of our unique wedding bands has all the information they need for every event, and each client knows that every box has been ticked ahead of their big day. It’s a non-stop job and our expert booking agents are the very best at what they do!

We often find, however, that one of the biggest areas for concern for our clients centres around their band’s arrival, the set up and band sound check. This is totally understandable – this part of your booking may seem a mere technicality compared to the main event, but for our bands setting up, a live band sound check is crucial to ensuring the night goes exactly as you would expect.

So, we’ve chatted to our lovely bookings team, as well as some of our busiest bands, to get an idea of your most frequently asked questions around this rather mysterious but important part of your wedding day. Cause we’re nice like that.

Let’s get cracking, shall we?

How long does it take a live band to set up at a wedding?

This is the million-dollar question. Wedding day logistics are often tight for time and very complex, so giving your band hours for sound check is often not seen as feasible. We totally get this - our bands always try and make their set up goes as quick, quiet and seamless as possible. To ensure the band can get everything done efficiently and effectively, we ask that our bands are given 90 minutes for their set up.

What does the set-up entail and how long does a sound check last?

There’s a lot to get done in this time! First, the band must liaise with the venue management or event planner to confirm location, timings and any other important details. They then need to load in all their equipment (which is often a lot more than you’d think – at least a medium sized van’s full), set it all up in position and cable everything together. This usually takes about an hour.

Next, is the band soundcheck – this is when the band make sure that they sound great from the very first song. Every venue is different, so each soundcheck in each venue requires something different from the band and the sound engineer. The band also need to make sure they can hear themselves! This is an easily forgotten point but a crucial one. They do this in one of two ways; either via speakers placed on the floor next to their feet (known as monitors) or via ‘in-ear-monitors’ (essentially very expensive headphones!). This is an incredibly important part of making sure the show goes just as you’d expect. How long does a sound check last, I hear you ask! A live band sound check can take anywhere from 15-20 minutes, or longer depending on the size of your wedding band. 

Can you sound check through headphones?

This was a question given to us by Festival Folk, one of our awesome festival style wedding bands. It’s a fair question, and we understand why people ask it – bands can make a fair amount of noise before they’re meant to if they’re not careful! Unfortunately, it’s not possible to soundcheck through headphones. Without going into too much detail, our bands need to hear the sound through the speakers they will be using for the performance in order to fix any potential problems before the show. However, professional acts like Essex Wedding Band Festival Folk work hard to make sure they cause as little disruption as possible.

We’ve been told our venue has a sound limiter. Will this affect the band?

The short answer is yes, it will – but it’s nothing to worry about! Our bands have plenty experience dealing with sound limiters. If you’d like more information on what sound limiters are and what affect they might have on your wedding day, you can check out our awesome blog on that very subject right here…

Wedding venues with sound limiters. What are they and how will it affect my wedding entertainment?

Can you arrive in the morning to set up and come back later?

We certainly can! If you’d like your band to arrive and set up before you and your guests arrive, we can make this happen for an additional ‘early load-in’ fee. There are other options too – the band can conduct part of the set up and then come back later to soundcheck, for example. Our bands are very relaxed and flexible. We’re happy to work around your schedule.

Can't the band set up outside the room and then just bring everything in and place it where we want you to perform?

This question came via a client from one of our wedding bands in Devon, the wonderful The Big Strut. Whilst some band equipment can be assembled outside the room and brought into the performance space to cut down on set up time, its not possible to do this for the whole PA and lighting rig. Lots the equipment is extremely heavy and needs setting up securely and correctly in situ for the duration of the show. What’s more, everything from the bands amps to the microphones need to be cabled into the sound desk…doing this in a second location and moving into position later would cause a whole lot more disruption!

Devon wedding band, One Soul

Finally, do make sure you can situate your power unit somewhere that’s a good distance from your guests – nothing spoils the mood like the rumble of a generator… not to mention the diesel fumes!

So, there you have it! If you’ve got a burning question that hasn’t been answered in this blog, contact us and chat to our friendly office team. There’s no question they haven’t heard before! We can’t wait to hear from you.