Advice for gear settings in a large brewery

[Ellery]

Copious use of a high pass filter and try to keep the volume lower than you normally would.

^^This^^
I played in a rock band with a real heavy metal tone in a similar venue. At first my sound was horrible and the sound guy kept asking me to turn up (a rarity in itself). Finally I cranked my HPF pedal to the highest freq and voila I could hear everything!

 

[Archaeohippie]

Is this a new venue or have they been having bands in there for some time?
If it's a new venue they may not know what they got themselves into with live music
in that room, if it's an older venue they may complain each night how loud the band is!
By chance is there another band playing in there before your show you can and check out?

They have had folk acts before, but we are the first full band. They gave us an open invitation to be the "house band" in the very first conversation. We said yes but on the condition we say how often.

I think they are using us as the spearhead to get into our scene for local bands (I have specifically pushed our band to promote community and support first shows for new bands - I've done my best to be inventive at local shows and introducing myself as "J" from "this band".)

Salt Lake small to mid size venues for local bands have not really recovered from covid. So there's an open market for that and breweries are setup for the space and clientele.

This brand is a big enough to be in the Kroger stores here, but as a venue I think we have take notes and tell them to invest in this room, especially if they want us as a first round draft pick for their seasonal lineups.
I'd like this venue to grow much like I'd want my band to grow. Win-win.

To clarify salt lake has kilby court and urban lounge, but outside of downtown the main places to play are all under one umbrella (which compartmentalize their lineups into venues) and or like a bar named sue, are unresponsive years on end (to everyone, as I'm told, unless you personally know the peeps) so that is why I declare salt lake an open market for small, local venues.

 

[NobodyImportant]

Keep the stage volume low and invite some fat friends.

 

[Ostie]

Bring flashlights and hard hats, you’ll be playing in a cave.

 

[jthisdell]

A lot of breweries have echo problems where the sound seems to go over around the tanks and bounce around endlessly

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Hey all,

My alternative/grunge cover band is playing in a brewery this weekend - so there's a large amount of eq changes throughout a couple hours.

I went and checked the place out last night and we are playing in a converted cold storage room - the walls and ceiling are metal and the floor is tile.
I would consider use lucky enough that the back wall has wooden beer barrels stacked 2 high and 2 deep.

Essentially I'm looking for advice on bass settings, and anything I could pass along to the other members about playing a gig in a metal box. Ha!

One of the things you can do to find out how "live" the room is would be to use "the old clap test". Clap your hands slowly and loudly a few times and listen to see just how strong the reflections are. If the claps sound sharp and quick, you should be fine. If the claps sound long instead of sharp, that's your sound bouncing back at you. If you hear it like a slap-back delay, which can happen in big rooms, that can really cause some problems.

Back in the 70's when places didn't provide PA's let alone monitors, we played in a room with a 1200 person occupancy rating. It was wider than it was long, but the back wall was still quite a ways back there. The problem with playing a place like that without monitors is that you'll tend to rush every song you play. You'll rush them because in a big room, the sound coming back at you is just a little late...so you think you're dragging and you speed up. Good monitors will solve that problem for you. If they have an FOH system, they should have stage monitors. If it's just a big room with hard walls ceiling and floors, and the rental price is something you can afford, then rent some.

If you're really lucky, the fact that the barrels in there are round as well as stacked tall and 2-deep may deflect the sound instead of slapping it right back in your face. Otherwise, oak is a really hard wood and a flat oak wall will absolutely bounce your sound back at you.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

A lot of breweries have echo problems where the sound seems to go over around the tanks and bounce around endlessly

That is exacerbated by the fact that modern breweries use these huge stainless steel tanks to ferment the beer.

 

[Tazziedevil]

One of my band plays regularly at a brewery- lots of metal surfaces and concrete floor, including the metal tanks.
I basically cut the lows quite dramatically, low mids about half of normal, treble and high mids to taste, and drop the volume. The worst thing is to much bass- it will reflect off of every surface and make a huge muddy mess!

 

[Mike Caldwell]

They have had folk acts before, but we are the first full band. They gave us an open invitation to be the "house band" in the very first conversation. We said yes but on the condition we say how often.

I think they are using us as the spearhead to get into our scene for local bands (I have specifically pushed our band to promote community and support first shows for new bands - I've done my best to be inventive at local shows and introducing myself as "J" from "this band".)

Salt Lake small to mid size venues for local bands have not really recovered from covid. So there's an open market for that and breweries are setup for the space and clientele.

This brand is a big enough to be in the Kroger stores here, but as a venue I think we have take notes and tell them to invest in this room, especially if they want us as a first round draft pick for their seasonal lineups.
I'd like this venue to grow much like I'd want my band to grow. Win-win.

To clarify salt lake has kilby court and urban lounge, but outside of downtown the main places to play are all under one umbrella (which compartmentalize their lineups into venues) and or like a bar named sue, are unresponsive years on end (to everyone, as I'm told, unless you personally know the peeps) so that is why I declare salt lake an open market for small, local venues.

If there used to folk type acts, could be an interesting night for them first time with a full band!

 

[pepj]

I don't think you can truly predict how a room like that will sound. But with difficult rooms, I generally go with the premise of not trying to bully it so a lower volume would be my start off point.

I'm not thinking i need to drastically alter my sound, so I might roll off the bass a touch but really all I'm aiming for is my bass sounding good and the right volume.

 

[Archaeohippie]

Video files are too big at the moment

Sound check had me sweating balls but...
The gig went amazing. It took the room being full but all settings were back to normal and all sound concerns absorbed away by the bodies. Made new friends and got a beer sponsor.
I'll do my best to pay it forward