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Casino - 89db limit


mstreck

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We're playing in a restaurant at a casino on Saturday. I was notified that they have a new policy that bands can not exceed 89 db at the restaurant entrance. :whisper:

 

We're going all pedal boards and have a good sound man, but our drummer will have a live kit (he does not have v-drums). The casino will be taking the readings. Wish us luck!

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Good luck! I've done a number of gigs like that and IME, it will all depend on how well your drummer can moderate the kick & snare. Also bring the smallest amps you have. I swear I've had people look at our guitar amps and tell us to turn down before we even start playing. The toughest part is the feeling that you would sound SO MUCH better if you could just break loose... Hope it pays! :-)

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People start freaking when I roll my 760 Leslie into a place. They don't know it's one of the weakest amps that I own. Anyway, you could calculate the audio drop from the stage to where the measurements are being taken. That way you have your own idea of what level you need to be at. You didn't mention how far away that is. Indoors you don't quite get the 6 db drop for a doubling of distance. (Unless the walls, floors and ceiling are non-reflective surfaces.)

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Hmmmm...

80db is rated "Loud" - Noisy office,electric shaver,alarm clock,police whistle...

90db is rated "Very Loud" - Noisy factory, truck without muffler....

89db should be doable......

 

 

 

Most speakers are rated at 97db-ish at 1 watt, 89db is not gonna be easy. Hopefully the band is quite far from where they are taking measurements.

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good luck sir! We play a place that had to be 65db at the entrance of the parking lot (Outside venue, distance from band to that point was probably about 5-600 feet with a building in the way) and we usually were ok. Sometimes though, our volume would "increase" as the night went on but we changed nothing... do frequencies travel farther depending on humidity/temperature?

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just IME:

 

if you're getting into the Casino circuit, be prepared to deal with db limiting. a lot.

 

you guys would do well to invest in modern, electronic gear. but my experiences on this board in the past tells me that the OP's band doesn't quite roll like that...

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Fill the kick drum with foam, packing blankets (If it were me, I'd fill that sucker all the way up with heavy King-sized blankets and tune it "just above wrinkles".), put a Remo Muff'l on the snare... it will make the snare a little less sensitive, but it will defintiely cut the volume down bit.

 

I have two sets of cymbals just for this purpose, and I went to a local foam company and had them make me foam "inserts" (Got this idea from another drummer on a website) and these foam inserts are like giant foam earplugs that fill the entire drum. Sure, the drums sound "tubby" sounding, but when mic'd and the mid-range rolled out, they almost have an electric sound to them.

 

When I was living in Wheeling, West Virginia last year, I went to a Casino on Wheeling Island. They had a band playing, and the drummer was using a 20" diameter kick, 8" & 10" rack toms, and 13" & 15" rack toms as suspended Floor toms. He had Muff'ls on all the toms and the snare batter heads, and on the kick he had the FULL Sheet Remo Muff'ls under both the front and back heads (I never thought about using those before - I knew they made them, but I had never even actually seen them being used.)

 

The band sucked - I mean they had "Lounge Act" written all over them.... like a bad "Murph and the Magic Tones" kind of Lounge Act... nothing like a guy singing "Crossroads" with perfect diction. (As in " I went down to THEE Cross roads AND got down on my knees." It was like he was reading a freaking cue card or teleprompter.

 

Utterly Awful

 

It was as bad as Florence Henderson singing Country music.:facepalm:

 

But the drummer could still play the kit in a fairly normal fashion, and it sounded good.

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That really means nothing unless we know how far the band is from the restaurant door.

 

 

If it's the place I'm thinking of, the band sets up right inside the entrance along the wall. The entrance is a wide opening, not really a door at all. There is seating outside the actual restaurant, it's in a mall like part of the casino. 89db should be easy enough to do. I'd take some tops on poles and not mic anything on stage.

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We're playing in a restaurant at a casino on Saturday. I was notified that they have a new policy that bands can not exceed 89 db at the restaurant entrance.
:whisper:

We're going all pedal boards and have a good sound man, but our drummer will have a live kit (he does not have v-drums). The casino will be taking the readings. Wish us luck!

 

At least you're in the restaurant part (where peeps are there to eat, drink, and make Mary/merry). In the cabaret area (on the bar in front of the games) peeps don't even care that there is a band. It's soul sucking.

A drumshield (as MusicmanMu suggested) will help a little. Pods and going direct (as has been suggested) will help a little.

Their house guys usually know how ridiculous their jobs are but still have to DO their jobs. Don't villainize them~it may be YOU some day (or me)...you can still make good music at 89 db, you just can't ROCK at 89 db. Have fun.

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If it's the place I'm thinking of, the band sets up right inside the entrance along the wall. The entrance is a wide opening, not really a door at all. There is seating outside the actual restaurant, it's in a mall like part of the casino. 89db should be easy enough to do. I'd take some tops on poles and not mic anything on stage.

 

 

That's the place. We won't be using amps on stage at all. I have a Pod X3 live, Dave has a Rocktron Utopia, Dan has a Boss GT-6B, so I think we're gonna need subs for Dan. It will come down to John and how much control he has.

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Sure, the drums sound "tubby" sounding, but when mic'd and the mid-range rolled out, they almost have an electric sound to them...




But the drummer could still play the kit in a fairly normal fashion...

 

 

 

Boy am I so not looking forward to the day when being able to play the kit in a 'normal fashion' is the most I can ask for out of a gig...

 

I mean, if this type of gig pays really well (or re-booking regularly means consistent and better than decent steady income), I suppose I'd look at it as a make lemonade out of lemons type deal...

 

But the type of settling for sounds premise it appears is acceptable to some...is absolutely not to me.

If I was going to pursue casino gigs regularly, they damn well had better pay enough so that I could make sense out of investing in a full eDrum kit.

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Boy am I so not looking forward to the day when being able to play the kit in a 'normal fashion' is the most I can ask for out of a gig...


I mean, if this type of gig pays really well (or re-booking regularly means consistent and better than decent steady income), I suppose I'd look at it as a make lemonade out of lemons type deal...


But the type of settling for sounds premise it appears is acceptable to some...is absolutely not to me.

If I was going to pursue casino gigs regularly, they damn well had better pay enough so that I could make sense out of investing in a full eDrum kit.

 

 

We were supposed to take a Thursday night for less pay first. A lot of the staff are fans, so our rep got us a Saturday gig, but at the Thursday reduced rate. Basically, this is a paid audition where the follow up gigs will definitely make it worth our while.

 

Also, a potential wedding client will be there to check us out. So we need to make it happen. We don't play anywhere else that far north for them to come out and see us.

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Boy am I so not looking forward to the day when being able to play the kit in a 'normal fashion' is the most I can ask for out of a gig...


I mean, if this type of gig pays really well (or re-booking regularly means consistent and better than decent steady income), I suppose I'd look at it as a make lemonade out of lemons type deal...


But the type of settling for sounds premise it appears is acceptable to some...is absolutely not to me.

If I was going to pursue casino gigs regularly, they damn well had better pay enough so that I could make sense out of investing in a full eDrum kit.

 

 

Trust me - I know exactly what you mean - I use a Marching stick and play metal - not that I hit all that hard, but I just never was able to play with a 747 or 5B like everyone else seemed to use. I HATE Mesh heads. Totally not my thing - I'd rather play on plastic over foam. The reality is, these places need to build an Iso booth to put the band in - something with Glass or Lexan Walls, then the sound wouldn't be an issue.

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