Noise limiters
There are noise restrictions at my venue. Will a band still be able to play?
Some venues have restrictions on how loud the music can be. They may check this with a sound meter, or more commonly they may have a noise limiter installed. Noise limiters are pre-set to a certain level (eg: 95 decibels) and if the music exceeds this limit, after a brief warning, the act's power is cut off altogether! A lot of things can affect how a noise limiter operates – the positioning of the limiter, the acoustics of the room, noise from the audience, etc – so it is difficult to know to what extent the act’s performance will be affected. Also some bands can cope better with noise limiters than others, particularly bands which use electronic drum kits.
The first thing is to check with the venue what sort of bands regularly play there. If they say that pop/rock bands play there without problems then you should be OK. If they say that some bands manage and others don’t, then you will need discuss this with Function Junction so that we only suggest appropriate bands. We have built up our own database of venues with sound limiters, so we usually have a pretty good idea of whether a band will be able to play there or not.