Your Wedding Venue Has A Limiter. What Does That Actually Mean?

There's a piece of wedding planning advice you probably won't find on Pinterest:

Ask your venue about the limiter.

If you've just said “What's a limiter?”, don't worry. You're in good company.

A limiter is a device used by some venues to monitor or restrict sound levels. They're becoming increasingly common, and I've encountered them at roughly three or four weddings out of ten.

And they can have a surprisingly big effect on your party.

Not always. But sometimes.

So it's worth knowing what you're dealing with in advance of it happening.

First: “It's limited to 95dB” doesn't tell you very much

This is one of the problems.

A decibel figure sounds precise. It isn't necessarily.

Where is that 95dB being measured?

On the dancefloor?

Next to the speakers?

Where the limiter itself is installed?

Is it measuring peak volume or sustained volume?

Is it monitoring the whole frequency range, or is the venue particularly concerned about bass?

Those details matter.

Two venues can both tell you they have a “95dB limiter” and give a DJ two completely different experiences.

The problem with music is that it isn't constant

If music stayed at exactly the same volume all night, limiters would be pretty easy to deal with.

Set the maximum level.

Don't exceed it.

Job done.

But music doesn't work like that.

A track has peaks and troughs. The bass builds and drops. A huge chorus suddenly arrives. The crowd starts singing. People cheer. Someone starts stamping their feet.

You can be playing at exactly the same volume you've been playing at for the last hour and suddenly the limiter decides you've crossed its threshold.

And the music cuts out.

Not between songs.

Not at a convenient moment.

Right in the middle of the track (often as it’s peaking).

And that's where things get really frustrating.

The last thing you want is silence

When a dancefloor is really getting going, the crowd itself can suddenly become surprisingly loud.

And if that pushes the venue's limiter over its threshold, the music can disappear at precisely the moment you want it least.

The DJ hasn't touched the volume in the last hour.

The music wasn't necessarily getting progressively louder.

The crowd simply got excited.

Then everything goes quiet.

And here's the awkward bit:

You're the person standing behind the decks.

It doesn't matter that the venue's equipment caused it. It doesn't matter that you haven't touched the volume control.

It's dark.

The music has stopped.

Everyone looks at the DJ.

You can't even jump on the microphone and announce:

“Sorry everyone, the venue's limiter has just decided you've been having too much fun.”

Because the microphone needs power too.

By the time everything has reset and the music is running again, you've lost the moment.

You have to start again at a lower level.

And the energy that was building?

Gone.

Now you've got to rebuild it.

That's rubbish.

I don't want to DJ by traffic light

There's another problem that isn't immediately obvious.

DJing takes concentration.

I'm listening to the music, choosing what comes next, mixing, watching the dancefloor, reading the room and making decisions constantly.

I don't want to spend the entire night staring at a limiter's little green-amber-red traffic light system, worrying about whether the next bass note or crowd cheer is going to shut everything down.

That's not DJing.

And it makes it much harder to do the actual job properly.

Why are venues so worried about bass?

This part is understandable.

Bass travels.

It travels much further than higher frequencies, and it's the bass that causes problems for venues with neighbours nearby.

A venue that repeatedly receives noise complaints can find itself dealing with the council, restrictions and potentially much more serious consequences.

For a venue that has invested heavily in its building and business, being cautious about noise is completely understandable.

I don't blame them.

But there's a disconnect.

The venue's priority is protecting its licence and its relationship with the neighbours.

The couple's priority is having an amazing wedding.

And the DJ is standing right in the middle of those two things.

So what do I do about it?

These days, I ask about limiters before the wedding.

If the venue has one, I'll talk to the couple about it well in advance.

Not because I want to dampen their excitement.

Quite the opposite.

I'd rather everyone know what to expect before the first guest arrives.

I also change how I approach the sound system.

For example, if I'm working with a venue that has a hard limiter, I'll normally go from two subwoofers to one.

That's partly because bass is usually what venues are most concerned about. Two subs produce more of it, and that's exactly the part of the sound spectrum most likely to travel beyond the room.

It's not about simply making everything quieter.

It's about giving myself the best chance of delivering great sound within the limitations of the venue.

Because, as I've said before:

Good equipment isn't enough. You have to know what to do with it.

But not all limiters are a problem

This is important.

Sometimes a limiter is installed as part of a venue's licensing conditions simply because it needs to be there, but it isn't necessarily configured to cut the music off whenever a particular threshold is exceeded.

Those are fine.

The fact that a venue has a limiter doesn't automatically mean you're going to have a miserable dancefloor.

The important question is:

What does the limiter actually do?

That's what you need to find out.

So, what should you ask your venue?

If you're considering a venue with a limiter, I'd ask:

Where is the sound level measured?

What exactly is being measured?

Is the stated dB level a peak or sustained level?

Does the system actually cut the sound if the threshold is exceeded?

What happens when it does?

And most importantly:

Has the venue had problems with DJs triggering it in the past?

You don't need to become an expert in acoustics.

You just need to know what you're signing up for.

Because there's a big difference between a limiter that quietly does its job in the background and one that can suddenly kill the music halfway through the best song of the night.

And I'd much rather have that conversation with you before your wedding than discover the answer together at 10:47pm.

One final thing

If your dream venue has a limiter, don't immediately cross it off the list.

It might be absolutely fine.

Just find out what it actually means.

A great wedding isn't about having the loudest possible music.

It's about great sound, a packed dancefloor and the music being there when you need it.

That's what I'd rather concentrate on.