Setlist Timer

A typical UK pub gig runs 60 to 90 minutes, split as either one long set or two 45-minute halves with a 15-minute break. A festival slot is usually 30 to 45 minutes; a headline show 75 to 120 minutes; a wedding band set 90 minutes plus encore. The Setlist Timer lets you drop your songs into the order you want, set each duration, and see the running total update as you reorder, so you stop arriving at a venue with 75 minutes of material booked into a 60-minute slot.

The standard rule is to pad your raw runtime by 15% to account for tuning between songs, banter, the inevitable false start, and (if you're playing original material) song introductions. A 60-minute set therefore needs about 51 minutes of audio. Nail the opener and closer first; those two songs do more for how the audience remembers the gig than anything in the middle.

The pacing template that almost always works for original-material gigs: open with a recognisable mid-tempo song, push to a faster second song, settle into a 'mid-set' valley with two slower or quieter songs, build back through three energetic songs, peak with your single biggest song two-thirds through, then ride down to a memorable closer. Cover bands ignore this and play purely for dance-floor density; rock bands ignore it at their peril.

Always run a live timer during your set so you don't drift. The Setlist Timer's timer view gives you a running total and a 'time remaining' indicator that lets you cut a song mid-set if you're overrunning, or add an unplanned encore if you have time. Pair this with the [Tap Tempo BPM Counter](/tap-tempo) for picking dancing tempos, and the [Song Structure Builder](/song-structure) for deciding which arrangements to extend or shorten on the night.