Hearing the kick drum

[kesslari]

If you play groove-oriented music, and if it's important to you to lock with the kick drum (at least on some grooves - granted there are different approaches to take)
- How well are you able to hear the kick on most of your gigs?
- What tricks do you have for hearing the kick when you can't get it in the monitors (adequately or at all) or don't have a monitor on your part of the stage?

 

[JoZac21]

I always set up very close to my drummer, so if I can't hear part of his kit, I can at least see it. At the same time, it's just as much the drummers responsibility to be sure that he's locking in with what you're playing as you locking in w. him/her. If I can't hear my drummer, than hopefully he can still hear me and adjust his playing accordingly... if neither of you can hear each other... then... well, hope you're well rehearsed and keep it simple.... that's my 2 cents.

 

[jaywa]

Whenever I have my own monitor mix, the kick drum is the loudest thing in it and it's at a level I can not only hear, but feel. Then below that the hi-hat and lead vocals and everything else quite a bit below that.

When I have to share a monitor mix I ask for the kick drum to be as loud as the other people can stand.

When I don't have monitor or it craps out, I make sure I'm located as close to the drum kit as possible and preferably on the hi-hat side so I can feel/hear the kick acoustically or if all else fails, watch the drummers foot to lock-in.

 

[Gaius46]

If possible you can try putting your foot up against the kick and feeling it.

I go by visuals alot. Watching his hands and feet and letting him see my right hand whenever possible.

 

[kesslari]

OK, this pretty much matches what I'm doing.
While I agree with you, JoZac21, on it being a shared responsibility, my drummer has "his" feel (and he has a good sense of time, so I won't complain) and it's just hard for him to change it, so more of the responsibility, in this instance, falls on me. Or I take it on me, more accurately.

 

[JoZac21]

OK, this pretty much matches what I'm doing.
While I agree with you, JoZac21, on it being a shared responsibility, my drummer has "his" feel (and he has a good sense of time, so I won't complain) and it's just hard for him to change it, so more of the responsibility, in this instance, falls on me. Or I take it on me, more accurately.

I'm just talking about rare live instances in which you can't hear the kick... in that instance, even if the drummer has a specific style, it's going to be up to him to adjust to be sure the music sounds good... otherwise, yeah, take the lead.

 

[JTE]

Well, it depends on WHY I can't hear the kick. First of all, most of the gigs I've played we don't have monitors that'll do any good with a kick drum. The ONLY time I want drums and/or amplified instruments in my monitor are if the monitors are bi-amped and we each have a separate monitor mix. Otherwise all I want is vocals and it's our responsibility (everyone in the band) to make the stage level work with that. And that's 90% of the gigs.

So, on the very few gigs where the stage is big enough and I'm far enough away from the drums that I can't hear the kick, then I'll get myself physically closer or make people turn down. Now I don't need to hear the full sound of the kick drum, and in fact would prefer not to. I need to hear the attack of it and that's all. Besides, for real groove stuff, the key to the groove isn't the kick, but the snare and high-hat. So, those are more important to me in the monitors than the kick. Most of the time the kick is loud enough that I can tell where it is anyway.

John