How many channels/mics does your drummer use?

[Ulf_Hansson]

When I run sound (in small rooms) I tend to keep it simple and use 1 or 3 mics (single clip on mounted on BD hoop or BD, SD and overhead).
But as you were asking about (one of my) gig bands there are 7: BD, SD, 2xToms, hihat, 2xOvehead.

 

[s0c9]

Just finished a festival gig (on the SR side, not playing) where we had NINE available!!
Kick, hat, snare (top and bottom), 3 toms and 2 OH's.
Only one band used that many.. (tech rider)

 

[bound'n'blocked]

Depends. I have five drum mics. An Audix D6 for the kick, a Shure beta something-or-other that I usually use on the floor, and three Audio Technica mics for the toms/snare. Club gig I might use them all. Audix in the kick, split the rack toms, one on the snare, floor and an overhead. Sometimes I just use the kick and an overhead. Our drummer is a pretty heavy hitter so usually the snare is plenty loud on its own. Really it just depends. Sometimes it depends on stand availability. We only have a few!

I remember a show back in my sound reinforcement days when we had to do a headliner's kit and it had like kick in/kick out, snare top/snare bottom. four mounted toms, two floor toms, two overheads, perc. Then there was the opening act. Then they sprang a local act on us. Counting all of the guitar/vox mics put up there was one SM58 left. It went as an overhead for the drums.

BnB

 

[tadawson]

My regular gig I run on 8 all the time . . . as noted above, kick, snare, three toms, condenser on hat, and two condensers as OH, all eq'ed (and some gated) to minimize crosstalk/bleed. I'd love to add tom 4, but been too lazy to run a line from the cross stage breakout, since the kit side is full. Busy yes, but I like the ability to blend, since we have 3 drummers who rotate, and no two are the same. Overall, the band (when we use everything) is a 32 channel mix, so def not trivial . . .

 

[zjanderson]

It depends on the room, but for a typical bar gig we'll mic up the kick and the toms. My drummer's snare cuts through pretty good, so we usually won't put a mic on it.

In the event we were to play outdoors, I'd add snare and overheads.

 

[SubNoizeRat3691]

One of my old bands had a drummer that had 16-18 channels coming from his drum kit. It was quite a kit! He carried a 24 channel Presonus mixer and a home built splitter snake to maintain control over his monitor mix/ mix the band when we didn't have a sound guy.

I preferred his smaller kit, used 8 channels. Simplified setup and such.

 

[edro]

'If yo stuff ain't ready when the truck backs up....You're on your own....'

 

[Groove Doctor]

One (kick).

Sometimes a vocal mic too.