Lead singer wants my amp behind drummer?

[JMacBass65]

I have only read the first page of answers and agree - with thousands of shows under my belt, I have NEVER seen this done, as a band member, audience member, or while I was working as a FOH engineer.

It's a stupid idea for countless reasons I won't bother to get into.

Now before I read the rest, I will make a prediction (perhaps it's been revealed already), your singer wants to do this because he is thinking of the stereo field placement of instruments in a recording. Bass and drums (and vox) up the middle.

I'd bet my fullerton jazz bass on it.

 

[Biggbass]

Tell your LS that this is what monitor wedges are for.

 

[FranF]

********. YOUR amp belongs behind YOU. Period. He wants to hear more of himself, or has some other silly motive. Stand your ground.

 

[sgtpepper]

I’ll ask him why

Because he's a moron.

He hates you.

And this ^^^^

 

[Tommygun_ted]

Seems like a pretty solid set up plan to me

 

[sambass]

Singers are just above the drummer"s girlfriend on the evolutionary scale.

Singers are abundant. Women that willingly date drummers are much harder to find.

 

[el murdoque]

Gear, and experiences, vary. But this has not been my experience.

I used to run an SVT with a fridge cab. Standing right in front of that is simply glorious. You both feel AND hear it.

I also ran a stack cross-stage for the better part of a decade. I was stage right and my rig (two 4-10 cabs) was right beside me. I could hear that for sure. And I din't have to turn up loud to get exactly what I wanted from it. But the sound did not somehow "go around" me.

These days, when I play in church, I put my rig up on a mixer stand and it almost touches my shoulder blades. Again, this is an effort to keep stage volume down. And I hear it just fine (again, as well as feel it).

Only when using small combos sitting on the floor have I ever been able to hear a little better standing a few feet out.

I've had that problem multiple times with any kind of amp short of a full stack that was not properly elevated.
Especially when I played reggae'ish tunes with very little treble in my signal and my amp carrying the small club. The bass would be a tad too loud in the rear of the club and very hard to hear on stage.

 

[Feral Feline]

Singer's complementing your superior sense of timing and wants to ensure the drummer follows you.

 

[DavC]

here's a very good word to learn how to use effectively .... NO

 

[D.A.R.K.]

Just tell him that the majority of your sound blowing directly into any drum microphones is a bad idea.

 

[wideload]

YOUR SINGER IS AN IDIOT!!! I HATE YOUR SINGER!!!!
AAAUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
AAAUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
AAAAAAAUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!*
Are you the reincarnation of Sam Kinison?

*with apologies to Sam Kinison

 

[JoeWPgh]

Behind the drummer? NO. Right next to him? Absolutely. And preferably on his hi-hat side.

 

[Loring]

Behind the drummer? NO. Right next to him? Absolutely. And preferably on his hi-hat side.

This is what monitors are for... Adjust mix to suit

 

[sowilson]

The only time I've seen the bass amp behind the drummer has been with jazz big bands and then usually if the drummer is a featured performer (take a look at the Buddy Rich big band). In R&R no.

 

[Nev375]

Put your cabs back there and turn down drastically. When they complain they cant hear you say "well duh, my cabs are behind the drummer. He is blocking the sound. Isn't that what you wanted?"

If they say it's perfect, then just pack up and leave. You are being Newsteded.

 

[morgan138]

I've seen bands put amps behind the drummer (usually with the bass in the middle right behind them, guitars on both sides and even with the bass gear) fairly often. It's always very loud bands playing places with no drum monitor. I'm talking like, multiple full stacks loud not just an overdriven 50 watt combo.

 

[pcake]

Wow, thanks everyone for the responses! After reading all of these, my guess is that he wants the amp there for 1) volume dampening and 2) so the drummer could hear me better.

The other reason I definitely am not doing that now is because I am constantly fighting to find a frequency to where I can sit in the mix. As I said in the original post, we have the lead singer/rhythm player...he plays a distorted tone using a Markbass super synth pedal with the octaver on 99% of the time, then we have the lead guitar playing a distorted tone, and then we have the keys which play a synth-y type tone which also has an octaver effect and she plays down in the lower registers on the keyboard. With all that, there’s not much space for me anywhere in the mix.

I’m starting to think the singer just hates bass players...

if he wants "volume dampening", why doesn't he just ask you to turn down?

the drummer hasn't complained to you that he can't hear you, has he?

is the singer the band leader for this band?

 

[Dels]

I will echo what everyone said about monitors... too often new performers ditch proper monitoring for all the wrong reasons... which turns out in everyone trying to play louder, cranking up stage volume and making it a big mess on stage, damaging hearing permanently and being much harder on vocals too as them too are over compensating for the loudness!

Please put proper monitoring with decent volumes a priority and make sure you have hearing protection available!

 

[viper4000]

Wow, thanks everyone for the responses! After reading all of these, my guess is that he wants the amp there for 1) volume dampening and 2) so the drummer could hear me better.

The other reason I definitely am not doing that now is because I am constantly fighting to find a frequency to where I can sit in the mix. As I said in the original post, we have the lead singer/rhythm player...he plays a distorted tone using a Markbass super synth pedal with the octaver on 99% of the time, then we have the lead guitar playing a distorted tone, and then we have the keys which play a synth-y type tone which also has an octaver effect and she plays down in the lower registers on the keyboard. With all that, there’s not much space for me anywhere in the mix.

I’m starting to think the singer just hates bass players...

With all that synth/octave action, do they really need a bass player?

 

[Reddic]

This is new to me.

I always play with two cabs. Drummers that know me prefer to have one of my cabs near them to feel the bass. The monitors can't reproduce it the same way.

I've never had a LS tell me anything about this. It's always been between the drummer and I.