Mic users; Have you tried drumshield,clearshield, plexiglass etc.

We used plexi shields for the drums in my church to keep stage levels down for the vocalists. Worked OK but was very inconvenient. We eventually dumped them and told the singers to get used to playing with a real band! I think they'd be totally impractible in a real-world giging environment.

Don't know about those disks they put on horn mics, but I do know they wouldn't work for low frequencies because the wave forms are much larger then the diameter opf the disks.

The factor that makes the most difference with mics is getting them close enough to the instrument - the inverse-square law says that halving the distance from source to mic give four times the level (and four times the signal/noise ratio). The best solution is to use a mic with tight directional pattern and mount it on or very close to the instrument.

 

I believe when horn players use those plexi discs they are for monitoring their own sound. Not isolation.They cause some of the sound to bounce back towards the players ears so they can hear themselves when things get loud.

 

Now that makes sense, because when I saw a horn section in a loud latin band using them, the mics were facing the drum kit, so the plastic discs would have been bouncing more drum spill into the mics. As a personal foldback system it's a lovely simple idea.
Can't imagine it would be any use for a bass player.

 

I think Red Mitchell used to use a clear plastic shield, esp with a big band. Frankly, I think it would be a pain in the butt to carry around, plus all the jokes you'd get from the band members . . .

also, the amount of acoustic sound that the rest of the band hears would be seriously decreased.

 

"Is that bulletproof?"

 

The clear panels around the drummer at my church were generally referred to as 'The PopeMobile'

 

Actually this is not such a weird idea. Just last week I did a show where I wanted to use my AMT but I was in a position right down in front of my big band and facing them side-on to cue and conduct certain things. See the pic here:

http://www.impressionsinjazz.ca/gallery/v/2007-2008/CP-021207/CP-021207-23.jpg.html

My speaker was up the back between the drums and trumpets in case anyone is wondering.

Anyway, in most other situations I play in, I'm facing forward and the body of the bass shields the mic but in this situation for various reasons I would have had all kinds of horns blowing across the mic. So I was hoping to use some baffles like I've used in a recording studio, to shield the bass. The baffles I've used and had in mind are not made from plexiglass but are thicker like small walls and they have some kind of fabric covering. I've never really taken too much notice of them in the studio.

Unfortunately I only thought of it a few days before the show and couldn't find anything that was low enough so that I could comfortably see over it.