Opinions on drum mic'ing

[DonovanBankhead]

Agreed. Thanks for mentioning this!

Words of wisdom.

 

[jaywa]

Too many bands think they have to fill every inch of the venue with sound, when in reality, you only need to fill about half the room. Aim to fill the dancefloor area, not the room. If people want to engage with you and dance, then there's space directly in front of the band, if they want to chat, then move to the sides of the room.

Sure, there are venue bars where people are only there to see the band, if so, go for it, mic up and fill the room. Otherwise, just play at reasonable, pleasant levels whilst doing what's necessary (ie, mic kick drum) to keep the sound balanced.

Good perspective. I remember the first couple of times people came up to me at break and said, "I really appreciate that you guys aren't so loud". For some reason I was kind of insulted by that but then I looked at the room and realized how many people were there and how much alcohol was being sold and realized it was actually a good thing. The typical bar owner would much rather have people in his/her place all night, dancing and drinking then spending half the night outside (cause it's too loud inside to talk) or worse, leaving altogether.

I like to tell younger guys in bar bands that you can't always control how many people come out to see you, but you can control if they stay... and what kind of time they have when they're there.

 

[badstonebass]

Hey quick question. What are GATES. I'm the soundman.

This post shows why you take "advice" from a message board with a grain of salt.

Sorry to resurrect an oldie but I just was catching up on things I missed.

Reading through this thread I have to say I disagreed with most of the "advice". Maybe that's why we are booked a year in advance in 40 different venues and other bands are playing the same 2 venues every other month.

Drums should be miked and gated. You don't have to BLAST them. In small venues you use it for mixing and blending...adding warmth and texture to the sound. When you are outdoors or in bigger venues you can crank them if needed.

Nothing makes a band sound like a transistor radio than not miking the drums. You just have to be SMART about it.

 

[KingRazor]

I haven't been putting anything except the snare and kick drum in the mains at my church. The drums are just so loud acoustically that there's no point in putting cymbals in there. Honestly, putting the snare in their is often overkill.

The toms and the kick are really the only drums that need any help from mics (at least at my church), but our tom mics are awful. They pickup more snare and cymbals than toms.