Does a lid on the drums really help that much?

[matthewah]

Would putting a lid on an already exsisting clearsonic 7 panel shield help with spill over into vocal mics and stage noise? Is it worth the money?

[pdc]

The best way to reduce the drum noise is to totally enclose the drummer. It WILL change the sound of your drums. There is a disconnect between the drummer and the other players. If you are on IEMs, they will not notice it as much as if the band members were mixing with each other and wedges.

You can spend less money and get the same thing accomplished by the way.

[waynehoskins]

Yes, a lid helps quite a bit, as does absorber behind the kit. The back-wall absorber might do more than the lid in some cases.

[matthewah]

We have 4 inch acoustic panelling on the back wall behind the drummer. The drummer wears headphones and controls his mix with an Aviom mixer. I was just curious if the lid was worth the money and what others experiences were when they added a lid to the shield. To add to the details we have a wood ceiling. Our Sanctuary is in the round and goes up to a point in the middle. Honestly our biggest acoustic issue is the center of the stage. Everything comes back to this point. It's very weird talking in this location as you can hear your voice change. Acoustic panels for the celing are probably going to have to be installed as well. Our back walls already have panelling on them and it did not fix our situation 100%. I could post some pictures if anyone is interested in seeing what I'm talking about.

[pdc]

You have the worst acoustic environment there with a parabolioc. I used to do some sub work for a contractor in Oklahoma that had "an in" with a manufacturer of concrete dome structures. They did a bunch of schools and churches in these acoustic nightmares. Accoustic panels might do something for you, but I doubt it.

Sometimes people do not think about sound before they build churches and it makes me sick.

[matthewah]

I agree with you. This church was designed with a curved wall behind the stage. I believe it was meant to help focus sound energy off the stage for speaking and singing. When we started to get more instruments on stage, we had the 4 inch acoustic wall installed on the wall. Couldn't do what we do now without it.

[Tim Padrick]

A lid will help a lot provided that the shell is pretty tight to the back wall (it's amazing how much drum sound can blast out of a small opening).