Drum Monitor Placement

[Tim Padrick]

Compromise - Grado open air headphones. He'll still be able to hear his drums and the room naturally. And he'll be able to use the phones to listen to his iPod - with much better fidelity than he's ever heard.

[yeshua]

I just wanted to give a bit of an update.

So I did take the wedge and put it in front of the vocals and took a sidefill and pointed it straight to the pianist. Unfortunately I haven't been able to try this with the drummer because, starting that first sunday, our Drummer has been in the hospital (for the last month - month and a half). He's been having a lot of health issues over the last few months, but from the looks of it, God just might take him away soon. Its very sad to think that our new drummer, a new Christian, will be taken by God so soon, but I know that when our drummer is done teaching, thats when God will take him away.

I hope and pray that he is not quite done yet, but just like Jeremiah 29:11 says, God has a plan for him, and only God knows when that plan has been completed.

Please pray for our Drummer, John.


So I guess kind of going along with that (don't want to be rude with the slight subject change, but yet similar topic), I'm sure we aren't the first Church to have a Drummer on his deathbed. For those who only have 1 drummer, and that drummer may not come back to drum, when do you decided that you should start asking/advertising for a new drummer? I don't want to suggest that "Hey, John may not come back, lets try to get a drummer" then we get one (or not) and John comes back to good health a month later and may feel slightly insulted that we were expecting him to die since we went to find a replacement.

As a human, I want to wait till hes back, or hes taken away...not in the middle....
As FOH, I want to find a replacement ASAP, its just so much emptier without him. Anyone from southern Alberta, Canada wanting to play for us

Any prayers and advice is welcomed.

Thanks to all.

[[Admin] osborn4]

Could you start looking for someone to fill in until John gets back on his feet (or drummer's throne)?

[yeshua]

We could, but you still have to "advertise" a bit to find one (we were without a drummer for about a year before we got John), and then it goes back to the idea of would he be insulted if we found a replacement if he comes back....

I know the whole Church is missing the Drums, and john being in the hospital makes the situation touchy even though many are sure he probably won't come around....

I'll talk to some of my fellow board members and my pastor and see what there thoughts are....certain people just shouldn't be "out of commission" lol...but God's got a plan....just most people can't figure it out until hindsight is applicable....

[Jay M]

As a drummer I would insist that the most important aspect of monitor placement is such that the drummer can hear it best. I wouldn't worry too much about the monitor bleeding into the overhead, that's a minor issue compared to whether or not the drummer can hear.

I am a bit surprised that you have a problem with the drums being too quiet. Mark this occasion in history, I think it's a first!

Are you sure the drums are too quiet and that the other instrument aren't too loud? Is it easy or hard for the congregation to hear themselves singing?

At our bible study we use a room that is fairly well acoustically treated for spoken word, it's a college campus. Even though it's not overly echo'y or reverent, it is still very live sounding. In that situation I found that the best thing to do is mic the bass drum. We do have an overhead, snare and tom mic, but we have those very low in the mix. Making the bass drum thump like it would a pop album is really nice. It adds a rock-solid foundation to the band.

As far as what to do about your drummer being ill. If he is that sick, he won't be able to play every Sunday for a long time. Therefore you will need more than one drummer. I personally prefer to have a number of musicians with different band configurations so no one gets burned out.

Until you find a drummer, maybe you could find someone in the church who has some rhythm who can play the Cajon. A properly mic'd Cajon can sound really good.

We can thank God that your drummer now knows the Lord. That would be tragic to be on your death bad not knowing Him.

~Jay

[yeshua]

John is very much a soft Jazz drummer....he would be the one that plays in a very small quartet in a small club....He also favours his brushes for most of what we do for songs...I convince him to change it up to sticks sometimes knowing that a particular song would sound much better with sticks...

As soon as I added a overhead to the kit, the drums came out wonderfully....a lot of people commented positively towards being able to hear the kit better....Every once blue moon or so I can throw a mic on the kick...but its only happened a couple of times since I started micing the kit (6 months now?).

As for other instruments, we only have a piano (which one player is very loud, and the other is quite soft) and either a acoustic guitar, or a bass (depending what the guitarist brings that week). I have been micing the piano for the quieter pianist and that helps her, and the guitarist, well that depends....I only have an 8 channel board and so if I can fit him in, I'll DI him, but otherwise usually hes going off of his amp...

For vocals, we have the leader and 1-2 backup vocals (1 always being that guitarist).

No one is overly loud (especially now that I've got a little better stage volume level). Our average DB's is about 80-85 depending whos on stage (the Gym is about 45X60 I think).

As for a Cajon....I don't think I've heard of one before...or at least clued into what it was....I've been in community and university and school bands for about 10 years now and this is the first...shame on me....or maybe on the conductors for not trying a piece with one...oh well...might work, I guess I'll have to see....

right now, besides the drummer not drumming, the most important thing I need to do right now is find a new wireless system (ours keeps popping when it changes antennas and it seems to change a lot....) after thats figured out maybe I'll try to see if we can a hold of something like a cajon.....

Thanks for the idea

[waynehoskins]

My first thought is to find a fill-in drummer, but on the other hand, quiet/jazz drummers are rare. Introducing a "rock" drummer (most of whom play hard) might cause more problems than it's worth. Perhaps John knows another drummer who could fill in temporarily? I know my church has one regular drummer, but we've had a couple of others fill in when he's been out of town and such. Our main fill-in drummer has played in bands with our music minister off and on for years and is very talented, though he tends to play a touch louder than our regular drummer.

Tangentially, on your wireless issue, as much as I'm a fan of new wireless, you may be able to solve your problem without it; changing frequencies might do the trick. If it doesn't, there are several systems in the $500 class that do well. I'm partial to Sennheiser myself, but the others are comparable. In any case, look at your frequency coordination to make sure you're not on top of a nearby full-power TV station; that could produce the behavior you've observed.

[yeshua]

Its not an issue of the frequency, its the issue of the receiver diversity settings (I believe) changing antennas frequently, as soon as it swaps antennas, we all know it cause we hear it....We currently use the Audio-Technica 700 series....although its been decent for the last 5-8 years I think...its just time to upgrade....I'm leaning towards jumping up to the senn's 300 G3...probably going to urge the board to do about $1k...and make it know that this is for the pastor...so he can be heard...they just might be willing to spend more on his mic since its more important then basically anything else....

thanks for the idea though!