I wanna go first: Technical question.

[ranger121]

As you may know from a past thread in the Underground, the band I play in have recently acquired a decent PA and mixing facilities.

We do not appear to be having problems with mics in front of guitar amps , fed thru the PA, but:

The damned drums.

The drummer has a decent dedicated bass drum mic which always "booms" no matter how we arrange the blanket (you know what I mean)

AND we get contant feedback from the overhead.

Is this pereventable? How do I set him up so it sounds good?

[gazdet]

Originally posted by ranger121


We do not appear to be having problems with mics in front of guitar amps , fed thru the PA, but:

The damned drums.

Hey Ranger....aaaah drums, aren't they just so much "fun" to "tune" for mics

The drummer has a decent dedicated bass drum mic which always "booms" no matter how we arrange the blanket (you know what I mean)

It's always a fiddly thing to get right....but here's some ways that have worked in the past.

...the best I've found is to apply a mix of gaffa tape and firm thick cardboard, or for long term use,...bits of thick truckies tie down nylon straps gaffa taped over the kick skin itself (the one he hits with the peddle).

You can do this on both sides of the kick skin (and the front skin if used)....if you do it to the side that the peddle hits it will drop the sound down dramatically..(basically you can stop it working at all by dampening the kick pedal completely by reducing it's impact action on the skin)

You need to find a balance of muting to the level you need, this takes some fiddling, so start by completely blocking the front of the kick skin (the side the peddle hits) and reduce the size of the material and gaffa tape covering it to suit.

With cardboard, If it reduces the sound too much, cut a small hole where the kick hits the actual drum...you may need to cut square holes in the cardboard, say 4inch square to gaffa tape the middle parts of the cardboard to the skin as well.

If you use a material such as nylon strapping it needs to be wide and thick. there were similar ones to this that you can purchase that tension using the outer drum ring.

Placing the nylon strapping across the point where the kick hits is more durable as well.

You don't need to amplify the kick much anyway as it's natural effect is booming and resonant, so limiting the actual amount of initial "kick sound" from the peddle is what you have to acheive (without losing it's "feel" for the drummer").

After you have limted the sound of the kick, add the "blanket" and position the mic either in the blanket or around the drum to get the best "artificial" kick sound you can when used thru the PA.

You may need to bring the mic closer to the skin than before.

AND we get contant feedback from the overhead.

Is this pereventable? How do I set him up so it sounds good?

Is the feedback occuring via the onstage foldback or the front speakers or a combination of both?...turn up both independantly and see if there is any feedback while you're playing ...if not and it only occurs when all the output levels are up, it could well be the size of the performance area is just too small for the level you're playing at.

Ensure the foldback speaker, if used, isn't anywhere near the kick drum or facing up at the overheard, usually to the side of the floor tom and not pointing at the kit is best.

Do you have a large room to set this all up in? as Meka said, in some situations you may need to screen off the drum area using partitions to stop spurious feedback if graphics filtering wont work due to area constraints.

It's either that or re-arrange where everyone is located to obtain a better spacing.

It'd be great to see a pic of the layout if possible.

I hope this helps