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Has anyone used or seen anyone use an amp dedicated just for the drums? I know this is done commonly for electric kits (I have one with my V's) but has anyone tried this with an acoustic kit? At one time Dave was using a JBL EON speaker to give his drums a little more presence on stage for the other musicians.
It sure would be nice to dial in your stage sound without begging a sound guy for what you need.
Do you think this is reasonable?
are you asking about an amp or a self powered speaker?
are you carrying your own mixer currently? mics?
Right. I didn't know how complex you want your system to be.
If you're just asking if you could moderately amplify drums thru self powered speakers, the answer is certainly yes. I've had it done to my kit a number of times both thru the JBL's and the Mackie's with good results. I usually put mostly toms and verb with a tiny bit of snare and even less kick.
andy,roland has just released an amp specifically designed 4 electronic drums.has enough inputs etc. to accomodate further mixer add ons.its like a amp stack 4 electronic drummers.reminds me of yamaha keyboard amps that they use to sell with their DX-7 analogue synths in the mid 80's.i havent checked the roland site yet,but i spied this amp in the brand new electronic drums catalogue released about a month ago.
Thanks Beats. I'll check out Roland's drum amp at NAMM.
Derek, do you have a preference between JBL vs. Mackie? Thanks.
I don't have a preference. I usually have earplugs in and have not compared them side by side. I can only tell you that both were more than adequate for this task. Sorry!
By "amp" I mean any self-contained amplifier-transducer set-up (keyboard amp, bass amp, PA system etc.). Of course you would need the mics and mixer to throw the acoustics into the system. In-the-ear monitors instead of a drum PA system is also another way to go.
I guess I'm talking about those gigs where you may not have the luxury of a nice PA system with a highly trained sound guy running some great monitor mixes. Those small venue gigs where un-miked acoustics just don't have enough presence.
what kind of venues are you playing that you can't adequatley hear your drums? what is it that you feel you are lacking as far as your mix situation.
if i do smaller gigs with jsut a med to large voc p.a., pub type gigs, i have a self powered sub that i bring along with a small behringer mixer, i can hook this up with the p.a. to get bottom on my kick and if i feel like it i can mic my toms and snare with ease and have power.
for me, if i play a room that has a really big stage and needs a huge p.a. i've never not had a drum blow.
as well ,on smaller venues with a small p.a. my drums are plenty loud enough, just ask the singer.
the sub for me really helps, i get the fullnes i need and it doesn't get in the way or add extra stage volume that can clutter sound in the p.a.
mic bleed is a killer for clarity out front especially on gigs without a good soundman.
i'd be interesed to hear your specific live situation.
chris perra
There are gigs where I don't worry about the sound because the sound crew takes care of the mics and monitor mixes. Then there are the small venue gigs where just an unamplified acoustic set is fine. But there's this grey area where the drum mics and monitors aren't provided and bass players show up with bass heads with 1000 watts and they like to crank it up. There's no way to compete with that no matter how hard I punch those drums. And besides, I've been working at approximating the smooth flow thing and the flow and bashing just don't mix. Interesting idea Chris of bringing your own sub to the gig. A cool idea actually. What type of mics work for you?
i don't envy your'e situation, i suppose back in the day i had the same problem now and again. i just struggled through it untill someone said we sounded like crap. too muddy , too much bass, not enough clarity ect.
the only problem i see with bringing extra amp power for the drums on stage is that it will probably make the bass player and guitar player turn up even louder. ( they are not too bright you know) which could set off a bigger sound war.
maybe in-ears would be the right thing. it's alot of work though.
my setup is a behringer mixer, i have 2. an 8 channel if it's just for me or a 20 channel for the whole band.
the mics i have are a d112 fir the kick and i have the audio technica kit pack. it was only $250 for 4 mics. two for snare and toms, and 2 for kick and low toms. they are almost the same but the kick and low toms go to 60 hz instead of 100.
i prefer my d112 for the kick though. i was totally blown away at the sound of these mics .
to me they are better than 57's, or 58's they are more like a 421. but at 50 bucks each they are amazing. a 421 will blow them away though.
the pattern on them is very tight so there is very little mic bleed which is nice.
if i had the money and thought i needed to get something better the audix mic pack is killer.
the sub i have is a 600 watt self powered 2/10 yorkville. it does the job up to about 150 people.you can chain it through quarter ich speaker outs or, a line out from a mixer.
hope this helps
chris perra