Bass drum mic through heaphones

Steven P

Member
I want to mic my bass drum because I can’t hear it well when using my china, Crash/Ride or hihats. When I put the mics in place and I have set up the Mixers and stuff. Can I plug headphones into the mixer or the speakers? This may sound odd but my bass drum can’t be any louder than it is at the moment or I’ll get complaints. But If the Miced bass drum is going to my headphones no one will hear anything louder outside the heapdones. I’m just looking for a way to make my bass drum louder for MY ears and know one elses. So basically it’s a case of keep it the way it is and not hear the bass drum much or mic/trigger it and listen through headphones. I have heard triggers miss trigger at times and double triggering etc


If this mic through headphones will work can someone recommend me the cheapest drum mixer. Because I'm guessing any mic will work with any mixer?
 
You should be able to run headphones out of your mixer basically as a monitor. As for a cheap mixer don't have one in mind off the top of my head,might check craigslist in your area.
 
OR since I'm only wanting the bass drum Miced. Can't I just buy any old mic and put it through an amp? If thats possible?
 
Re: Bass drum mic through headphones

I would first investigate the problem, sometimes trying to amplify just one element can lead to other problems. Would it be wiser to change what you're using to monitor with? Is your bass drum just not loud enough in your monitors? Do you have too much muffling inside of your bass drum? Is it tuned just too low to work with the rest of the drums or band.

You can always mic your bass drum, but I would also mic your kit with an overhead to better balance what you hear. Small inexpensive mixers have headphone outputs, but many might not have enough gain or volume to drive the monitors that you're using. A lot will also depend on the sensitivity of your monitors. Most microphones will work with most mixers, one of the exceptions here would be using a phantom powered (condenser) microphone with a mixer that doesn't deliver 48v phantom power. Most mixers now a days from the smallest to the largest will support phantom power.

Another thing to think about is, having your own personal "just drum" monitors, will this isolate you too much from the environment that you're playing in, such as other band members and vocalists.

BTW, don't plug your headsets directly into high level speaker jacks. Depending on the output of the amplifier, the high output level can ruin both you headsets and your hearing if they are not properly attenuated.

If I'm now understanding your post correctly, it seems as if you want this for playing at your own location and not with others. If this is the case, what I mentioned above about using two microphones mixed properly will be your best bet. You can use a small, up to a four channel, microphone mixer to accomplish this. Just make sure that it can be returned if you can't get enough gain from the headphone jack. I would use headphones with a high isolation factor for better control over your surroundings and also to prevent you from having to turn your headset so loud that it will affect your hearing. You might even have to double up by using ear buds and isolation muffs to be able to block out the room sound. I recommend Vic Firth isolation muffs, but not their active headphones.

Dennis
 
I need you to answer two questions then I can help more.

Do you have a monitor speaker when you are playing?
Do you currently mic any of your drums for the PA?
 
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