Do drum shields really help????

My band practices in my basement and despite my best efforts I am having difficulty keeping my drums from drowning out their amps. I have put up a healthy amount of acoustic foam around my kit but every time we play they have to crank it to 11 and stand across the room.

I was considering adding a shield to my set up to redirect the hi end noise toward the wall behind my kit.

Any other suggestions?

How about a few more details. Do your guitarists have large amps. Amps other than the ones in the pics? Where do they place them when you jam? Where they are in the pic? Facing the drummer? Facing the "audience"?

I'm experiencing similar problems with the bands I jam with and it's not always the room that's at issue. When I was a teenager jamming with my old band almost 35 years ago everyone had REAL amps. Marshal cabinets or Ampeg stacks. Even the Traynors were big back then. There was never a problem hearing anyone except the vocalist if he didn't pack enough PA wattage.

I stopped playing for a lifetime and only got back into it just over a year ago. Now everyone shows up with these piss-ass little amplifiers. I don't care how many watts it is or how loud you turn up your little 12" or 14" speaker, when the music starts it's too quiet.

The band I'm going to jam with used to line their micro-amps up in front of the drums facing the "audience" when we practiced. What a freaking joke! I couln't hear them and since the amps were a foot from their calves the sound was imediately bucketed.

The solution that we've been using is PA. We've been micing the amps, pumping the sound through the PA and pointing the PA at the band. We've also moved the amps into the "audience" facing in. Now not only do we all hear what's coming out of the cute little amps we have more eye contact which equals better communication.

This isn't the solution for everyone but it solves the problem at 2 of the 3 places I jam. At the third it seems that the amps, more mid-size than small, balance out just fine. The drum set is just some little 4 piece Baxter kit which doesn't over-project either which helps. The sound treatment of the walls doesn't hurt either.

thanks for the feedback. The amps are usually placed in front of my kit facing out on either side of my kick.. The problem isn't volume, the amps pictured are plenty loud enough.

The issue is their volume being cranked up to match mine which creates a possible visit from the local PD. i don't need them any louder i need to separate my music from theirs, more than it is anyways. I have used dynamics but most of the music we play calls for me to lay into it a bit.

just like you would separate musicians in a studio (if called for) i would think a shield would allow a little real time EQing so to speak. directing my sound back to the acoustic foam, I would think, would create a better balance between us.

I dunno. I'm in finance.

I have run into that problem before and I found an easier fix, at least for practice. Those drum shields are kind of expensive, but I found a few half-high cubicle partitions (the half-high are the ones the secretaries use) for free and they worked out great. They have them a lot at government auctions and at business relocation sales. They usually will just give them to you because they are slow to resell.

Slavo818 said:

thanks for the feedback...
The issue is their volume being cranked up to match mine which creates a possible visit from the local PD. i don't need them any louder i need to separate my music from theirs, more than it is anyways. I have used dynamics but most of the music we play calls for me to lay into it a bit...
I dunno. I'm in finance.

Click to expand...

I forgot to ask what type of tunes you play but that can definitely contribute to the volume issue. Certain music demands to be played a bit cranked up (the volume, not the musician, although....). Still, you may have to lower your playing level a bit for jams. I hate doing it and I hate suggesting it as advice but "some times the drummer is just playing too damn loud".

If I understand correctly it's not volume but rather that you drown the others out? As Harry mentioned, getting the amps up higher might help. They make cool amp stands that will even point the amps up a bit. Make sure not to have the amps too close either. The sound doesn't reach its full dynamic potential right at the speaker. You have to find the balance of good sound versus distance/volume. When you just start cranking everything turns into distortion.

I still think you might solve your problem with placement and finesse rather than partition placement. I've used small partitions to block mic'd amps while recording and the partitions (we used exercise mats stood on their sides - hey they worked : ) were a nuisance. Ok for once and a while but not all the time. If everything hadn't been mixed through the PA it would have sounded unacceptable. As you can see, I'm a big advocate of micing through a PA.

I hope some of this information is helpful. Frankly I dunno either. I'm in IT. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night,,,,

B-squared said:

I have run into that problem before and I found an easier fix, at least for practice. Those drum shields are kind of expensive, but I found a few half-high cubicle partitions (the half-high are the ones the secretaries use) for free and they worked out great. They have them a lot at government auctions and at business relocation sales. They usually will just give them to you because they are slow to resell.

Click to expand...

That's a great idea!!! Our office just redecorated, I'm almost positive they got new cubicles.
I'm gonna try it, thanks!