Mic'ing a kit in a small venue

E

eskjg

Junior Member
Any advice on drum kit mic'ing in a small venue ? Bass drum and snare only ? should the whole kit be mic'ed ?
 
You can mic the entire kit if your band plays real loud.
If your band plays at moderate levels you will probably only have to mic the kick.
If your band plays at low volumes you won't need any mics.
It depends on your band and the sound that you want.
My advice is for the band to play at the lowest volume level possible that allows the type of music that you play to sound good.
 
Plenty of small rooms I've gotten away just a kick and nothing else. I suppose it depends on just how small of a venue, and as Bob pointed out, the over all volume of the band.
 
Micing a kick can sure help fatten it's sound even if you don't have a real need for extra volume. A properly tuned snare cuts through pretty well anyway, at least the way I play. If I needed just a bit more volume, perhaps one over head and the bass mic would be a better choice in my mind than bass and snare...

Lots of valid opinions on this topic though, and a lot depends on your natural balance on the kit as well as how you tune.
 
Even in small venues I always mic the kick and fly an overhead. I might not always need the overhead, but it is there if I want to have it dialed in.
 
bobdadruma said:
You can mic the entire kit if your band plays real loud.
If your band plays at moderate levels you will probably only have to mic the kick.
If your band plays at low volumes you won't need any mics.
It depends on your band and the sound that you want.
My advice is for the band to play at the lowest volume level possible that allows the type of music that you play to sound good.
Click to expand...

If it's a small venue, you could easily play at loud volume with no miking at all, depending on your set and style. A lot depends on how small is small.

I play mostly small venues and there is never any need to mic my kit. A band that is too loud for the room is overbearing and reduces the audience's enjoyment.
 
I appreciate all of the posts. One frustration is that a mic'ed drum kit in a large venue has such an incredible sound. There just doesn't seem to be a good way to duplicate that in a small venue.
 
Don't try to get stadium sound in a small venue.
Try to make it so that the drums are heard in the mix as they really sound.
Play the small venue just as you play at a practice session.

I have seen many bands blow a small room out with excessive volume levels.
That is a mistake.
 
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there's really not much need to mic a kit in a small venue. i've seen crowds diminish in a matter of seconds from cats playing too loud w/o mics
 
I always look at situations like these as "sound reinforcement". You would completely treat a 100 seat venue very differently than you would 50,000 seat stadium. In a small room if all instruments blend well together, then probably all that's required is reinforcing the singer's voice. If something out front is being lost, then I would also reinforce that. Depending on the size and especially the occupancy of the room, miking each individual instrument can add a very nice depth and evenly mixed sound to the front of the house. Maybe in your situation all that's really necessary is a bass drum mic and may be an overhead thrown in. It all depends on each particular venue.

Again, use what is necessary and don't blow the crowd out the door with preposterous levels regardless of the size of the venue. Your live drums won't sound as if they're in a stadium, unless they actually are.

Dennis
 
eskjg said:
I appreciate all of the posts. One frustration is that a mic'ed drum kit in a large venue has such an incredible sound. There just doesn't seem to be a good way to duplicate that in a small venue.
Click to expand...
You'll never duplicate that stadium sound in a small room. It's a physical impossibility. If sound is your goal, concentrate on getting your kit sound as good as possible. In an unmic'd situation, sustain translates to "fatness" in the mix of most amplified music. That solid short thud you can get easily by tuning low and/or muffling when listening behind the kit, translates to something like hitting a cardboard box out front. Tune them a touch higher on the resos than usual, let them sing out, & get your band to balance the mix around the kit volume. A bit of extra weight, not volume, from the bass drum can help out the power in the mix, but only consider that if you've got the PA to deliver low frequencies. The moment you lift the volume of the bass drum, the rest of the kit is automatically out of balance, & it's the toms that suffer first. Once you start down that road, then progressively, everything needs micing, & the band just gets louder & louder.

A small room can only take so much sound. Pushing too much into a small space is asking those frequencies to fight with each other. It just gets all muddy, harsh, & generally horrible. When putting up a band mix, if there's an inbalance, ask first what you can take away, rather than automatically boosting the element that's low.
 
I've done the gamut, and have concluded that it's best to mic' it up and just not pump out a lot of volume if it's not necessary. When you do this, you're creating a source point at the PA speakers for the audience's sound rather than from behind a wall of bandmates. Even with very little volume in the PA, the drums sound a lot clearer. Same goes for guitar amps, etc- keep the volume down, mic it, and put however much you need- but no more- in the PA so that the audience's source is the speakers and not the cabinet behind the guitarist's ass.
 
Size of room / placement of kit / number of people in audience will all determine the answer. As per AT's comment, if you view it as sound reinforcement rather than straight amplification then you'll be right.

You can achieve the stadium sound, but it needs judicious use of a few FX to simulate that bigness.
 
I do it, because it means I can concentrate on the groovem rather than hitting harder to cut through the mix. Its a seven piece band, with brass section, so finding a voice unmiced can be difficult. Micing just makes everything simpler, and the front of house sound much more levelled.
 
The Modernist said:
I do it, because it means I can concentrate on the groovem rather than hitting harder to cut through the mix. Its a seven piece band, with brass section, so finding a voice unmiced can be difficult. Micing just makes everything simpler, and the front of house sound much more levelled.
Click to expand...

"Cutting through the band" also means, in a smaller venue, overpowering the audience and being plain obnoxious. A gig is not a competition between band members as to who can be louder than who.

With a seven-piece band in a small venue, you should all be thinking of ways to play less loud, not more loud.
 
Deathmetalconga said:
"Cutting through the band" also means, in a smaller venue, overpowering the audience and being plain obnoxious. A gig is not a competition between band members as to who can be louder than who.

With a seven-piece band in a small venue, you should all be thinking of ways to play less loud, not more loud.
Click to expand...

Not at all in the over powering stakes - I'm not a hard hitter, at all, and tend to get lost in the mix. The venues we play are generally 200-300 people, so kit micing is right for us.
 
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