Drums in your Monitor? Yay or Nay?

[DrumDoug]

I’ve seen several people on here saying they don’t put any drums in their monitors or in-ears. The reason is usually that they can hear their drums and they know what they sound like. That’s true if you’re playing unmicd. As soon as you add mics and put your drums in a PA, add EQ, compression, gates, ect. they sound different. The amount of ring in your snare sounds fine to your ears two feet from the drum, but maybe not to a mic one inch away. I want to know what my drums sound like in the system, not just acoustically. You never know what the soundman may have done to your sound. A couple years ago we broke down our stage at church for a production and had a temporary set up using wedge monitors instead of the usual in-ears. I didn’t have any drums in the monitor. In the meantime, a new sound guy was tweaking the drum sounds. When I finally went back to my in-ears and put some drums in, I was shocked at the sound of my snare. The sound man had put so much compression that my ghost notes were the same volume as my back beats. I had him turn off the compression that morning. We got together later and worked out an appropriate amount. My point being that if I had never put the drums in my in-ears I would have never noticed the problem. Can you imagine how bad my drumming sounded with every ghost note and backbeat the same loud volume? That’s why I want my drums in my monitor. I adjust my playing slightly depending on how they sound. Another reason I put my drums in my in-ears is to keep myself from overplaying while essentially wearing ear plugs. If I feel like I’m playing too hard in order to hear myself, I just turn myself up in my in-ears so I can back off.

 

[Drumolator]

That all makes sense to me. Peace and goodwill.

 

[Spreggy]

If you have an overly loud drummer, putting their drums into their monitor can get them to dial it back.

 

[Uncle Albert]

Yes as you mentioned If I can hear my drums I play easier and more focused. It’s all about energy conservation and saving the ears

 

[jaykaydrums]

i put them in my IEM a little just so i can hear them a bit. i tend to have bass, guitar & vocals in my IEMs mainly

 

[Juniper]

If it’s a loud one I always have my snare a little higher than normal in my IEM’s, so I don’t even have to think about volume control, adjusting & hitting softer automatically.

It it’s a wedge then I love some bass drum higher in the mix.

 

[Seafroggys]

Only bass drum. I can clearly hear everything else.

 

[BruceW]

I'm one of those who don't have them in my monitors, and my kit is mic'd, but I get why the OP is doing so. I don't have full FOH in my monitors anyway, so I'm not going to know balances, and whatever eq and effects and such that they've done to my stuff. I have to trust them to do their thing, and I'll do mine. I only have the bare minimum in my monitors, and in full disclosure, I only use one IEM. I have vocals, keys, and occasionally a touch of guitar in there (depending on the stage setup). My open ear gets me all I need of my kit, and the guitar and bass, from the stage. And a sense of overall volume.

 

[Bozozoid]

Everything...mostly BD just enough for that low end push. Just enough snare drum for body. Same with the toms but this is all fairly mimimum.The other band members can feel the onstage drum presence. Sounds like I want thunder on stage but not like you'd imagine.

 

[2 hit wonder]

I don't play much in environments that mic everything up.
I've heard other say and now experienced losing the kick in the monitors on some stages. But it hasn't really lived in my head for more than a second.
It's not quite like losing the lead guitar.

I'd like to have a little kick in the monitors. Too much can amp me up on timing. Sorta like being on a muscle bike.

 

[Andy]

Being able to hear processing & adjust playing accordingly is important in a fully mic’d scenario. I always make sure I speak to FOH on both compression & gating, as those are the two elements that can really screw things up.

Hard gating of the bass drum is a pet hate of mine.

 

[caddywumpus]

I usually don’t have drums in my monitors. There have been a few occasions where I did—festivals, mostly, because the sound guys insisted. I don’t prefer it, but I don’t mind it. It’s just kind of weird to be hearing one thing coming from the drums in front of me, and another thing, EQed/compressed, coming from the monitors. It’s surreal, in a way.

 

[SharkSandwich]

I my IEMs I have drums, bass, vocals and click.

 

[BobC]

I'm more concerned with hearing everybody else, especially the vocals, but I prefer having the bass drum through my monitor, because I like feeling that pulse. Last week, the sound guy never gave me enough BD despite repeated requests. You know how some soundmen are.

I've played through one of those systems that pushes the BD signal through the throne, and liked it, but I don't feel like dragging all that extra gear around. My friend had to carry an amplifier to every gig.

 

[Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX]

none for me, except the kick drum to give me that a$# kicking feel.

my monitor mix is usually bass, vocals, and a small amount of guitar (I can usually hear enough guitar out of the cabs next to my set). A lot of my drum parts are centered around the vocal lines and cadences, so I really need to hear the vox and bass for the real groove

 

[Bo Eder]

What kind of idiot sound person puts on compression before hearing anything?

That said, I like a little bit of the drums in my IEMs, but not too much. Drums have a tendency to obliterate the other sounds I need to hear, like the other vocals, bass, a click, a track of music, etc.,….

But if I’m the guy running sound, if I can’t make things sound good with input gain, EQ, and level mixing, then I’d hand the job to somebody more competent. Jumping to dynamic processing before you get it to sound good otherwise is just idiotic. Gain staging is a forgotten skill with digital mixers that give you every bell and whistle, and the ability to “save” set-ups. It’s a shame really. The old school “zeroing of the board/starting from scratch” process is now a lost art.

OTOH - you’re not the guy mixing, and once the show starts there’s nothing else you can do from the drum chair, you’re at the mercy of the engineer. Perhaps having a nice conversation before sound check would iron out some issues.

 

[Super Phil]

We always use wedges, and I never have them put any drums through them. If I'm concerned with how they sound FOH I can ask someone if they sound ok or have someone else hit the drums while I go out and listen myself.

 

[alparrott]

I use in-ears, and I give myself a good amount of bass drum, and enough snare and overheads to hear the kit clearly. Then I add bass, guitars, keys. And finally just enough vocals to hear them. I can usually mix my in-ears myself.

 

[JimmyM]

I’ve only played a handful of times, but I never felt like I needed drums in my monitor. Maybe if I was playing in Van Halen in 1980, but I’m not.

 

[Morrisman]

I used to have bass drum in the monitors, but since I got a Kickport I don’t need it. I need vocals then guitar, keyboard and maybe bass if the bass amp isn’t nearby. My snare, toms and cymbals are plenty loud enough live.