"Play everything" (soundcheck)

anymore, once inidivual mics are checked, sound guys have us all play part of a song to get overall levels going...which makes the most sense to me

what I hate the most is the guys who do vocal checks, and then go "is that good in the monitor?" without any other noise going on. I always say "I won't know till we are all playing", which often times elicits a sneer, or a negative look. I am not meanign to be snarky, but it is the truth. OF COURSE it is goign to sound good through the monitors with no other sound
 
Back and forth between a Purdie shuffle and a bo diddley because I'm an exhibitionist by nature and ya just never know who might be out there watching .
 
Kick/Snare groove for a second, then work in OH stuff (or HH if there's a mic on it). Then some slow Bonham triplets so that they can hear the toms and the kick interacting together. Sometimes I'll do a little LF HH thing with just my cymbals if there's a HH mic so that they can hear all the cymbals interacting as well.
 
Once the individual components are dialed in (which bores me to tears) and the sound man wants full kit I'll generally pull out the intro to Dancing madly backwards just to be 😎 then it's Keith Moon ⏰ 😃 for all the sounds in the blender.
 
I play time for a couple of measures, riding hats & ride, then add toms finish with a crash or two when they've got it.
I've had them ask for different dynamic levels on each drum but, rarely.
 
Last edited:
It's target practice for me. I want to make sure they have every mic checked, so I play something simple, but peppered with fills and crashes.
Hulk smash everything.


Dan
 
Just play a simple money beat, hit all the cymbals and the toms. The soundman should have already dialed in each drum separately first. It doesn't have to sound like a genius drum part.
 
WuHan Solo said:
"Play everything" happens after they've soloed each individual mic and when they want to set overall kit volume levels and tweak a few things for cohesion. As others have said, just play what and HOW you're going to play during the gig incorporating all of your kit.
I don't recommend playing each drum individually at this point (that should have already been covered by now), because you strike them differently when doing so. Play them exactly how you will play during the show. FOH will have enough adjustments to make once things kick off and coming back around to your drums may not even happen if he's lazy.
Click to expand...

As WuHan Solo says, HOW you're going to play it. I was always guilty of playing the kit and doing backing vocals mic check's sensibly in soundcheck. Then, always having been in loud Rock and Punk bands, playing and singing considerably louder than I did in soundcheck. It was initially quite embarrassing playing and singing at high volume to an empty room in soundcheck but it's the best way to go about getting results.
 
I'll give him something slow and simple like Honky Tonk Woman with some single stroke tom fills. throw in a little ride a little bell a few crashes and we're done
 
I hate sound checking. It's part of the process.

When it comes time to "play the whole kit" this is a good opportunity to use dynamics. I play very dynamically, with lots of ghost notes, soft press/buzz rolls, etc., but I also play flammed rimshots and FFF floor tom rolls and everything in-between. I try to demonstrate all of these during the "play everything" segment of the sound check. That gives the sound guy/gal a wide dynamic range sampling so he/she can adjust the gates, re-adjust mic placement etc. I usually go for a Stanton Moore, Steve Jordan or Keith Carlock type of groove, using 4 or 8 bar phrases with 1 or 2 bar fills.

Another thing I have found to make soundchecks less painful/boring/easier to listen to is:

When sound checking the individual drums, play a slow, yet rhythmic pattern. For example, play a slow clave pattern on the bass drum. Play slow paradiddles (or a train beat) on the snare, moving the accents around (using rimshots). This gives it a more musical context and is less painful and boring for everyone else, including yourself. No one wants to a listen to a bass drum going "Thud......thud.......thud.......thud" every three seconds. When I make it rhythmic like this, I actually notice people tapping their feet and bobbing their head to a single drum sound check. That's the goal!
 
Last edited:
3 bars of time (w/hihat) , 1 bar Pat Boone fill
3 bars of time (w/Ride), 1 bar fill...repeat.

Best advice I ever got for soundchecks.

Get the band to play a chorus with no monitors.
Then you can see what you need in the monitor. ie What you can't hear.
Otherwise it turns into an endless battle of "more me"

Mick
 
vyacheslav said:
When sound checking the individual drums, play a slow, yet rhythmic pattern.
Click to expand...
My fun thing to do when soundchecking the kick;
- play the bass line from 'Hold your Head Up' by Argent on the kick.. (1-2-3-and-a-1 etc) and see if anyone recognizes it.
- If they don't then sing the vocal line on top.. usually gets a laff
 
moxman said:
My fun thing to do when soundchecking the kick;
- play the bass line from 'Hold your Head Up' by Argent on the kick.. (1-2-3-and-a-1 etc) and see if anyone recognizes it.
- If they don't then sing the vocal line on top.. usually gets a laff
Click to expand...

Agreed! Sometimes I start off the "Play the whole kit" segment with Phil Collins "In The Air Tonight" iconic tom fill. That usually gets everyone's attention and a smile or nod. I don't do it to get attention, I do it so people can identify with it. When it comes to anything music, if people can identify with it, or it's familiar to them, it automatically gives you creditability, and you are "better" in their eyes.

Here's a perfect example:

I play mostly jazz, and we can play standards all night long, and 99% of the audience doesn't know the song (or care). They just want us to be quiet enough that they can talk to each other at their tables. Most people are not paying any attention to us, we are "wallpaper." But when we start playing a "jazz" arrangement of a pop song, like "Purple Rain" or "Human Nature", people all of a sudden do less talking and more listening and more "eyes are on us". At the end of those tunes, we receive much more applause (read more than zero!) than we did on any of the standards. I actually overheard one person say "I didn't realize how good the band was until the played that song".

Did we give the performance of our lives on that song? No. Did we magically elevate to our greatest known potential during that song? No. We played it no better or worse than every other song in the set, but because it is familiar and people identify with it, it magically makes us "better" than we were 5 minutes before. The old adage has never been more true: "Give the people what they want (or know, in this case)".
 
Last edited:
vyacheslav said:
Agreed! Sometimes I start off the "Play the whole kit" segment with Phil Collins "In The Air Tonight" iconic tom fill. That usually gets everyone's attention and a smile or nod. I don't do it to get attention, I do it so people can identify with it. When it comes to anything music, if people can identify with it, or it's familiar to them, it automatically gives you creditability, and you are "better" in their eyes.
Click to expand...
I hope that I can remember to do that next time, lol. (I also hope that I can play it reasonably)
 
PorkPieGuy said:
Exactly this every time.
Click to expand...
I like the idea of write a short bit that covers the bases. I'm usually rather distracted after setting up and getting ready, so it would be good if I had something ready to go, that I can play on auto-pilot.

It sounds like I had the right idea all along, but the phrase "Play everything" was throwing me off, probably because too many of my buddies are into Prog Rock.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top