Masheanhed
Senior Member
I sat in for the regular drummer at the church I attend today. The drums from when I have been in the audience sound good but to me they have always had a muted sound. The normal drummer plays harder than I do and I have heard the other members mention he plays hard so I suppose it is not just me that thinks that.The drums (Pearl Sessions) are situated in one of those plexiglass booths with a carpeted roof and back wall.
The heads had pieces of duct tape on them, each about four inches long and about an inch wide, placed with the middle of the tape pulled up and the sides taped to the head so the middle creates a inch tall flap. The snare had three pieces, the tom three, and the floor tom six. The bass drum had a four inch thick piece of foam rubber inside it that circled the entire inside. All the drums were mic'ed.
I played two services and heard a guy mention that I was playing "kinda light" in the first service (I have no idea who this guy was in relation to the band or sound guy). I felt like I had to thrash the drums to get any sound from them as inside the box they sounded like cardboard. I had to wear earphones for the monitors and the drums were not in the monitor mix. I mentioned later to the guitar player I couldn't hear myself in the monitor and he said "yeah (the other drummer) complains about that too".
Playing in this kind of set up is new to me. Normally when I play it is with a mic'ed kit, sometimes mics on each tom, sometimes with one on the bass and an overhead, just depending on the size of the place, and I usually have a monitor on the floor next to me, but it is open. My question is...is this a normal set up for this situation? It all just seemed like it was "mute overkill". Is this normal for a set up like a church? I know this was likely to give the sound guy control of how the drum sounds but why mute a drum like this and then try to make it sound like a drum again in a mixer board? Also, what does the 'box" do?
The heads had pieces of duct tape on them, each about four inches long and about an inch wide, placed with the middle of the tape pulled up and the sides taped to the head so the middle creates a inch tall flap. The snare had three pieces, the tom three, and the floor tom six. The bass drum had a four inch thick piece of foam rubber inside it that circled the entire inside. All the drums were mic'ed.
I played two services and heard a guy mention that I was playing "kinda light" in the first service (I have no idea who this guy was in relation to the band or sound guy). I felt like I had to thrash the drums to get any sound from them as inside the box they sounded like cardboard. I had to wear earphones for the monitors and the drums were not in the monitor mix. I mentioned later to the guitar player I couldn't hear myself in the monitor and he said "yeah (the other drummer) complains about that too".
Playing in this kind of set up is new to me. Normally when I play it is with a mic'ed kit, sometimes mics on each tom, sometimes with one on the bass and an overhead, just depending on the size of the place, and I usually have a monitor on the floor next to me, but it is open. My question is...is this a normal set up for this situation? It all just seemed like it was "mute overkill". Is this normal for a set up like a church? I know this was likely to give the sound guy control of how the drum sounds but why mute a drum like this and then try to make it sound like a drum again in a mixer board? Also, what does the 'box" do?