Perceptions

Larry

"Uncle Larry"
Last night I had a gig in a new room, best gig in a while...(love that feeling, right?) Anyway, my toms sounded just so %&#@$! good in that room...I wish all rooms sounded like that, which got me to thinking...especially when people evaluate drums..the same drum, played in one room where it sounds bad, then played in a different room where it sounds exceptional...made me realize how perceptions majorly affect our decisions. What changed? Assuming the drum held the same exact tuning, it has to be the room, right? How many times have you tapped on a drum kit where it sounded bad, for whatever reason, and decided that "that kit sucks"? Or saw someone playing a bad sounding kit and decided that "those kits suck"...

That's not fair, for a number of reasons...tuning, head choice, how well the drum is taken care of...and the different surfaces within the room itself. Some rooms sound stellar, while others are a cacophony of echos and reflections and harshness. When you play a set of drums in a store where there are other kits around, the other kits are influencing your perceptions by virtue of their heads sympathetically vibrating. Acoustics are very variable and local anomalies and conditions and surfaces must be taken into consideration when evaluating anything. Everything is not what it sounds like, necessarily.

The room that my drums sounded great in had a wood floor, that was over a lower level. I think that might be a good arrangement for drum tone, as opposed to a drumset in a room on a slab for instance.

I've read many times here that someone's 12" tree mounted tom sounded bad when mounted. If this is you, instead of sitting on your throne, stand up and hit that 12" tom. I had the same "problem" with my 12" tom. Then I stood up while hitting it. THERE'S my low end. My perception at the throne was that the drum was dead. I stand up and it doesn't sound dead anymore. Perceptions will trick you.

Just random thoughts I wanted to throw out there.
 
Had this same experience with a Dunnett snare. Great drum, but it just sang in one particular club. I set up, hit it once, and got chills. The band looked at me, they heard it too. The sound guy comes over the monitors and says "damn that drum sounds good!". That club had curtain in an arc around the back of the stage, 20-foot ceilings, hardwood floors, and held about 400 people.

If you read up on studio control room treatment, it will say that a room usually has certain resonant frequencies that will stand out more than others, and a "flat" room is most desirable when evaluating mixes, and you don't want too many bumps or dips in a live room either. Flat walls and windows will bring out some harsh highs and mids, and bare corners will exemplify bass. I've definitely noticed a boomy, muddy sound when I'm set up in the corner. All I can hear is bass guitar in those situations. On the other hand, on a huge stage, or playing outdoors, and you're relying completely on your monitor mix, because the sound can't bounce around the room and get back to your ears. The most resonant, well-tuned drum in the world will sound thin and lifeless.
 
When I practise at work if set up on the stage the kit sounds great- lots of room for the air to move and quite a high ceiling so no sound problems there.

occasionally if they are busy on the stage the kit gets pushed into the wings and I was sat there practising the other day and was getting major snare buzz and the whole kit sounded awful- spent ages messing with it instead of practising only to finally realise when it was pushed back on stage everything sounded bad again!
Just that push of say 6 or 7 metres made the absolute world of difference!
 
Just this morning I mentioned to my wife what I discovered way back in the 80s in my rather small "music room" in the house I grew up in. I used to love to move my kit around every couple of months to a different spot in that room, because the drums sounded like a completely different kit by just moving the drums from one spot to another.
 
For years, I used to put too much importance on my drum sounds from behind the kit. Now I don't spend too much time fiddling with the sound while behind the kit. I get my tuning for the room dialed in and then I (depending on whether mic'd or not) adjust by hearing the kit from out front. If I'm lucky enough to have a sound check, I let somebody else hit the drums to determine whether I'm happy with tunings and overall sound.

It seems like the drum sounds beneath and in front of me are less relevant these days.

Along the same vein, I don't get too caught up in shell types and all those subtleties. In all fairness, I haven't bought a kit in a while so I don't know whether I would be pickier if I started shopping again.

My son's 8 year old CB kit has great heads and is tuned really well. It's a piece of crap in terms of quality, fit and finish but sounds like a good kit.

My maple kit sounds like a million bucks in our rehearsal space. In my basement that has three concrete walls (16'x24') it sounds like a gremlin broke in a turned every tuning rod on the drums in different directions.

It does effect my perceptions, but not as much as it used to.
 
Good point Larry,

My old drum teacher used to come to gigs 2 hours early and just play his drums in the room. Then he would make some minor adjustments to fit the particular temperament of the space. I never saw him play a show where his drums didn't sound incredible, he had a real ear for it. I think this kind of sonic sensitivity is something that you really need to develop over time.
 
I have broached this subject before about drums and I think we all come to the same conclusion, that drums sound different in various venues. Now, what is the consensus on cymbals. My Sabian 21" raw bell ride usually sounds great to me but at my last gig, I thought it didn't sound as good. You can't tune cymbals. What have been your experiences?
 
I have broached this subject before about drums and I think we all come to the same conclusion, that drums sound different in various venues. Now, what is the consensus on cymbals. My Sabian 21" raw bell ride usually sounds great to me but at my last gig, I thought it didn't sound as good. You can't tune cymbals. What have been your experiences?

Quite true. Cymbal tuning is moot, save for a 4,000 degree torch and an iron anvil and single jack hammer.

But there is one more consideration witch will negate the use of hammers and forges. Sound techs. Let me be brief. The more the room fills with people the more the sound is absorbed. Adjustments must be made. This can very simply be remediated by the sound crew.

A good sound tech is worth his/her weight in gold. And I would advise bands to not try to micro mange a venue's crew. These people know the drill. Let them do what they do.

Then go do what you do.


http://www.reverbnation.com/laurenzoellerbluzelightning
http://bluzelightning.webs.com/
http://www.myspace.com/tapoco
http://www.reverbnation.com/destroyer429
 
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A good sound tech is worth his/her weight in gold. And I would advise bands to not try to micro mange a venue's crew. These people know the drill. Let them do what they do.

Then go do what you do.


http://www.reverbnation.com/laurenzoellerbluzelightning
http://bluzelightning.webs.com/
http://www.myspace.com/tapoco
http://www.reverbnation.com/destroyer429
This is very true, but regrettably, there's a minority out there who play at the job & can turn a perfectly respectable sound available through a flat board into a smiley EQ'd hell :(

That aside, next to tuning, room sound is the biggest consideration of all. Only those who always play big open stages get some degree of consistency in their acoustic sound, & in such situations, the PA treatment is the room sound. For the grovelling masses including me, it's a different experience every time.

I do find that I need very little adjustment to the kit from venue to venue though. I think this is down to a couple of things. Firstly, I've learn't not to be too concerned about my own sound at a gig. I know the formula, I know what I can affect & what I can't, so I get on with it. Secondly, I tune my 6 piece kit over quite an extended range, & that means choices when it comes to fill timbres & dynamics, especially in the melodic vein. I also find fairly tight reso heads deliver a degree of room sound consistency. Players who judge their sound exclusively from a drivers seat POV are usually the ones to get most concerned, and usually the ones with the worst sound. Learning to tune for the resolved sound in acoustic only venues, & tuning for near field in mic'd venues is another skill the gigging player will benefit from acquiring, & you can't pick that up in 5 minutes from a book or website.
 
This is very true, but regrettably, there's a minority out there who play at the job & can turn a perfectly respectable sound available through a flat board into a smiley EQ'd hell :(

That aside, next to tuning, room sound is the biggest consideration of all. Only those who always play big open stages get some degree of consistency in their acoustic sound, & in such situations, the PA treatment is the room sound. For the grovelling masses including me, it's a different experience every time.

I do find that I need very little adjustment to the kit from venue to venue though. I think this is down to a couple of things. Firstly, I've learn't not to be too concerned about my own sound at a gig. I know the formula, I know what I can affect & what I can't, so I get on with it. Secondly, I tune my 6 piece kit over quite an extended range, & that means choices when it comes to fill timbres & dynamics, especially in the melodic vein. I also find fairly tight reso heads deliver a degree of room sound consistency. Players who judge their sound exclusively from a drivers seat POV are usually the ones to get most concerned, and usually the ones with the worst sound. Learning to tune for the resolved sound in acoustic only venues, & tuning for near field in mic'd venues is another skill the gigging player will benefit from acquiring, & you can't pick that up in 5 minutes from a book or website.


Grovelling masses....lol....aren't we all? All very good points, and I agree with all of them. The best situation is for a band to have their own tried and true trusty sound tech and pay him or her as a regular member of the band. Even in venue's that have their own techies. They speak a different language than me and I'd rather just leave that up to our guys who are very good and know the sound I and the other band members want. We're very fortunate to have them.


http://www.reverbnation.com/laurenzoellerbluzelightning
http://bluzelightning.webs.com/
http://www.myspace.com/tapoco
http://www.reverbnation.com/destroyer429
 
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