Drum Fill orientation

[wesg]

I have noticed recently that a significant number of drum fill monitors are are stood on end, rather than laying on the floor as wedges.

 

Is there are technical reason for this? Are they simply trying to get the horn closer to the drummer's ear? Does it have to do with the dispersion of the horn? Or is it a simpler reason, like physical space available on the riser, or the lack of 15" wedges?

 

Wes

[agedhorse]

Yes, generally trying to get the horn closer to the drummer's ear. As a drummer doesn't move all that much, horn pattern doesn't matter as much

[voicemaster]

I haven't done it for drum monitor, but I am doing it for keyboard/piano monitor. I would put a yamaha msr100 on a stand and adjust the height so that the woofer at the height of thr player's ear. I find this way, I don't have to crank the monitor volume high so I reduce the stage volume a lot. It can work as a side fill on stage for other players/singers as well. For the setup in my church, usually the bassist and keyboard player share the same monitor as they are pretty much side by side.

[dboomer]

I imagine it happens on a case by case basis for all the reasons you have described. I don't believe there is anything special tech wise going on here.

[trevcda]

Mine end up vertical when bi-amped with sub and usually, as VM above said, to get as close as possible to the listener. It also helps keep it out of the overheads. But I've used in wedge form as well when I couldn't get high enough to make useful any other way.

[mshifflett]

I always set a wedge up vertically on top of a sub for drummers. It just makes sense to me. There is no good place to really place a wedge in it's normal fashion most of the time. Plus it keeps as much out of the overheads as possible, which is hard enough already.

[wesg]

Thanks, all. It's always great to learn they "why" behind the "how". This gives me some food for thought, I have been trying to fine tune monitor coverage for our drummer and bass player. I didn't even realize we had a problem back there until I noticed the bass cab (Mark 2x10 with a horn) pointed at the drummer and had a conversation with them. Next time we get together I'm going to throw some bass back at the drummer, possibly high-passed at 100Hz. Pretty sure he is looking for the HF transient that defines the note edge more than the body which should radiate more or less omnidirectionally from the bass cab.

 

That's a great point about the overheads, BTW. Especially in small-bar setup, we don't use tom mics for small venues, so the overheads play a more important role.

[WynnD]

Got to wonder why an acoustic drum player needs drums in the monitor. Is the guitar or bass toooooo loud?????

[voicemaster]

I never put drums on drummer's monitor/wedge, unless they were using IEM.

[wesg]

My last drummer wanted kick coming back at him. Some guys need that for some reason, and it's common enough for them to invent the Butt Kicker<tm>. The current guy says he only wants vocals (especially his vocals), acoustic guitar and non-organ keys in his wedge. But then he says he can't hear the bass properly...so I'm going try giving him a bit of that, too. I think I'm going to dial back the guitar and keys a bit, also, see if he complains or not.

 

Wes

[Dogoth]

Since drum monitors often end up being the loudest monitor on stage (They have to keep up with those ear splitting snare drums), Also since the drummer sometimes sits behind the backline it often contains a lot more varied information (everyone hears that beamy twin just fine out front but the drummer wants to hear the rhythm guitar as well :-) It's best to get them as close to the drummer as possible. I don't necessarily put them on their side at ear level unless I'm using a sub underneath. This usually makes for an ideal platform to put the horn right in the drummers ear.

 

IMO the drummers mix is usually the hardest to get just right, mostly due to where they sit on stage.