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Miking Live Drums With Our Setup...?


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ok...well here's the situation...

 

we've got a mackie 808S with 8 inputs.

4 inputs with vocals

2 inputs with acoustic/electric guitars

1 input is bass through bass amp (depending on venue size)

 

the one thing we really want to try and add to the live mix would be drums. how the hell do we do this? I've got an SP B1 & C2 I could use as some kind of over heads (would this suck with feedback?) i've got a bass drum mic and an extra sm57 or sm58 we could slap near the snare.

 

could we get some cheap little 4+ track mixer and run stuff through there and plug that into the remaining 1 or 2 tracks on the PA?

 

now with all that said...assuming my mixer idea would work, is there a simple drum micing technique where i could only mic the drums with like 2 mics to simplify things? because (and everyone knows) the less you've got to bring to a show, the better.

 

thanks!

tait

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thanks guys...

 

nope. no subs (i assume you're talking about speakers). a couple big 15 speakers, but no subs on our own rig. so you really shouldn't bother miking the bass if you don't have subs? isn't that kind of like not plugging in the bass if you don't have subs? isn't there still a fair amount of sonic info that will come through the regular speakers?

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thanks guys...


nope. no subs (i assume you're talking about speakers). a couple big 15 speakers, but no subs on our own rig. so you really shouldn't bother miking the bass if you don't have subs? isn't that kind of like not plugging in the bass if you don't have subs? isn't there still a fair amount of sonic info that will come through the regular speakers?

 

 

 

You'll get the beater click, the harmonics and some of the thump, to what extent depends on the rig. I'm assuming though that if you can cover the room with a Mackie 808, you may not really need to mic the drums. I don't know though....all depends.

 

If the bass rig can cover the room, I'd lose it for the time being, and possibly experiment using just a kick mic and an SM-57 near the snare. It'll pick up most of the kit. Don't go hog wild looking for low end from the kick...place the mic close to the beater to emphasize that, pull it away towards or even at the drumhead hole for more low end.

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Hey, I know this is a little off topic, but since you mentioned the 808S I thought this was somewhat applicable. I recently bought one of these for $500 on ebay, thinking I found a steal, but the guy said some of the pots were dirty, and one of the master EQ faders was broken off. Well, it arrived as described, but I can't get a good sound out of this head. The main amp sounds decent through my Yamaha Club speakers, but if I try to use the monitor amp with my Kustom monitors, all I get is feedback. I tried notching the EQ and moving microphones and speakers, but I can't fix the feedback problem. Is it the mixer, or is it the speakers? I've heard people say that Kustom speakers have piezo tweeters, which produce feedback easily. I bought these speakers a few years ago because I had a low budget and couldn't resist the price. Please help! Any suggestions are welcome. I'm so sick of feedback I could smash all the equipment like the Who and not have to worry about it anymore.

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Robertt8,

Using a kick mic for a little reinforcement could help, even without subs. Just don't expect chest thumping for the whole audience. I wouldn't sweat other drum mics and usually don't in about half the venues we play, even though my main system has great tops & subs with plenty of power. The snare is the one drum that can usually carry well on it's own in small to medium venues.

 

paulwannabe,

Try your mains on the monitor channel and see if the same problems happen. If not then sell the Kustoms and get better monitors (a good idea regardless). Feedback on monitors is often caused by bad choices in mic to monitor placement or hard wall reflections having the same result, i.e., the sound path via the reflections is the same as if you pointed the mic at the speaker ;>(

 

Boomerweps

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