A client of mine recently called asking for advice on controlling the stage volume (and in this case overall room volume). She told me that even with a shield around the drums it was just too loud. She went on to tell me that she was thinking of doing a “drum cave”. Immediately she had my attention as I had never heard of a drum cave. In my mind I could picture what one might look like, complete with the caveman on the drum throne. I can refer to the drummer as a cave man as on a good day I am one (a drummer that is). I refer to myself as a drummer and I often tell people, “I would call myself a percussionist but that would imply that I have talent”.
So, with the caveman image burned in my mind, I had to ask, “What is a drum cave?” The client then went on to describe a room that the church was preparing to build on the back corner of the stage. After listening to what and how they were going to build this room, the only way I could describe it would be to compare it to a really small drum booth at a recording studio. Oh, and it also has a low roof.
As I thought about her predicament regarding stage volume my mind drifted to what options exist.
1. Hot Rod Sticks
2. Drum Shield
3. Electronic Drums
4. The Drum Cave
Hot Rod Sticks
I have found that Hot Rod sticks can help tame the heavy handed drummer. The biggest benefit I have experienced is their ability to tame the loud cymbal crashes. The best way to think about a Hot Rod stick is that it is between brushes and regular sticks. In general drummers are receptive to using them because they have close to the same feel and bounce back of a regular stick. The potential drawbacks are; that the tonality of the drum sound will be different, just as when a drummer hits the drum softer with regular sticks the tonality is different. I have also heard that some drummers have a hard time staying “in the groove” on the high hat. Even with Hot Rods it can still be too loud (particularly in small rooms)
Drum Shields
Many times I have walked into a small worship center that has placed the drums against the back wall of the stage with a Plexiglas shield around them. Almost always the wall is constructed of drywall and the shield has no absorption on it. The complaint is always “the drums are still too loud!” Too me it is obvious that the back wall is going to reflect the sound back out into the room, but not everyone understands that. The best Plexiglas shields have absorption material on the front lower part of the shield and are then enclosed on the back side with absorptive panels
Electronic drums
I have yet to meet a drummer who has said, “Awesome! Electronic drums I can’t wait to play!” Even with the improvements in bounce back and feel a real drum is still feels different than an electric kit. I have also seen and experience well intentioned efforts that featured real cymbals and snare drum and electronic toms and kick. I am always puzzled when I see that set up. Why would you leave the loudest elements of a drum kit to saturate the stage with sound??? Electronic drums do offer the advantages of being able to choose different sounds or “patches” for each piece of the kit and some drummers do like to pick different sounds for a specific song or for different styles of music. Sometimes there is no other good option than electronic drums, but in my book let’s keep it real!
The Drum Cave
If your drummer won’t play on electronic drums and hot rod sticks with a Plexiglas shield are not working. I guess it is time to build your drum cave. When my client gave me the name “drum cave” I realized that I have seen variations of the “cave” all over the place. Some of my favorites are what I call “The Glass House” or “All Plexiglas All the time” When I see this I always feel sorry for the drummer and I also hope that closed ear headphones are always used. If not, the drummer will most likely be deaf by next week! Another variation is the “Sweat Shop” this usually consist of a well insulated booth with a small opening in the top. The one major problem is that if there is no fan running, the drummer will pass out during the second song. I could go on will more variations but I think you get the picture.
A recent experience highlighted for me how sometimes experimenting and changing things can lead you to a better solution. A church I that I was working with had gone to electronic drums when they were holding services in a gym. They now had moved into a new 1200 seat fan shaped worship center. They carried the electronic drums over to the new space and added a real snare and real cymbals. With the cymbals and snare introducing more stage volume they added a Plexiglas shield. Still having trouble they asked me to come and work with them for at least a couple of months.
The first thing that I did was have them change to an all acoustic kit and, explained that adding a few extra drums would not add that much additional volume on the stage. Immediately I was the drummer’s hero. We found that with an acoustic kit the drummers played with a lot more finesse and dynamics. After a few weeks of the acoustic kit, I proposed that we remove the shield.
Every one of the sound team members told me how it would not work and complained so much that you would have thought I was talking heresy! After some explaining, like if we remove the shield I bet the guitarist, acoustic guitarist would take the drums out of their personal monitors. Additionally, I argued that most musicians enjoy the live feel and sound on stage and since the stage was almost 30’ deep and 60’ wide the musician could be spread out enough that the drums would not be too loud for anyone. With great fear and trepidation the sound team allowed me to remove the shield. What happened next surprised everyone (even I was slightly surprised). The overall stage level actually decreased and the band played tighter than they ever had before.
Reflecting as to why the stage volume went down there was some logic. When the drums were more isolated behind the shield everyone was adding them into their personal monitor mix so rather than having one acoustic kit producing volume on the stage it was like having five kits on stage. The drummer also became more aware of the surroundings and played to match the volume of the other musicians on stage. The reason all of this worked was that with a large room and large stage the drums did not overwhelm anyone. There was one exception, one very heavy handed drummer switch to hot rod sticks when he realized that his cymbal work (it was more like cymbal walloping) was overwhelming the rest of the band (and annoying the front of house sound engineer).
I will close with this. I asked my client how the “drum cave” came out for her. Her reply was, “with the big glass window in front, I now call it the fish bowl”. Let’s hope the drummer doesn’t drown feeling isolated from everyone else.
