Bass drum mic creating havoc with my sound

[vmaxblues]

We played a gig last night and in the second set I had major issues with our drummers amplified bass drum signal, it caused a weird oscillation on some songs and in others rendered my B string unusable.

I have asked him to roll the bass off and use the mids and treble but he likes to make it bassy, this plays havoc at some gigs depending on acoustics.

His set up is a TC BH250 with an Ashdown 1 x 15"and a drum mic, not through the PA.

I am guessing when the signal is bassy it actually comes out as a note and I think it is Eb, because when I am playing an E on the B string the tone sounds awful when the acoustics that cause this to be an issue happen

Anyone have any experience or words of wisdom on this?

Cheers

 

Stuart

[Dood]

3 minutes ago, vmaxblues said:

We played a gig last night and in the second set I had major issues with our drummers amplified bass drum signal, it caused a weird oscillation on some songs and in others rendered my B string unusable.

I have asked him to roll the bass off and use the mids and treble but he likes to make it bassy, this plays havoc at some gigs depending on acoustics.

His set up is a TC BH250 with an Ashdown 1 x 15"and a drum mic, not through the PA.

I am guessing when the signal is bassy it actually comes out as a note and I think it is Eb, because when I am playing an E on the B string the tone sounds awful when the acoustics that cause this to be an issue happen

Anyone have any experience or words of wisdom on this?

Cheers

 

Stuart

Yes,

1. Tell him to put the kick through the PA thus moving the source away from your amp.

2. Gating the kick through the PA can help to cut back on the ringing.

3. Using some sort of padding in the kick drum to stop the Res head from ringing can help if he hasn't done that already.

4. Effective EQ'ing (That you can not do with the TC head and 15" speaker. Taking in to consideration 4b. The kick is tuned well.

[timhiggins]

Sounds like your drummer is a selfish fool who's thinking about his own sound at the expense of the band !

it would give me the raving hump ,and to be honest i wouldn't put up with it 

i have played with scores of drummers over the years at every level ,and have never come across one who mic's his own bass drum through a bass amp 

what sort of music do you play ,and does the rest of his kit go through the p.a. ? 

[vmaxblues]

no, just the kick drum through his rig

 

[timhiggins]

Seriously i wouldn't have it !

what do the other band members think and what are you playing ?

[vmaxblues]

We play rock covers, stuff from Oasis, The Smiths, Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Pulp, Blur, etc...

9 times out of 10 it isn't an issue, but occasionally (like last night) because of various factors it becomes an issue.

I think he has in his mind a big deep stadium sound as opposed what he should be aiming for which is the attack not the boom.

[kusee pee]

Why isn't he putting the kick through FOH? Much more control, presuming you've got a decent desk. We have our backline but everything goes through FOH, much better for balancing problems like the one you describe. Obviously, getting a drummer to do as you ask is a whole different problem 🤔

[timhiggins]

I must admit to being a little baffled at his logic as if hes a balanced player then the bass drum shouldn't be quieter than the rest of kit

and if he really does need to boost the bass drum alone then he needs to work on his technique added to which the rig you describe would be amplifying the wrong frequency's with to much power    

[Les]

 

1 hour ago, vmaxblues said:

not through the PA.

Have you got enough PA to put the kit through ?  You'll certainly have an easier time finding the problem frequency and rolling it off on the desk I should think

[mrtcat]

Yeah, this is crazy. PA all the way if you need to mic a kit. You need a proper eq setup to make stuff fit together. A drummer with his own bass rig is just weird.

[mcnach]

"fire the drummer"

[ambient]

It does seem odd that he’s doing this. I’ve never come across it. If the gig requires the drummer needs PA support then the whole kit is mic’d and goes through the PA. That’s only on big gigs though in my experience. Just stand by his amp and turn him down next time.

[lazzer]

Yep, a crazy idea! Can you convince him to wear IEMs- he can have it as loud as he wants then!

[Sibob]

Just in case you haven’t twigged, what your drummer doing is proper weird!

If you’re doing gigs that require the kick to be amplified, you should have a PA to accomodate it. If the size of gig doesn’t require it, they should have gear that is balanced and sounds good. Quiet kick? Get a bigger kick or whatever.

Si

Edited October 28, 2018 by Sibob

[Lee-Man]

5 minutes ago, Sibob said:

Just in case you haven’t twigged, what your drummer doing is proper weird!

 

Si

This x1000

[Bridgehouse]

Ask him what problem he thinks the amp is trying to solve for him - and tell him it’s actually creating a bigger problem for you.

Also - if it is as you describe then it will sound rubbish out front too...

[Dad3353]

If his bass drum is indeed pumping out an Eb, I hope your repertoire is suitably tuned to cope with that. It's not going to fit in well with a great deal of music, but if that's the sort of 'drone' he's wanting to play, better find a repertoire to fit.
Never heard of having a personal PA for drums at all, so for the bass drum alone..? 

[Lozz196]

I`ve played with a drummer who did this, however he angled the amp towards himself. I presume his habit of rim-shots on every hit on the snare made it impossible for him to hear his own bass drum, hence the amp. Now if it were me I`d have just learned to play the snare drum without said rim-shots...……….

[pete.young]

4 hours ago, Dood said:

Yes,

1. Tell him to put the kick through the PA thus moving the source away from your amp.

2. Gating the kick through the PA can help to cut back on the ringing.

3. Using some sort of padding in the kick drum to stop the Res head from ringing can help if he hasn't done that already.

4. Effective EQ'ing (That you can not do with the TC head and 15" speaker. Taking in to consideration 4b. The kick is tuned well.

All the above, plus get the kit tuned properly. All of it, not just the bass drum.

[steantval]

Weird to say the least.

A lot of folks on here suggesting putting the kick through the PA, vmaxblues hasn’t mentioned the set up they are currently running, if they don’t have bass bins or a powered sub, putting the kick through would be a waste of time.

It would be better for the drummer to sell his current silly bass amplification and invest the money in a powered sub, vmaxblues could also capitalise on this by di-ing his bass out through the PA/Sub.

[FinnDave]

I'd be tempted to put the drummer through the PA. I don't mean miking his kit up, I mean repeatedly pushing him head first into the speakers until he gets the message. 

Having his own combo for the bass drum has to be one of the daftest ideas I've ever heard.

[JapanAxe]

4 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

A drummer with their own amp and speaker for the bass drum? That’s one of the most bonkers things I’ve heard for a while.

I can beat that -  a drummer who wanted to feed a bass drum mic into my bass amp. I politely explained to him that it was not an option.

[gjones]

Put his bass amp out front. He doesn't need to hear it, unlike you who uses your amp as a monitor. If he insists on having it near him, therefore interfering with your bass sound, then he's obviously a tosser.

[Norm]

1. Never heard of a drummer doing this?

2. Mic him up, 2 mics, bass & o/head, just put a teensy bit through the pa. But if you are playing pubs/small venues he shouldn't need to be going through the pa at all.

3. Is he deaf?

[skankdelvar]

At this point people usually suggest sitting down with the drummer and talking things through or having a 'band discussion' or helpfully reconfiguring your FOH so that the drummer gets 'his sound' and everyone's happy. 

Well, that never works, so wait until the next time you see him and then punch him in the nuts as hard as you can. No preamble, no 'Can we talk about your bass drum amp, Tarquin?' Just an overwhelming pre-emptive strike on his testicles. He'll probably leave the band on the spot, which is fine. If he doesn't leave, keep pulverising his gonads until he does then find another drummer and carry on.