For good or bad, audio engineers typically judge each other based on their drum sounds. It just comes with the territory. When I’m at an event I rarely think to myself, “Wow, that guy is really bringing the thunder with that mandolin tone.” If I find myself having to mix with an extremely tight sound-check schedule, or none at all, I usually fall back on the reality that, if I can make the drums sound right on the system, then I know I can make everything else work.
As we’ve talked about many times here, any seasoned audio engineer would agree that good audio starts at the source. We are blessed to work in an era of incredible technology. Very realistic guitar-amp modelers, a limitless variety of sampled piano sounds, keyboards, and state-of-the-art acoustic pick-ups have made our lives as musicians and engineers much easier than our predecessors. In most modern worship environments, aside from vocals, the only live instruments on stage requiring microphones are the drums. Even with all the digital tools engineers have, we still rely heavily on the quality of the sound source; the microphone, the drum, and most importantly the drummer.
I’ll paraphrase an old saying among audio people, “If the drummer stinks, everybody stinks.” Fortunately, most of the drummers I work with don’t stink when it comes to playing their parts. But when it comes to technique and delivering clean, usable audio, unfortunately many of those same drummers fall short.
Recently I was helping a young audio engineer work on building a mix for his church, using virtual soundcheck recorded from a Sunday. Like most of his peers he was most interested in how to get a solid drum mix. As we played back the tracks, it was clear their drummer was dramatically inconsistent. His intensity levels varied wildly, making it virtually impossible to create a solid foundation on which to sonically place the rest of the instruments. He was locked in with the click and never made a musical mistake, but the entire worship experience suffered due to the erratic dynamics from this drummer. While this was an extreme case, it’s all too common in worship environments.
There are some digital processors and plugins that help reduce the effects of poor dynamic performances, but those are only effective to a degree and require some expertise. Short of implementing triggers and sampled sounds, which are tricky to use, and out of reach for many churches, the solution will always come down to your drummer’s technique.
I did some work a few years ago with an engineer who worked for a very well-known country artist. He traveled with raw multi-tracks on his laptop, recorded on a recent tour. In the course of demo-ing equipment for churches, occasionally he would play these tracks over the PA system. There was never time to do much more than a few quick EQ settings and push up the faders. No gates, no compression, no smash groups, no bussing, no multi-band, just 10 or 12 channels of drums that sounded absolutely awesome. It was a result of good mics, and a nice well-tuned drum set, but more than anything it was the clean and consistent performance of the drummer.
These days any YouTube University Graduate drummer can play with a click, has good chops, and can tune a drum-set. But in my experience, very few can deliver a dynamically consistent performance that doesn’t require an audio engineer to work the drum mix like playing whack-a-mole.
I don’t expect a volunteer church drummer to perform like a seasoned Nashville studio musician. A lack of understanding of how his performance translates into a PA or broadcast system is not the drummer’s fault. I’ve spent a lot of time discussing how no one on the worship team should perform in a vacuum (Building Trust Between the Stage and the Booth). As audio engineers and tech leaders, we need to help our teammates bring their best.
I’ve listed a few of the most common issues that drummers need help with. Some open communication, and supportive coaching will produce noticeable improvements in a short period of time.
Consistent technique
One of the most challenging things an engineer deals with is too much variation in where the stick strikes the drum, particularly the snare. The ability to strike the snare in the same location on almost every hit separates the good from the great. A nice solid strike with the same amount of intensity in the center of the drum consistently is always the goal. The same goes for every drum. Be intentional and consistent with every strike on every drum. Be intentional with fills. A record producer once told me: make your fills simple and solid, if you can’t make it solid, don’t do it. No throw away parts. Most likely the audio engineer is using gates, compressors and other processing that respond to the intensity of the performance. A lack of consistency means those processors will not behave as intended.
A word about rim-shots. Stylistically rim-shots (striking the drum head with the end of the stick while the body of the stick simultaneously hits the rim) does not align with current trends in modern worship music. Of course the practice could and probably will come back at some point. In this case, inadvertently hitting a rim shot can and should be avoided by working on the “center of the drum” technique. If the trend does return, consistency is still required.
Playing with balance
Also known as self-mixing. Cymbal and hi-hat bashing is a widespread problem, even with a drum enclosure. (Check out my previous feature on various remedies for controlling drum volume). The widespread use of IEM systems have enabled drummers to unintentionally fool themselves into thinking more and louder is better when it comes to cymbals. Also, there are lots of bad examples of passionate drumming. Sure, you can go full Dave Grohl when you are playing arenas but that will not translate well into your worship auditorium. Overplaying cymbals can quickly ruin an entire mix. If your cymbals are overpowering the rest of the drums, the engineer has no choice but to reduce the volume of the overhead mics. So when big moments arrive, such as a chorus or bridge, there is no impact. If you’re full on at 10 on your cymbals during a verse, there will effectively be nowhere to go to emphasize a chorus. The kick and the snare and sometimes toms are what drive a song. Think of those as the fundamental foundation. Think of the cymbals as what sits on top of the foundation, they introduce and announce change in the song, and therefore must be treated differently in the dynamic range. Many drummers have these two reversed in their minds.
Some practical tips for recovering from these bad habits; Spend some practice time without IEMS or headphones and all mics turned off. Make sure your cymbal work is not louder than the kick, snare, or other drums. If you’re in an enclosure all the better. Try that for a while and see if you can lower the cymbal intensity. Another helpful trick when playing with the band, set your IEM mix as you normally would, then increase the overhead volume higher than normal. This should help you to subconsciously lay back on the cymbals. And finally, when you’re working on parts, give yourself some place to go dynamically. Remember if everything is big all the time, then nothing is ever big.
Condense the dynamic range
Many drummers suffer from playing too loud, which can adversely affect the mix. This is very common. Believe it or not, some drummers occasionally play too softly, which is also difficult to reproduce in a PA or broadcast system. We like to think of volume in terms of 1 to 10. One being the quietest and ten the loudest. On the loud side, it’s fun to hit stuff hard, I get it. But when it comes to drums and cymbals there is a law of diminishing returns on the sound they produce when struck too hard. A firm strike on a snare can sound great, but a wild out of control hit will only produce an annoying very loud pop, with no depth. There are plenty of videos demonstrating this and you can experiment for yourself. Snare drums especially, but all drums and cymbals have a sweet spot of how much of a hit sounds good, before over-doing it degrades the sound.
In order for microphones to pick up sound (which are actually vibrations) the source has to move enough “air” to be detectable by the microphone. And the microphone has to send enough signal through the system to generate sound to the speakers which in turn need to move enough air to be audible. Between the mic and the speaker, there is the mixing console where the engineer is using various processors to amplify and enhance the sound, so there has to be a nominal level at the source. As much as I appreciate a drummer who is keenly aware of playing dynamically, this goes back to the subject of consistent technique.
The remedy is for the drummer not to play too soft or too loud. Every drummer is capable of playing in the dynamic range from 1 to 10. The best advice I can give is to condense the dynamic range. If you play at a 1 you’re probably not generating enough level to pass audio through the system. If you’re playing at a 10 you’re not getting the optimum sounds from your instruments and being annoying. So don’t play quieter than a 3 and don’t play louder than an 8. This will feel awkward at first. It may seem like you’re playing too loud in the quieter moments and not loud enough when the rest of the band starts to rock.
This “3 to 8 dynamic range”, along with more disciplined striking technique, and cymbal control will feel more reliable to your bandmates and enable your audio engineer to mix more consistently.
I would encourage any tech leader or audio engineer to share this content with your drummers, because when the drummer is great, everybody is great!
I look forward to hearing from you. You can contact me at rcochran@worshipfacility.com. Until then, don’t forget to listen!
