Once, I was playing Paul Winter's "Icarus" with a very famous bass player. As we were getting into the piece, he turned quickly toward me, made eye contact, held out his hand, palm down, then turned and went back to playing. Ever since then, I've made it a point to do some of my warmup exercises as quietly as I possibly can. And yes, it really does help your technique as part of the bargain. As always, thanks, Ben and Cody. Another tremendous presentation!
Always blows my mind when I sub somewhere or play somewhere new and get the "The last guy was so loud, thank you". Reduce your heights, play with singers that aren't mic'd for fun, etc. Dynamic drummers are working drummers.
I will say, adrenaline on stage is a beast to work through. As a harder hitting drummer, it’s so easy for me to get carried away and play with an overly tight grip. Bad news. The fatigue and cramps are rough. If I can get better at playing a little bit softer maybe I can stay more relaxed without losing much power/dynamic output. There’s always something to work on. Never done learning and growing.
Quieter playing in an enclosure or behind a shield is also extremely beneficial as it reduces the amount of reflections and bleed that are introduced to the mics in those setups. Most drummers (I'm guilty, too) feel like if they're enclosed or shielded they can play as hard as they want because the issue has been fixed, but it really hasn't most of the time and they're making it more difficult for the sound engineer.
Not what this channel is or what you're focusing on (besides your special cymbal series videos), but larger, thinner, darker cymbals can really go a long way for reducing our overall volume.
Loosening the snare throw off seems to be a big factor in snare volume. Guitar players in my experience will instantly turn up if snares wires are tightened and stage volume gets louder. The bottom of the snare is way louder than what we hear with our ears above it. The guitar/bass equivalent for lowering stage volume is to tip the amp back pointing directly toward the players ears which is almost never the case and since we are sitting closer to the ground, the amps are always closer to our ear level where the volume snowball begins.
Great video Ben & Cody I like to choke the stick to help get quieter, hit the cymbals more offset and using Vater sugar maple sticks has helped me control the loudness of my cymbals inculding the Paiste 2002 24"ride. Please consider doing a video about different areas to hit the cymbals( ie front hard vs gentle offset or hitting the bell with shoulder or tip of stick) to help reduce volume and extend the life of the cymbals
I love your channel so much, you're like the Library of Alexandria but for drummers. Any question you might have its in your channel. Thanks for every time I had a skepticism for drums but I was too lazy or didn't have the recourses to try it!
From a drummer turned mix engineer, cymbals have ruined far more shows than loud drums. In the last 15 years, I would say I have mixed up to the cymbal volume at 9 out of ten shows, with snares that “really crack” being a distant second. Darker, lower-toned cymbals make a bigger difference, and weaving a dollar through the snare wires can make an enormous difference without having to change much else.
I'm the weird drummer here. I make my own "sticks" with random oak twigs from my yard. I've made them small and thin so I can play with a similar intensity with an insanely less amount of volume. Just by playing with smaller sticks and distancing the kick beater a lot closer to the kick head. This is just for practice and playing at home where I have to be quiet. Although when recording, the sounds might be usable in a demo kind of quality recording.
The tip of these sticks should be a bit flat and thin. You strike with the flat end, gets a really pleasant sound out of bells and rides quite honestly. If the stick tips are made round, there will not be nearly as much sound reduction as when made flat.
Probably for a practice setting, but not really for a performance setting, which what SLAD is focusing on. Hence them stating up front they were not going to focus on this aspect of drum-dampening.
