The Manace of Drums!

More than once recently, I’ve been at a jazz gig where I’ve heard great players but had a very frustrating experience as a listener. It’s caused by the drums being too loud. Actually when you think about it it’s safe to say that the drums are too loud on 90% of grassroots jazz gigs.

The first problem with drums is that they’re inherently loud to start with. Hitting a big bit of metal or a skin stretched over a big wooden cylinder is going to make a loud noise.  The default volume of any drum kit is LOUD – even a jazz kit with a small bass drum.

The  second problem with drums in jazz is that gigs often take place in small rooms. This means that their relative loudness is even more noticeable.

The third problem is that when all the musicians are using their own backline, the sound on stage does not correlate to the sound out front.

What typically happens on a grassroots gig is that the musicians are wedged into a tiny space where they’re practically playing on top of one another. As a result, the bassist and piano player or guitarist are right next to their amps. (Very few venues have pianos now so the piano is usually digital).

Unfortunately, this means that the musicians set up so they can hear themselves and the fact that they’re all so close to each other means that there’s a reasonable balance on stage. However, the sound of the drums carries much more easily than the amplified instruments and a balanced sound on stage becomes more unbalanced the father away from it you are.  Add this to the fact that the amps are usually on the floor with the horns standing in front of them and it’s not hard to see how the drums become disproportionately loud when you’re in the audience.

In this situation, it’s very difficult for the piano and bass to turn up. If they bring their own instruments up so the sound is balanced to the audience, they will sound incredibly loud to them and they won’t be able to play properly.  This explains the typical sound on a grassroots jazz gig where the only things that you can hear consistently are drums and horns.

It’s a shame, because a skewed ensemble sound can completely spoil the audience’s enjoyment of a performance. It can also affect what listeners think of the drummer themselves; no matter how good a player somebody is, if an instrument is just too loud it can grate and become irritating over the course of a gig.

Read more: http://barrydallman.com/the-menace-of-drums/