Live Drummers

[mr.Byrd2593]

Me and and my roommate were screwing around tonight and he tried drumming over my mixing and we had varied results but the main issue was getting our volume the same anyone use a live drummer? any tips you could offer for improvement? Discuss!

[dj matt blaze]

Using a drummer is the same as if a drummer was playing with guitars or keyboards or anything coming through a PA. You have to adjust your volume coming through the speakers accordingly to how loud the drums are. Also the size of the room is going to affect the sound. Ideally, its going to sound better if the drums were mic'd.

[mr.Byrd2593]

Yeah I definitely dont think I have a well rounded enough sound system to get an even sound between me and the drums part if it also could be hes a tool head haha so playing along with 4/4 house is a little new to him lol

[squidot]

i used to try this all the time with my buddy but we could never get it quite right. i could never get my sounds loud enough and we didn't have money to buy good enough pa gear. he also has only one volume....11. so he would never ease up a bit to level out with me. the problem always was that he couldn't hear me well enough and would drift off time which screwed me up and it just crashed and burned from there.

it would be way easier with an electronic kit i think.

[SamWheating]

Two Fresh uses a drummer in their live show.

[dj matt blaze]

i used to try this all the time with my buddy but we could never get it quite right. i could never get my sounds loud enough and we didn't have money to buy good enough pa gear. he also has only one volume....11. so he would never ease up a bit to level out with me. the problem always was that he couldn't hear me well enough and would drift off time which screwed me up and it just crashed and burned from there.

it would be way easier with an electronic kit i think.

an electronic kit or having monitors for the drummer

[djproben]

I often play with a drummer; I love it when it works. The size of the room is a big deal for sure, as well as the treatment of the room; a boxy room with nothing on concrete walls is gonna be seriously loud with a regular kit. And the drummer needs to play far more gently than they would on stage with a band. Mics are great if you know what you're doing and the room invites it, but a live drummer with no mics can sound great if they play gently and have a clear ear to what the music is doing. Headphones are an option but it's not necessarily ideal as most drummers will just whale on the skins to what they hear in the cans; that's not really what you want.

The biggest problem I've had with playing with a drummer is finding an audience to come listen to us.... It's just too "experimental" for the club scene, but when you've got a bunch of people grooving to it it's the bomb!

[chicomodo]

Experienced drummer and newbie DJ here.

Trigger the drumkit to one sampled sound to boost the quality and manage de volume of the both sources of music. And, the drummer, with a drum module will be able to set any kind of samples with the acoustic kit. Many live shows are set this way: mic and triggers.

But at the dancefloor I usually see e-drums and triggered bongos.

[dj matt blaze]

The biggest problem I've had with playing with a drummer is finding an audience to come listen to us.... It's just too "experimental" for the club scene, but when you've got a bunch of people grooving to it it's the bomb!

There is a club/lounge in NYC called Cream, this going back about 13-14 years ago that would have a drummer playing with the DJ. The even better part was that they had bongo drums as tables, so anyone there could just sit down and start playing along. Being a drummer as well I grabbed a bongo and jammed for about an hour. It was pretty kool.

[Fraktionz]

Here in Winnipeg...lols
We have one rather popular club that incorporates a drummer quite often in an event called drummer vs dj.
It's awesome, tight, energetic, entertaining and musically contributing!

Another decent club started bringing that in, and that's just what I know of.

Having an mpc player might be experimental....but here it's a little offbeat (<---- actually no, it's sick right in time), but very well receptive with a drummer willing to adapt to the dancefloor! Encourage drummers to try it more often!