I both play and teach drum set and auxiliary percussion - congas, bongos, timbales, cowbells, blocks, shakers, etc. When I am playing live in the percussionist mode I am usually limited to how many channels on the sound board I can have for my microphones. Typically I’ll get one each for my congas and bongos and a third for over my rack, which has my timbales, cowbells and blocks. From experience in both live and studio work I have learned that there is a certain way to set up my rack so that sounds of different “sonic intensities” – or volumes are balanced for the one and only microphone that lurks above the rack.
Obviously my bar chimes that are tinkly and delicate are no match for full blown rim shots on the timbales – so yes, they would be un-matched in intensity. But what about the cowbells, woodblocks, and weird sound effects in between all that? Sometimes we have to gauge what is more intense by simply using our own ears as a guide. For example: you wouldn’t play a cowbell next to your ear or it would damage your hearing; yet with a triangle or small shaker you can. Microphones are very much like ears and they can be overloaded too.
Having experience doing live sound for bands I am aware of the difficulties of a multi instrument performer having no concept of this. Imagine a percussionist suddenly pulling out his cowbell, stuffing it right into his conga mic and playing it full blast. Yes, it was waaay too loud…and very unmusical indeed. So ultimately he was turned waaay down in the mix as a result.
I have the timbales as the lowest on my rack with my cowbells and jamblocks mounted just above. Next I have my set of 5 wooden temple blocks with a small agogo bell. Finally above that is a triangle and wind chimes which are in front of the path of the overhead mic and about 8” away. Anything played by hand is done in front of this same mic with consideration of its sonic intensity. For instance a small egg shaker is very low on the scale yet a flexitone is quite intense. A wood vibraslap lies somewhere in between.
It is up to us as the player to self-mix ourselves at all times and make the sound man’s job that much easier thus keeping all our brilliant efforts in the mix!
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