When we think of the ancient city of Jericho, we think about the Israelites marching around the walls for seven days playing their trumpets, and then the walls came tumbling down. However, historically speaking, besides the trumpets, the Israelites played many percussion instruments (drums) for those seven days while they were marching around the walls of Jericho.
» Back to the Future
Fast forward to 2013, and we see that drums (and percussion) are still very important in churches and worship music. The only difference is that nobody wants the walls of their worship house to fall down as a result of the band. So, in the spirit of churches rockin’ at a reasonable volume, this month’s topic will cover the process of miking and controlling drums in today’s houses of worship.
Most of the churches I work with are first concerned with making the drums quieter. After that, they use microphones to control how much drum sound the congregation will hear. At least this is how things should ideally work out. However, most of my house of worship experience comes from working in churches that seat from 200 to 500 people. In rooms of this size, drums — especially a snare drum — can be very loud.
» Behind Those Glass Walls
In an attempt to control and isolate drum volume, I see a lot of transparent Plexiglas or acrylic panels — such as those made by ClearSonic (clearsonic.com) — used in these smaller churches. Sometimes, there will simply be one single panel in front of the kick drum, but more often Plexiglas panels about five feet tall and about two feet wide will surround the front and sides of a drum kit. I have two churches that enclose their drummers in a Plexiglas room with clear walls and a ceiling. I don’t know any drummers who like to play in such an environment. In fact, it really seems like some sort of torture to put a guy who just wants to play in the worship band into such an isolated space.
Anyway, let me tell you how I like to control and mic my drums in an average house of worship. I use Plexi, but in a thrifty manner. I like to place three 2-foot-wide panels (if the church has them) in the front of the drum kit in a semi-circle pattern. Then, in front of the kick drum, I place an acoustic baffle. You can purchase an assortment of acoustic panels, or make them easily enough.
» Absorb and Conquer
I happen to carry a 24-by-24-by-2-inch piece of Auralex (auralex.com) acoustic foam material with me for use on drums. Once I have the plexi and Auralex in place. I then place a kick mic in the proper spot. I prefer kits where the front drum head has a port hole. I place my mic as far into the drum as I can while it is attached to a mic stand. I use a few different kick drum mics, but by varying how close the mic is located to the inside (beater) head, you can create the right blend of attack (beater “click”) to drum boom to suit your tastes. If my drum has a front head with no hole, I place my mic as close to the head as possible without touching it. That is about it for the kick drum. With the plexi and a baffle, I can control the overall SPLs of the drum and use my mic as an instrument that allows me to amplify that controlled sound. That still leaves the other drums, hi-hat and cymbals.
» A Classic Miking Technique
In the simplest form of drum miking, I will use a single overhead mic along with the kick drum mic. I place a mic on a boom stand and center it above the drum kit. If you think of a microphone as an ear, then it will hear the loud drums louder and the quiet drums quieter. That way, your snare drum will come through the mix louder than your floor tom or hat. This is actually my favorite microphone setup for a drum kit in a small church.
In the first days of drum miking, only one mic was used. Listen to all those early Elvis recordings, and you will hear what I am saying. As simple as that microphone technique is, there are a lot of churches that want every drum in the kit miked individually (not to mention the hi-hat and cymbals). If I run into one of these houses of worship, I will try to talk them down a bit. I can close-mic a snare and kick drum and use one overhead and get a great sound. Using a cardioid pattern or supercardioid mic, I can point the microphone a little off-axis from the snare drum and pick up a good amount of hi-hat. With a little EQ, I can get a snappy snare, and the hat still cuts through.
Setting my overhead mic a little low toward the rack toms, I can also get toms and cymbals. By adding one more overhead mic, I can pick up floor toms and a stereo image of the toms and cymbals. All those methods aside, I still have churches that want a mic on every drum, plus the hat and cymbals.
» Opening the Gates
If I put a mic on the kick, snare, hat, two rack toms, two overheads and one floor tom, that would be eight microphones. I don’t have to tell you, but that is a lot of open mics. If I am going to use that many mics on a drum kit, I want to use a noise gate on some of those microphones. Fortunately, the church I work in has a set of eight gates.
I will generally use noise gates on the rack toms and floor toms. Should you be faced with this type of drum setup, simply set your tom gates tight enough so they only open when the drum is struck directly, then close fairly quickly. That will eliminate having those extra mics pick up other drum sounds. If you church does not have any gates, try setting the level of your toms low. You will still pick up the toms through your overhead mics and, let’s face it, friends, in most (but not all) churches, it’s worship music — not a rock concert.
