They work very well. Let the record show however... I hate 'em!
They work very well. Let the record show however... I hate 'em!
Specifically, how and why are you going to be forced to use one?
The first time I heard one was at a live local show, Moderate size venue. I was amazed how much it reduces the volume of the drum set. They had it miked really good and they sounded great. But it did seriously reduce the projection of the kit. Controled sound I thing would be a good term. A bit spendy too.
These shields actually just reflect or re-direct the sound. By controlling the path of the sound, you can direct it towards material or area (of the room) that will absorb the sound. For example, if your drums are next to a wall. You can have shields the will reflect the sound towards the wall...here, the wall should have sound absorbing materials (eg., foam, curtain, etc...).
I wanted to use it to redirect sound away from my sliding glass door since i don't have the money to by sound proof glass for a sliding glass door/installation. The rest of the room is padded and insulated to absorb sound. Sounds like it will work out pretty well.
The drum shield helps me out in two situations and I'm very accomidating to comply with any requests to help out the 5 vocalist in my band. Complaints usually don't come from the fact that the drums are too loud in my garage but more so from loud guitar amps. When asked, I set up my drum shield between the two guitar players amps that are set up on folding chairs and our female singer who has issues with the loud amps. Once the shield is in place, the complaining stops.
The second situation I found helpful was discovered by accident. I was playing an outdoor gig at a local park last year and I dragged my drum shield to the gig to appease the bass player who has never played in a "rock" band and often complained about the volume of my cymbals. To keep him from complaining during the gig, I set up my shield around my kit and mic'd my drums with one overhead mic due to channel limitations on the mixer.
I found the drum shield had re-directed the volume of the drums up towards the overhead mic and I was surprised how well one mic picked up the kit.
Here's what it the kit sounded like during that gig:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPFnUgQx4Zs"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPFnUgQx4Zs[/ame]
Funny thing, the bass player told me to ditch the shield on our second set since there was no loud cymbal crashes to complain about lol.
Buyer beware (drummer beware)... unless you have either in ear monitors or a loud enough monitor mix, the rebound off of the glass to you will be intense and will drown out the band, ruining your experience of a fun-filled musical night.
Yes, I found this to be the case but again by accident, my shield fell over once and completely split at one of the plastic hinges and left me with two separate sections. I use one half of the shield on one side and the other half on the other with a three foot gap right in front of my bass drum with an floor monitor wedged in between the gap
I would say in a practice room situation, just get some sound absorbing items to put in front of the glass door. The shield is designed to allow visual contact in a live setting. If you don't need to see the glass door, then you can remove one part of the equasion rather then having to get a shield and sound aborbing material behind you. I picked up an old padded cubicle partition to use in my rehearsal space.
Kit: Pacific LX 8-Ply - Maple shells in deep blue lacquer * DDrum 13 X 6.5" Golf Ball Snare
Cymbals: 21" AAX Raw Bell Dry Ride * 20" Paragon Crash * Zildjian 20" Custom Ozone Crash * 18" XS20 Medium Thin Crash * 14" AAX-Celerator Hi-Hats * 10" AAX Splash
Misc: Vater 2-4-5-1 Hickory Sticks * DW 7000 Pedal * Evans Heads * SP Cymbal Stands * PDP 900 Hi-Hat and Snare Stand * Gibralter Throne
And I thought that the shields were to keep things from being thrown at you...like the screens at Country Bobs Bunker in the movie Blues Brothers...
Enjoy the Music!
HOOKED ON VINTAGE ROGERS
12 tom times 3
13 tom times 3
16 floor tom 3
22 BD times 2
24 BD 1
Dyna-sonic snare 1976
Dyna-sonic snare 1969
Powertone snare 1969
24 x 12 Djembe
21" K Hybrid custom ride
21" Avedis ride
20" Zildjian 1970 ride
18" A Custom Zildjian fast crash
17" A Custom Zildjian med crash
15" A Custom Zildjian Reso hats
10" A Custom fast splash
18" A Custom China
LP Cowbell baby..always more cowbell
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I hate those things!.
HHMMMM!...FIRE BAAAADD!!
Yeah me too...I'm done hauling the shield around. It did score some points when the band first came over and saw the double bass drum set up. They immediately thought "OH NO....a metal drummer...run for your lives!" They later found out it was meant for THEIR protections lol....
Those shields also work great at blocking stray sticks from hitting other band members
The drums!
Tama Starclassic Birch 5 piece
14x6.5 Brass Pork Pie big black snare
12",14" DDrum Deccabons
Batter- Aquarian Response 2 coated
Reso- Aquarian Classic Coated
The Cymbals!
17" Paiste 2002 Wild Crash
19" Paiste 2002 Power Crash
20" Paiste 2002 Crash
20" Paiste 2002 Ride
14" Paiste 2002 Sound Edge Hi hats
10" Wuhan Splash
16" Wuhan China
i asked our guy from the sound company that we use , he said that they were designed to keep the drums out of the vocal mic's that always seem to be in front of the drums ,on smaller stages... he said it is always a problem on stages that the vocal mics are always center stage right in front of the drums and cymbals , putting a sheild between the drums and the vocal mics cures that problem .
Tamaholic
We have one at church, and I seriously hate it. First of all, it cuts you off from the rest of the group, so you are at the mercy of your monitor and the sound guy controlling the monitor, so you have no idea what the true stage volume is, because you are playing to the volume of the monitor. If the monitor is way up, you are playing to that volume, and exacerbating the problem the shield was meant to correct! Second of all, it reflects all the high end of the kit back at you, and if there isn't something sound-absorbent behind you, you get a serious headache from playing. They are meant for TV situations, to keep the cymbals out of the vocal mikes, but they really don't block that much volume, except for the high end, so your kit sounds muddy and undefined.
And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw. . .
That's right! At church....that's where I first found the drum shield being used by a drummer during worship service. I can see how the shield can offer some type of volume control in that siutation.
I also find that if I'm requested to use the shield during rehearsal, I don't hold back on my dynamic playing level and I crash the cymbals at full volume as opposed to playing softly to keep the harsh wash from bouncing off of the metal garage door and the concrete floor. I'm happy I purchased the shield regardless if I use it or not. It's just another "tool" in the tool box for me to use during certain playing situations.
I can drape sound absorbing blankets over the plexi-glass panels if I'm recording in my garage to "shrink" the room to cut on the natural reverb that occurs in that type of environment.
I hate drumshields.
I call them the "segregate and shut up the loud obnoxious freak" shields.
I am currently suffering from gear acquisition syndrome. Will trade soul for drum gear. Donations accepted.
-Tama Superstar Hyper-Drive 5-piece
-SP Hardware
-Gibraltar Avenger DB-Pedal
-PST5 Cymbals
"Uncontrollable urticaria drivel spurting" -a sentence spawned from the half a word story.
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