If I can beat Late8 on this, I'll try.
There are several ways to approach this. From my experience here's what I did.
With the previous band playing bars and anything we could get our hands on, the guitarist toted the PA. He would set it all up and place the mixer where ever it would fit. I had X number of channels for my drums. After he got the PA set up I would take my output cables from my drums or my snake if the distance required it and would just plug my mic cables into the board and then we'd set levels. I basically ran a Kick, Snare and overhead to cover everything. I also had a vocal mic and Kat effects device.
When you factor in your own mixer you have expanded your mixing abilities at the drum set. You have to control your own mixer. Using your mixer you use the number of assigned channels you need and mix that. Then you send that mix to the main console/mixer and it gets blended in to the main output. Most mixers allow for XLR or quarter inch cable connects to another mixer device. It's your choice how you decide to send the signal to the main board.
Conversely with this new band I took a different approach. I purchased a Yamaha EAD10 Drum micing system. It mounts to the BD and picks up everything in close proximity and you run two channels to the board using regular quarter inch cables. You can't really mix more precisely but you have enough control to make it work. The triggers do have individual level adjustments. It also includes some effects like a drum trigger module would or you can bypass the effects and just use the raw signal like you'd get from a basic microphone.
Much simpler design and set up. I love it. It also works great for rehearsals and only takes about 10 minutes to completely set it up.
Dollar for dollar you may end up spending about the same for the EAD10 as you would for a decent mixer with enough XLR inputs to support your required micing technique.
YMMV
If you have more questions, let me know.
Bookmarks