cure for drummers with IEM's?

Having been a drummer for almost 20 years in all kinds of bands, I learned you must be very aware of your volume at all times. Most of us aren't playing arenas where you can bang away. There were many times when I would get loud without realizing it and band mates would give me a signal to chill out a bit. When you're in the moment it can be hard to maintain tempo AND volume. I never took it as criticism - they we're helping me. Can you just talk to the drummer and tell him to watch his volume when he has the IEM's in?
 
Jimmy,
Our drummer didn't take it poorly (like the previous one), but he hasn't put the ears back in since. I'll try the suggestion (kinda obvious one) to raise his volume up in his mix once he's back in ears.
Great ideas and hearing about peoples experiences. We've thought about the plexi deal but doesn't look like it worked out so well for some people.
 
My suggestions would be spend time on making sure his mix is right, or of possible give him control of his mix. Most digitial mixers off this these days, or there are drummer oriented submixers that also work as split snakes.

The other thing is some play louder cause they are no longer getting the low frequency feedback they are use to. They make feed back devices and stools that do this, to help provide low volumes while still allowing for the feedback they are looking for from lows. If your drummer is use to playing by the feel of his attack in the low frequencys this might be part of the reason hes playing so much harder.
 
Sixstring said:
For me it was asking me to play through a modeler instead of a real amp. Those days are long gone and yes silent stages are usually a church deal but it is really nice if you truly want to get a handle on stage volumes.

The new generation of E drums and plugin software is very convincing when it comes to both feel and sound. Infact I remember a post that cobbler did on a set of acoustic drums that he had converted over to electronic.
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Best move our band ever made. It's funny , there's a story I come back to , from when we used amps and acoustic drums. The lead singer and I are out front of the speakers doing a sound check..... and he says to me , "the drums are a little too loud , better turn them down."
To which I say , "they aren't in the PA yet"
 
Sixstring said:
Not that I don't agree with you but it's a well known fact that "most" drummers have a hard time with dynamic playing and they for the most part given the venue will set the stage volume. It's so much easier to use an electronic kit and manage the mix volume through the monitoring system.
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If the drummer plays with the correct dynamics when using wedges this case is clearly not about his technique.
 
1poorplayer said:
Best move our band ever made. It's funny , there's a story I come back to , from when we used amps and acoustic drums. The lead singer and I are out front of the speakers doing a sound check..... and he says to me , "the drums are a little too loud , better turn them down."
To which I say , "they aren't in the PA yet"
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Wow! I have totally had this same conversation... A church I used to play at I had caged the drums to try and solve a volume issue that many members were complaining about.

We mic'd everything up for FOH, the drummer thought it gave him a licence to beat the snot out of the kit. During sound check the first morning the pastor came dome and asked me if I could have the sound guy tune down he drums to which I replied there not even in the house!... If look's condemn :eek:

Shortly after that I bought the church a Yamaha TD25 kit with DW hardware, problem solved!.
 
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