dB of typical drum kits?

[Chill]

How many dB is a typical drum kit? -for a loud drummer? -for a quiet drummer?

[MichaelM]

My school music teacher actually bought a decibelmeter into class one day to prove I was too loud! He was a real dick though. It was a few years ago now so I can't really remember but I think it was just over 100dB. I was playing punk, but I don't consider myself a real heavy hitter (sticks last months, never busted a pinstripe or a cymbal)

[krimson]

Wow, 100dB when playing punk! that is impressivly quiet! Your right your teacher was a dick. Tell him I said so. I really appreciate drummers who don't break sticks often as well as other stuff.

[sile2001]

Our drummer is quiet (because for some reason the church doesn't like us to be blowing their ears out), and he'll regularly break 110db right where he's sitting. There's a reason he uses full headphones for his monitors

[MichaelM]

Yeah, people on some drumming forums I frequent talk about cracking Z Customs! It takes me six months to save up for one of those cymbals once I've decided I need one, I can't imagine breaking one every few months. Mind you I am probably a harder hitter now than 3 years ago, but still not ridiculous.

[PhilGood]

Originally Posted by Chill

How many dB is a typical drum kit? -for a loud drummer? -for a quiet drummer?

Mist mics that use a -10dB pad are rated for somewhere around 135dB sound pressure level when the pad is NOT on. If you're recording and need to turn the pad on, (as most loud drummer do) you're louder than 135dB. A -15dB pad makes the mic capable of handling 150dB. A quiet drummer is still somewhere around 90-100dB. Brushes would be probably somewhere around 50-70dB.

[BroKenSticKs]

Originally Posted by MichaelM

Yeah, people on some drumming forums I frequent talk about cracking Z Customs! It takes me six months to save up for one of those cymbals once I've decided I need one, I can't imagine breaking one every few months. Mind you I am probably a harder hitter now than 3 years ago, but still not ridiculous.

That is slightly disturbing. I play louder than any of the punk drummers we play shows with and i've only broken a crappy 16" sabian b8 in the 5 or so years i've been seriously playing. Havn't broker a head in 2 years either. I think allot of it has to do with how you hit the cymbals, allot of people don't put any thought into how they are hitting the drums.

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

How many dB is a typical drum kit? -for a loud drummer? -for a quiet drummer?

At what reference point? 1 meter, 300 ft, 1/2 mile? Because of the inverse square law, sound pressure decreases 6db for every doubling of distance. That means, in a free field, if it is 100db at one meter from the source, at 2 meters it has decreased 6db. At 4 meters, it has decreased 12 db and so forth.
fitZ

BTW, 2 db is 10 times 1db. In other words, to increase sound transmission loss in a rooms partitions, it takes TEN TIMES better isolation just to increase the loss by ONE DB!! Thats why it is so hard to isolate drums.

[Cody Suit]

Originally Posted by MichaelM

Yeah, people on some drumming forums I frequent talk about cracking Z Customs! It takes me six months to save up for one of those cymbals once I've decided I need one, I can't imagine breaking one every few months. Mind you I am probably a harder hitter now than 3 years ago, but still not ridiculous.

yeh ive cracked 2 z custom rock crashes. i had a warranty tho. so i was good. apparently it was cuz i was hitting them on to great an angle.

[Farview]

Z customs last me about a year. Evans Emads last me about 5 months (on the main kick) I used to wear through remo falams heads in about 6 months. It just depends on how you play and how much you play.

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by PhilGood

Mist mics that use a -10dB pad are rated for somewhere around 135dB sound pressure level when the pad is NOT on. If you're recording and need to turn the pad on, (as most loud drummer do) you're louder than 135dB. A -15dB pad makes the mic capable of handling 150dB. A quiet drummer is still somewhere around 90-100dB. Brushes would be probably somewhere around 50-70dB.

If a drum hit was 150dB at the overheads, it would be at least that loud at the drummer's ear, which would burst their eardrum instantly. It's more typical for loud drums to be about 110dB at the ears/overheads. This is loud enough to cause damage within a half-hour, so maybe that teacher knew what he was talking about?

Of course that means they are a lot louder an inch off the head, perhaps as much as 30dB louder, and that's where you'd need pads.

[PhilGood]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

If a drum hit was 150dB at the overheads, it would be at least that loud at the drummer's ear, which would burst their eardrum instantly. It's more typical for loud drums to be about 110dB at the ears/overheads. This is loud enough to cause damage within a half-hour, so maybe that teacher knew what he was talking about?

Of course that means they are a lot louder an inch off the head, perhaps as much as 30dB louder, and that's where you'd need pads.

I didn't say anything about the drums being that loud. I said the mic was CAPABLE of handling 150dB. That's with a -15dB pad and it's a direct quote from the Neumann website.

[firby]

drums are pretty loud.

[Wireneck]

eah, people on some drumming forums I frequent talk about cracking Z Customs!

My last drummer used to break Z's like crazy. He went through at least 6 16-18" crashes in the period I was playing with him. The cymbals would just fall off leaving nothing but the bell in some cases. It wasn't an improper stick hit thing either, he just beat the living shit out of everything.
This is just my opinion but in terms of "tone" i think the Z's kind of suck hard because there designed mostly to be loud. I think theres a certain point with the Z's where you hit them hard enough and they have that "sound" (in a good way). Unfortunately I think my drummer and probably alot of players were just overcompensating and beating the hell out of the thick Z's going for that sound and it results in alot of broken cymbals/replacement buys.

[cobradenim]

Originally Posted by MichaelM

.....never busted a pinstripe or a cymbal

I've busted 2 Pinstripe heads and I don't hit that hard!
I think alot of drummers have poor technique and that's why they break things. I use to use 2B sticks, now I use 5Bs. Much better. I broke the Pinstripes when I used the bigger sticks and one of the pinstripes was on the snare. Practice makes you better. I've seen dudes beat the shit out of drums and I don't know why. I guess they like buying new cymbals.

[geet73]

I play hard as hell. I've had my ride, and I BEAT THE HELL out of it, for 2 years now. My crash that just cracked lasted me like 8 months. My china just lasted me a little over a year. It's pretty much a yearly thing for me to replace my crashes and chinas.

Eh, oh well.

[tilinmyowngrave]

the only tiem i busted a head wuz when i purposely busted my titan stock heads in order to have an excuse to get G2's. As for cymbals... I got all my crash cymbals cracked, and they still sound the same as before.

[Tim Brown]

Originally Posted by Farview

Z customs last me about a year. Evans Emads last me about 5 months (on the main kick) I used to wear through remo falams heads in about 6 months. It just depends on how you play and how much you play.

If a Z custom is only lasting you a year - then you're doing something wrong.

I haven't broken a cymbal in probably close to 20 years, and I generally use marching sticks on the kit. You need to examine how you are striking the cymbal - because a Z should last you a lifetime!

I've got a Paiste Rude that I've had since 1981.

I had friends who used to brag about how they broke X amount of Paiste Rudes - that was when I told them they needed to learn how to play correctly.
Seriously though - a cymbal that thick shouldn't break from general use.
You may need to add another cymbal to your setup - typically, a cymbal breaks when it's struck incorrectly, or if it's repeatedly struck with the same force before it gets to stop vibrating. So if you're whacking away at it for 8th notes at a fast pace - you might want to add another crash and/or alternate how you're actually hitting it.



Tim

[Farview]

I have an old K that I haven't broken, it's about 6 or 7 years old. I figured the Z's broke because, being that thick, they are more brittle.

[geet73]

I really think those Z's break really easily. Period. I see more people cracking those than A's. The Z's also almost always crack somewhere in the middle. Most other cymbals just crack around the edge.

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

If you're playing hard enough to break cymbals, just think how your eardrums feel. Of course, they'll have the last laugh one of these days
fitZ