Live drum rack - help needed

[metdrummer00]

Hey everybody,

Here's the situation: I have a 7 piece kit and out of our 16 channel Mackie board, some channels are not working and being used by everyone else. So we decided to go with a submixer or drum rack where all the percussion will be mixed and then sent to the front of the house.

We're looking for very good sound on a budget. What compressor/gate/limiter would you reccomend? The BBE looks pretty good.

I play to use headphones to listen to the main and final mix and then send it out to the front. I'm not sure how many auxillary sends it has, but that would work right, if only one i can only have one rack effect? Please enlighten me, pictures of diagrams, anything! Thanks!

 

[Tim Brown]

BBE is something I'd stay away from.
It can cause a whole lot of phasing issues that you don't need to get into.

For compressors and gates on an extreme budget, I would suggest the behringer 4 channel, models. (I'm sure I'll catch flack for this from somebody)

I have them and I have not had a single problem with them.

A better unit would be the dbx 166xl. It's a stereo compressor/gate that sells for around $250. It's a great unit.

If you can afford it, I'd go for the dbx, and at least put one channel on the kick and one on the snare, and get a behringer quad gate to use gates on the tom mic's if you are close mic'ing the toms.



Tim

 

[mikeh]

While many people bash Behringer gear, on a whole most agree Behringer compressors hold up fairly well at a very reasonable price.

I don't use a lot of B gear- but I do have aa B compressor and for a drum sub-mix I would think it would be a very reasonable, cost effective option!

 

[jkokura]

Depends on the budget...'on a budget' doesn't give us a dollar amount...

And what exactly are you asking? It didn't seem clear - are you asking about submixers? monitering your band or drum sound? or are you asking about compressors cause you think you need them?

I rarely use compression for drums in live settings...it's can be complicated, it's one more thing that could go wrong, and in most clubs and small to medium venues it's unnessary...

BUT...If you think you need a few compressors - How many/what kind of mics and what are they on? How many channels do you need? Do your compressors need to be stereo, mono, dual mono...

I saw someone selling an 8 channel Presonus for 700 around here or gearslutz I think...Or you could try a couple RNC's, some beri, the Alesis 3630...

jacob