A good house sound reinforcement system starts with a controlled stage monitor system, and a controlled monitor system starts with managing the on-stage levels.

Simply, excessive sound pressure levels (SPL) on stage can often lead to excessive levels from the house system.

This leads to two suggestions. Monitor levels should be set after house levels, and monitor levels should be sufficiently low in order to not interfere with the house system.

Let’s proceed with the assumption that the goal of the exercise is to produce the optimum listening experience for the audience, not the band. Some compromise is usually in order to keep everyone happy.

The overall goal is to reduce monitor levels without alienating musicians or impairing their ability to play. One key ingredient to keeping stage levels down is to control the level of the drums.

Bang The Drum
As young drummers develop their skills, dynamic control is often ignored in favor of practicing drum licks with a higher “wow” factor.

But the output level of a drum kit can be reduced by 10 dB or more by simply playing softer, and this is often the easiest (and cheapest) solution to keeping stage levels under control. Therefore, encourage drummers to develop the necessary skills to play at lower levels.

Another idea: consider putting the drums in a cage. Plexiglass panels around the drum kit can reduce SPL on stage by reflecting sound back. Personally, I don’t think this does much for the sound quality of the drums, but it does reduce the direct level on stage and in the house.

If panels aren’t enough, a “lid” will control/contain levels further. Because the lid is parallel to the floor, it can be made absorptive rather than reflective. After all, no one is looking through it.

While a lid might produce some lighting problems, it will help sound immensely.

Some go to the extreme of building an on-stage room for the drum kit, complete with ventilation (hopefully). The cage method can let the drummer play at a higher level without overpowering the stage.

Alternatively, there are some excellent electronic drum kits on the market.

But if you’re going this route, do it right. Don’t be cheap, and make sure that a good house sound system is available to reproduce the kit.

This approach puts the drum sound completely in the hands of the sound operator. A good one can do amazing things with the extra control. A bad one can completely ruin the drum sound and have the drummer going back to the acoustic kit.

It’s also vital to give the drummer an adequate monitor system, which will ideally be a headset as opposed to stage monitors.

Again, do it right. Provide a good stereo mix. Something else that can further help is a feed from an audience microphone to keep things realistic.

Done properly, this is perhaps the best of all approaches. It’s just all-too-rare
that it’s done right, so the drummer, band or both can be less than excited about it.

While the look and feel may not be the same as a live kit, 99 percent of the audience won’t know the difference and will be perfectly content with the drum sound.

Like it or not, musicians must constantly evaluate whether what they’re doing benefits the audience or is just pleasing to themselves. With drum level under control, we can go to work on other instruments.

Guitar Blues
Like the drummer, guitarists are often after a certain sound.