I was listening to a worship song that I knew, one I’d played with my church’s band many times, and it sounded pretty good.
I listened for a while, adjusted the bass and the kick drum so I could hear them better, then we talked about it.
Then he got this funny grin on his face, and pushed me back on the platform, said, “Now listen again!” and pressed play.
I put the headphones and listened, and immediately tore the headphones off and accused him of playing a different track.
“Nope. Same track.”
I put the headphones back on: the bass guitar and the drum were clearly out of sync; the difference was night-and-day! I stepped off the platform: it was hard to hear the problem.
I stepped back on, it was obvious: the bass player was a little bit off from the rest of the band, and without being able to “feel” the low frequencies, I could hardly tell.
As an audio engineer, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked the bass player to turn his amp down, and been met with “But I need to feel the bass!” And I have to admit, when I’ve been the bass player, the audio engineer has sometimes asked me to turn my amp down, and I’ve wanted to say the same to him.
Low frequencies – the kind of lows that are made by a kick drum and a bass guitar – are large waves: a low E on the bass is 27′ long; the low B on a 5-string bass is 36′ long.
A bass drum’s fundamental note can be 40′ long. These frequencies are indeed difficult to hear up close, and so the bass guitarist turns up his amplifier and the drummer plays extra loud so that they can feel the low frequencies and stay in synch with each other, and with the rest of the band.
By the time I stepped off of that funny little Buttkicker platform, I was completely convinced: a Buttkicker can be a wonderful tool for bass players and for drummers. It can allow them to play tightly in synch, creating a “groove” that the rest of the worship band can ride on.
It can allow them to play with less volume, so the rest of the band doesn’t need their monitors cranked up so loud.
It truly does make all the difference in the world for bass players and drummers when the band moves to in-ear monitors: there isn’t a headphone in the world that can replace a bass guitar cabinet, or reproduce the kick in the chest from standing or sitting near the bass drum.
After listening to the tracks with the bass and drums slightly off, my friend played another track. This time, the bass and drums were tight, completely spot on.
Standing on the Buttkicker made it obvious what the difference was, but even when I was not on the platform, the difference was significant: the whole band, the whole mix sounded “tighter” when the bass and drums finally got together. Non-musicians that I quizzed agreed that it sounded better, however, they couldn’t tell why.
Certainly, adding Buttkickers to a monitor rig would allow the bass player to turn his amp down (or remove it from the stage) and the drummer to play lighter.
And, as strange as this sounds, I have come to expect that if the bass player and drummer get Buttkickers, then the whole band will sound better.
Check out more from David McLain at the Church Soundguy blog.