whats the deal ?

I moved from California to Montana about a year and a half ago. Got involved with a new church, about 25 miles away from my place. Basicily got involved with the worship team playing drums. They just recently purchased an electronic kit. For reasons dealing with volume and mixing abiltity than anything else. I tried to explain to them that having an acoustic kit behind a plexi-glass screen stuffed in a corner of a box made it into a folded horn cabinet. Sound bouncing off of things and then getting projected out into the sanctuary. All to deaf ears. I played the new drums and have the opinion that it is like putting nylon strings on an electric guitar and playing without an amp. I am accustomed to hearing what I am playingcoming from in front of me and not out of a monitor. I have issues with hearing myself, especially when the vocals and other instrumentation is coming out of monitors. Worship leaders solution for my problem is to just hit harder. I explained that pounding on the rubber pads and cymbals will only damage the sensors in them and what good will that do ? My request for higher volume in monitor is dismissed due to it interfering with what other band members hear of themselves playing. It is a struggle cause I don't like the feel of electronic drums and you cannot do hakf the things you can do with an acoustic kit of the same set up.

My prayer request is that I approach this with the heart of a worshiper and not a spoiled musician. Am I making too much out of this ? Is it an issue with me being "prideful" or what ? Anyways, prayer and some insight is always welcome.



Laters....be blessed

Hey, man, that sounds like a tough one.

You don't have your own monitor mix? Hard to keep time if you can't hear yourself. Are headphones a possibility? If you could run your monitor signal to the drum module through an aux input, then you could have your drums as loud as you want in headphones and not bother anyone else.

Hope this helps, will pray for you.

bassdude wrote:Hey, man, that sounds like a tough one.

You don't have your own monitor mix? Hard to keep time if you can't hear yourself. Are headphones a possibility? If you could run your monitor signal to the drum module through an aux input, then you could have your drums as loud as you want in headphones and not bother anyone else.

Hope this helps, will pray for you.

I was told that the drums cannot be isolated in my monitor (left rear) and turning up that side would make me too loud in the front monitors. But, on the right side of the stage, the keys are isolated in the front monitors but removed from the rear cause the bass and guitar guys stand behind the keys. They run direct and need monitors to hear themselves. We rotate band members and the other drummers mention to me that they have issues with the volume, but they don't say anything to the worship leader. Whom, is under the impression that it is just my problem. The worship leader is youth pastor (14 to 20 something's) and the other drummers are in his group. I am 18 years older than the worship leader and have no problem offering my opinion on how to make things sound better and try to encourage the others to play what they feel as apposed to copying the exact arrangement from the latest Hillsong CD. He just took over for a girl that was only 20 years old but went off to school She got that. I may seem to be rocking the boat or not submitting to that authority ? People who were in the rotation with the last leader are not getting any time with this guy. Those who are getting less time are the older people. It makes sense when I look at it in that perspective.

I am gonna bring some headphones...

I don't think you're being a spoiled musician. Honestly, if I was in your position I would probably just quit.

We have a similar situation in our church and we do need electronic drums because the building is so small. One of our drummers has used electronic drums for years and is fine with them. The other one has played them and is ok with them. Both would love real drums, but they won't work.

I play bass and often struggle to hear myself in the monitors. I've tried a few things with my amp to get the sound how I like it. There has been some frustration working with the 3 different leaders I have had, but I have had to step back and just realize that I am in a position of serving others, including the worship leader.

I think one option would be to have a line splitter so you can run the sound directly to some headphones.

I think the other drummers need to speak up if they have issues as well, a worship team should be a team and work together to provide the best worship experience possible for themselves and the congregation. I would definitely try headphones to monitor your drums, you should be able to plug right in to the sound module, then just balance it out volume-wise with what's coming from your monitor. I feel your pain, I've been playing in worship bands for 25+ years and there seems to always be some kind of struggle going on, I am very fortunate to be playing in a church now that does sound the professional way. We use in-ear monitors and everyone has their own mix so there are no issues with not hearing what you want to hear.

Hang in there and do it for the Lord!

thank you everyone...