Saturday, the house tech said...

Jay Barracato

Jay Barracato

Graduate Student
Jan 11, 2011
1,528
5
38
Solomons MD
that I had one of the best "kick" sounds he had heard in a long time. He described it as crisp, and punchy, but with depth.

The show was three solo singer songwriters in a row, my client was the middle act. All three were guitar and vocals, it just happens that the act I was with plays a kick at the same time.

I thought the setup was pretty basic. The subs are on the main outs with a crossover, pretty appropriate EV boxes for the room. Dropped a house beta 52 in as a mic. FOH was just a mixwiz and dbx 166 on an insert. I just used a small boost on the low, a larger boost at 800hz and 2000 hz and a step rolloff on the highs. No gate but solid compression at about 7:1, fast attack, slow release with the threshhold set so the signal just stayed in compression.

Nothing special in the approach, but nice solid results that the audience certainly noticed.

Oh yeah, did I mention the "drum" was actually a tweed covered wooden suitcase?
 
Re: Saturday, the house tech said...

Jay Barracato said:
that I had one of the best "kick" sounds he had heard in a long time. He described it as crisp, and punchy, but with depth.

The show was three solo singer songwriters in a row, my client was the middle act. All three were guitar and vocals, it just happens that the act I was with plays a kick at the same time.

I thought the setup was pretty basic. The subs are on the main outs with a crossover, pretty appropriate EV boxes for the room. Dropped a house beta 52 in as a mic. FOH was just a mixwiz and dbx 166 on an insert. I just used a small boost on the low, a larger boost at 800hz and 2000 hz and a step rolloff on the highs. No gate but solid compression at about 7:1, fast attack, slow release with the threshhold set so the signal just stayed in compression.

Nothing special in the approach, but nice solid results that the audience certainly noticed.

Oh yeah, did I mention the "drum" was actually a tweed covered wooden suitcase?
Click to expand...

Cool! I have done cardboard boxes with good results. The best are the kick board thingies with a contact pickup.
 
Re: Saturday, the house tech said...

David Sturzenbecher said:
I mic'ed a washing machine once. As in, the performer brought a washing machine on stage and hit it with a stick.
Click to expand...

Hey... I spent a good hour or more a few weeks back, working with both of our in-house electrical departments (Federally Funded Building)... trying to get power dropped and connected up for a commercial baking oven an artist had requested for a performance. It was a (John Cage) 100th Anniversary performance (his stuff is known to be REALLY out there... like REALLY out there) so we went along with another departments suggestion that they may cook something as part of the performance, and did the leg-work and got it powered up properly.

The "artists" came in... took one look at it, and pulled out their drumsticks and went to work banging and scraping and knocking on it to make various sounds. Luckily no microphones were needed to amplify this non-sense, but neither was any of the electricity. We had it disconnected for safety's sake, when the smaller of the performers began to venture INTO the over to try making noise with the racks inside.

I've had the suitcase kick-drum a good few times too, I'm always surprised at how good they sound. I had one that came with an XLR output, was filled with some blankets and an SM57 if they were telling the truth, but I never even opened it to look, it sounded great! Maybe it's a regional thing? I'd take the suitcase over a poorly tuned actual drum any day... I wonder how many dopey sound-guys ask these musicians if they can cut a hole in their suitcase to get a mic into it "properly". :lol:
 
Re: Saturday, the house tech said...

I imagine a well mic'd tweed covered suitcase with a capable player and a talented engineer could sound pretty good. I had a band a couple of years ago with crazy instruments like that all the way around. The kik drum was one of those orange 5 gallon plastic buckets from Home Depot. Sounded incredible through our 6 SB1000's and 4 KF650's. Mic'd it "inside" with a D6. Great "click" and huge bottom (after a little EQ) with perfect decay, no gate needed. The snare was a tupperware container with some BB's, nails, and other assorted things inside it. Mic'd it with a 57 and added a little gated reverb. It actually sounded better than most of the other snares played by the other 5 bands that day. The Bass was a washtub and a broom with a string. It had a Fishman pickup mounted on it. I just used a little compression on it with flat EQ and it sounded like an expensive rig. The Saw played with a violin bow had a pickup mounted on it as well. It went on from there with other "instruments" such as the Sears Craftsman mechanic wrenches mounted like a Xylophone and played with a hammer. I really wish I had a video camera for that one. The guys were all pretty much A players and the tuning was impeccable.
 
Re: Saturday, the house tech said...

I had a guy come in with an old, blue Samsonite suitcase. Opened it up, pulled out his cymbal and stand, and pedal. Closed the suitcase, and went to work. He carried his snare and tom separately. Sounded surprisingly good.
 
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