[hjennings100]

New to this site and not an accomplished drummer but Im older- have worked hard and have the resources now to buy top quality gear. I have taken several months worth of rudiment lessons (torture) but now want to practice (enjoy) playing my custom DW kit and the questions is.... how best to "play along" to recorded music (i-pod) ? I bought a pair of Mackie powered speakers, a yamaha board and a powered JBL 500 watt wedge. all of that is fine except im now told I need a sub to hear bottom end well. Ok - so how about in ear monitors to save some hearing ? - which are best if money is not primary issue?? Also does anyone have experience with throne mounted "bass shakers" that attach direct to the throne? Seems like an in-ear and a bass shaker would be a great way to stay in the pocket or just play along to the i pod. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks

Papaw

[don11817]

In-ears are awesome for making sure you get what you want to hear--as long as you mic your drums so you can get them in the mix as well. You'll find that in-ears are also equally good at isolating sound so you'll have a harder time hearing yourself play. A cheap mixer, a headphone amp and a few mics in addition to your
in-ears (if they don't come with an amp) will make all the difference.

As for the butt-kicker/throne-shaker I find that if you have a good in-ear setup it isn't necessary--but it IS nice if you want to feel the bottom end from the bass line and your kick drum (which with your nice DW you probably already feel anyway). Being able to feel the bass line helps a little, but larger drivers on the in-ears will be more than adequate for practicing and playing along.

Studio players (Damien may attest to this) don't usually use butt-kickers as there is a possibility of getting distortion from the resonant vibration of the throne through the hardware and shells in the recorded mix, making it muddier.

Personally I will take in-ears or headphones over wedges/speakers any day. I've played large venues with 10,000 in attendance and I want--no--NEED to hear the bass line, the keys, rhythm guitar and lead vocals so I am not distracted by what I can't hear. Everything else is fluff--nice to hear after the fact but not necessary to playing my part so I block it out so as not to muddy my in-ear mix.

	DW Drums Shop for DW Drums at Musician's Friend

[hjennings100]

Thanks for your time and advice. Which in ears are the best? What ancillary equipment do you need/ recommend ?? Thx again -

[don11817]

Hey no problem at all. It's nice to be able to help out. The cool part is, by coming to this forum you get the benefit of decades of experience from the people here--- hopefully it will pay off and you can avoid some of the crap we've endured without such a resource...

OK on to in-ear stuff. I personally have had experience with a few different brands of in-ear isolating earphones, and the ones I like best are the Shure brand. There were two different models, one had a bass port and had great sounding bottom end so I lean that way--but of course they are expensive:

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com...s-Port?sku=270

The lower end ones don't have the bass port but still have good overall sound--- look at the price on these closely if you choose white they're $59.. if you get black or grey they're $149--just for color?? Lame. Get the white ones-- either way you can still see them so it's not like color benefits you:

Buy Shure SCL3 Sound Isolating Earphones | In-Ear Professional Headphones | Musician's Friend

OK now you need a mixer. I don;t know how many pieces you have in yor kit, so I'll assume you need at least 7 mics, which means you'll probably need between 8 and 12 channels so you can bring your outside source of music etc into the mix and even use it for other instruments later on (if you're buying a mixer, might as well have some room to add your jam buddies so you can record etc.)

Have heard great stuff about this one-- looking at getting one myself for my stage mix:

Buy Behringer XENYX 1202 | Unpowered Mixers | Musician's Friend

Next you need some mics. You can get crazy expensive or go the cheap route. I'd suggest cheaper until you find out what you want out of your sound. The CAD mics are decent and you can't beat the price for a 7-mic kit with drum mounts for 4 of them:

Buy CAD PRO-7 7-Piece Drum Microphone Pack | Percussion Microphones | Musician's Friend

After that you may need a couple of stands etc and some mic cables/assorted cables for your hookups.

Overall I think that's a good start on mic'ing and your drums and getting a sound mix to play along with that is expandable to maybe run a PA or record with etc. in the future.... Good luck

	Shure Microphones Shop for Shure Microphones at Musician's Friend

[Tainojim]

Bose® in-ear headphones just released last year, and reasonably priced (what's there to loose but a little searching at Bose.com. You can even go to your local Bose distributor to try them out.
I have allot of Bose equipment at home. The best part, No distortion or clipping and just plain clean sounding. I wear them when playing with other bands and in the studios, never had a problem.
Especially when doing recodings a drum shield helps allot.

There are other head phones available from the people who have been in the sound technology for many years. They even make the Li models for Pa's and guitars. If it wasn't for this recension (crash market), I would make a complete setup, just for the fun of it and hearing the clarity.

I still have my old CTS 100 Watts Rated IHF (Institute of High Fidelity Ratings) laboratory speakers with the AR29 Heathkit Hifi I built when I was 23. That's when I was using them to practice befor headphones came out and recording onto an MPEX reel to reel 4 chanel recorder.

Acoustics help allot with in ear sets have change allot.

As for mixing I use the DBX brand preamp, with capacitor mikes on the bass drums.

But the again, what do I know. I'm just a retired 57 year old electronics engineer and played drums for 50 years.