1x12 cab as monitor for drummer

[justinhedrick]

anyone here ever run a cabinet off your rig as a dedicated monitor for your drummer? we play several bars where nothing is mic'd, and he has stated before that he has troubles hearing me. so i've thought about running a 1x12 carvin p.a. cab that i have outfitted with an EV speaker off my amp as a dedicated monitor for him, then using my two 2x15 cabs running off my power amp.

anyone ever had to do anything like this?

[Hemisaurus]

I've known bassplayers give the drummer a cab, and I've seen drummers with a full rig behind them. It becomes a problem when you mic the drums and / or do monitors. It also may overpower your other players and lead to volume wars.

[justinhedrick]

right on. thanks for the reply.

a sound guy buddy of mine suggested all of these things as well. although he also suggested if they are micing the drums to mic the cabinet. not sure why, unless he is thinking they will put the cab out of phase w/ the drum mics to help cancel it out?

[Hemisaurus]

When you start mic'ing cabinets, then the fun really begins. Honestly, for bands running their own sound, from the stage, don't mic all the cabs unless you're playing a fairly large venue, like bigger than the average school assembly hall. If you have a separate sound guy, he might like to mic the cabinets as it lets him play with balance, but then he'll probably want you to turn down as well.

Easier options are things like, move the drummer forward a little and/or angle the amps towards him a little. Ideally you want to play with the backline in more of a wide semi-circle, so that you are all getting a little bleed from each other. If you are self mixing, it's a lot easier to just have vocals in the PA, maybe some kick if you're really loud, and some snare if you're louder than that, but then your drummer is a wuss