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[John M. Roll]

I work with a couple of basher style drummers  whose cymbal wash gets into everything. I've purchased a couple of cymbal sheilds, but they're not giving me the containment I want. Does anyone have experience with the multi panel sheilds and would care to give some opinions before i pull the trigger on a.purchase?

Thanks,
John

[Tim McCulloch]

You want the kind that seals up air tight, and a source of nitrous oxide.  Only half-kidding...

The floor and area behind/above the drum shield needs to be partly absorbent from 2kHz on up or it will just reflect the cymbals.

This is a human factors problem that audiopersons are not allowed to address, as someone's dubious "art" could be deeply offended by a lowly technician attempting to present the entire ensemble to the audience.  /color me "Bitter".

[Helge A Bentsen]

Roland V-drums...

[Art Welter]

Does anyone have experience with the multi panel sheilds and would care to give some opinions before i pull the trigger on a.purchase?

This video gives a comparison:
https://www.smokinacecasecompany.com/products/cymbal-shields

There is about a 3dB reduction in SPL above 10kHz between no shield and shielded, not much.
Anything below very high frequencies will diffract around these small shields.

[John Schalk]

Is this for a portable application?  If so, then my vote would be to skip the shield.  We have an 8 panel folding shield at a club where I work.  The stage has a built in drum riser that is about 18" high and it takes two people to lift the un-folded shield into place.  I can pick up and move the folded shield by myself, but it is heavy and awkward to grab because there aren't any handles and the plastic panels are kind of slick.  The shield covers the front of the kit and about half-way back on each side.  I'd guess it's 5' high and doesn't have a top.

Having the shield in place does help cut down on cymbal wash, but where I think it really helps is with the snare.  Note that the ceiling and back wall on the stage at this club have acoustic treatment on them.  I will use the shield whenever I can (some drummers don't like it), but I would not consider getting one to use with my own PA.  I think having an acoustically "dead" stage is a necessary element to using a shield and I almost never encounter one of those in the wild.  I don't believe a shield would provide much value on the "tin-can" mobile stages that all of the towns around me seem to own.

[Mike Monte]

I work with a couple of basher style drummers  whose cymbal wash gets into everything. I've purchased a couple of cymbal sheilds, but they're not giving me the containment I want. Does anyone have experience with the multi panel sheilds and would care to give some opinions before i pull the trigger on a.purchase?

Thanks,
John

How about something to "dampen" the cymbals?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9F6tO_27tA
I know that most (nearly all) drummers may refuse to change "their" sound, but if it's for the good of the band...why not?
(Oh yeah, 'cause they're drummers - lol.)

[Mark Scrivener]

How about something to "dampen" the cymbals?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9F6tO_27tA
I know that most (nearly all) drummers may refuse to change "their" sound, but if it's for the good of the band...why not?
(Oh yeah, 'cause they're drummers - lol.)

Moon gel pads (https://rtom.com/moongel-damper-pad/) are a great tool for controlling drum resonance issues....but that of course depends on having a drummer who is receptive. Young, inexperienced, drummers (or those that never learned) seem to want their drums and cymbals to ring forever, not realizing that they are taking up all the space in the music and masking everything else. Tread carefully.

I've had better luck educating drummers in the studio than at a live gigs. In the studio you can show them recordings and how the drums sit in the mix when they don't ring all day and wash over everything. Live, earplugs are often the only solution.

[JohnReeve]

I've never found drum shields to do much in the clubs where I have used them, as they are fixing a problem you really can't fix.  The drummer is the only one who can fix these things, and anything else is a half-measure. 

They can play quieter using a variety of means and if they won't accommodate that then there really isn't much that can be done on the technical front.

It's not a popular thing to do, but turning the monitors down and then telling the drummer you're not going to give them more is "a" tool.   

There are several reasons why that tool can fail (I won't list them, but they seem obvious), but it's also a thing I've done.

At a certain point the monitors just enable the band to play louder. 

"If you can't hear yourselves on stage, I am sorry, but get your stage volume under control because I can't give you more" is kind of a fraught thing to say- as an engineer, you're not accommodating what the band wants and they may interpret that as malfeasance or incompetence.  If I am employed by the band and not the club, it's not a thing I will do at all.  If my job is to keep the bartenders happy I am more likely to try that kind of thing.

However, I feel like running monitors is very much a job of managing people, so learning how to say things like that diplomatically will take most of us farther than putting the drummer in a shoe box, even if the box seems like an easier technical solution.

[Caleb Dueck]

I work with a couple of basher style drummers  whose cymbal wash gets into everything. I've purchased a couple of cymbal sheilds, but they're not giving me the containment I want. Does anyone have experience with the multi panel sheilds and would care to give some opinions before i pull the trigger on a.purchase?

Thanks,
John

The best off-the-shelf option I've used is by Perdue Acoustics.  It's a full (all sides plus full top) drum "room".  The three factors that determine how well these work are:
1) How thick is the plexi?
2) Are there any gaps for the sound to escape unhindered?
3) How much absorption is inside the drum room?

For the third point, it's both percentage of the total interior surface area, and how thick the absorption is.  2" thick Perdue or similar mineral wool, cloth faced, panels that cover as much as possible helps a ton.  Lower portion of the front, as much of the sides as possible, the entire back and top. 

Cheap drum shields are cheap, and don't perform well, if they violate one or more of the above three points.

If you don't need portable, it's not hard to build your own drum room, and save a good amount of cost in the process.  Don't forget Dante, HVAC, electrical, DMX/sACN, and other AV tie lines into the drum room. 

[Tim McCulloch]

How about something to "dampen" the cymbals?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9F6tO_27tA
I know that most (nearly all) drummers may refuse to change "their" sound, but if it's for the good of the band...why not?
(Oh yeah, 'cause they're drummers - lol.)

What do you call people who hang out with musicians?  Drummers.

How can you tell there's a drummer on your porch?  The knocking gets slower and slower.

How do you get the drummer off of your porch?  Pay for the pizza.

How can you tell there's a bodhran player on your porch?  The knocking gets faster and faster.  Pay for the damn pizza!

I'll be here all week, folks!

[ProSoundWeb Community]