Alright, so my band had its first full practice/songwriting session about a week ago. We faced one huge problem: the drums drowned out everything but my amp turned all the way up. So, i need some help with the acoustics. I think it was mainly a problem with area, because we were in a tiny bedroom-turned-drum room, where the sound had no area to dissipate. We eventually resorted to all wearing earplugs and kranking our amps as high as they would go, and even then I had to strain to hear my playing, much less our singer. Is this just because i have a small amp (15 watts to be exact, although it can really scream :D) or would a change of location help? or is our drummer just waaayyy too enthusiastic?

 

Oh, and eventually he is going to buy an electric drumset, which should solve the problem, but thats not for a year, and we don't want to wait...

 

Thanks in advance!

a location where the walls are at an angle would make it better maybe...

I drum in a band that plays a lot and we practice in my basement. I've got a huge 7-piece kit that has the capability to drown out any and all other instruments. I can tell you no matter how soft he plays, it's going to be loud. You're going to simply need a bigger playing area. Before we re-modeled our basement, I left my set up at my high school and we just practiced in the band room there. Nice open area and your gear will be relatively safe.

^^what that guy said, although you might wanna consider upgrading your amp so something more beefy

15 watts tube or solid state? If it's solid state then the drums are going to kill it every time. 15 watts tube should be plenty loud.

Yeah. If you have a solid-state you have no chance.

Or just use practice pads for the drums? With the right pads, it won't kill the sound, but it will make it alot quiter. It won't sound near as good as it would without pads, but at least you can hear the other instruments.

slow on the reply but...thx! i'm going to talk to him about practicing at the school, and if we can't do that then seeing about maybe moving into a large space in his house...and mah amp is a 15 watt solid state, but its really efficient and puts out a surprisingly high db amount for its size, not sure on exact db but next time i'm home alone im going to crank it up all the way and measure it to find out its maximum level.

or you know. he could play quieter lol it's honestly that hard, I played with a group last night I was on the drums, their amps aren't anything that powerful but we made it work, cause I used a technique with the kicker called feathering, and I cross-sticked the snare for the quite parts. When it got to a louder part dynamically I would actually play, but you gotta learn how to old back.