{"id":6103,"date":"2011-06-09T07:42:15","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T07:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=6103"},"modified":"2019-07-31T15:37:16","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T15:37:16","slug":"ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask the expert &#8211; what to do with an Arbiter Flats drum kit that is (shock) too quiet"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What? A drum kit in church that is too quiet?<\/h2>\n<p>Alastair Gibson asks:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We currently have an Arbiter Flat Lite kit at church which is, sometimes,\u00a0too quiet to be heard in the mix &#8211; hard to believe I know!!<\/p>\n<p>Rather than trying to mic up the kit I&#8217;m wondering whether we might be\u00a0better of getting an electronic kit that, presumably, we run straight\u00a0through the desk (I&#8217;m a guitarist worship pastor so excuse my ignorance)? I\u00a0think that this might be easier for our sound guys to manage than the\u00a0plethora of mics that seem to surround most kits.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for all your incredibly helpful resources and blogs!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Andy replies:<\/p>\n<p>Many of our readers will probably be delighted to hear of a drum kit that is too quiet! I&#8217;ve put a photo of the Arbiter Flats up so you can see how small they are &#8211; as well as producing a really credible sound (albeit one that&#8217;s a tad quieter) they are really easy to pack away into a tiny space too.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There are various ways explore your sound levels issue. Firstly if you are a small church and don&#8217;t want the hassle of micing up a kit with a full set of drum mics then you could start by experimenting with just micing the kick and one overhead.<\/p>\n<p>Essentially high frequencies like cymbals will carry naturally more than the bassier sounds, especially if you are in a typical church or school hall with lots of hard surfaces, glass and a high ceiling. If you have spare mics this could be a route worth trying before throwing cash at it. Have a search on the web for micing a kit with just two mics. Its what they used to do in the olden days anyway for a whole load of classic pop records. If you place the mics right you&#8217;ll be surprised what good results you can get.<\/p>\n<p>Another option is to move to a proper but small drum kit. Some of the small jazz kits and even the tiny Yamaha Hipgig kits can work well where you want to keep the overall volume down.<\/p>\n<p>Moving to an electronic kit is certainly an option but they do feel quite different to play so make sure your drummer feels comfortable on one and not awkward or muzzled. If you do go the digital route for a live setting (as opposed to a practice setup) I would recommend getting a kit with the mesh heads (snare and toms) rather than the cheaper rubber ones as the rubber just doesn&#8217;t feel natural to many drummers.<\/p>\n<p>Geoff Boswell, one of our &#8220;resident&#8221; tech bloggers agrees. He says &#8220;I agree with Andy &#8211;\u00a01 x overhead &amp; 1 x kick. Best value recomendations. Audix D1 for kik &amp; AKG C1000 or Audio Technica MB4000 for overhead. Placed &amp; EQ&#8217;d carefully they will work well. BEWARE of drum mic &#8216;kits&#8217;. They may be waste of your money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Other posts you might like:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial; margin: 0px 0px 18px 0px;\"><a style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; text-decoration: underline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/you-dont-always-have-to-have-a-drummer\/\">You don\u2019t always have to have a drummer<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial; margin: 0px 0px 18px 0px;\"><a style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; text-decoration: underline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/its-been-a-hard-days-night-musings-from-nick-langley-on-the-eternal-issue-of-how-loud-the-drums-are-in-church\/\">Its been a hard days night \u2013 Nick Langley on why the drums in church are always apparently too loud<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial; margin: 0px 0px 18px 0px;\"><a style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: #ff6600; text-decoration: underline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/50-tips-drums\/\">50 tips \u2013 drums<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial; margin: 0px 0px 18px 0px;\">Top 10 Do\u2019s and Don\u2019ts \u2013 Drummers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What? A drum kit in church that is too quiet? Alastair Gibson asks: We currently have an Arbiter Flat Lite kit at church which is, sometimes,\u00a0too quiet to be heard in the mix &#8211; hard to believe I know!! Rather than trying to mic up the kit I&#8217;m wondering whether we might be\u00a0better of getting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,75,676],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ask the expert - what to do with an Arbiter Flats drum kit that is (shock) too quiet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If your Arbiter Flats drum kit is too quite for use in church then try just micing the kick drum with one other mic overhead. Cheaper option than electronic kit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ask the expert - what to do with an Arbiter Flats drum kit that is (shock) too quiet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If your Arbiter Flats drum kit is too quite for use in church then try just micing the kick drum with one other mic overhead. Cheaper option than electronic kit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-09T07:42:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-31T15:37:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/drc0fhsrp02et.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/08123158\/arbiter-flats.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"416\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy@Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@musicademy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@musicademy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy@Musicademy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/\",\"name\":\"Ask the expert - what to do with an Arbiter Flats drum kit that is (shock) too quiet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-09T07:42:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-31T15:37:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74b3a3a4fc00dc6fbf71c3a055780253\"},\"description\":\"If your Arbiter Flats drum kit is too quite for use in church then try just micing the kick drum with one other mic overhead. Cheaper option than electronic kit\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Musicademy\",\"description\":\"Award-winning training resources for church based musicians\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74b3a3a4fc00dc6fbf71c3a055780253\",\"name\":\"Andy@Musicademy\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/musicademy.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ask the expert - what to do with an Arbiter Flats drum kit that is (shock) too quiet","description":"If your Arbiter Flats drum kit is too quite for use in church then try just micing the kick drum with one other mic overhead. Cheaper option than electronic kit","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ask the expert - what to do with an Arbiter Flats drum kit that is (shock) too quiet","og_description":"If your Arbiter Flats drum kit is too quite for use in church then try just micing the kick drum with one other mic overhead. Cheaper option than electronic kit","og_url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/","og_site_name":"Musicademy","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Musicademy","article_published_time":"2011-06-09T07:42:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-07-31T15:37:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"450","height":"416","url":"https:\/\/drc0fhsrp02et.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/08123158\/arbiter-flats.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Andy@Musicademy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@musicademy","twitter_site":"@musicademy","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andy@Musicademy","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/","url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/","name":"Ask the expert - what to do with an Arbiter Flats drum kit that is (shock) too quiet","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-09T07:42:15+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-31T15:37:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74b3a3a4fc00dc6fbf71c3a055780253"},"description":"If your Arbiter Flats drum kit is too quite for use in church then try just micing the kick drum with one other mic overhead. Cheaper option than electronic kit","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/ask-the-expert-what-to-do-with-an-arbiter-flats-drum-kit-that-is-shock-too-quiet\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/","name":"Musicademy","description":"Award-winning training resources for church based musicians","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74b3a3a4fc00dc6fbf71c3a055780253","name":"Andy@Musicademy","sameAs":["http:\/\/musicademy.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22316,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103\/revisions\/22316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}