Hello

Im looking to use a pair of headphones as a replacement of wedges for a drummer. I have an idea of how it'd work but before I do I want to make sure you all agree...

XLR output of the aux into a small mixing desk situated next to the drummer and then using the headphone output on the smaller desk?

cheers

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Nathan Stewart | Freelance Sound Engineer

Quote Nathy:

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Hello

Im looking to use a pair of headphones as a replacement of wedges for a drummer. I have an idea of how it'd work but before I do I want to make sure you all agree...

XLR output of the aux into a small mixing desk situated next to the drummer and then using the headphone output on the smaller desk?

cheers

---

You could certainly use a small mixer as a personal, volume-controllable headphone amp. It may even be cheaper than a dedicated headphone amp!

Check what signal level your main desk's Aux Out provides though. It's quite likely a balanced Line Out. The XLR inputs on the small mixer will expect a Mic level signal.

This, plus any ground loop issues, can be solved by putting a DI box between the two mixers.

Cheers pal! Much appreciated!

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Nathan Stewart | Freelance Sound Engineer

Quote Nathy:

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Hello

Im looking to use a pair of headphones as a replacement of wedges for a drummer. I have an idea of how it'd work but before I do I want to make sure you all agree...

XLR output of the aux into a small mixing desk situated next to the drummer and then using the headphone output on the smaller desk?

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As a drummer, I used to do that. Works fine. I also mixed in a click in on the mixer.

Nowadays I tend to keep things abit simpler by taking the wedge the PA company provide by default, and feeding my headphones / IEMs with click only. The click being the most important thing to hear. I don't really want to hear vast amounts of other band members, as any errors in their timing might risk affecting my time.

This way of monitoring will most likely only be used for drummers with clicks / backing tracks. Its because the wedges I use arent loud enough most of the time.

Cheers

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Nathan Stewart | Freelance Sound Engineer

Quote Nathy:

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This way of monitoring will most likely only be used for drummers with clicks / backing tracks. Its because the wedges I use arent loud enough most of the time.

Cheers

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I think you're implying from the above that you intend to have this available as an alternative to wedges when doing sound for other bands. I think you'll find drummers, or any musician, would be resistant to this unless they're used to it, in which case they'd probably use their own system anyway.

Bob

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www.bickerton.co.nz

Quote Bob Bickerton:

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Quote Nathy:

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This way of monitoring will most likely only be used for drummers with clicks / backing tracks. Its because the wedges I use arent loud enough most of the time.

Cheers

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I think you're implying from the above that you intend to have this available as an alternative to wedges when doing sound for other bands. I think you'll find drummers, or any musician, would be resistant to this unless they're used to it, in which case they'd probably use their own system anyway.

Bob

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Depends. I have two campuses I rotate through volunteer drummers that range from semi-pro to professional quality(Meaning they are in their own working bands) and typically I have drummers request a wedge once, and we encourage the use of in-ears. After typically one or two performances with headphones I haven't had anyone go back to a wedge yet, several have bought their own plugs as a result, but they still depend on me for the kit.

I have several musicians that own their own monitoring setup, only one that chooses to bring their own over mine, and in that case it is because it is just what he knows, and he is someone I use for shows that will run for weeks straight so he prefers using his own kit for familiarity's sake. Of course last time he did this his behringer board died in mid-tech and I had to scramble to get him a replacement, which ended up being a Focusrite Saffire24DSP interface that I set up for him to adjust the monitor volume on only.

Most of the drummers that have their own kit have it for one specific reason. They can't trust the engineers all the time to provide them with a good monitor mix. So they bring their own mini-board to plug the monitor feed into, and mix with their own omni mic (Not sure if I can name the position here as it isn't PC, and not sure how the mods would take it, but I don't know another term for it) and their own gadgets like metronomes, iPods, etc. (The one that does bring his own kit when dealing with me is also one that sends me text messages in the middle of playing somehow, have never figured that one out) That way they can be sure they can at least hear themselves and the monitor engineer just has to give them other musicians rather than tweak the drum mix. Once they learn to work with me however, they don't generally worry about it and are content with my kit.

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