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Writer's picturekennysharretts

TUNING DRUMS FOR YOUR IN EAR MIX, AND YOUR VENUE

Updated: Oct 1, 2021

Hello everyone. Pro Drum Tech, Drummer, and YouTube Educator, Kenny Sharretts blogging about drum tuning on the 2019 Elvis Costello/Blondie Summer Tour with a quick discussion on adjusting your tuning for your IEM mix, and/or your venue. With some tours I do the venues tend to be similar in nature. On an Arena tour, you can tune for an arena, and generally stay at that tuning the entire tour. Same with a shed tour. With this tour, however, there were a variety of venues from arenas, to sheds, to theaters, which means I have to accommodate for the venue in my tuning. Moreover, some of the sheds we played had metal roofs that were closer to the stage than others. This factor can GREATLY affect the sound of drum set in the In Ear Monitor mix. This is important as on this tour the ENTIRE band was on IEM’s, and we had 4 very live vocal mics onstage. Drums love getting into vocal mics a lot more than vocalists like the drums getting into their mic. LOL! Hence I have to make sure my tuning accommodated Mr. Costello’s mix so he can hear his voice clearly, while at the same time getting the drum sound my drummer Pete Thomas desired as well. This is in addition to tuning for the FOH mixer/venue. Whoosh so many parameters to take into consideration.

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