[hb]

I just attended a play that was completely arranged with Billy Joel music. The band was on the second tier and the dancers were on the floor. Great show, but I could not focus on the show for watching the band. I have posted a similar topic regarding this, but I guess I'm still confused or I wouldn't be asking.
There were 2 pianos, 2 horn players, 1 drummer and 1 bass player and a guitar player.
The drummer was in a glass box..........the guitar player had ear phones all the time and was sometime singing along with the song. 1 horn player had ear phones on all the time and was playing sax and singing. The rest of the band had no ear phones on. What's everybody doing?????? Who's listening to what and who's not hearing what??????? AND WHY?
Why is the drummer in a glass box and two members of the band have head phones on and no one else?
How can you hear the tempo of the song if you can't hear the band?
I guess I'm just a stickler for details, but I don' understand all this.
thanks in advance,
hb
thanks in advance,
hb

[Tekker]

I can guarantee that they all had some form of monitoring system. If you can't hear the band, you're never going to be able to stay with them.

The rest of the band who didn't have headphones could have either had in-ear monitors, which unless you could see the wires you probably wouldn't be able to tell they had on since they are very small and fit inside the ear. Or they could have had floor monitors pointing up at them.

If you've ever stood by a drummer pounding away full blast on the drums, they are typically very loud. So they put the plexi-glass shield around the drums to isolate the drums from the other musicians and then the drums are miked so that the volume can be controlled. They can give the other musicians the volume that they want to hear instead of just VERY LOUD drums!

At my old church I played drums in we actually had an entire encloser for the drums. It had the plexi-glass in front, then it had foam panels that went behind the drums and on top.... It was essentially a giant "bubble". The room was fairly small and it had a wall made of large rocks behind the stage, so the the only way to control the volume of the drums was to completely box them in. And it worked great!

-tkr

[Noodler]

I have noticed that in smaller venues, the pespex around the drums has the added benefit of improving the sound of the drums, especially the hi-hats. They don't sound as tinny through a mic or something. Anyone else notice that?

I noticed you said that the singers had the headphones on. Did all singers wear headphones?

[hb]

No, that's part of what confuses me. One horn player did a lot of singing and he had a set of headphones on, as did the guitar player that sang randomly. No one else had headphones on.
hb

[Stratrat]

Originally Posted by hb

No, that's part of what confuses me. One horn player did a lot of singing and he had a set of headphones on, as did the guitar player that sang randomly. No one else had headphones on.
hb

If they were the only ones singing, perhaps they were using the headphones as vocal monitors. Pretty hard to make sure you're on-key and in pitch without being able to hear yourself.