Why are most drummers so damn loud?

[909one]

Seriously... It has been engrained in the head of so many rock drummers that you must hit the head as loud as you can when playing rock. Why is the still the case? We have had enough rock bands from the sixties grow old with hearing problems to realize the damage from playing drums loudly. My ears are damaged from playing in rock bands with loud drummers for 15 years. I don't have a problem turning down my amp when I play guitar, why can't drummers learn to play with a larger dynamic range. I know this isn't true for every drummer, but true for alot of rock guys. I have seen jazz shows where drummers play amazing things at extremely low levels. The rock drummer should take a que from the jazz drummer.
Just a rant... any comments?

[dagosto]

Two words supporting hitting the drums as hard as you can:

War Pigs

I like dynamics just as much as the next guy but sometimes the music just calls for drumming that's (for lack of better words) hard and fast. Bill ward is one of my favorite drummers because you can hear how hard he is banging on that snare.

[Professor Riffs]

I personally think drums sound best when pounded to pieces. Granted, dynamics are essential, and drummers should definitely be able to play soft, hard, and all points in between. But I've fired and re-hired many times because the drummer just didn't hit hard enough.

[smopo24]

their tympanic nerve response renders them less suseptible to hearing damage than the other musicians on stage (it's automatic).

[EvanExempt]

The thing that sets good drummers and GREAT drummers apart is the ability to control the dynamics of the beat. I think this is where a lot of "good" rock drummers are lacking. Drumming as a basic activity is on the more aggressive side of the spectrum... It in many ways resembles dancing, or fighting... It's athletic. So naturally, excercising CONTROL is something that needs to be cultivated. For instance, If someone tells you to do a pushup, you'll probably hit the floor and do a quick one. I think there is a natural tendency to do this in rock drumming.

Here, now hit the floor and do a pushup... but do it softer and slower.

It isn't neccessarily easier.

Alrigth, now everybody give me FIFTY!! (cause I'm so smart and all )

[drewsifer]

90% of all musicans (drummers included) have no clue about the physics of sound. Drummers need to understand this concept the most because there dynamic rages is by far the greatest of any acoustic instrument. I worked with a drummer who conplained every time we recorded that his drums were too low in the mix. He would play very quiet up until a point then he would start wailing as loud as he could for just a few hits then back down to the pp dynamic. The most likely explination for this is that he used 25 db earplugs to play jazz! sometimes he would use a 15db in one ear and a 25 in the other! I told him his drums were low because his range was too great and he was playing to loud then too quiet. He then flipped the senario on me claiming that it was my engineering. At this point, i busted out the compression, set it to infinity to one and compressed the living hell out of the signal. "happy now" i said, "go back to school!"

[Bellringer]

I have played with drummers that play faster when excited and sometimes harder when excited. There are some drummers out there who understand volume, speed, hitting the drum in the same spot for tone, and other important aspects in drumming outside of the basics. It is just as important to practice your volume as it is to practice rudiments and tempo. For some people I think the concept comes more naturally than others. It also has a lot to do with studying different styles of music.
I'd say if you are playing with a drummer who is having trouble balancing his volume/ hitting the drums at a proper velocity, his monitoring should be checked out. If that doesn't work he should practice beats striking the drums consistantly at different speeds. Some drummers trace a quarter in the center of the drum and aim for that spot each time. That kind of focus should help out.

[lukedavo]

because were deaf!

[sid vicious]

Perhaps the bashing is a result of us trying to compete with an amp stack while not beign miked? Acoustic drums are simply no match to a modern stack.

[MarlonBrandoCalrissian]

this is true - sometimes during practice I can barely hear my kick (22inch) over my guitarists ridiculously-louder-than-it-needs-to-be 5150 stack