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WOW!! These last two posts, one by a professed atheist and the other by a professed believer, have really caused me to think about some things. Steve LeBlanc brought up some very good points.... "why are you playing for people that don't want to hear you?" "but if you aren't free to express yourself it makes even less sense to me." "If you're still too loud after doing this...you'll never win." Well... to answer the first, although it may sound kinda holier-than-thou..... but we are playing for God, the only reason we play in the services is to allow people to praise God with us. To answer the second..... that actually doesn't make much sense does it?? I mean, if you can't express yourself... are you really playing music?? But then again.... if "expressing ourselves" means going out and making human sacrifices (not saying that we do, of course).... I don't think that would fly in the church, you know? I mean... I think there's a limit to the "self-expression" rights we can take. For the third point...... we probably will never win, there's always gonna be somebody who says "Drums aren't meant to be played in church", etc, etc. B3Wiz said.... "Can you imagine Jesus complaining about the drums being too loud?" "He spent much of His leasure time with His friends eating and drinking in taverns" "Once you solve that problem you might be lucky enough to enjoy a couple of weeks of "spiritual bliss" before you must address some other "demonic" spirit of contention." I don't think Jesus would complain at all..... after all, there's a verse in the Psalms that says "Praise Him with a crashing cymbal" or something to that effect. I think I qouted it directly up above. And Jesus did spend a lot of time in bars and taverns, with sinners at that!! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif.... the church today seems to get off on this thought process that says "Oh my goodness.... he's sinning, we can't let him in our church... he might corrupt us".... but what Jesus did was go to the sinners. I don't know if that really has anything to do with the topic at hand.... but I felt like bringing it up anyway... The last thing that B3Wiz said is way too true........ if we fix the drums, pretty soon someone will complain about the tempo..... or the attitude.... or the guitar player.... or..... or...... etc, etc. So, I think with all this said, I'm going to completely forget about a drum shield. I mean, if I happen to come across some really spectacular deal on one.... I might get it just for the heck of it. But I'm not gonna worry about it.... if problems arise, we'll deal with them as they come. In fact, we're playing this Sunday night.... and on our "set list" we have one of our fastest loudest songs. And the drummer will be sitting about 5 feet in front of the first row. Maybe handing out earplugs isn't such a bad idea....... http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Anyway, nobody else needs to reply about the drum shield issue anymore.... unless you have some REALLY AWESOME deal to report... like $50 for a 5 foot high, 2 inch thick, clear as crystal drum shield. Thanks for letting me ramble on and on about nothing http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif..... I'm done now. ------------------ John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Cymbals: I hear you when you say that people have called drums "anti-religious"...... it took quite some time to get our church used to even a guitar in the mix. You're definitely right..... we're gonna get some complaints as long as the drums are there. I'm just hoping if we get a shield, there will be less complaints. Psalm 150:5 Praise Him with the clash of cymbals, praise Him with resounding cymbals. Hmmmm.... maybe I should tell our pastor to preach from that passage??? http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif ------------------ John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Thanks for clearing that up djarrett. And I think I've seen those Maxwalls in a musician's friend catalog before, I always thought they were kinda for temporarily soundproofing a section of a larger room......... or for making half your living room into a studio. I'll definitely check those out some more... they sound interesting. ------------------ John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Thanks to everybody for your input........ I think a few of you may have misunderstood the problem. Hopefully I can clear it up.......... djarret said "I **TOO** play for a very large church......" Apparantly he thought this was a big church we play for. It's not at all....... our average attendance is approximately 250-300. No offense to you djarrett.... but I don't think we'd have anything even resembling a problem if we were playing in a building as big as yours! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif You are all right saying that we should probably turn down the overall volume. But the thing is.... when we try to balance the volumes relative to each other it always seems that the drums overpower everything anyway. (Causing everyone else to turn up some more) I guess I should probably suggest he play with rods.... but personally I don't really like the sound of them. I really like the sound from good ol' sticks.... I was kinda hoping that a shield would produce the same sound at lower decibel levels. Of course, a shield might cause more problems than it would fix. (namely the feeling of being closed in, or not wanted, or what-not) - -"The bottom line is this. There is more than one approach to solving this problem, but you guys as the musicians that are serving the Lord with your talent (as a ministry) should not have to dig into your own pockets to find the solution. If folks in the congregation are complaining. Let them fund the solution!!"- - < < < LOL, I like that idea! We (our church) are in the process of beginning construction of a new building..... they just ok'd a contract for a (get this!) $300,000 parking lot (I think that was it, maybe less, but it was a lot of dough!!) I would think with that much money for a parking lot they could include a $300 drum shield in their budget.... oh well. - -"If the drummer is still too loud, or refuses to play with anything other than sticks - fire them."- - I suppose we could kick him out.... NOT! First off, no one's getting paid to play. And second... I don't think we could even find another drummer (We don't want a different drummer anyway!) That may have been a joke, I hope, but in any case..... it's out of the question. - -"I'm sure drummers aren't lining up for those high paying, groupie drenched sanctuary gigs!" - - Definitely not...... I bought a drum machine (Alesis SR-16) awhile back to use with the band because we just could not find a drummer and we really wanted some kind of rhythm. Unfortunately (or fortunately.... since it prompted us to try harder to find a drummer) we didn't all keep in time with the rigidness of the drum machine. I still love to practice with it at home.... but we don't use it in the band at all. Again, thanks for all your replies..... I will definitely check out those sites and ideas y'all listed. In the mean time.... I think we'll just stick to using sticks or brushes for softer songs and reserve the sticks for the harder stuff. ------------------ John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Thanks for the reply felix! To answer your questions............ "Why on earth do you need a drum shield?"......... Well, first of all, most of the older people in our church aren't too "hip" about anything besides piano and organ playing in the services. It's only been about a year since we started having drums/guitars/keyboards/etc playing. And we only play about once or twice a month. A few have complained about the noise level of the band. Our whole band really likes to play loud... so that doesn't help the situation any. We can go on without having a shield......but it would probably be better if we got one fairly soon. "If it is that big of a church/sanctuary?"......... It's not that big of a church. A pretty decent sized medium-largish church......... Definitely not something like a First Baptist of ****** (< < Insert large city here < < ) As far as I know our sanctuary can hold 250 people or so. And there is a balcony.... so it's not some really deep room. I would guess the back wall is around 30-40 feet back from the stage. About 40-50(60 maybe?) feet wide. And about 20-30 feet high. For some reason or another.... the room really echoes and amplifies every little thing. "Do you have a competent sound man? A set of used noise gates might be cheaper."........ On occasion we have a good sound man, but very rarely in the night services, which is when we play. Basically we just have someone to turn on and off the different mics and do basic volume balancing. The drums are never miked, so sorry if I offend you or anything.... but I don't see how this really matters. If you could explain... that would be great. "Why not just take up a collection and buy what you want with a pro look to it?"............ I think this is what I may do... I was just looking to see if there was a way to build one for a cheaper price. Apparantly there really isn't ........ thanks a lot for your help, I appreciate it greatly! ------------------ John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Hey.... I'm not a drummer.... but our band NEEDS a drum shield. Unfortunately we don't really have the $300 or so to shell out for one. We basically need to just turn the overall band volume down a lot (starting with the drums)........ we play in church where there are a bunch of older people and a couple of them have complained about the general "loudness" of the band. I think most of this is coming from our drummer, and our really reverberant sanctuary. So, the question is......... is there a way to build something that will function as a drum shield???? Can I maybe buy some clear acrylic sheets at some place like Home Depot and then rig up a simple hinge system??? Has anyone had any experience with building drum shields? Are there some materials that work better for sound control?? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.................. ------------------ John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.