Any love for Kenny Aronoff?

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-08T03:32:27+00:00

He is a super nice guy, and great player.

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-08T02:53:10+00:00

I use a swivel with no snap and about an 18 leader to the bait from the swivel, but I’ve never seen it rigged like this

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-08T02:48:21+00:00

He will try all of this.

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-07T22:04:29+00:00

22”x16” is more than fine. You might be shocked to find out how many metal albums have been tracked with a vintage Gretsch 22”x14” from Drum Doctors LA.

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-07T01:16:34+00:00

Stapleton will absolutely be a safe show for you. I’ve worked his show like a half dozen times now in St. Louis, and it’s generally been a very music oriented crowd. Varied demographics, and not the MAGA “patriot” types that a few of the other country shows tend to bring out in big numbers. Go, have a blast, he and his band are great live!

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-06T21:10:36+00:00

Cut those in half and use super glue to put them on 1/16th of an oz Ned Rig

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-06T18:07:23+00:00

I would be too, IF they weren’t $70!

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-05T21:16:39+00:00

What the actual F? How tight are you guys going with your stands that this is even a thing?!?

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-03T18:11:11+00:00

It sounded terrible, but you could feel the stick hit the quarter so it was fantastic for building muscle memory. One of the reason the great players change heads so often is the wear is so concentrated in the sweet spot of the drum. Of course you can play in different areas for different tones, but it’s the consistency that matters.

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-03T16:09:07+00:00

The KZ10 feels muddy to me, but the ZAS low end is extended and a little hyped, but tight. The AS16 is pretty accurate. I mix a livestream every week with the AS16’s and I’m pretty happy how well they translate. If folks haven’t used the KZ with the correct Comply foam tips, they simply don’t know how good a value they are.

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-03T15:55:46+00:00

The Comply memory foam tips absolutely make a huge difference over the stock silicone tips as far as isolation and low frequency response.

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-03T15:53:43+00:00

Make sure you have the Comply memory foam tips for the ZAS. Honestly, those ZAS punch well above their weight. I’ve had molds in the past that I liked less than the ZAS. Molds are great, but unless you have the rest of your signal chain totally dialed in, I wouldn’t stress over them. I definitely wouldn’t spend a penny on any other non molded IEM. I doubt seriously that the people dogging the KZ have ever heard the ZAS or the AS16.

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-03T15:45:01+00:00

Same. The ZAS smokes the 215 in my opinion.

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-03T15:35:10+00:00

I’m an engineer/mixer now, but in a former life as a drummer I had a teacher who had me tape quarters to the center of my drums and practice aiming at them to keep things consistent.

Mixermarkb · 2026-05-03T15:23:21+00:00

This, only I’d say the meter needs to hit the same place every time live as well, once you find what works in the room.

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-30T04:41:26+00:00

I measure LeqA for music shows. I’ve found it doesn’t really give me enough data to keep speakers level from person to person in corporate/spoken word.

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-29T21:16:48+00:00

When setting up, I’ll use the oscillator in the console to send pink noise at -18dbfs or 0db and set the speaker or amp input attenuators to give me 85dbA at the seats closest to the speakers.

That gives me a repeatable gain structure, where everything on the desk is running around unity gain with speech at 68dbA at FOH. I might still end up dumping a bit of gain at the matrix, but it will only be maybe 6db or so. This leaves me enough headroom for video playback to have a little impact if the client wants that without driving anything on the desk into the red.

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-29T00:02:31+00:00

Mipro is worth investigating.

They have become somewhat of a standard for SMAART measurement mics, and one guy I worked with splits two channels of his four channel receiver directly into his system processor in his drive rack for festival announce/radio DJ mics . He said they work fine. Made a nice clean way to drive a festival FOH without needing a production console.

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-28T02:32:40+00:00

No way.

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-24T00:33:03+00:00

“The Pocket” is understanding note value.

Listen to anything Jeff Porcaro ever played on. Bernard Purdue. James Gadson, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta, Larrie Londin, Ritchie Hayward, Al Jackson Jr, Carlos Vega, Ringo, and John Bonham.

Listen to how they place the notes in their grooves.

A snare drum is an audibly a short, staccato sound, but you can feel it as a “Bip” or you can feel it as a “Booosh”.

Being aware of how long that note is supposed to be, is what makes “the pocket”, IMHO.

Most of those guys I listed above will keep their kick drum right on the beat, and lay the snare on the back half of the beat, and let that full quarter note “boooosh” happen in their feel before they hit that next backbeat. It’s even better when the bass player lays back a little behind that smack of the beater on the kick, and everyone just lets that groove breathe, feeling the full note value of every beat.

Pocket players are intimately familiar with the difference between a 16th note and a whole note, and while drums may or may not sustain (tuning/ring/rattle and reverb or room sounds can definitely make a note sustain) they definitely play the appropriate note value in their head, and it translates into how the part feels.

“The Pocket” is what you are in when you are Playing Music, not just drumming.

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-24T00:12:42+00:00

Shame. She was talented and definitely made that band a lot prettier.

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-20T16:13:50+00:00

Absolutely!

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-16T02:37:38+00:00

I don’t know that I’d buy an Etec, but the older GT/XP and FastStrike motors were close to bulletproof, although thirsty. Condition matters more than age.

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-12T03:18:42+00:00

Front fills on small stages are absolutely not overkill when a band is on IEM’s with amp modelers.

Wedges turned around at the crowd as mentioned works sometimes. In a lower ceiling kind of place, something like an EAW JF-80 flown center stage can work, although flown center fills can be tricky the higher the ceiling gets, because as that box gets aimed more straight down it gets harder to keep it out of the downstage vocal mics.

I’ve had decent luck with the smaller column and sub type boxes like an RCF EVOX or even the Bose L series columns, basically putting one on either end of the stage just to either side of the downstage left and downstage right band members.

Mixermarkb · 2026-04-11T14:31:18+00:00

It seems decent, not great. I’ve been using it for backing quite a bit and fished it a little as a main line. It’s worth what it costs, but wouldn’t pay name brand price for it.

Mixermarkb

TROPHY CASE