As a seasoned musician, you know that performing live music can be exhilarating.
There’s something unique about being on stage, hearing the crowd roar, and feeling the beat of the music reverberate through your body. The adrenaline rush on the stage is surely surreal. However, to ensure that you deliver an unforgettable performance on stage, you need the right equipment – one essential piece being a drum riser.
In this article, we will explore why a drum riser is vital for your next gig and how it can improve your overall performance.
What is a Drum Riser?
An excellent quality drum riser is an elevated platform used to lift drums off the ground during live performances. It ensures that drum kits remain stable while providing various benefits to both drummers and band members alike.
Reasons Why You Need A Drum Riser For Your Next Gig
1) Better Stage Visibility
Drummers seated behind their instruments can get drowned out by other musicians’ sounds onstage or lost among lighting rigs or backdrops. By raising the drums off the floor with a riser, they’re more visible from all angles of the venue and allow audiences to see every stroke as well as share in percussionist musicianship experience.
2) Reduced Noise Contamination
Drums are loud instruments by nature— for those sitting close enough at high-decibel levels feel vibrations emanating from them. High-volumes create ringtones that settle into other performances through external microphones leading to feedback issues amplifiers may pick up, causing an unpleasant sound mix.
By elevating drums on risers, however, they’re easier to isolate & control instrumentally. High surface area coverage helps disperse audio-generated footfalls smoothly across sealed systems without intrusions that interfere with others’ work. This makes it easier for sound engineers to handle mixing onstage effects properly so everyone gets uninterrupted quality audio.
3) More Room on Stage
Gigging is challenging when stages are cramped. Besides musicians, stage clutter can limit dancing areas and other forms of entertainment for larger venues or event settings like festivals.
Having a drum riser eliminates the need for drums to occupy valuable floor space, allowing you to utilize more area for any other performers, props or equipment you may need on stage.
4) Enhanced Performance Energy
Performing in front of an audience is exhilarating. The adrenaline rush that accompanies it often results in moving around the stage during shows. Sitting behind a stationary drum kit can be frustrating for drummers when they want to interact with their tight-knit bandmates dynamically.
A drum riser enables them to showcase wows, like throwing sticks into the air mid-performance, without causing an accident from tripping over bumpers or accidents around other equipment behind a low-positioned chair that restricts movement. With this newfound freedom, musician’s playing energy goes up, and they’re able to play with better coordination and deliver an electrifying show your crowd won’t forget.
5) Improved Sound Quality
Whether you’re playing at the smallest local joint that just about holds 20 people or performing on one of the grandest concert stages worldwide, nothing delights audiences more than having quality sound experiences. It pulls them into your music, allowing them to engage emotionally unrestrictedly. Raising drums through the use of a platform enhances sound transparency, perfect for shows that require high production levels needing pristine audio accuracy each time recorded during live gig-mixes involving multiple artists lined up waiting their turn onstage because every single tiny detail plays back well transmitted towards listeners at large.
What Type Of Drum Risers To Choose?
There are two types of drum risers: built-up and adjustable models. A built-up model typically consists of individual tiers stacked one above another, while adjustable models allow customization according to different-sized kits and band members’ positions. Based on drummer height/size, modifications are done before each performance and individually calibrated separately so everyone is comfortable to perform regardless of using specialized hardware options adjusted automatically like elevation controls or custom-built monitoring/feedback mixers they prefer using at the time on stage.
Conclusion
In conclusion, having a drum riser is not an option but quite essential for your next gig, especially if you’re looking to deliver exceptional performances. It offers benefits such as enhanced performance energy by freeing up floor space, improved sound quality, and high visibility for your fans to see every stroke and vibration from your drums. In the end, the right equipment is as crucial to a good gig performance for musicians on tour as it is for a sprinter getting ready to race. These specialized gears will give drummers all they need to put their best foot forward in front of big crowds, no matter how varied their preferences may be.
