conga players in live bands

[teleharmonium]

Originally Posted by rhythmic5

I love conga drums and the movement they can add to music, but in full band live performances they seem to be completely useless (either lack of presence in the mix, or drowned out by higher timbre instruments), and so the players turn into someone standing on stage moving their hands instead of really adding to the song

great example: YouTube - ‪Earth, Wind & Fire - September (From "Live In Japan")‬‏

any thoughts?

Any instrument outside of the most common ones is going to expose the flaws in lame sound men. There's nothing wrong with congas, of course. They can sound great live, as can upright basses, horns, and other sources. If the sound man has everything too loud, with all the mids left in and all the highs boosted, and the band has high stage volume, no acoustic instrument will sound decent in that situation.

[frank ledwith]

It can be achieved if care is taken at set up time.If the rest of the mix is done well there will be space left for congas etc.

a. Close miking will help with signal to noise ratio.

b. mic choice ? try different ones untill you get a decent sound with flat e.q.
now you can tweek the e.q. to enhance the sound.Nothing drastic though.

c. roll off any frequencies that the drum is not producing

d. It may be best to position the conga player to one side, away from loud
guitars and drums.This will help the player hear their own instrument and protect their mics from spill.If you have to run a lot of gain on the
congas you may need a barrier panel.

e. Try this and it will either work or be a disaster, place the mics underneath the congas pointing toward the skin or even inside them !

f. The quality of the note from the skin is most important

good luck.

[Gamelan]

On that particular clip, the basic "tone" of the congas sounds quite prominent to me, almost too much, to the point where it becomes mono-tonic, omnipresent, and the ear just blocks it out after a while because it's almost annoying. What is missing from the sound is the SLAP, the flesh of the hand. That could be the player's technique, but more likely just not enough 1.5k from the board.

And someone tell those guys to stop rushing! geez. Guess that's what happens when you've played it waaaaayyyyy too many times.