I have a little garage band with my brother on drums, me on eletric, and my friend on electric also, and our problem is this: My brothers drums are so loud that my ears feel like they are bleeding! You can barely hear the guitars playing and it hurts my ears so much that its almost not even fun to play. I have a Fender Champ 12 Amp (its a tube amp and has 12 watts), and i am turning it up pretty loud. Im pretty sure there must be a solution of some sort, I dont see how any garage band could have had this same problem and handled the beating to their ears without going deaf after two weeks! I know there must be some to play without feeling like im blowing my ears out. I am aware that there is ear protection, but how do you enjoy the music if you can only hear it muffled (I have tried it)? Anyways my bro plays a Tama Rockstar with Tama heads, im just wondering if were doing something wrong. I got a PA System for Christmas (this one http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=020109210115216063121107778361/search/g=live/detail/base_id/51142) and it has 200 watts. It is soley for voice but we tried it out tonight and I had the master and the volume for the mic a little over half (just to where it wouldnt feedback, cant go any higher without it feed backing everytime I sing into the mic, dont have a whole lot more space to move the speakers back) and its loud wihtout him playing, but once we get going we run into the same problem, you can hear the vocals, but they aren't nearly as "infront" as they need to be, they sound drowned out in the background. How can i fix this its driving me nuts, there is no way someone could take this ear abuse days at a time! =)! So anyone who can give me some advice and tips on what to do about the drums I would deeply appreciate it (I have also told him to play softer, but he says he cant, and I understand that beating on the drums and trying to be quieter would have to be really hard when the music is moving really fast, is he wrong?) Sorry for the long post everyone! Thanks in advance! (Also, is 200 watts enough if were jsut using vocals on it, or should I purchase a more powerful PA, it seems like it should be plenty...)
-Erik