When you're playing a big show or just want to sound like you are, you're probably using one mic per each and every drum and then all this rack gear.  Either that or the soundman  sets up all this fancy stuff besides a mixer dedicated to just your kit.  The big shows normally do it this way with all these highly processed sounds that aren't too "roomy" sounding after they run it through all that, but it sure ensures that the signal is consistent or 'rich' enough to add effects to it without picking up background instruments or anything else, long story, I'm sure you've experienced or seen this setup at least once.  If you had to use all of that, how would you do it?  And how is it normally done?

So what order is 'ideal' for your racks if your rackmounted processors are?:
1.)Compressor
2.)Gate
3.)Equalizer (separate from board)
4.)preamp (if needed to drive the compressor since they're weird like that)
5.)effects
6.)Mixer (and I was told that only time-delay based processors are ideal for effects loop and never dynamics or tone processors)

Oh and each processor is strictly dedicated per mic-channel too!  At least nothing is shared in this version of a pro-live setup.  I know there are also setups that overheads pick up the toms, or one mic is shared for two or three toms.  Thanks for your time.

I hear ya and I agree with all that.  It's just that so many "HUGE" setups will provide this type of 'system' and optimize it.  In otherwords, those larger shows such as famous label-supported bands that perform in arenas or auditoriums or even stadiums usually have to process their sound to death and use everything I've listed. 

I'm just curious of what is thee "correct" way or set of ideal methods to initiate this laundry list of rack gear in order.  And incase I didn't elaborate on what I meant as in "per channel" is that it seems that each drum usually gets it's very own microphone and processor-chain/channel in order to achieve careful attention per every drum. 

More specifically, would I run a compressor before or after a gate?  And do I really need a preamp to drive the compressor into it's designed function?, since it's what all the manufactures techsupport keep saying that I'm supposed to do this like that and that it's designed only for that. 

Why I'm asking, is I'm curious and hope to help others get past such gear mysteries.  And I have drummer friends who want to be heard loud, deep, and clear and they prefer all this rack gear heavily processed, even on small shows to get those heavymetal band sounds.  I guess this thread is more for people not interested in having such a natural or "roomy" sound.  My friends use alot of EQ which seems to sound great on the toms but as soon as the cymbals are struck, they bleed into the tom channels even under heavy gating and hyper-cardioid tom mics, and then distort since the EQ is set for just the toms.  I was told by an engineer to use compression to prevent that, and even if the cymbals sound "thin" it's fine!

Riker -

You should realize that the first response you got was by the drummer on this board that probably has the most experience playing "those larger shows such as famous label-supported bands that perform in arenas or auditoriums or even stadiums" of anyone here.

Anyway overall, at the level of shows and size of PA's you are discussing - the actual connection, routing and operation of the PA and what ever outboard gear used (and it is rarely as much as you are describing) is the not really in the drummer's job description, but rather the FOH sound engineer. At the performance levels you are describing, this is a key position usually filled by an experienced professional specializing in concert sound.

As for specific system requirements - for all the auditorium shows I do, the musical needs are determined - both to send sounds to FOH and for monitoring on-stage for the act performing, - and a system is designed (or put together) that will meet those demands and function adequately for the size of the hall.

But again, a process that as drummers, we usually have very little involvement in.  If I were you'd poke around the web and see if you can find some concert sound primers (and even recording tutorials for learning about signal processing).

dc

a couple of things.  #1, you don't use a preamp to drive a compressor-- a preamp is used to bring something w/ low-level output, ie a mic or synths, up to line level.

For the big festivals i've been playing this summer, pretty much all the groups i see, including the 1 i'm performing with, is using a digidesign venue system-- thus, there's almost no outboard gear, everything being done, at both the front-of-house and monitor desks, with low-latency plugins.  The sound guys like this since they can save everything as scenes, save the mixes on hard disk and then upload right when they get to the venue-- makes things move much faster being that all they have to do is tweak, and not entirely rebuild the mixes once the gain structure is sorted.

outboard-wise, all we've got a focusrite 4xISA pre for the vocals and that's it. 

drums and percussion all get their own mics, the kit's got 2x sm81's overhead and i'm using 4 small condensers from SE electronics as percussion overheads and toy mics.  all the close mic's are gated somewhat-- it's really loud on stage (approaching 105db) so this keeps everything close, and cuts down on bleed and feedback (it's a testament to the crew that i've never heard feedback at these gigs... not even at soundcheck!).  after that they get compression and eq, usually in that order.  since this is a largely electronic show, there's liberal use of reverb and delay to dub stuff out.

that's a pretty common chain for live stuff-- mic/pre/gate (if used)/compression/EQ/FX.  In general, engineers like to control dynamics before EQ.  EQ is generally a fixative thing, so the goal is to get stuff as clean as possible before you go 'fixing' it, via mic position, mic selection, monitor placement, tuning, etc.  also, compression really compresses everything-- each box/plugin is different but it'll change the harmonic and spectral relations in a sound.  so, if you boost or cut alot of a sound, the changes will be minimized if you compress after you EQ.

And yes, also-- we work hand-in-hand between the musicians, techs, and sound but once the show is on, i'm concerned about PLAYING.  the last thing i'm worried about is
compression ratios and stuff. 

if you've gotta mix your own sound and you're playing to less than 500 people or so, compression doesn't often enter into the equation--though eq does, as a good sound guy will play to the strengths and shortcomings of the room's sound. beyond that #, i usually see sound guys using compression to make the kick cut through, to flatten out the bass, and to get as much vocal as possible.  definitely not like recording!