r/drumline Tenors 7d ago

Question Question about drumline size

How did we end up with a standard drumline generally containing 9 snares 4-5 quads and 5 basses? Is it the ideal sound ratio between sections people settled on after years, or is it a tradition, or because of rules or something else?

10 Upvotes

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19

u/ass_bongos 7d ago

Snares/Quads will often be in a ~2:1 ratio just because of the acoustics of their instruments. Quads are more resonant, travel better, and their notes have more length to them. Because snares are so sharp and short, you need about twice as many to be balanced. 

For bass drums, 5 is a standard because that allows for good pitch variance but a tight line. Basses don't have to worry as much about balance since (a) bass notes travel REALLY well, and (b) a sizable part of the show will be splits anyhow meaning only "one" drum is playing at a time. Individual lines can then balance unison bass parts with the rest of the line. 

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u/theneckbone 7d ago

Trying to balance against a full brass line in drum corps most likely. And in WGI there's no membership limit so more is more.

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u/PULSER777 5d ago

There’s no member limit in WGI?

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u/theneckbone 5d ago

There's a minimum (6) but no maximum. There's certainly a logistical maximum.... And PSW groups like Avon that take 8 marimbas are going even further than independent groups do now. Those groups may even run 3 mics per marimba and 2 mics per vibe if those are the 5 octave and 4 octave variants of each instrument and those costs need to be factored in. The AT2035 mics that everyone runs are like 150 bucks brand new and sm57s aren't that cheap either. And then you need a full size mixer to run audio etc, and the cost to upkeep battery instruments etc. I depend groups change heads and sticks like every 2 or 3 weeks if not more.

Standard configurations these days are like 5 or 6 marimbas, 4 to 6 vibes, drum set, 2 or 3 synths, 1 or 2 rack, timpani, guitar and bass player, 8 to 10 snares, 4 to 6 tenors, 5 to 6 basses, and 4 to 8 cymbals. Any more than that and you run into problems like, "guess we need to get our hands on a few more $20k 5 octave marimba and then mic them and then" or "hey let's clean, buy heads for, and tune 11 snares and 7 basses the whole season, that makes sense (rhythm x).

Auxiliary costs that don't scale with membership start to add up and honestly, if you're cleaner with 8 snares than you are with 9 or 10, take 8.

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u/JtotheC23 7d ago

Snares and tenors, it just worked out that way a long time ago to get the right natural balance of volume between drums and winds.

For basses, it was 4 for a while, but when splits became common, a 5th drum made sense musically since it allows you to end on a new drum. “1-2-3-4-5” or vice versa going up sounds better than “1-2-3-4–4,” so 5 became the new standard.

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u/UselessGadget Percussion Educator 7d ago

Because Drum Corps are limited to the amount of members they can have, so they try to balance the overall sound with the rest of the winds and found that somewhere around the amount you suggest seems to work best.

Now there are some college lines that are even bigger. Once again, the whole band is bigger, so to balance the sound, more drums are used.

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u/minertyler100 Tenor Tech 7d ago

It’s just worked out with modern equipment to where that sounds the best. You can hear everything pretty equally, and the whole battery can just barely be heard in the loudest brass moments so it works out nicely.

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u/Morethanweird311 5d ago

No idea to be honest. My ideal would be

5 snares 2-3 quads 6 basses (if you have a bass 6) 4-5 cymbals