Drum screen hire — control the kit without losing the drummer
An acoustic kit is usually the loudest thing in a small hall, and once it fills the room the desk has nothing left to balance. A drum screen stands clear acrylic panels between the kit and the audience, cutting the direct spill so vocals sit above the band and the drummer can play properly instead of being told to hold back all night. It reduces and redirects the sound rather than silencing it, and it does its best work with the kit miked through the PA. It hires at £25 per day, dry hire or with a technician.
In a church or a school hall, the drum kit sets the level for everything else. The PA has to climb over it, the singers get buried, and the person on the desk ends up mixing around an instrument they have no control over. The usual fix is to ask the drummer to play quieter, which ruins the feel and rarely lasts past the second song. A drum screen fixes the problem at the source instead.
The screen is a run of clear acrylic panels standing around the front and sides of the kit. Acrylic is dense enough to block the direct path, so the sound that used to fire straight into the front rows and the vocal microphones is cut back and sent elsewhere. The panels are transparent, so the congregation or audience still sees the drummer, and the drummer still sees the band and the musical director. Nobody is playing in a box.
Be honest about the physics, because plenty of venues are not. A screen reduces and redirects; it does not silence. Some energy still comes over the top, and some reflects off the back wall and finds the room anyway. What the screen buys you is control: with the acoustic level down, you close-mic the kit inside the screen and bring the drums back through the PA at a level the room can actually take. That is the combination that works, and it is why our wired microphones and mixing desks sit on their own hire pages ready to go with it.
There is nothing to plug in and nothing to fix down. The screen stands on any flat floor, goes up in minutes and packs flat again afterwards. One thing worth planning: inside the screen the kit sounds louder to the drummer, because energy that used to leave the stage now comes straight back. Ear plugs or in-ear monitoring are worth a thought for anything longer than a short set.
Hire by the day. Tell us the room and the band and we will say honestly whether a screen on its own will get you there, or whether it needs microphones and a desk behind it.
What you get
The drum screen, cleaned and checked before it goes out
Placement advice when you book: where the panels sit relative to the kit, the vocal mics and the front rows makes more difference than anything else
Not included: the drum kit itself, drum microphones, a mixing desk, absorption panels or a lid. Drum mics and desks can be added from our other hire pages
A technician to set the screen, mic the kit and mix the show, if you would rather not run it yourselves
Good for
Church bands, where the kit swamps the congregation before the desk gets a say
School halls whose acoustics do a live drummer no favours
Musical pits, where the band sits a few feet from the front rows and the kit needs holding back
Function bands playing rooms smaller than the gig
Am-dram and youth theatre productions with a live band on or beside the stage
Streamed or recorded services where drum spill into the vocal mics is the real problem
What you need to know
What it does
Clear acrylic panels stand between the kit and the room, cutting the direct sound that reaches the front rows and the vocal microphones.
What it does not do
Silence the kit. A screen reduces and redirects; some sound still comes over the top and off the back wall. It buys the desk control, not silence.
Works best with
The kit miked. Close mics inside the screen let the desk rebuild the drum sound through the PA at a level the room can take.
Power
None. There is nothing to plug in.
Where it goes
Free-standing on any flat floor, around the front and sides of the kit. No fixings, no tools, and the audience can still see the drummer.
Check availability
See whether this is free for your dates. This is an indication from our current bookings, not a reservation.
No, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. Acrylic panels reduce and redirect the sound; they do not absorb it. Some level still comes over the top of the screen and some reflects off the back wall into the room. What the screen does is take the kit from overwhelming down to manageable, which is what the desk needs. Full isolation takes an enclosed booth with absorption and a lid, which is a different job — talk to us if that is genuinely what the venue needs.
In most rooms, yes, and it is the point of the exercise. The screen pulls the acoustic level down; the mics and the PA then rebuild the drum sound at a level you choose from the desk. A screened, unmiked kit can end up sounding dull and distant in the room. Our wired microphones and mixing desks are on their own hire pages and pair naturally with the screen.
Better than being told to play quietly all night, which is the alternative. The drummer plays at a natural level and keeps the feel. It is louder inside the screen than outside it, because sound that used to leave the stage now reflects back, so ear plugs or in-ear monitoring are worth planning for a full show. The panels are clear, so sightlines to the band and the MD survive.
The screen is free-standing on any flat floor, with no fixings and no tools, and it stands around the front and sides of a standard kit. Footprints vary with how tightly you curve the panels, so tell us the stage size and where the kit sits and we will confirm it fits before you book. It packs flat for transport.
