Anyone have advice for practice setup?

[deadaswarhol]

My band is just me on vocals/guitar, and the other guy plays bass/keyboards, and we have drum machine/some backing tracks on the laptop.

 

so generally when we're practicing, the bass/keys/guitars all jsut come out of their respective amps. the backing tracks/drums we have going through laptop>firepod>studio monitors. the vocals are also going through the firepod so i can use cubase's reverb.

 

 

now obviously we need to get a separate PA instead of using our monitors, but other than that does anyone have any suggestions for a better setup? we kinda just did what seemed easiest at the time with what we have but we've been doing stuff this way for a while so i don't know if there'd be a more efficient setup with these instruments. thanks!

[SpaceNorman]

Sounds like you've got a great practice setup for a duo working with tracks and a drum machine. You really don't have a need for volume - hell, you could go the near silent route and simply use headphones. As long as you can hear everything - you're good! It's the guys who've got to work around instruments that by their very nature tend to be loud (i.e., drums and cymbals) that need to come up with the more expansive (and expensive!) practice setups. (Oh yeah ... and those who play with folks who simply don't get that volume knobs can be turned counterclockwise!).

[deadaswarhol]

ha yeah thanks. i guess the main thing right now is getting a dedicated PA for all the backing tracks/vocals, because i dont think our little monitors can really handle it haha

[SpaceNorman]

For practice? Just keep the volume low ... or pick up a couple sets of headphones and a headphone amp - and save your money for a stage rig for when you're gigging. For a duo - add a a pair of quality powered speakers and a quality small mixer to you're in business.

[mstreck]

We just use a Mackie powered mixer and four floor wedges (two mixes). We all use pedalboards for practice, so there are no guitar amps. It works pretty well for us..

[J.Paul]

Yeah

what Norman is saying is really the best way to go.

You'll be able to hear the inversions and voicings better and can rehearse anytime night or day.

I used a "Jamhub" (I think is what it's called) for an audition this week, which is probably similar to your firepod and it works great.

It's just a standalone monitor mixer where everyone has their own mix and is on headphones.

[DarkHelmet]

volume knobs can be turned counterclockwise!).

 

Do not speak of such witchcraft!!!!

[Goop]

 

We just use a Mackie powered mixer and four floor wedges (two mixes). We all use pedalboards for practice, so there are no guitar amps. It works pretty well for us..

 

 

My setup is similar to this. A Behringer powered mixer (250 watts) and two 15" wedges. Two inputs used for the drum machine; one for bass; one for vocals. I use a 1x12 Peavey combo amp for guitar.

[TrickyBoy]

I would totally go this route.

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/jamhub-greenroom-7-section-system

 

As a matter of fact, we practice with electric drums, so I'm considering this route for full band practice.

[kmart]

 

I would totally go this route. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/jamhub-greenroom-7-section-system As a matter of fact, we practice with electric drums, so I'm considering this route for full band practice.

 

 

So I'm looking at this and have a serious issue/question...

 

Assuming my band wanted to try using something like this...

Frontman lines his vocal mic and guitar into channel 1. Bass player lines his bass and vocal mic into channel 2, lead guitarist lines his giutar and vocal mic into channel 4, I line an eDrum feed (whole kit summed, I assume) and my vocal mic into channel 4. I can mix my eDrum and vocal mic levels independently to suit my tastes, but only get a single/overall level control of the (summed) lead singer/guitar channel, and same (summed) feed from each of the others? So it's not really a matrix mixer, then, unless I'm missing something. Seems a bit of a fatal flaw...they should allow each individual station a stacked pot to independently adjust either of the two signals coming from any of the other stations. Otherwise you're at the mercy of the other users' preferences. What if i don't want as much vocal level from the bass player, but want more of his bass? Obviously, one could split all instruments and vox among individual channels, but with 4 instruments/4 vocalists, you're already 1 channel short...I know they make a larger version with (I believe 16 channels), but...

 

Too bad. Would never work for me/us. Close, but epic fail on that front. Can't believe they wouldn't set this up as a true matrix.

Can anybody confirm if that's really the case with these?

 

At present, we're running all our monitor mixes from a laptop running Mainstage/Logic, and have a true matrix set-up so everyone can get exactly what they want from each instrument and each vocal (plus sequences, a pad controller I'm running and, for me, click), but the rack that's in also includes a fair amount of additional gear, and is quite bulky/heavy. If this thing worked like I think it should, it would be a reasonable price for an emergency back-up/altternate solution for when we want to go lean/mean.

[TrickyBoy]

 

So I'm looking at this and have a serious issue/question... Assuming my band wanted to try using something like this... Frontman lines his vocal mic and guitar into channel 1. Bass player lines his bass and vocal mic into channel 2, lead guitarist lines his giutar and vocal mic into channel 4, I line an eDrum feed (whole kit summed, I assume) and my vocal mic into channel 4. I can mix my eDrum and vocal mic levels independently to suit my tastes, but only get a single/overall level control of the (summed) lead singer/guitar channel, and same (summed) feed from each of the others? So it's not really a matrix mixer, then, unless I'm missing something. Seems a bit of a fatal flaw...they should allow each individual station a stacked pot to independently adjust either of the two signals coming from any of the other stations. Otherwise you're at the mercy of the other users' preferences. What if i don't want as much vocal level from the bass player, but want more of his bass? Obviously, one could split all instruments and vox among individual channels, but with 4 instruments/4 vocalists, you're already 1 channel short...I know they make a larger version with (I believe 16 channels), but... Too bad. Would never work for me/us. Close, but epic fail on that front. Can't believe they wouldn't set this up as a true matrix. Can anybody confirm if that's really the case with these? At present, we're running all our monitor mixes from a laptop running Mainstage/Logic, and have a true matrix set-up so everyone can get exactly what they want from each instrument and each vocal (plus sequences, a pad controller I'm running and, for me, click), but the rack that's in also includes a fair amount of additional gear, and is quite bulky/heavy. If this thing worked like I think it should, it would be a reasonable price for an emergency back-up/altternate solution for when we want to go lean/mean.

 

 

Compared to how we practice now, where there's just one mix we all have to live with, this would be a way better solution. And I'd think that with 10 minutes of tweaking, we'd get a pretty good mix fairly easily and once it's tweaked, it should be pretty "set it and forget it".

 

And for these guys with a bunch of backing tracks and only two live instruments, I think it'd be a piece of cake to get sounding really good.

[JoeDirt]

7 is an odd number, wonder why they didn't make an 8 and a 16 channel version.

 

8 would work great for a 4 piece band with 4 singers.

 

Still a cool idea and something my band could definitely use. Kinda spendy but tempting.

[paste]

 

We all use pedalboards for practice, so there are no guitar amps. It works pretty well for us..

 

 

I just got involved in a new start up band and both guitar players are going direct from their pedalboard or the amp head into the monitors and it hasn't been working out too well.

 

The main problem is that the guitars over power the vocals and if we crank the vocals more, we start to get feedback. Also, we can't seem to get the levels right so both guys can hear themselves and each other. So a lot of time is taken up trying to tweak things to get them right.

[mstreck]

 

I just got involved in a new start up band and both guitar players are going direct from their pedalboard or the amp head into the monitors and it hasn't been working out too well. The main problem is that the guitars over power the vocals and if we crank the vocals more, we start to get feedback. Also, we can't seem to get the levels right so both guys can hear themselves and each other. So a lot of time is taken up trying to tweak things to get them right.

 

 

Maybe you need to turn the guitars down or get better monitors? You'll get more from turning something down than you will from turning everything else up.

 

Once you get everything set up correctly, you should be able to duplicate the settings on the board every time.

[SpaceNorman]

 

I just got involved in a new start up band and both guitar players are going direct from their pedalboard or the amp head into the monitors and it hasn't been working out too well. The main problem is that the guitars over power the vocals and if we crank the vocals more, we start to get feedback. Also, we can't seem to get the levels right so both guys can hear themselves and each other. So a lot of time is taken up trying to tweak things to get them right.

 

 

That's NOT your main problem - that's your main SYMPTOM. Your problem is that you're using a single mix that must service EVERYBODY - and two guitar players who haven't yet learned when a vocal is present - guitars (and everything else on stage for that matter) is there tosupport the vocals. That means you put the vocal "out front" ... and everything else behind it. This is a very alien concept to instrument players (especially guitards) who seek to first "dial in" their tone and volume to what THEY like - and then expect vocals to be added after they're happy.

 

You're not going to fix that with more volume (i.e., adding guitar amps) - you're already having feedback issues. It can't get much louder in your practice space than it already is. Getting whatever instruments are louder than your vocals to turn down is what needs to happen. Getting instrument playing musicians - especially those who play instruments like guitars and drums (who often equate volume with tone) - is likely your REAL problem.

 

The "Jamhub" solutions that have been proposed fix that by providing each musician with a mix of their choosing. That means your guitards can blast their ears out with a wall of guitar noise .... while anybody who cares to hear the vocals can put them prominent in their personal mix. Having the ability to give EVERYBODY a personal mix via headphones can go a long, long way in masking issues with players who haven't yet come to the realization that volume knobs can be turned counterclockwise!