Rehearsal Room Advice: Mixer & Loudspeaker

R

rotherdrummer

New member
Hi

I have a small rehearsal room at home with 2 electric drum kits. At the moment, I've got a pair of headphones connected to each drum kit but I would like to hear both kits at the same time (as I'm teaching my son how to play). I don't want to use Jamhub (or similar) as I would prefer not to wear headphones at all. Both electric kits have standard 1/4" mono outputs. I could simply purchase 2 x small amps for each kit, but for the same price I thought I might be able to get more for my money. My initial thought was to purchase a small powered mixer with a single passive speaker. I was going to opt for something like a Behringer PMP530M powered mixer with a Behringer Eurolive VS1520 or a VS1220F speaker. I've done some research and I believe that either of these speakers should be able to cope fine with the frequencies created by both electric drum kits (please correct me if I'm wrong). However, I've got a couple of concerns:

1. The powered mixer is expecting a pair of speakers for the output, right? How would a single speaker effect the sound? I'm not sure the Behringer PMP530M has the ability to pan the sound to a single left or right output. Would this be a problem or will it simply output everything to one speaker by default?

2. I'm a recording novice, but one advantage of using a mixer is that it will provide me with the ability to centrally control both kits (to a certain extent i.e. volume) and also record the output. However, I have noticed that the Behringer PMP530M does not have a line-out. It doesn't even have a Phones output. It does however have a Rec-Out, but I'm not sure what this is?

3. I have also looked at non-powered mixers, as they seem to have more options, but they sometimes have outputs such as 'Tape-Out' and I'm unsure whether that's the same as a regular line-out?

4. At the moment, I only have a laptop with a standard microphone socket. If I opted for a mixer with a Phones output, what would be the difference between recording via the Phones output and regular Mic input as opposed to using a proper line-out and line-in sockets?
Any advice would be much appreicated

Thanks

John
 
You will do better at this stage to get a non-powered mixer and a powered speaker - more options in the future and less overall cost now. You can pan each track (each drum set signal) to the side (left or right) you have the speaker plugged into. The tape out, etc are extra options on the mixer, you will plug the powered speaker into the MAIN output (Left or right) of the mixer.
 
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thanks for your reply mjbphotos

i understand how the speaker would connect to the main output, my question is about the diffences between line-out, tape-out, rec-out, phones-out, etc
 
i was just thinking, rather than me suggestions solutions, it might be simpler to simply state what i'm looking for to see if some of you guys with more experience can make some recommendations...
1. 2 x 1/4" mono inputs for 2 x e-drums
2. Ability to record the output to my laptop with only a standard microphone in port, not a line-in port (or perhaps via usb instead?)
3. The ability to output the sound to a single speaker

i don't mind whether it's a powered mixer with passive speakers, or a regular mixer with amp and passive speakers, or a regular mixer with active speakers

please post your suggestions! thanks :)
 
get a small mixer that has USB output, such as the Mackie ProFX line. The ProFX8 is $230. There are slightly cheaper non-powered mixers with USB (Behringer, Peavey) but I think the Mackie is a little better in quality, and noticeably better preamps than the Behr.
This mixer will actually allow you to take stereo outputs from the e-drums, if they have that feature, or the mono signals. You can send the USB to your computer to record in any DAW - much better signal than trying to use the mic input or line-in in your OEM soundcard.
The you just need a powered speaker (anywhere from $180 and up). Save money by getting these used.

Some people might suggest you just go with an audio interface with at least two line inputs, then you could hook up the powered speaker to the monitor output of it, this would give you volume controls on both e-drum inputs, but no tone controls, and you would need the computer hooked up to use it to access the AI's mixer software. You would be able to use the mixer without having the computer hooked up to it.

The differences in the outputs you mentioned are typically how the mixer is routed - multiple ways to send signals and control the volumes, as well as possible different impedances.
 
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