Can I make a Jamming studio using amp sim, DAW and electronic drums

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sabahbubbler

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Hello everyone,

I'm very new here, this is my first post. I hope I've posted on the right forum. I was thinking of making my a jamming studio, for those who wants to jam for practice or on a budget. I would like to ask, is it possible to make a jamming studio where everything is electronic. No amps, no acoustic drum. Everything is digital.

In a sense, the room is a small room with only guitars, bass, e-drums and microphone. All the instrument is hooked up to a multi-channel sound card. For amplifiers, I'll use amp simulator such as Positive Grid Bias/Guitar Rig/Etc, e-drum is connected to drum samples such as ez drummer. All of these are then connected to a DAW such ableton/cubase/etc and the sound is output to a studio monitor/PA system inside the small room. Is this possible to do and is there any issue I'll run into, such as the acoustic of the room or the studio monitor is not loud enough to accommodate the small room?

I figure this is an alternative to create a jamming studio on a budget since I can save money from getting amps/drums/etc. It's definitely not for everyone, for example professional musicians/bands. Its aim more towards people who would like to practice and jam on a small budget.

I do apologize for my lack of knowledge sound/recording. I'm not that well verse in sound recording, mixing and such. I only know a very very small portion of sound recording.
 
Trying to do everything with the computer doesn't sound like the best idea. Sims will always have some latency, as will triggered samples. The DAW will add a bit more. It may add up to more than you can deal with. Also not too sure about using studio monitors, but if it's a small space and you're not too demanding they might work.

How about a small mixer and some SansAmps or Pods? Or a Boss Jam Station?
 
Jamhub - you can hook powered speakers up instead of headphones, of course. As Boulder says, latency with sims makes it impractical.
 
It will work out just fine if the computer isn't too old. I've had late night jam sessions all in the box like that in my home studio with e-drums, amp sims and digital synths. The latency was barely noticable.
 
I don't doubt it can be done. Something more direct would be my preference if it's an option. But the OP probably already has all the gear to do it through the computer. Might as well see if it works.
 
dainbramage said:
It will work out just fine if the computer isn't too old. I've had late night jam sessions all in the box like that in my home studio with e-drums, amp sims and digital synths. The latency was barely noticable.
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This is absolutely correct. The other guys are talking out their asses. I do this literally all the fucking time and nobody ever complains about latency. Ever. With any instrument. Ever.

You will need a good way to connect several guitars/basses to the interface at the same time. Safest for a number of reasons is to just plug into a buffered pedal (almost any guitar pedal that's not marked as true bypass) and then into a line input. There aren't too many interfaces with more than a couple of "instrument" inputs, and those often have too little headroom to be sure that any pickup plugged in won't clip. Pedals work great, and most people have them, or you can buy like Behringer or Dano pedals for less than a passive DI which wouldn't work near as well as the pedals.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Trying to do everything with the computer doesn't sound like the best idea. Sims will always have some latency, as will triggered samples. The DAW will add a bit more. It may add up to more than you can deal with. Also not too sure about using studio monitors, but if it's a small space and you're not too demanding they might work.

How about a small mixer and some SansAmps or Pods? Or a Boss Jam Station?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree it wouldn't be the best setup. Of course, it does depend on how powerful your computer is, but you could have some latency issues.
 
My studio machine is dual core 3.2G, 4G RAM but it only gets 3G because it's 32 bit. Not your top of the line new machine. Three or four amp sims and an instance of EXDrummer is like power walking. Not even jogging. Oh, throw a compressor and EQ on the mic, too. Maybe a global reverb? No problem.

Just don't ask it to introduce latency. I have heard rumors that one of the "big name" amp sims has a delay of its own. That's unnecessary and unacceptable. Don't use that amp sim in a live situation.

Don't put any form of lookahead comp/limiting anywhere. Some of the more popular "maximizes" and "volumizers" and "mastering" whatevers have lookahead built in. They can't look ahead on live input, so they have to delay their output.

Crank it up! I used to just barely get by in band practices on a pair of Alesis Monitor Ones (the original passives, with a 120W/channel amp throttled back like 10db), but everybody is going to complain until it's actually as loud as if they brought their own amps and cranked them up to compete with the acoustic drums. A more serious PA is going to be best.

Now, if there are vocals, then you've got at least one live mic in the room. That starts to get into the issue from that other recent thread about PA feedback in a small room. The cool thing here is, though, that we really do have a volume knob for the whole fucking band. Can't get the vocals loud enough? Turn the other pricks down. That's only half a joke because you really need to adress the acoustic problems that are compromising your gain before feedback thing.

You can't count on "mic technique" in a "jam space" where random people are going to just come in and play. They will point the mic at the speakers. They will sing too quiet from a foot and a half away. All you can really do is give them the best possible chance to figure it out on your own.

It does sort of beg the question of user interface, though. Like, how does dude turn up the treble on his amp a little bit so? How does the drummer like swap out a snare? You will have that guy that just can't play until he's personally adjusted every parameter to his liking. Whatcha gonna do about that?


And BTW - I did this with sansamps and drum machines. I switched the V-Amps when they came out. VAmps and Pods have latency, but nobody complains. I have hardware amp sims enough for like eight sources plus drum triggers. I use my computer.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it a lot. Mjbphotos, I've checked out jamHub, that's similar to what I'm looking for. Unfortunately, I don't live in the US so I don't think I can get Jamhub
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oykGBiowyAQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxSdq7lsPa8 (a small room, perhaps even smaller than this).

Thanks for bringing up the latency issue, I forgot about that one. I'm not good at music production I do use Daw such as Cubase. I mainly use it to jam the guitar by myself, I used Positive Grid BIAS. I may seemed BIASed but I think it's a really great amp Sim. I'm using Focusrite Solo, so far I didn't get a noticeable latency. I've never done it with multiple instruments, so I'm not sure if I use multiple instrument and amp sim at the same time.

Thank you so much for your response Ashcat. Glad to see a positive side on this case :). With regards to your question how the user/guitarist/bassist sets up his sound, I was thinking if it was for example BIAS, before his jam session he/she can do the set up there or while he/she is jamming, they can set it up manually themselves then and there. With regards to the drummer wanting to swap out snare etc, I guess he can't but with the limitation, the pricing of the studio will the much cheaper.

Thank you so much everyone. I really appreciate the feedback :D

I don't know whats the rate in the US since I live since Malaysia but the usual rate per for jamming studio here is about RM30/hour, which is around 7 USD. Because of the limitation, I would charge cheaper for example rm10 - rm15/hour, which is about 2 - 3 USD. This jamming studio I'm thinking of is definitely for everyone. Due to the cheap pricing compare to other studios out there, it's targeted more towards people who just wanna waste some time, new bands who were just starting out, bands/people that's scarce of money but still wanna jam to tighten up their band's timing/chemistry and such.

A well established/professional band would probably have their own gear such as their own amp, cymbals/snare, pedal box etc that definitely won't work since the studio I'm thinking of does not have an actual amplifier but there's a lot of studios that can cater to their needs. Simply put, I wanna make a "budget" jamming studio
 
Just a thought, you CAN beat latency by using small amps with emulated outputs. These* will give your punters the aforementioned knobs to twiddle and yes the same source can offer a variety of pedals both valved and 9volt some again with an emulated output.

For an AI the Tascam multi input jobs seem good value. You will need a rake of amplified headphone feeds and I would learn to make/fix cables PDQ if I were you!

*(spam forbids me!)

Dave.
 
ashcat_lt said:
It does sort of beg the question of user interface, though. Like, how does dude turn up the treble on his amp a little bit so? How does the drummer like swap out a snare? You will have that guy that just can't play until he's personally adjusted every parameter to his liking. Whatcha gonna do about that?
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That's a big part of my hesitation.
 
Around here a 'jam studio' - which usually include a few amps, drum kit and PA system go for $50+ per hour!
 
$50+ per hour!!??? Wtf, must be some amazing top of the line jamming studio
 
sabahbubbler said:
$50+ per hour!!??? Wtf, must be some amazing top of the line jamming studio
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Talking out of sphincter there chap. Over here minimum adult wage is £7.20 ph So if the owner just paid hiself and one staff member that, 20 buck an hour gone? Capital investment has to be covered. Rent, rates, and utility bills. Repairs and upkeep.

Dave.
 
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