Thoughts on the concept of "digital jamming"

S

Schism

New member
I'm in an apartment, a large apartment that is big enough to jam In, but with it having neighbors sharing walls makes regular practice impossible.

I have a 16 channel mixer, electronic drumkit, electronic guitar and bass. I'm concidering having everything go to the mixer and output through headphones. It seems really practical and u can't imagine it causing problems, except trying to speak to each other, but there can be a room mic that picks up our voices and sends through headphones, or even through amps and have the drums go through a monitor.

What are sone problems that might arise from this, so I can either address them before they happen, or scrap the entire idea all together if the problem has no solution
 
I don't see a problem widdit.
Just run your guitars n bass thru a DI, plug everything into your mixer, probably a headphone amp that'll take at least as many cans as you've got musicians and let er rip. :drunk:

:)
 
Sounds like an interesting idea. You don't necesarilly need a DI box but it might be a better option. Depends on how you like your sounds. Are you going to record your jams ? If you do as Doggy says you shouldn't have any problems in terms of noise. It'll freak out anyone walking in on it though !
"Aaaaarrggghh ! :eek:I've gone deaf !" :D
 
Schism said:
Through a DI??
Click to expand...

DI box = direct interjection box plug your guitars/keyboards/bass into one then out vie XLR cable to the micpre input of the mixer.

I have run live sound for a band that performs just like this and with in ear monitors. Funny thing is if I bring down the mains all you can hear is the pitter patter of the drum sticks and the guitar talk box cause the hose goes up to the mic.
Very easy to mix the band this way! for there is no competing with any stage volume or monitor splash.



:cool:
 
Yup it will work we used to do this when we jammed in my bro's apartment. V-amps for the guitars bass straight into the mixer and e-drums.
 
The only problem I can see is that the only good distortion I can get from my guitar is either from my Amp, or from my Pod XT, which is fine putting the guitar into the pod then into the mixer, but then I dont have the ability to switch it off and on. So maybe send the drums through a monitor, and do it with actual sound and no headphones, but even then it will still be quiet enough. unless I can find a good crunchy distortion on my Boss GT-8 (which ive had no luck thus far)



also: i dont think the DI box would be necessary, soemthing like this should work just as well right? plug the input into the main headphoen in mixer, then each of our headphones into the block
18403_l.jpg
 
I mean, you don't NEED a DI, per say, but generally the instrument will sound better if you use one. The POD system functions like a DI, in a way, so you wouldn't need one for your guitar, but the bass would sound better if you ran it through a Sansamp first. A lot of bassists (like Geddy Lee) just use a Sansamp instead of fancy amps. You could also get a J-Station, though you might see if you can just convince the bassist to buy the Sansamp anyway. I bet (s)he'd like it.

I haven't used a POD, so I don't know, but if it's supposed to function like a tube amp, you might be able to just roll back your volume knob for clean sounds. When I want to do that with my LP, I generally put the neck pickup on the lower volume for clean and the bridge pickup on full volume for distortion. Easier to flick a switch than turn a knob, I think.
 
If you use a simple splitter like the one pictured, you'll get varying volumes between sets of cans unless they're all real close in impedance.
A cheap 4 channel Rolls or whatever headphone amp would be a wiser choice.

Edit: and, a DI has nothing to do with headphones. It's for matching input impedance.
 
Schism said:
also: i dont think the DI box would be necessary, soemthing like this should work just as well right? plug the input into the main headphoen in mixer, then each of our headphones into the block
Click to expand...

I'm not sure you're understanding what a DI is. A DI is for the instruments, not the headphones. Someone called it a direct interjection box or something, but it's a lot easier to just call it a direct input box. Same thing, but easier to understand. It takes your guitar's signal, which runs at instrument level, and brings it up to line level. It might do some other things, but that's really all it does, unless you get a fancier one like the Sansamp, in which case you have all kinds of other options. Like I said before, your POD is essentially a DI.

For splitting headphones, get the Behringer Mini Amp or something like it. It's super cheap and it works. You can even have two different mixes.
 
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