How to DIY practice room

[ala_carte]

could someone give me a possible way to turn my room into a practice room? dimensions: 4 X 4.5m. i'm a total noob at pa but i've settled all my guitar stuff (amps, guits and pedalboards).

My other band members consist of 1 bassist, 1 keyboardist doubling as backup vocals, 1 drummer and a lead singer. As mentioned, i do not have anything needed to play their roles in a band(no bass amps, no drumsets. starting from scratch).

i'm on a VERY tight budget but i would not mind giving a bit more if the quality of the item is standard or above standard. need someone to explain the difference between active and passive systems, terminology, brand recommendations(diagrams to facilitate explanation would be great).

if explaining on the forum is too lengthy or it has been done before, kindly pm me regarding the related materials.

thx a bunch guys!

 

[blueprintstudios]

1 vocalist, 1 guitarist, 1 keyboardist , 1 drummer , 1 bassist.

well i cast my vote on a "headphone jamming" based mindset.
[vocalist] > [microphone] > [mixer]
[guitar amp] > [microphone] > [mixer]
[keyboards] > [direct line in] > [mixer]
[bassist] > [direct line in] > [mixer]
[drummer] > [nothing. drums are loud]
------------------
[mixer] > [line out into...] > [6 channel headphone amp]
[headphone amp] > [guitarist/bassist/keyboardist/drummer]

there you go. you can hear each other.

you probably need to buy alot of cheap headphones and a couple of mics, a headphone amp , a 6 channel mixer and quite a few cables. check out www.behringer.com.sg or other brands if you got more $ $ $.
and make sure your headphone/earphones have long cable wires, otherwise you guys will look "intimate" standing so close to each other while jamming. you can buy extension audio cables from simlim or harvey norman.

P.S : when you've got all of the above. next time you can do
[mixer] > [headphone amp] > [stereo audio cable out into your computer sound card and record yourself.]

hope this isn't too confusing, it's as simple as I can phrase.
60¢ worth.

 

[ala_carte]

thx blueprintstudio!

btw, wad's an "audio cable"? wad are xlr cables btw? wad's the diff between female and male types?

any mixer brands to recommend?

oh and wad's a headphone amp?

 

[blueprintstudios]

audio cable = i meant that as a generic term to first give you the "logic"

microphone >>audio cable>> mixer/preamp
guitar >>audio cable>> amp
even for
your earphones (the 2 things you put into your ears)>>audiocable>>mixer/soundcard
---------------------------------------------
audio cables will vary.
microphones use "XLR" cables.
guitar uses "quarterjack" (¼ jack) cables.
your ear phone uses.. erm "earphone" cables. sometimes known as 1/8jack.. i think. I don't know. my theory cannot make it one. self learned.

and male / female... well.. how I learned was... anything with the thing "sticking out" a.k.a the weewee. = male..
and the ones with the hole.. (wanting the male head xlr to be plugged in).. would be the female! haha.

for example
http://www.behringer.com/UB1222FX-PRO/index.cfm?lang=ENG
the mixer
(photo) http://www.behringer.com/02_products/proddetail.cfm?lang=ENG&id=UB1222FX-PRO&type=225 (photo)

the mixer's top view has 6 "xlr female" input. (guy-weewee input girl-hole)
so you can plug 6 mics or anything that uses xlr into it. mainly microphones.
often you go jamming studios you see the microphones "output" = xlr male head. then you need a cable with a xlr female head to plug the mic in. and at the end of the cable is a xlr male head to plug into the PA mixer. (in this case the PA mixer has female xlr inputs)

this mixer also has 2 XLR main outs. (male) which are used to plug into speakers using XLRs or something.

I don't have any mixer brands to recommend exactly but if you're on a budget. go for some behringer / samson. if you want most-ppl-say-quality assurance, go for a mackie.

headphone amp is like a splitter
i'm sure you've used those adapters:
CD player > splitter > connect 2 earphones.

problem is you adjust one main volume both earphones kena.

so http://www.behringer.com/HA8000/index.cfm?lang=ENG
8 channel headphone amp. control individual. some of your band members are deaf don't you know? haha..

anyway whatever I've typed is pretty much trying to avoid normal terms to describe what is what otherwise you'll get confused. there's still more to the cables except i think it's irrelevant cos you're just trying to make a practice room.

60 ¢ worth

 

[ala_carte]

Ah...tt clicked together nicely...thx a lot blueprint!!

but...

i still have questions

wad are headphone amps for?

when u say to plug the keyboards to the speakers with a direct line in, how do u go abt doing it? keyboard>standard 1/4" jack>keyboard amp>DI out or something like tt?

 

[blueprintstudios]

headphone amps are in cases where ppl wanna have control over their volume.

in your case. the drummer jamming with you guys over headphones, will need loud volume cos when he plays the drums it'll drown out all your instruments.

whereas the vocalist may not need such a loud volume setting cos he needs to hear himself

as for keyboard, before you get a keyboard amp. try
keyboard > 1/4 jack > straight into the line jack mixer. you will not need a keyboard amp unless you don't wanna hear it through headphones.
increase the volume on the keyboards and increase the "gain" on the mixer. and you'll hear yourself.

 

[ala_carte]

whereas the vocalist may not need such a loud volume setting cos he needs to hear himself.

sorry but this sentence seems to be rather contradicting..

 

[blueprintstudios]

oh sorry. well, sometimes vocalist prefer to hear himself through his skull. thats where he's comfy with his pitch control (my point is here)


whereas others wanna hear himself through the headphones also. thats when they also jack up, but don't want to jack up the volume as much as the drummer.

headphone amp = individual control. diff ppl got different hearing

 

[ala_carte]

hmm ok...tt's a great deal of help regarding this topic, thx for spending the time

fellow softies! do continue input though! I need more opinions!!

 

[blueprintstudios]

keep us updated if you're goin with my suggestion

 

[ala_carte]

should i get the alesis multimix 6FX or the mackie DFX6?

 

[blueprintstudios]

you're only using 2 microphones?

 

[joshie]

i predict soft's going to say: joshie, maybe you like to start a new thread pertaining to your question?

 

[soft]

joshie, maybe you like to start a new thread pertaining to your question?

 

[joshie]

wow im good. haha sorry just had to do that. hahha okok my apologies.

 

[ala_carte]

yup i only need two mics. hate "group vocals" where everyone juz crowds around to sing....anyway, wad do u think abt these two mixers?

if i were to ge either one, i'll be getting a cheap passive speaker(s)..depending on budget, i'll have to see whether i can afford stereo vocal output. any models to recommend?

if not, the wharfedale pm 500/600 system sure caught my attention. only thing is they dun have dfx which is wad i want to screw around with.

wad do u recommend?

 

[ala_carte]

bumpy bump. how can there be only ONE sound man in soft???

 

[soft]

are you asking about what equipment to get?

a good resource would be to check out the jamming studios. hear what you like? get the same gears.

btw, what is your budget and what equipment do you want to get?

 

[Indigo_blues]

alacarte, u could try googling for the very basic info first.. googling is excellent to quickly learn up on specific topics.

 

[Indigo_blues]

thx blueprintstudio!

btw, wad's an "audio cable"? wad are xlr cables btw? wad's the diff between female and male types?

any mixer brands to recommend?

oh and wad's a headphone amp?

for example, your above questions can be easily answered by googling for them or by searching this forum's old threads... it would take way too long for people here to answer you....


:wink:

edit: i did 2 minutes of googling and found a nice link..
http://links.prosoundweb.com/index.php?sid=441211096&t=sub_pages&cat=83
cheers.