[metallica86]

Hi guys,

I need some help for setup PA system for band practice in my basement..
we only have 4 piece, 2 guitar, 1 drummer and 1 bass, the idea is all of us go direct and then use headphone for silence practicing.. it's not ideal but its good for us to keep the chops..

So far i have one PA speaker (EV ZLX15p), drummer will use his electronic kit, singer bring their own mic,

what do I need as a mixer and how I can hook up 4 headphone to the board etc... ?

Thanks in advance

 

[KapnKrunch]

Behringer makes a two-mix, four-phones amp that seems to work perfectly well. These used to be $40, but seem to have gone up (one of their "lucky" products?). Look for a used one for about $50.

 

[Hammerhands]

I saw a too expensive piece of gear that looked ideal for this, JamHub. They are out of business, but there are still a few for sale. Roland copied them with the HS-5, which is interesting.

There are some mixers where you can have a bunch of mixes and you can do the same sort of thing with most audio interfaces, which would work if you had enough inputs and outputs.

Something like the Behringer HA400 or an Art HeadAmp 4 will give you 4 headphone outputs of the same mix, but something like the Art HeadAmp 4 Pro will give you 4 headphone outputs of 4 different mixes. Then you just need a mixer with 4 sub mixes. I guess those aren't cheap.

If you got one with 2 sends like the Behringer 1002B, you could use the fx send to mix for musician 1, monitor send for musician 2, then use the left main output for musician 3 and right main output for musician 4. That mixer seems to not be in stock.
.

 

[keto]

Mics (and other DI's) right to the mixer, mixer out to a headphone amp. This is exactly how we do it in one of my bands. Get the best quality headphone amp you can, we currently have a lesser expensive one from L&M and it has been a long term issue not delivering the best sound. (though from a durability standpoint, it's been good for 3+ years) We are all currently wired but have custom earbuds, the next step is either a better headphone amp (been looking at the Presonus around $500 iirc) or maybe even finding a way to go wireless to our buds. There are miles of cable in our jam space lol.

I believe this is what we have now, I would not buy their product again personally. ART Pro Audio - 6 Channel Professional Headphone Amplifier

This is the Presonus we are looking at Presonus - HP-60 - Headphone Amp

but we haven't done all the research yet, and basically would spend whatever is needed to get excellent quality

We have evolved ours with a very expensive mixer that's all digital, we can get our own individual mixes (on the fly thru ipad app) and record our sessions as well, we have an older computer hooked up to the whole system.

 

[metallica86]

Thanks guys, appriacete all the info, the Jamhub or Roland stuff look so cool but so expensive ..

I might look at some budget Mixer for now, all guitar we use is modelling stuff so no issue for quality

Just want to keep practicing when my son sleep upstairs.. so this one of our option

 

[Hammerhands]

There are plenty of mixers you can get cheap.

Peavey 12 Channel Professional Stereo Console/ Audio Mixer | performance & DJ equipment | Muskoka | Kijiji

 

[metallica86]

EHH it's too far... my gas cost already same as the unit itself :d

 

[GTmaker]

I know that this "we will all go direct" may sound like a good idea...
I just don't see it working at all...
try it out , but in the end I think you will agree with me...
G.

 

[keto]

G, we've been doing it for 4+ years and, though our gear has evolved, it's always been decent. Allows the drummer and amps to open up, protects all our hearing, etc. I get that it's not for everyone, and to get GOOD sound and mix has been a fairly substantial investment, the side benefit being the gear we have now also functions as a pretty good recording studio. We're working on an album now.

 

[High/Deaf]

If I were to try this, a bare minimum would be to have each player have his own mix. I want to hear more of me and less of everyone else. As much as I think the others should enjoy my guitar tone loud and proud, I'm pretty sure they have their own ideas on what they'd like to hear.

Perhaps you can find an old analog monitor mixer/console. That would give you many inputs and lots of separate headphone mixes. But they were generally higher-end equipment and rare, compared to standard FOH mixers with a a couple monitor mixes built in. So they may be just as much as a JamHub, if you can even find one. But you might get lucky.

 

[GTmaker]

G, we've been doing it for 4+ years and, though our gear has evolved, it's always been decent. Allows the drummer and amps to open up, protects all our hearing, etc. I get that it's not for everyone, and to get GOOD sound and mix has been a fairly substantial investment, the side benefit being the gear we have now also functions as a pretty good recording studio. We're working on an album now.

sounds like to me that you have a system thats a little bit more complex then a mixer with a bunch of headphones attached...
Whatever you use and it works for you...thats allways a good thing.

Maybe when you get a chance, you can detail what system you use.

take care
G.

 

[metallica86]

I know that this "we will all go direct" may sound like a good idea...
I just don't see it working at all...
try it out , but in the end I think you will agree with me...
G.

I know exactly what you mean, and all of us especially the drummer don't really like it but hey we need to find a solution so its the best so far.
We rotate rehearsal between studio and my basement no it's not that bad, one week we crank the amp, next week we use headphone for practice as a band for learning songs etc

 

[allthumbs56]

So the only sound in the room will be vocals, drumstick clicks, and pick scrapes? Where does the ZLX fit in?

 

[keto]

our main piece is a Presonus StudioLive 24.4.2 AI. It's an awesome and very flexible board, gives us individual mixes, can control them (and mute each channel and etc etc) right from a phone or iPad. Out to computer for recording, out to headphone amp for our live sound.