Dorm Room Practice

laxatives · #1 07-19-2010, 07:57 PM

I'm moving into a house with thin walls and sharing a room with 3 others and I'd like to practice playing in my room without disturbing them. I was planning on practicing using a preamp and playing straight into headphones but wanted some advice before I made a decision.

Ideally I'd like to be able to mix in audio from my laptop so that I can hear both a song and my bass in the headphones and I'd also like to be able to record straight into my laptop's mic jack.

I'd also need some new headphones since I seem to have misplaced my old ones. I was thinking some decent closed ear headphones, although my friend recommended AKG K240s. The headphones would be for both bass playing and listening to music in general. Was hoping to spend less than $150 (on just the headphones), but that's just a guideline.

fish slapper · #2 07-19-2010, 08:00 PM

Even though I own my own house, to keep my wife and neighbors happy, I bought a Cafe Walter headphone amp. Best $175 I ever spent. Got mine through BassNW. Got a good set of closed headphones for about $125 and can plug my ipod or laptop directly into the Cafe Walter and am good to go.

Toastfuzz · #3 07-19-2010, 08:07 PM

I got through 4 years fine with a practice amp, playing with all treble and midrange and cutting the bass frequencies. Made me a better player too, hearing all the finger twang.

Although I'm not one to talk...that was when I was feeling nice. Often we'd come back from the bar and start up a jam...with a drummer and slide blues guitarist and myself. Quite a few calls to apartment management / police, but we never got in any serious trouble. $30 noice violation once...out of dozens of warnings.

bassist66 · #4 07-19-2010, 08:16 PM

I lived in the dorms for 2 years and was fine with a Peavey 112 combo amp. Worked well for this setting and not too loud or powerful. Had headphone plug in, but usually didn't use it as my roomate and neighbors didnt mind. I would jam out plenty of times with other friends in the dorms. I think the only time i got a complaint was during exam week when I was playing louder than I had thought, all they did was tell me to turn it down. good luck!

Sam Hain · #5 07-19-2010, 09:10 PM

The Pocket Rockit I linked below and a decent set of over the ears and your good to go.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/C-Tech-P...80-i1320505.gc

laxatives · #6 07-20-2010, 09:37 AM

Thanks for the quick replies, I checked out reviews for the Cafe Walter and they seemed pretty good so I shot their distributor an email.

Anyone got suggestions for decent closed-ear cans?

Hutzbordello · #7 07-20-2010, 08:48 PM

theres no place to play on campus?

rodcheapo · #8 07-20-2010, 08:59 PM

Sony MDR-V700 for the cans. Substantial DJ headphones for a decent price (got mine used for $80.00). I bought these for the exact same reason. Particularly good for music too, not so large that you'll look like an idiot with an ipod plugged in walking to class.

WARNING: Don't get a $30.00 pair off eBay. These are one of the most counterfeited items on the net.

BananaKing · #9 07-20-2010, 09:02 PM

I use a Vox AmPlug. I love mine.

It's a small, fairly inexpensive headphone amp that doubles as a DI. It runs on AAA batteries and lasts about 18 hours or so (for me) before I have to replace them.

You can also plug your iPod or something else into it to play along with, although I've never personally done it.

http://www.voxamps.com/amplug/

::::BASSIST:::: · #10 07-20-2010, 09:18 PM

PJB Bass Buddy...

A nice high-end "headphone amp" unit that has lots of nice features:

- 5 band eq
- compressor
- can be operated on batteries
- can be used as a preamp and gives great clean tone when used to drive a poweramp. I've used mine like this with a Focus SA and Peavey DPC 1000 with great results.
- excellent tone (I actually bought a Rumble 15 and planned to sell my BB as I thought I didnt need such a high-end practice amp but the tone difference is huge. My BB isnt going anywhere now.)
- can be used as an amp and give 10 w (which is about as loud as an acoustic piano. Perfect for living room jams. I've even heard it hooked up to a traynor 810 and that would be *just barely* loud enough to do a rehearsal with a full band (playing quietly)
- vol. control on the aux input ( I love this feature as I play along with youtube vids and often some are louder than others. I can easily just reach over and adjust accordingly.)

So yeah, this thing is like the Swiss Army knife of headphone amps.

The bass buddy is not cheap, but its certainly worth the price in my view.

gastric · #11 07-20-2010, 09:26 PM

Korg Pandora, or if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch consider an iRig and some bass software. Just ordered one for my wife to use with her Touch so she can jam to MP3's via headphones.

bwanabass · #12 07-20-2010, 09:45 PM

Not the "headphone amp" direction, but check this out...

I picked up an Acoustic B10 a couple months ago to have something ultra-portable to drag around town to little jam sessions, my GF's place, etc. I love it. It has a headphone out as well as an aux in, so you can plug a computer/ipod/disc player right into it.

This option would give you the best of both worlds, as you can use it silently with phones, or turn it up to play for friends. Here's a link:

http://www.acousticamplification.com/products/b10.cfm

It's served me well, as my practice space is tiny, and often requires silence. Good luck...

Peppacone · #13 07-20-2010, 10:52 PM

Pick up a small amp man, I jammed with a lot of random people when I lived in a dorm. Would have been a bummer if I didn't have an amp.

MIJ-VI · #14 07-20-2010, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by laxatives

I'm moving into a house with thin walls and sharing a room with 3 others and I'd like to practice playing in my room without disturbing them. I was planning on practicing using a preamp and playing straight into headphones but wanted some advice before I made a decision.

Ideally I'd like to be able to mix in audio from my laptop so that I can hear both a song and my bass in the headphones and I'd also like to be able to record straight into my laptop's mic jack.

I'd also need some new headphones since I seem to have misplaced my old ones. I was thinking some decent closed ear headphones, although my friend recommended AKG K240s. The headphones would be for both bass playing and listening to music in general. Was hoping to spend less than $150 (on just the headphones), but that's just a guideline.

Audio-Technica ATH-M20 Closed - Back Headphones ($49.99 CDN)

I bought these deep & cheap 'phones last Sept. for practising bass guitar and I haven't blown them yet.

That being said, high quality closed cup headphones offer better ambient noise rejection which in turn means that they don't have to be turned up as loud to mask out noisy neighbours.

Beyerdynamic DT 770 M ($199 CND)

"For drummers and FOH sound engineers..."

* Transducer type: Dynamic
* Operating principle: Closed
* Connector: Gold-plated stereo mini jack (3.5 mm) and 1/4" adapter (6.35 mm)
* Weight without cable - 300 g
* Frequency response: 5-30,000 Hz
* Nominal impedance acc. to IEC 60268-7 80 ohms / system <-- Can be driven to decent volumes by anything.
* Nominal SPL acc. to IEC 60268-7: 105 dB
* Nominal THD acc. to IEC 60268-7 < 0,2%
* Power handling capacity acc. to IEC 60268-7 100 mW
* Sound coupling to the ear: Circumaural
* Ambient noise isolation > 35dB (A) <-- Are the neighbours home?..
* Average pressure on ear acc. to IEC 60268-7: approx 6.5
* Length and type of cable: 3m/straight cable

--------

Whichever 'phones you get please watch out for 'volume creep' (the tendency to turn headphones up ever-louder over time resulting in hearing loss).

Better 'phones like the Beyer model will be kinder to your ears.

Toastfuzz · #15 07-20-2010, 10:59 PM

The other thing to consider is, alot of musician friends I had in college, I met because either I heard music and followed it to the room, or they did.

Headroom · #16 07-20-2010, 11:00 PM

For less than $160 street prices, you could get both these:

http://www.mackie.com/products/402vlz3/index.html

http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/he...231/index.html

In addition to inputting a second audio signal to play along with, a mixer offers flexibility for other uses.

C.Linton · #17 07-21-2010, 01:09 AM

I like the Tascam CD BT-2 bass trainer.It's basically a sort of a fancy combo headhone amp/CD player that you can slow down the CD without changing pitch, conversely you can raise or lower the pitch of a CD with out changing the speed, you can select parts of the songs to repeat over and over as much as you want,you can play either whole songs one at a time or the whole CD, and you can either just do a single play or play your selection on a repeating loop, it has a metronome, 3-way tuner, an array of adjustable effects that can be combined in user programmed selectable banks, also has a bass enhancement/cancellation feature. Inputs for bass and footswitch, outs for headphones and a line out. Cost about $150. Great for practicing without disturbing others, playing with either instructional or music CD's.

pmaraziti · #18 07-21-2010, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ::::BASSIST::::

PJB Bass Buddy...

So yeah, this thing is like the Swiss Army knife of headphone amps.

The bass buddy is not cheap, but its certainly worth the price in my view.

+1000 , I have one and works very effectively.

slareman · #19 07-21-2010, 02:34 AM

What about just getting a decent audio interface for your laptop and plugging into that?

jelwood · #20 07-21-2010, 02:42 AM

The only little combo amp I have is a 15 watt Behrin...that I was convinced into buying when I got my first bass. Needless to say I did not make much use of it when I went to the dorms. I brought my 410 cab when I had that and when I got a 412 cab I lugged that thing in too. My roommate told me to crank it. Had a good time and took down some walls that year.