Silent Rehearsal - Mixers (?)

[Resonance129]

Tons of good info in here. I really appreciate all the replies. Still doing my research, but all of your information is helping me make decisions. Keep it comin.

And thank you all, again!

 

[Orion1985]

I get that you don’t want to be bound to a computer, but for the price and functionality the Behringer XR18 (among other digital mixing solutions) is ridiculously powerful and will do exactly what you want. You don’t even need a full on computer, you can control it from an iPad or any Android device, the device is just a substitute for all the knobs and sliders. The amount of analog equipment it replaces is incredible and you don’t even need a DAW unless you want to record (Which, with the XR18, you can do on 18 separate channels simultaneously.

 

[mikewalker]

Beringer is cheap and good, and with the xr18 or x18 you can run six headphone mixes, and snapshot every song with it's own settings. I used to gig with the previous generation 32 channel behringer, and we rehearsed our six piece band in a downtown Moscow apartment.
V-drums and in-ear monitoring, and all guitars ran thru box tonelab floorboards...

 

[cnltb]

Silent Rehearsal - Mixers (?)
I think that's a really good idea!

 

[mcnach]

I've been toying around with the idea of creating a band for the first time - Most likely 5 or 6 piece group. Maybe not the greatest time to do so with COVID, but I'd like to at least get the ball rolling a bit, see what happens. Once things get to moving, I'd like to be able to rehearse silently with everyone via headphones in my music room.

I recently stumbled across the "JamHub" which seems perfect for my needs - Simple, compact, and powerful enough to handle at least 5 channels without much latency. But it seems Jamhub went out of business a while back. Dang.
I've browsed through some of the comparable devices from TC and Roland, but wasn't as swayed for some reason.

I've got practically no experience with them, but all that made me consider an actual mixer board. Maybe 10-12 channels(?).

I'm wondering about which mixers, or ANY other gear you lovely folks use, that allow you to rehearse with your group via headphones, and maybe a very general idea of how you've got your stuff setup.

I'm not rushing to make a purchase just yet as I'm still in the thinking/research phase about this, but I do thank you for you time and input

Yeah, the Jamhub was a great solution.

Yamaha make this little headphone unit called "Session Cake". There's a red one and a blue one that gives you a couple of extra connections. The cool thing about them is that they're quite cheap and you can link several of them (5 I believe?) so that everyone could have some control over their mix.

SessionCake - Overview - Yamaha - Other European Countries

They can also run on batteries, which is handy.

 

[Resonance129]

Yeah, the Jamhub was a great solution.

Yamaha make this little headphone unit called "Session Cake". There's a red one and a blue one that gives you a couple of extra connections. The cool thing about them is that they're quite cheap and you can link several of them (5 I believe?) so that everyone could have some control over their mix.

SessionCake - Overview - Yamaha - Other European Countries

View attachment 4046232

They can also run on batteries, which is handy.

Definitely gonna look that one up when I get back home. Thank you

 

[tothemax]

[QUOTE="Yamaha makes this little headphone unit called "Session Cake". There's a red one and a blue one that gives you a couple of extra connections. The cool thing about them is that they're quite cheap and you can link several of them (5 I believe?) so that everyone could have some control over their mix.
SessionCake - Overview - Yamaha - Other European Countries They can also run on batteries, which is handy."[/QUOTE]

That's very cool

 

[Eli_Kyiv]

A couple of interestings find that might be useful for silent rehearsals.

 

[mcnach]

Definitely gonna look that one up when I get back home. Thank you

If you end up liking them enough, check out prices at different places. At least over here (UK) the price went down quite a bit over the past year, and sometimes you find sales... The SC-1 (red) was £10 and the SC-2 was £25-30 for a while, which was amazing, but even at full price they're quite nice.

 

[tothemax]

In my practice room we have the capability to work with headphones, mostly for recording. I picked up a couple of these Behringer headphone HA-400 microamps (referred by the other post). At $23 ea. and they can be chained together.

Behringer | Product | HA400
​

My home rehearsal space is pretty tight at 12'x16' and to save our drummer from hauling gear and maximize space I picked up a Kat digital drum set off of CL for cheap. It sound goods though the PA as well and has a midi out. Plus it folds up when you're not using it.

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While we haven't made it to "silent" practices, it definitely allows you to keep the volume under control for partial practices or "session' work.

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[DirkP]

In my practice room we have the capability to work with headphones, mostly for recording. I picked up a couple of these Behringer headphone HA-400 microamps (referred by the other post). At $23 ea. and they can be chained together.

Behringer | Product | HA400
​

My home rehearsal space is pretty tight at 12'x16' and to save our drummer from hauling gear and maximize space I picked up a Kat digital drum set off of CL for cheap. It sound goods though the PA as well and has a midi out. Plus it folds up when you're not using it.

​

While we haven't made it to "silent" practices, it definitely allows you to keep the volume under control for partial practices or "session' work.

​

But you need as many aux-busses on a mixer for individual monitoring mixes for each musician. The Zoom Livetrak offers this. My Tascam Model 12, for example has just two Aux-busses, but an additional sub-out that could be used to connect a headphone amp.

 

[FinialBassist]

I've been very happy with the Behringer XR18 for silent rehearsals for our trio. Bass and guitar run through cheap amp sim/multi-effects pedals (Zoom B1 Four and G1 Four). Drums are electronic (Roland TD-1KV). Everyone gets their own monitor mix and a small beltpack headphone amp (Behringer P2) to control their own volume.

For giggles (and because the XR18 is still in our non-silent summer rehearsal space in the garage), I just created a more minimalist setup using gear I had on hand. A laptop running Apple's Mainstage servers as the mixer/amp sim/midi drum sounder. Two vocal mics, bass, and guitar all run direct into a four channel interface (Behringer UMC404HD). Drums are connected via USB. Everyone shares the same monitor mix but have their own volume control via the P2s. This works for our trio where we only have five voices (two vox, bass, guitar, drums) but would probably be pushing it for larger bands.

Those SessionCakes look pretty cool, though.

 

[tothemax]

DirkP,
You are correct on that, I have a Behringer X2222USB mixer in the rehearsal room with 3 aux channels (Aux 3 is dedicated to the internal Reverb). It is limited, but gives us a few options and we are not going for a silent practice. I looked at the Zoom Livetrak as a possible upgrade down the road particularly for the hardware DAW interface capabilities. That's cool that you can create custom aux mixes, is that supported internally or by a connection to a DAW?

 

[DirkP]

DirkP,
You are correct on that, I have a Behringer X2222USB mixer in the rehearsal room with 3 aux channels (Aux 3 is dedicated to the internal Reverb). It is limited, but gives us a few options and we are not going for a silent practice. I looked at the Zoom Livetrak as a possible upgrade down the road particularly for the hardware DAW interface capabilities. That's cool that you can create custom aux mixes, is that supported internally or by a connection to a DAW?

Stand-alone (internal).

 

[Mr Dad G]

You’re going to need to thing about a couple things

• Number of inputs you need
• Number of outputs you need
• Number of mix busses you need
• Everyone needs their own mix (not a question, the truth)
• Do you want to run stereo? (If you can, do it, but now you need 2x the mix busses and outputs)
• Who is going to run the system? I’ve found that giving each person control over their own mix makes life much easier. Trying to deal with the guitar player who constantly needs his mix adjusted becomes a pain.
• How are you going to communicate? (even non-singers need microphones so they can talk, so more inputs, maybe with mute/PTT foot switches)
• Do you want to use the same equipment live? How do your inputs/outputs change?
• How much excess capacity do you need? With 6 performers, you’re probably maxing out most mixers, so if you want to have someone sit in for a day, you’re going to be stuck.

With all that said, I think I’d look at the Behringer X32 full-size (compact or rack would work too if you prefer the smaller form factors, but are going to be very tight on inputs, so would need an SD8 or 16), plus a P16 monitoring setup. You could probably get by with just the X32 and add the P16 later, but the output side is going to be almost entirely full if you run stereo.

My band is a 4 piece, and we do some of our practices silent using an X32 rack. We use wireless IEMs live, so the two setups are very similar. Everyone is using MixStation on their phones to control their individual mixes. We’re also all ampless (2x helix, 1x POD). It works well, but there are definitely some lessons learned.

 

[iwannalearnbass]

Hi all, sorry to revive this thread but I'm looking to do the same thing (silent band rehearsals) and was looking at the Zoom Livetrak and some analog options (mixer with aux outputs + headphone amp with "more me" functions).

Any feedback on the Livetrak and how it might compare with the analog setup much appreciated! Specifically, any issues with sound quality or latency? Is the interface straightforward enough for individual bandmembers to adjust their own headphone mix (one of my main concerns is that it's going to be very fiddly)?