JamHub Silent Jamming Solution

[samiller]

Well I guess the only thing I see wrong is that the drummer would have to have an electronic set to use it, other than that it looks pretty cool.

[tmotech]

yo jamhubber's ! welcome and thanks for joining in!

I find your product VERY intriuging. If it was out 10 years ago when I was playing in several bands I would have purchased the product for sure!

A couple questions, without looking at any product manuals and stuff yet.

Each "hub" of your mixer provides a seperate mix for each musician. I understand each "hub" also has a line in AND XLR in, correct?

If so, if I plug my guitar line in and a mic XLR in, I can use both inputs at the same time for each hub? and if that is the case, does my overall "hub" mix (of my guitar and vox) stay static for the other "hub's" monitor of my section - in other words, they can't control my guitar AND vox volume seperately in the other musicians mix? Are they only able to raise or lower the overall volume of my mix of my guitar and vox?

I am not counting myself out having a "band" down the road, but I do plan on opening a recording studio in the next 5 years (money is an object of course) -- that being said I could see this being a powerful tool in the studio when tracking live with a whole band. Obvoiusly I would need a flexible main mixing console in order to incorporate your monitoring mixer, but it's very possible to have this easily fit in! I learned studio recording in a vintage studio with late 50's early 60's equipment (you know, the best sounding stuff ever made in my opinion!) - we did all of our recording were either live to 2 track or we did the live basic tracks and then did overdubs when recording multi-track. One of the things I really liked about doing things that way was the extremely "REAL" feel of the recording - in other words, you get each instrument "bleeding" over the others. This is exactly the opposite of the way studio's record these days, because you are getting "contamination" as they see it on tracks. But a drawback of not having any "contamination" from other instruments is this vacuum sealed sound that comes out - an engineer really has to work to make it feel like the musicians actually recorded together in the same room, etc..... -- using this solution might give you the best of both worlds - low volume recording so not much overall "bleed through" but getting that live room feeling that you hear on old 60's rock recordings (doors) etc......

thanks!

chris

[JamHubChuck]

Hey samiller,

An e-kit would obviously be the best (only?) way to silence the drums for those outside the rehearsal, but we think that many acoustic drummers will find JamHubs useful, too. Have you ever been in a situation with an acoustic kit in an open-air reheasal (or gig) where the other musicians have to turn way up to hear themselves over the drums? I've often had to push my guitar amp past its sweet spot in an effort to hear myself, only to end up stuffing in earplugs to protect my hearing! Sometimes the drummer will ask me to turn up even more from there so that he/she can hear me over the din of the kit (it's loudest to the folks who are closest to it, usually the drummer)...

A JamHub can help in these situations. Here's how - The drummer mics up the kit (Kick and a pair of well-placed overheads usually does the trick) through a decent palm-sized mixer and runs that into his/her JamHub 'Instrument' input. Even if the drummer doesn't sing, they might want to connect a mic to their 'Mic' input, so that they too can talk and be heard in between songs. *With headphones or in-ears, The drummer and all of the other musicians are now much more isolated from the volume of the acoustic kit. They can each dial in their tones and set their own mix. There's way less 'noise' from the other instruments leaking into the drum mics. In my basement anyway, we can all play much 'louder' through the JamHub than we can in open air. In most of the tiny spaces where I've rehearsed, there just aren't enough air molecules to support the SPLs when everyone cranks it up...

The JamHub may not be for everyone, to be sure, but I hope this helps some of the folks who are interested...

Peace,

Chuck

[JamHubChuck]

Yo Chris (tmotech),

Thanks for the welcome! And for the questions...

Each "hub" of your mixer provides a seperate mix for each musician.

We like to think of it the oppsite way, that each 'mixer' in our 'Hub' providesa seperate mix for each musician.

I understand each "hub" also has a line in AND XLR in, correct?

Correct. Each 'section' or 'spoke' of the Hub has a 1/4", unbalanced, stereo (TRS), line-level input labeled 'Instrument' and an XLR input labeled 'Mic'.

if I plug my guitar line in and a mic XLR in, I can use both inputs at the same time for each hub?

Yes.

...does my overall "hub" mix (of my guitar and vox) stay static for the other "hub's" monitor of my section...

That's correct. We've found that this does the trick for most folks who have tried the JamHub. The question of "Can I adjust other players' instrument and vocal independently?' has come up and for those who gotta have that fiunctionality, we recommend that they put their voice into one JamHub section and their instrument into another. Not ideal, perhaps, but it definitely covers that need...

...but I do plan on opening a recording studio in the next 5 years...

I recently posted a FAQ on on the topic of 'JamHub for headphone mixes in the studio' on our Forum. Maybe you'll find it helpful - http://www.jamhub.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=20

Thanks again! Keep those questions comin'!

Later,

Chuck

[tmotech]

thanks for the information chuck

this would be a cool addition to a recording studio, allowing the musicians to work their own mix to taste during a session!

i could also see this being a way for a band or even a club with many bands playing to implement this as an onstage monitor mixing station too. What are the specs for getting each individual mix out to a power amp or a powered onstage monitor. I would think if it's set up to give a stereo headphone output to each musician, it is probably too high of a level for a power amp (or powered monitor speaker) to accept as an input source, correct?

so let's say you have a splitter snake set up for this system. You split the mic's/DI's/line-level instruments that you wan't in your onstage monitors, send those to the Club/House PA and to your JamHub set up somewhere on-stage. Now how would you get the outputs of the JamHub's individual mix to a dedicated monitor on stage at the correct line level the power amp would be needing? Let's assume it will be a mono mix going out to the power amp/monitor setup (each musician has his own dedicated floor monitor on-stage which he/she controls via the JamHub - the monitor either being powered by a dedicated amplifier/crossover or being a self contained powered monitor)

I could see this being a compact solution to the stage mix. In my experience, the "Monitor Engineer" (which in my case doing live sound I was the front of house AND monitor engineer) has the hardest and most important job of the gig.... making the musicians happy with the sound they hear in their own little corner of the stage!! The bands that I worked with that set up their own monitors at every venue, needed a dedicated mixing board with an aux-send for each monitor on stage. One band needed 7 on-stage monitors, and that was with the 2 sax-players sharing a monitor. They had a 24-channel yamaha board with 8 aux-sends , 7 monitors, and an amp-rack. The board was overkill for the job, but it was the only way they could get 7 seperate mix's on stage......... compared to the size of the JamHub and the simple design allowing each player to control their own mix onstage and on the fly if needed is a very very enticing application for your product too. Is it possible?

-chris

[JamHubChuck]

Hey Chris,

What are the specs for getting each individual mix out to a power amp or a powered onstage monitor. I would think if it's set up to give a stereo headphone output to each musician, it is probably too high of a level for a power amp (or powered monitor speaker) to accept as an input source, correct?

I don't have the exact specs handy, but I'd guess that the JamHub's headphone outs would put out a lower level than what most live sound consoles are putting out (and what most power amps & powered speakers are expecting to see). Not saying all of this couldn't be done. Just reminding you and everyone that it'd be going beyond (pretty far beyond, imo) what JamHubs were designed to do especially well...

Peace,

Chuck

[tmotech]

Hey Chris,

What are the specs for getting each individual mix out to a power amp or a powered onstage monitor. I would think if it's set up to give a stereo headphone output to each musician, it is probably too high of a level for a power amp (or powered monitor speaker) to accept as an input source, correct?

I don't have the exact specs handy, but I'd guess that the JamHub's headphone outs would put out a lower level than what most live sound consoles are putting out (and what most power amps & powered speakers are expecting to see). Not saying all of this couldn't be done. Just reminding you and everyone that it'd be going beyond (pretty far beyond, imo) what JamHubs were designed to do especially well...

Peace,

Chuck

ehhh, i'm not so sure about that -- if you are sending a signal out that is enough to power speakers in headphones it is a much "hotter" signal then line level that would be going out to a power amp....... if you send the headphone level out to a power amp you will experience distortion.

Most likely, you would need to put some sort of attenuation (down) between the headphone out and the amplifier for the monitors. Never tried it but I bet Radio Shack would have something -

I know this is out of the scope intended for this product, but in future models it might be a consideration to provide options for this type of application (using the JamHub as a seperate monitor mixer on-stage for clubs or bands) by providing line-level outputs as well as the headphone outs for each mixer section...... I bet this application could be done though. Got my wheels spinning!

This product's main role of providing a "quiet" jamming solution is new and innovative and a great thing. Keep on coming up with products like this guys!!!!

-chris