Designing a Jam Room

[Patron of Jam]

Hello Forum. First I would like to begin by thanking everyone for any assistance they may be able to provide. I personally do not play music (at least well), however I tend to surround myself with wonderful musicians. My wife and I have people at our house on a regular basis and a common occurence is people playing together in our parlor. I am looking to buy some equipment that will allow my friends to plug in, mic some vocals and provide an electric drum set so that these impromptu jam sessions can go to the next level. I would also love to be able to record these sessions occasionlly, however the primary purpose would be to provide the best sound for the parties that happen frequently. In a perfect world, most of the equipment would fit in a large cabinet and allow my parlor to remain unclutered when not in use. Also I would also like to run the output through some small Bose speakers mounted along the ceiling and in other rooms, if possible. Any help directing me as to what I need, or if I am simply crazy to think such a set up is possible, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,

Patron of Jam

[ThePinkPanther]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com

It will cost a lot though. It is possible. If you gave me how much your willing to spend and what you already have i could give an estimate of what it might cost and the equipment you'll need.

[neatobassman]

Alot depends on how much you are willing to pay. You will need a mixer, a power amp, some monitors (or just use the speakers you have if they can handle the power amp you get). For recording, if you've got a mixer, all you really need is a computer to plug the mixer into and a recording program, which isn't hard to find.

[ThePinkPanther]

and having some good acoustics in the room would help

[Nicko_Shmicko]

if you can find that giude to building a jam room in the drum forum then that would help you alot

[kevbud187]

cha right i dont think this guy wants to build a professional studio in a basement. What he needs its just to get some 50watt amps some cheapo mics and a 16 channel mixer board that he RCA sends to his comp. I'm assuming that this is mainly a jam room.. if so you need to switch between sending the vocals to the mixer and speakers depending on weather you are jaming or recording.(you would need to switch and its hard to do both at the smae time without shelling out cash.) A couple $100(£50) condensers to mic drums(2) amp(1 each) and vocals(varries) would be all you'd need mic wise. Hell you could condense everything to one(except vocal[you'd need another for that] and use a 8 channel mixer if you wanted. This stuff wll be able to back into a corner but not into a cabinet(unless you are thinking lion witch and a wardrobe style) also Io would buy accoustic drums they are better for live performances and cost much less. For every thing I'm gonna make an estimate of about $2500(£1500). I'm putting amounts in pounds also in case your are british. I don't know why, but you are just too poliet to be american and you call this room your "parlour" which is very british. Well, there you go your all risned and dusted as you would say.

Cheers

[Patron of Jam]

You are all correct that I am not trying to build a full recording studio. This will mainly be used for friends hanging out and jamming. Recording is a nice bonus but secondary. You are incorrect in thinking that I am british. You can blame my politeness on my mother. The parlour (used to distinguish between our living room) has good acoustics (or so I am told). As far as monetary outlay, I am flexible on it, of course I would prefer to do it as cheap as possible, but am willing to spend the money on decent equipment. My rationale for buying a digital drum set was because of space. The parlour is used as a formal sitting room and a full set would take up a lot of space wherein a digital set could be safely stored away far easier. I also would like to know in what order things should be purchased, that way I can buy nicer equipment by buying things in increments, instead of one large purchase. The usual crowd consists of a few gutarists, a guitarist that plays drums as well, a mandolin player, bass (both acoustic and electric) and keyboard.

Thanks for all the help.

[Moseph]

You are all correct that I am not trying to build a full recording studio. This will mainly be used for friends hanging out and jamming. Recording is a nice bonus but secondary. You are incorrect in thinking that I am british. You can blame my politeness on my mother. The parlour (used to distinguish between our living room) has good acoustics (or so I am told). As far as monetary outlay, I am flexible on it, of course I would prefer to do it as cheap as possible, but am willing to spend the money on decent equipment. My rationale for buying a digital drum set was because of space. The parlour is used as a formal sitting room and a full set would take up a lot of space wherein a digital set could be safely stored away far easier. I also would like to know in what order things should be purchased, that way I can buy nicer equipment by buying things in increments, instead of one large purchase. The usual crowd consists of a few gutarists, a guitarist that plays drums as well, a mandolin player, bass (both acoustic and electric) and keyboard.

Thanks for all the help.


If you just outfit the stuff with cheap gear, you can actually get most of those instruments for around $600. This is if you stick with low-end acoustic models at first. You can probably find a Casio keyboard for around $150 that's pretty good for this sort of thing. Make sure it has TRS (1/4") outputs. Electronic drum kits are more expensive though.

You might want to look at Pacific Digital sets. They're really cheap (both in cost and in feel), and store away very easily. However, you'll need to pick up a kick drum pedal and a kick drum pad, as they aren't designed well with those in mind. If you use the DrumXtreme DX-MIDI-PRO, which includes a sound module, all you'll need is a kick drum and pad in addition. Total cost should be around $300.

As for the PA setup, that's a little tricky as well. I'd get a 6 channel powered mixer to plug things into. Look into dynamic vocal mics for everything. Be wary though: cheap mics won't take much abuse, so if you imagine that these parties might consist of drunken tomfoolery with your microphones, you might want to spend as much as $40-60 per microphone and get something relatively sturdy. After cables and mic stands and stuff, you're probably talking $500 for the whole setup. Get a couple of TS cables, a y-adapter, and a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter to plug into your computer's sound card to record.

If it were me doing this sort of thing, here's the order of things I'd purchase:
Rogue Cutaway Acoustic-Electric guitar (possibly x2)
Rogue Acoustic-Electric bass
Rogue RM Series Mandolin
Soundcraft GigRac 8 Powered Mixer + 2 mics
Casio Keyboard
Digital Pacific MIDI-PRO drumkit (+ accessories)


I selected things so that you could use them in the future as well, so my choices cost a little bit more individually, but for instance, you can use the acoustic-electrics to go through the powered mixer to your existing speakers even before you purchase an electric guitar/amp/mic. Just something to think about.

[Akira]

^^I assume the people he would invite have instruments already, he doesn't need to buy his own. That would just be silly.
The problem with the setup comes with getting the guitars into the PA, unless the musicians you know have DI.