BreezSong JamHub- Praise To the Neighbors Ears!

“The Silent Rehearsal Studio”

It has been a while since a new piece of pro audio equipment has excited me. To my surprise the JamHub is not a piece of equipment that I would have much use for, but at the same time I kind of have to have one just on the off chance that all my musician friends decide to come over for a jam session.

BreezSong are the developers of the Jam Hub. The Jam Hub is said to give musicians the freedom to jam when and wherever they want in near silence. All by plugging their instruments into a single box.

The first thing that strikes me about the JamHub is its appealing design. Everything is number and color coded, but not in a way that becomes confusing. I’m pretty confident my mum could work a JamHub better than she can work her mobile phone.

The JamHub is based around a number of inputs and headphone outputs depending on the model. Musicians can plug in, turn up their headphones and jam away. All have complete control over how much of the other musicians they hear in their own headphones using numbered and color coded pots to adjust volume, this eliminates loudness wars.

The other cool feature is stage positioning you can pan you mix to where you would normally stand on stage. This must give the musicians an add sense of normality. Along with the 24-bit stereo effects which can be abled to the bands mix.

The JamHub is now shipping with 3 different models:

JamHub Bedroom

Designed for small jam session but still offering a lot of features.
1. 15 audio channels for up to 5 musicians
2. 5 XLR and 5 TRS input jacks
3. SoleMix™ controls for each section so everyone creates their own mix
1. 1 SoleMix remote jack (remote sold separately)
2. 1-R switch for quickly listening to recording mix
3. R section for connecting to MP3 or recording
4. Built-in 24-bit stereo effects including reverb, delay and modulation
5. Stage control gives each player virtual stage location in rehearsal studio

JamHub Greenroom

Designed for more musicians with some extra needs like recording to a computer or microphones that require Phantom power.
1. 21 audio channels for up to 7 musicians
2. 7 XLR and 7 TRS input jacks
1. SoleMix™ controls for each section so everyone creates their own mix
2. 4 SoleMix remote jacks (1 remote included)
3. 1-R switch for quickly listening to recording mix
4. R section for connecting to MP3 or recording
5. Built-in 24-bit stereo effects including reverb, delay and modulation
6. Stage control gives each player virtual stage location in rehearsal studio
7. Phantom power (+48V)
8. USB out for direct recording to computer

JamHub Tour Bus

Designed for musicians that need to capture that special moment in rehearsals.
1. 21 audio channels for up to 7 musicians
2. 7 XLR and 7 TRS input jacks
3. SoleMix™ controls for each section so everyone creates their own mix
1. 4 SoleMix remote jacks (2 remotes included)
2. 1-R switch for quickly listening to recording mix
3. R section for connecting to MP3 or recording
4. Built-in 24-bit stereo effects including reverb, delay and modulation
5. Stage control gives each player virtual stage location in rehearsal studio
6. Phantom power (+48V)
7. USB out for direct recording to computer
8. Built-in recording to SD RAM card
9. Metronome built into recording system

The SoleMix Remote Jack

The SoleMix Remote Jackextends the reach of the JamHub to drummers and keyboardists giving them the same control over their mix as the band members.

You may be thinking……

Drummer, we all no their not so quiet. There are a couple options I can think of here; 1 option, use an electronic drum kit but they can be expensive. Or 2 which I think is the better idea, use a recording of the drummer playing back off an mp3 player. Drummers never turn up to rehearsal sessions anyway and at least this way you can shut them up when you want to.

I’m very much looking forward to trying out this great looking product I hope it lives up to the praise.

My First Stage Management Role

I wanted to share with you my experience of stage managing the INFX live “Pick n’ Mix Party”. The event was held on 16th May 2009 at Bucks New Uni’s White Room & Lounge. The event was made up of 9 acts spread across two rooms. The White Room had the band acts.
Performers included;
The Lounge

• Janelle Martin
• Kragel
• Tommy Bennett
• Charlie Gadseon

The White Room

• Basics
• Fyrefly
• God Of Small Things
• Lionsex
• The Stayaways

The day for me started at 2:30pm I met at the venue with the organiser and promoter Hannah. I received a list of acts with the stages and times they would be playing and my crew pass.

I was then briefed by Hannah on the

back line requirements for each band. The backline consists of personal instruments, amplifiers, keyboards etc. The back line instruments were miked and DI-ed. The decision of how to mic instruments was left mainly to the technical team, however some bands that had more specific requirements went through me, I then liaised with the technical team. I was able to negotiate sharing equipment and stage space. The support bands shared some equipment with the headline band this was a decision made after discussing the option with all the bands. Sharing equipment makes for more space on stage and quicker change over times. The headline band used their own bass and guitar amps.
The event was put back an hour to wait for more public to arrive. The Bucks venue is not normally open on Saturday nights I believe this is one of the reasons there was not as many people. (The White Room can normally hold 440 people. A street team was put together to go out and attract more members of the public to come and see the event.
I found myself doing a little bit of everything until the event got started. I set up and sound checked the Lounge room whilst the main technical team consisting of Joe and Scott set up the White Room.
Once the event was rolling I remained on the side of stage to keep an eye on the bands and their equipment whilst they performed. Some groups went smoothly others encountered some technical problems, but I will come back to the eventful ones.
As one band were finishing their set I would locate the next band. I took the band to the green room and explained that once the currently playing band had finished I would strike (remove) their equipment from the stage, encouraging the band to move as quickly as possible, and clear the stage of an unnecessary objects.
I then escorted the next band on stage helped them set up their equipment and made sure that they had everything they need (I treated my role as not just managing the stage but managing the bands to, keeping them happy and accommodating them as best i could). The main things that need changing were removing and re attaching microphones for the drums, each drummer used his own snare, Hi Hat and some symbols, the rest of the kit was lent by the headline band. The other things that needed moving were microphones, bands had one, two or three vocalists located on different parts of the stage. Finally different amplifiers for different bands were used so microphones were re positioned. Once I made sure the band and stage was set I signalled the Front Of House crew (technical team) with my torch to let them know we were ready to start. They faded out the backing CD, un-muted the relevant channels and let the noise commence!
Whilst a band was playing I was looking out for a number if different thing from the side of stage; I kept an eye on the microphones in front of amplifiers some times they can fall out of position luckily this did not happen on this particular event. I watched the individual band members to make sure they weren’t having any problems. I also was watching the stage floor to make sure nothing caused a hazard to the band.

Lionsex were one of the acts I watched out for the most. They are a very energetic band and put on a great show I really enjoyed watching them from the side of stage. At one point during the set one of the guitarists could not hear himself so well and wanted his back line amplifier turned up I advised on how loud he could push the amp. During Lionsex’s set a lot of the band discarded clothing this left a number of jackets, hats and shirts on stage which one of the guitar was trying to kick out the way. I jumped on quickly to strike the items off stage, at the same time trying not to get in the way of the band or get hit in the face by a guitar head being swung round (exciting I know lol). At one stage during the set the drummer played a long drum solo by the end of which he seemed tired I quickly ran on and passed him a bottled water which he seemed very thankful to receive. As the lionsex ended their set I went back out of the stage door to find the headline band, The Stayaways.
Stayaways equipment was already on stage behind the shared equipment. All other amps at this point were struck from stage, The Stayaways equipment was then set up. Before the set started the leader told me that he was getting shocked by his microphone I noticed there was a knocked over cup of water by his feet I quick grabbed a load of towels and wiped up the water which seemed to stop the shocking problem. The next problem that arose was the guitarists amp’s power was cutting out, I changed up the power bank it was connected to which seemed to solve the problem. The bassist informed me that he was not getting sound in his monitor and Front Of House (FOH) also said they were not getting a signal. I switched up the microphone cable to see if it solved the problem. It turned out that the FOH team had not un-muted the channel.

Now the set could start however about the second song in the drummer broke his snare drum we tried to duck tape the snare back into place but it didn’t hold. I ran calmly walked   to the store cupboard and retrieved a replacement snare, which I set up for the drum and struck his from stage. I did inspect the drum but there was no way to repair it there and then. This was not the end of our snare problems, half way through the next song the snare strainer became lose, the drummer signalled to me something was wrong. I went onto the stage got under the hi hat and symbols and held the snare strainer as tight as I could with my hand for the rest of the song, hoping that the drummer or his symbols didn’t smack me in the hand or head, very rock ‘n’ roll I know! Once the song had finished the drummer tightened the strainer. The snare came lose during another song so I did the same thing as before. All I can say is thank god for ear plugs, I could not have done what I did with out them. The drummer from here on out just kept tightening the strainer after each song, and it made it through the set. I was very happy to be publicly thanked by a band for the first time, the drummer pointed me out saying “this guys worked his fucking socks off” this made it all worth while for me .
Once The Stayaways had finished, myself and the technical team started packing down all the equipment. We had finally finished after a long day. I got home at about 4am tired, but I enjoyed every moment of it, it was great working with all the bands.

Mbox Micro Cost Justification

It seems to me that the Mbox Micro is a great idea. However at first I had trouble justifying the price for a so called sound card when it does not include any audio inputs only the 1/8th jack output.
For a full review on the technical aspects of the Mbox Micro check out http://www.proaudioreview.com/article/16592.
So lets do the maths.
An Mbox 2 Mini will set you back around £185 for this you get an audio interface that can handle two simultaneous analogue inputs and outputs. One XLR analogue input for connecting a microphone and two 1/4 inch jack line-/instrument-level (DI) analogue inputs for connecting guitars, basses, keyboards, synthesizers, drum machines, and more.
Purchasing any new Mbox 2 will provide you with the new Pro Tools 8 update. Which would normally set you back £106 for a downloadable upgrade.
Now looking back at the Mbox Micro for £144.
£185 (Mbox2 Mini)- £144(Mbox Micro)=£41 difference.
So yes you are paying £41 less for the Micro however you still are losing out on a lot of the recording features of the Mini. So in this sense for what the Micro is it seems overpriced to me.
However if you are already a Pro Tools user and have not already upgraded to Pro Tools 8 then buying the Micro is a great way to get a packaged copy of Pro Tools 8 and then the Micro works out cheaper.
Lets say you might pay £115 for a DVD copy of PT 8 then you are only really paying £39 for the Micro itself. This now sounds like a much better deal. Not to mention the advantages of having a hard copy of Pro Tools on disk. It is a rather large download so the DVD defiantly made installation quicker.

Drum Hit Replacement/Reinforcement In Pro Tools

There are several different ways of replacing and reinforcing drum hits in Pro Tools. Drum replacement is often done on kits that may have not been recorded well, however it is also used on commercial releases to keep the hit of the snare or kick drum consistent. For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to concentrate on reinforcing a snare drum, but the principles are the same for any other drum hits.
The different ways of replacing drums are as follows:
1.    Using an audio sample hit for the snare drum, and placing on a separate track to reinforce the existing snare. This is useful way when the snare does not have a dedicated track and was recorded with an overhead. Because of the amount of decay there is on symbols you could not replace the snare onto a overhead track because it would chop off the decay of the symbols. If the snare drum was recorded on an individual track then you can place a sample over the original hits of the snare track.

2.    Enforcing the original audio hit with a Midi snare drum. Similar to the above method but using MIDI hits. This give you more control over the sound of the hits after you have done you editing.