Anyone cracked how to have the 'full band playing at home' thing yet?

camf

Given the ongoing cluster**** and general uncertainty regarding rehearsal rooms opening (and quite a few seem to be closing for good, and demand for the remaining facilities is likely to be huge, at least initially), has anyone cracked a low budget way to have your band playing at home? You're going to be able to hear vocals, obviously, but I guess everything else could be muted. Can it be done on a low budget? I'm assuming you'd need an electronic kit, amp sims, digital mixer, IEMs, etc. Is there a low budget setup that could make this work? Starting from the ground up, what would be the best low budget options to crack something like this. 

midiman1962

slightly off topic but i have been back in one of the rehearsal rooms i use for 4 weeks where the owner has set up screens et.c - incidentally we asked him about demand as we have usually been the only customers on a tuesday night and he said it is variable

Mark1960

Slightly off topic I know, but we had a socially distanced band rehearsal last week by having the drums set up in the in the porch of our local cricket club, and the rest of the band outside 2 M apart. It obviously relies on warm dry weather, and plenty of space. All lockdown restrictions met!

camf

Off topic is fine. It all helps. From what I can see, it looks like it's not really something worth making too big an investment in. Instead of disappearing down this rabbit hole, I might be better just saving the money and making the long overdue move into buying a decent IEM set up for myself. I guess that will mean a whole new thread. 

Chris_J

We tried and failed with all the usual online jam sites

camf

Me too. Although this was for having an in-person rehearsal in my flat. I suppose I was thinking of something like a more sophisticated and modern version of the old Jamhub thing that doesn't really seem to exist these days... ironically, given that it might be an ideal solution for the times ahead. 

p90fool

If you're just looking at rehearsing quietly enough to be able to do it at home, yes, that's what we've been doing for the last 7-8 years. 

I have everything necessary to rehearse entirely on headphones, including guitar and bass modellers, IEMs, e-drums and a couple of mixers. It actually works very well, but we just found it all rather pointless in the end. 

Nowadays we just use the electronic drums through an old hifi amp and use three guitar practice amps. We play quietly enough so that the vocals are easily audible unmiced, pretty well acoustic guitar volume really.

I also have enough gear so that nobody has to bring anything except their lyrics, which means we're up and running as soon as the kettle has boiled rather than wasting an hour or more setting up/breaking down gear and loading cars etc.

For us it works extremely well because rehearsals for us are entirely about arranging song parts, but for bands who don't gig all the time rehearsing is sometimes more about having a chance to play through their proper gear.