What gear for band practices ?

[AceFireForce117]

Hi everyone,

I come to you as i'm a bit lost in figuring what gear my band needs.
My technical death band is taking it up a notch and we want to be able to rehearse comfortably. Precision is crucial.

Basically we'd want the drummer to have a clic for each songs and play various samples. We'd prefer to use a pc or a mac instead of a pad.
Also, i'd thought we could use this http://www.thomann.de/fr/behringer_ha8000_powerplay_pro8_headphoneamp.htm

We are lucky enough to have our own rehearsal room but
we don't have a huge budget although we are willing to put in what is necessary.

I'm trying to figure out how it would all be setup :

Both guitars (mic'd), bass, vocal and kick trig could be plugged into a big audio interface that would plugged into the pc. Somehow, the behringer headphone amp should be in there somewhere so we could all use headphones. But is there a way so that only the drummer hears the clic track ?

Otherwise we could use a channel mixer to plug all the instruments. then the signal would go to the headphone amp and the audio interface. But i've never tried something like this so i don't know what could wrong.

What are your band's setup for rehearsals ?

If we could use the same or a similar setup in a live setting that would be a huge help aswell.

As you can see i'm a bit confused, i'd appreciate all the help i can get !

Cheers and have a nice day

 

[AceFireForce117]

Nobody ? Not one suggestion ?

I've searched forums and google with no success maybe i didn't use the right key words.
I can't find the setup we wish to have.
Still if someone could suggest a piece of gear or maybe share their band's setup that would be helpful !

 

[rapucore]

My band uses in-ear monitoring while rehearsing (no click) and we've got a mixer-to-a-headphone-amp-setup. In your case I'd route the click to a different output for your drummer.

 

[DanLights]

For the click track and backing tracks, check the backing track FAQ thread, lots of useful information there. I've been rehearsing and playing shows with the drummer having a click, backing track and monitor of guitars, bass and vocals all in his headphones independent of the soundguy. For the others to have headphones, you could use a headphone amp like the one you posted connected to the output of the mixing board the drummer uses (you need a stereo cable for that, if it's a regular mono guitar cable it will probably send on one side only or just not work) so everyone can have monitors, but it's not independent, one mix for all of you. The way I do it, only the drummer has his own monitors and click track, the rest of us wear earplugs and depend on the soundguy for monitors, but it's cool cause as long as we can hear the drums (and that's pretty easy in small shows) we follow without a problem.

For the rehearsal space, I wouldn't complicate it and would just use amps for guitars and bass, use a small rehearsal PA for vocals/backing tracks, maybe mic or trigger the kick drum to hear it more clearly. It's more about having some decent sound conditioning to avoid too much bass so you can hear everything more clearly. Unless you get a bigger concert PA with subwoofers and good fullrange speakers, it won't sound great by putting guitars and other stuff through the PA.

 

[DanLights]

My band uses in-ear monitoring while rehearsing (no click) and we've got a mixer-to-a-headphone-amp-setup. In your case I'd route the click to a different output for your drummer.

If you use a mixer to a headphone amp, you don't get independt mixes right? Same mix for everyone? Or does the drummer have a different set up?

 

[AceFireForce117]

Thanks for your answers
After gathering info from everyone, we are going for a better interface and a pc.
I was not aware that some interfaces had two headphone outputs hehe
In our case i'm thinking about the Focusrite Liquid 56.
First headphone output would go directly to the drummer who would hear every sample, vocal backing track etc + clic.
Second output would go to the behringer powerplay h8000 so that everyone hears everything without the clic.
Guitars, bass, kick and vocals will be plugged into the focusrite so we could also record our rehearsals !

Plus we could just put the whole setup in a rack and use it live

 

[rapucore]

If you use a mixer to a headphone amp, you don't get independt mixes right? Same mix for everyone? Or does the drummer have a different set up?

The mixer has subgroups with separate outputs.

 

[varobinson]

My band just plays to the drummer in a storage unit. The kick drum is mic'ed to same PA the vocalist uses. I mic my amp at a low level just to spread the sound around some. Drummer is about to start rehearsing with in-ear click track. This is obviously crude but practicing in not so great monitoring conditions can be beneficial, too.

 

[DanLights]

Thanks for your answers
After gathering info from everyone, we are going for a better interface and a pc.
I was not aware that some interfaces had two headphone outputs hehe
In our case i'm thinking about the Focusrite Liquid 56.
First headphone output would go directly to the drummer who would hear every sample, vocal backing track etc + clic.
Second output would go to the behringer powerplay h8000 so that everyone hears everything without the clic.
Guitars, bass, kick and vocals will be plugged into the focusrite so we could also record our rehearsals !

Plus we could just put the whole setup in a rack and use it live

If I were you, I'd have everyone have click tracks in the monitors too, I'm used to practicing my songs at home with a click track, and it would avoid having to make up some cues with the drummer for parts without drums and song beginnings. You can make it not so loud so you can hear it clearly when there are no drums and at the beginning of songs, and when everyone is playing it will always be there within your monitor mix.