Band rehearsal using a mixer query

[elliotdrums]

Hey guys, bit of a noob so please bare with me.

I recently got back together with an old project, since we parted ways I purchased a Yamaha EAD10 to mic up my drums. Down the line I purchased a Yamaha Mg10xu which saw use at a few jam sessions just so I could plug their guitars and the bass and vocals in to my mixer as well as the drums. Otherwise just home use playing along to songs. Really pleased with the results it’s elevated my drumming massively.

We got together recently for our first rehearsal in a long time and we were very pleased with how locked in we felt just from having them through my mixer.

We’re a man down though and we want to put the guitar tracks through the PA so the boys can hear them. Have the boys going into my mixer and we also want me to have a metronome.

We’ve got two laptops (one windows one MacBook), the EAD, my Yamaha MG10XU, phones and the PA is running off a separate Yamaha MG10XU (not mine) which is at the rehearsal space. With the gear we’ve got, although we’re happy to buy something if we need it - how can we achieve guitar backing track through the PA and click track to just me through my mixer?

Any help would be massively appreciated. Many thanks

[Arpangel]

Click track via an aux send into a headphone amp?

[sonics]

If the guitar tracks are coming off a computer, then you need a multi-output interface. You can then send a different mix to FOH from the mix you get. The more outputs, the more mixes you can have.

For example, if you run in mono a single stereo output gives you two mixes. In stereo, just the one.

I'm not sure if I've understood your needs, but that's what comes to mind.

[elliotdrums]

Headphone amp we don’t have, would something fairly inexpensive do? That’s one thing I didn’t mention, ideally a budget option while we’re looking for a new member then more serious as time goes on.

Sorry if I didn’t explain it clear enough. To date we haven’t tried having the guitars through the PA yet, it’s just an idea we had to elevate things and I listed the gear we do have available to us in the hope someone might be able to point us in the right direction. We all have interfaces but they’re all fairly inexpensive and basic, two focusrite 4i4s and one focusrite 2i2. Would any of these be sufficient? Just to clarify again; the end goal is guitars backing track through PA, metronome not through PA but somehow going through my Yamaha MG10xu mixer and in ears, also the backing track through my mixer

Many thanks for the very speedy replies!

[Drew Stephenson]

The cheap Behringer HA400 is a perfectly capable headphone amp for this scenario (and a useful little box to have around).
Personally though, I'd try and avoid spending anything more than that until you've tried the guitars through the PA, because (depending on the PA) you might just find that it turns your midrange to mush and you lose all definition on your vocals.

[ef37a]

Hi Elliot, no offence mate but are you good playing to a click track? I was only talking to my son yesterday (Skype, he in France) and the subject came up re a guy he is working with and trying to add some guitar parts to the guy's songs. He told me working to a click is a skill that has to be learned and not everyone can do it well. He has been doing it for 30 years, started with a Teac A3440 in his bedroom.

Yes, 'straight' electric guitar through a PA is going to sound bad, needs some "speaker emulation". And it pains me to say this but for live stage work the mac is probably the best bet!

Dave.

[elliotdrums]

Hi thanks for the replies. Yeah we have not tried putting guitar backing track through the PA yet. I can’t remember what speakers they’ll have but I’ll find out today, one of my band mates actually works at the studio so we get free practice time there, they’re definitely Yamaha speakers and it’s a Yamaha MG10xu desk which is the same as the desk I use to plug my drums into and plug the fellas into for monitoring. I guess yeah we’ll try putting the backing tracks and vocals through PA first before spending any money because if it sounds crap there’s no point. Our bass player wrote all the songs and can play them on guitar or bass but ultimately bass is his passion and his instrument so he wants to play that, and while we’re looking for a guitarist this was the idea we had to play to backing tracks.

I am no professional by any means, the other 2 boys are on the verge of however, one studied and have all the qualifications and fast fingers to show for that along with 20 years of playing/gigging experience. Our other member didn’t study but also has around 20 years of experience. I have been drumming for 16 years, mostly self taught, probably been playing to a click for around 8 years but almost always in home / home studio setting. We play some pretty hectic music, some of its very fast and some with some slower with progressive elements and time signature changes. I’ve played the songs hundreds of times each over the years at home always playing to a click and now I’ve got the mixer and the EAD we want to try and incorporate a click track for me into our live band rehearsals.

If it does sound like crap going through the PA, I’m guessing the play would be as simple as just using the built in metronome on my EAD right? The boys aren’t too keen on wearing in ears and playing to a click but I would really like to, or at least try. We are tight enough without it but I feel like it could/should elevate things for us

[Jimmy B]

I read through this thread and I'm not 100% certain that I know what the OP wants to do.
Is the requirement to make a guitar backing track, then play the guitar backing track, together with all other instruments including drums, via the PA? Meanwhile, the drummer hears all of the instruments, including the drums and the guitar backing track, plus a click track?
If so, the click track clearly needs to be in sync with the backing track, so I would suggest that one way to do this is to have the click track as one of the channels on the backing track (but fed into a separate mixer input).
Or perhaps I have misunderstood the requirement?

[AlecSp]

If so, the click track clearly needs to be in sync with the backing track, so I would suggest that one way to do this is to have the click track as one of the channels on the backing track (but fed into a separate mixer input).

That would be the conventional way to do it.

I read through this thread and I'm not 100% certain that I know what the OP wants to do.
Or perhaps I have misunderstood the requirement?

Ditto - rather lost the will to live trying to read all that...

[elliotdrums]

Terribly sorry if I ruined your day bud!

Vocals currently go through the PA nothing else. PA gets sent to my mixer

Bass through a bass amp! Bass goes to my mixer.

We want to put pre recorded guitar track through the PA (alongside live vocals) so we can do a 3 piece rehearsal (me on drums, vocalist, bassist) but the boys want to hear the guitar through the PA..

And I want the pre recorded guitar in my mixer and headphones as well as click track but they don’t want click through the PA. They just want to hear guitar and vocals. It’s a tiny room we don’t need or want drums through the PA.

I listed all the equipment we have available to us and how we are currently doing it and what we want to achieve, sorry if I wasn’t clear enough….

[Jimmy B]

Got it! Thanks.
Ok, the first job (and the only difficult one) is to make the backing track. I assume that you know how to do this.
As it's only a rehearsal and to keep it simple, I suggest that you mix it down to Guitar(s) on the left channel, and clicks on the right channel (or vice versa). You can play this backing track on any device that you choose.
Now you just need some suitable cables and/or adaptors to plug it all together.