# what do you use to jam with?



## Justinator (Jan 27, 2008)

When I play along with music I usually run my ipod through a little peavey 112 bass amp. Recently I tried using a standard stereo and found it doesnt have the same "presence" as my bass amp. The notes are not as distinguishable and I find it difficult to hear over my guitar. What does everyone here use when they play along with their favourite tunes?


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

It kinda depends what I'm doing. If it's just for kicks, I'll run iTunes through my trusty old Sony receiver and B&W speakers. I find the opposite is true, actually. It's easier to hear the mix through a decent stereo rig than a guitar/bass amp that wasn't designed to handle that type of frequency response. What is your "standard stereo"?

When I'm playing to learn something for a gig or whatever, I'll try to find a drum or drum and bass track for it and just play along to that so I can get a better sense of the rhythm without having to worry about hearing the part I'm trying to play as well, or the vocals or anything like that.

If there's no drum track available, it's not terribly hard to approximate it with a drum loop, but that's more just to get timing right than anything because I really don't have the patience to sit and program a drum machine or VST to play the track exactly as I hear it.


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## Justinator (Jan 27, 2008)

Its an old JVC stereo from the 80's, doesnt have a whole lot of wattage and I think thats my issue. If I had to call it anything the one word that comes to mind is boom-box lol.


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## Pneumonic (Feb 14, 2008)

I have an audio setup in the jam room that works perfectly.

I have all of my music on a 1 TB external USB hard drive which is streamed via a Squeezebox unit that is connected to a Hafler DH110 pre amp which is connected to a NAD 2200 power amp which then powers a pair of vintage JBL 100S speakers.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

I listen, learn, practice using my PC which has all my music into a pair of active KRK Rokit 5 monitors. I used to be a big fan of audio systems but since I've had the KRKs I didn't find any use for the stereo system. Altho I should add, right now I have 600 audiophile records sitting in my basement with nothing to play with.  Am still getting myself primed to get a Pro-Ject Debut III/Phono USB which is considered the best USB turntable around.


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

I have a Digitech GNX4 pedalboard with a compact flash card slot. I dump all my backing tracks on a 1GB CF card and run them through the onboard MP3 player into my guitar rig (which is 2 cabs loaded with full-range Eminence 12" drivers and piezo bullets). When I want to learn a new song, I run the tune thru my laptop into a pair of Yamaha MSP5 powered studio monitors. Keyboard amps also work really well for this as they have full-range speakers in them.


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## gtrshow (Nov 6, 2006)

I run an MP3 player into a 100 wpc Sony receiver and out through a pair of large and very efficient Klipsch Chorus II speakers. There's enough volume on tap to safely compete with a very loud guitar amp.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Pneumonic said:


> I have an audio setup in the jam room that works perfectly.
> 
> I have all of my music on a 1 TB external USB hard drive which is streamed via a Squeezebox unit that is connected to a Hafler DH110 pre amp which is connected to a NAD 2200 power amp which then powers a pair of vintage JBL 100S speakers.


+1 to the Squeezebox. I don't own one, but I've set up a few in my time in peoples' houses and they're dynamite little units

Also, kudos on the NAD 2200. That's an awesome little power amp!


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## lbrown1 (Mar 22, 2007)

I run my ipod through my Pioneer 7.1 surround system.........put my guitar amp at the back of the room so it's facing the front speakers....the guitar amp reverbs off the front wall and blends into the surround sound quite nicely


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## avalancheMM (Jan 21, 2009)

*Yikes!*

I am now realizing how old I am! I too use my iPod through a bigger system, usually through my powered Roland DS7 monitors, or through my Kenwood/Klipsch/Sony home stereo. However, I still utilize......wait for it.......CD's!!! Usually with my Tascam Guitar Trainer and headphones. Yikes I feel old.

Regards


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## Guest (Jun 9, 2009)

I'll use GuitarRig 3 in stand-alone mode -- it has a little tape deck tool you can load up the track in, it just gets the music from my iTunes library. My guitar is almost always run direct at home to keep the volume under control. If I'm practicing for something live then I'll run the guitar through my pedal board, amp, and then direct into the computer through the Duet with just reverb on to add ambiance. If I'm feeling lazy I'll just go straight into the Duet and use a sim in GR (of course I can't use my feet to change things then). Then it's either through the Duet to headphones or to Rockit's just like Chito uses. I'd like to pick up the sub for the Rockit's actually. They're fantastic low volume monitors, but the sub would be nice when I do want to turn 'em up and monitor the, uh, "in club" version of a mix.


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## RIFF WRATH (Jan 22, 2007)

cassette tape or cd (located within arms reach) through my small 200w mixer to 2 monitor speakers or through my 1971 :smileioneer shop sterio amp through sterio speakers.........don't own anything fancier........system I use is user friendly and easy to cue.....just play along to the original...........I try to have the tabs in BIG PRINT on the music stand and make notes as to any changes by listening to the tune(s) a few times before hand.........


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

I'm realy low tech. I play the cd through headphones and play along. I can hear what I'm playing just fine through the headphones, but sometimes remove one side of the headphones for clarity.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

mrmatt1972 said:


> I'm realy low tech. I play the cd through headphones and play along. I can hear what I'm playing just fine through the headphones, but sometimes remove one side of the headphones for clarity.


I use my iPod!


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## lbrown1 (Mar 22, 2007)

I also incorporate tape cassettes for recording and playback as well as the ipod


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Boss RC-2 Loop Station. Home stereo (with smallish subwoofer). Laptop with Yorkville powered monitors. My brain.

Peace, Mooh.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

i have an ancient karoke machine that weighs about 80lbs, it has cd and dual cassette. it's the perfect height to put my little fender amp on, while i sit on the bed and play. i usually muffle the amp with a pillow. someday i would like to have cool equipment. for now i make due with freecycle and craig's list.


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## xuthal (May 15, 2007)

I plug my rp200a into my rca stereo,then run my ipod into the jam along jack in the pedal.Pretty good sound for what it is and it works.


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## pdks (Mar 11, 2009)

.
I'm in the market for either a Digitech Jamman or a Line 6 JM4. Both have removable storage (SD or CF cards) and can act as a quick-and-dirty DAW. 

I run the guitar into an electric amp, of course, and everything else into an good sized acoustic amp (Traynor 150W). It acts a mini-PA / powered monitors for me.

.


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## pdks (Mar 11, 2009)

.
It occurred to me that the Tascam (Teac) MP-GT1 is a good jam tool. The 'MP' is for mp3. The 'GT' is for guitar trainer. I use it to learn new songs, especially when I'm travelling. 










It's a toughed MP3 player with unique features. You start by plugging it into your pc, something like an ipod, and copying the songs you want to learn onto the MP-GT1. 

You then plug your guitar (electric or acoustic/electric) into the unit. When you hit play, you can adjust the volume of your guitar over the volume of the guitar part on the mp3 file. The technology recognizes the guitar part on the mp3 file and lowers it so you can hear yourself.

You can slow down the song's speed without changing the pitch, and sections can be seamlessly looped so you can practice tricky parts. 

It's also got some built in effects, but they're not very convincing.

With headphones it's a 'pocket amp' (includes a tuner); or you can run it into your output system (PA, stereo, etc). 

Very cool little device. 

.


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## fretboard (May 31, 2006)

I've used some of the sites suggested in the Theory and Technique folder under the "backing track" threads to download some of the tunes and burn them on to a disc. Head down to the guitar room, get my amp warmed up while I load up the CD in the stereo (stop and wonder why I still have a box of Maxell XLII tapes sitting under table like I'm ever gonna use them again), pick up the guitar, hit play on CD player and jam away. 

If I'm diggin' it, I can import the backing track into my recording stuff and start recording my guitar playing over the backing tracks, but I don't tend to do that too much these days. Mainly if one of my buddies says something stupid like "dude - I could totally nail the singing on that tune, totally..."

Really? Ok then, let 'er rip...


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## Pneumonic (Feb 14, 2008)

hollowbody said:


> +1 to the Squeezebox. I don't own one, but I've set up a few in my time in peoples' houses and they're dynamite little units
> 
> Also, kudos on the NAD 2200. That's an awesome little power amp!


Yeah, man. The Squeezebox is amazing. So much so that I now have 3 of them running along with the bigger brother Transporter. Might be the single best thing in audio I have bought in all my years in the audio game. I listen to music I had forgotton about and never knew I had because of these things. And the Transporter is world class sounding to boot. 

The 2200 I have had since day 1. Ballsy thing with plenty of dynamics.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

usually i jam along with myself- ive got a mackie 1202 vlz pro mixing board, a delta 1010lt soundcard, a pod 2.0, and some mics-
in theory i could toss a cd in my pc and jam along with it, all levels with control, i dont really do that, but its very available. i can either mic an amp, or just use the pod- i mostly am micing acoustic guitars, but should the notion take me, i have almost zero setup time to do pretty much anything id want to do- i use those boom mike stands so its point and play- i can use the pod input, or select one of several mics-
for me the beauty of a mixer versus an interface is having everything already setup- i just hit a button or two and im set, pretty much no matter what i want to do. several mics, several dis and the pod are basically hardwired-
if i just wanted to jam electric with music, then guitar rig would be plenty, with a simple di- or id just play the tune on my home system and use the volume knobs on my amp and guitar-


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