By Elianne Halbersberg
Perhaps the most common phrase in music history comes from frustrated parents, partners and spouses: “Turn that damn thing down!” Whether you’re a musician in the making, a practicing artist, or part of a band that jams and rehearses downstairs (because, for some reason, musicians are always banished to downstairs), your attempts at mastering your favorite guitar riffs have caused rafters to shake, televisions to mute and tempers to flare. That’s why you need JamHub, the Silent Rehearsal Studio.
BreezSong’s JamHub was designed to allow up to seven musicians to literally plug in, put on their headphones and play—jamming together while inaudible to the outside world. Each player sets his or her own mix via the SoleMix controls, and the SoleMix Remote ($74.99) even allows drummers and keyboard players to mix from their instrument. It’s literally that simple and that amazing.
JamHub is available in three models: BedRoom (up to five musicians; $299.99) features 15 audio input channels, five headphone outputs, one SoleMix output jack and effects. Green Room (up to seven musicians; $499.99) features 21 audio input channels, seven headphone outputs, four SoleMix remote
jacks, one remote, effects, Phantom Power and USB out. TourBus (up to seven musicians; $699.99) features 21 audio input channels, four SoleMix remote jacks, two remotes, Phantom Power, USB out, built-in metronome, effects, and a built-in recorder that writes to removable SD RAM with a 4 GB card included.
JamHub made its debut at the summer NAMM show in Nashville on July 17-19, and it was the immediate hit of the event, winning two out of five for Best of Show, as well as a Gotta Stock It win. This comes as little surprise, as this piece of gear is a must-have for both seasoned players and beginners. It’s compact, lightweight, portable, comes with a two-year warranty and—for those who concern themselves with aesthetics—it sports a “hip” factor that makes it look cool even when simply displayed at a trade show.
BreezSong’s president and CEO, Steve Skillings, developed the JamHub based on a clear understanding of both personal and industry needs. A guitarist since the age of 16, Skillings holds MBA and engineering degrees and is still a working musician. Prior to launching BreezSong, he worked in product development and marketing at Bose, where he helped create their renowned L1 speakers. The genesis of JamHub came when he learned that a friend’s son had a band that could only play for an hour a week. The family lives in a duplex, and the youngsters had to wait for the neighbors to leave in order to turn up their instruments. Skillings related this to his own band. “Our rehearsals were always blowing everybody out of the house, or they’d go upstairs but could still hear us,” he says.
“Most musicians own products that allow them to play into headphones to be well rehearsed without a band,” he says. “I thought somebody must have created something for entire bands to do this.” In fact the market was wide open and Skillings took the plunge: he designed numerous prototypes of what became the JamHub, then left his job at Bose a year ago to devote all of his time to his new product.
The beauty of JamHub is not only what it does, but also the many needs it fills. Traveling bands can use it in hotel rooms without disturbing other guests. At rehearsals, no worries about disrupting family members or neighbors. For the youngster learning to play, no more feeling intimidated during practice when others hear their mistakes. And for parents, no more of that “fingernails on a chalkboard” effect when a son or daughter is muddling through [song you’re so sick of hearing] for the thousandth time this week.
The need for a product like JamHub was so obvious that by the time Skillings and his staff arrived in Nashville for the NAMM show, their biggest concern was that “someone would come to the market before us with the same thing,” he says. No worries; JamHub stands alone in its originality and functionality, and they have the booth traffic and industry recognition to prove it.
Find out more @ www.JamHub.com.
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