After college, I spent a good portion of my life working full-time at various dead-end retail jobs that provided me with basically no opportunity for financial success. The dream of someday owning a home was very elusive, and saving enough money for a twenty-percent down payment was certainly an unrealistic goal, but from 1995-2005, I managed to save a substantial amount of money by cutting everyday costs (no phone/internet, eating dollar-menu fast-food items on daily basis, not purchasing health insurance, living in my vehicle, etc.).
By 2005, my financial circumstances allowed me to commit to the obligations of owning a home. My application for a sub-prime mortgage was approved, and I purchased a deluxe 400sq. foot apartment in rural America for the bargain price of $80,000.
At the time, the reggae/funk band that I worked with needed a place to practice, so I transformed my living room into a music studio. I lived in (and I still live in) a condominium, therefore controlling volume is important; considering that I share my walls, ceiling, and floor with my neighbors. Using a combination of DI splitters, headphone amps, electric drums, multi-track digital recorders, audio converters, and other technical accessories, I managed to “invent” a situation in which the band can hear our instruments and voices thru our headphones. A few years after assembling my “silent” practice space, a product called the “JamHub” was introduced to the market. This product achieved the same results as my set-up, albeit as an “all in one” device.
As a side note, one of my pastimes is skateboarding. While I rode and listened to music the wire from my MP3 player was always bothering me, so I have since purchased a pair of headphones that have a built in MP3 player. As a bonus, this product can also receive FM signals.
When the band that I’m in performs live concerts, we do it with full volume amplifiers but..... What if we performed a “silent” concert with our JamHub..... and then, what if we broadcast our signal on an FM frequency (simple enough with an FM transmitter), while also providing our audience members with headphones that receive FM signals (cheap enough as listed on Ebay)?
The truth is, if our band did a publicity stunt like this, it would suck, because our group doesn’t attract very large audiences to our concerts (maybe..... one-hundred people). This approach would work much better in a large venue. I’m thinking stadium size. The music would have to compliment a genre that would be willing to embrace technical innovations, so my dream concert (in lieu of my heterosexual inclinations) would host a couple of modern day performers, such as Lady Gaga and Ke$ha, combined with a few outrageous classic pop artists such as Prince or Cyndi Lauper. Imagine a stadium full of people dancing around to music that could only be heard by those who are wearing headphones. That would be stupid cool!!