Archive for May, 2009

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Tone and Elegance, both virtues in an acoustic guitar…

05/29/2009

…especially if you plan to use said guitar in a live setting and not just for practice or songwriting. However, you can obviously still use a good looking guitar to write music, duh. Anyway, you already know that you can use whatever you choose as your songwriting tool. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a guitar; it could be a piano, mandolin, a sheet IbanezAEL10EBKof paper or even something as simple as a pitch-pipe. Keep in mind though, you probably want something that will complement your writing style or primary instrument of choice. Now, speaking as a guitarist/drummer, the Ibanez AEL10EBK Acoustic Electric Guitar is a great choice for its quality and affordability. New to the American Musical Supply site as of today, the AEL10EBK offers features typically found on much higher priced guitars. It has a mahogany neck, back, and sides, spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, and a black high gloss finish so it’s perfect for any situation and playing style. When amplification is necessary, a Fishman Sonicore pickup and Ibanez AEQ-SST Shape Shifter preamp with onboard tuner provides sweet acoustic tones and tuning ease. It comes with both 1/4 inch and XLR outputs so connecting this beauty to a sound system or amplifier is simple and effortless. I would have to say that the Ibanez AEL10EBK has everything an acoustic player could want with a much smaller price tag than its competition, nice!

-Ryan

Posted in Guitars | Leave a Comment »

Try Mixing and Beatmatching without spending a fortune

05/28/2009

There are a dozen people per week calling in to the American Musical Supply toll free number asking about startup DJ CM205setups and the cheapest solution. Well, the  Stanton CM205 DJ CD System may not be the absolute cheapest but it has it where it counts and that is in the quality department. Whether you are a complete novice or have a little experience, you don’t want something that is going to fall apart on you after a few hours of use.  Designed with style and convenience for the contemporary DJ, the CM205 combines the benefit and utility of a dual top loading CD player with anti-shock buffer and full MP3 functionality with a solid Stanton 2 channel mixer. The CD section features a 20-second anti-shock buffer per side to prevent CD skips, ±8% pitch control with pitch bend, and relay play. The fader start feature lets you automatically play the cued song when you fade over to a channel without having to press a button. The mixer section features 2 line inputs to connect your iPod or other MP3 device, or more CD players. The CM205 is iPod ready and includes one iPod cable for plug-and-play connectivity. The mixer also features gain and 3-band EQ (+9/-26) controls on each channel, a user-replaceable crossfader, a 1/4 inch microphone input with volume control and a headphone output with cue pan. Optional rack ears included. Totally set-up for every level of user, enjoy!

-Ryan

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Posted in DJ | 2 Comments »

Pro Quality Sound at Wicked Low Prices

05/28/2009

This combination isn’t necessarily the easiest to find in the world of musical components and live sound reinforcement. Usually, if you want awesome sonic performance, you typically pay the “awesome” price which tends to be very high. tapco6925comboThe Tapco by Mackie speakers on the other hand, specifically the Tapco 6925 PA Speaker offers incredible build and sound quality at unheard of prices. The Tapco 6925 is a dual 15 inch woofer loaded main PA cabinet with a power handling of 1200 watts total. Now, that is the actual rating, not some fudged rating that is only tested for 5 seconds, that is the true live power rating. They also feature premium Mackie-designed compression drivers for excellent hi-frequency response. The cabinet is PVC vinyl covered, multi-ply birch wood enclosures with protective edge bumpers to provide years of service and incredibly tight sound. Unlike the plastic enclosures of the competition, these cabs are designed and built to stand up to the rigors of the road, night after night. Weighing in at a mere 75 pounds, the Tapco 6925 can easily do the job of cabs weighing and costing much more. Combining the best of both worlds, Tapco gives you what you need, killer performance at an affordable price. Get some of these before they are gone!

-Ryan

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Posted in Live-Sound | 1 Comment »

Save Your Hearing and Still Hear the Mix

05/27/2009

For bands and even sound engineers, our ears are exposed to sometimes dangerously high sound levels that can damage our precious hearing permanently. That is not a good thing considering our ears are necessary to create the artheadamp4music we play and hear whether we are playing it correctly. Losing your hearing can be devestating to a musicians career. With that in mind, I want to discuss a simple and effective option for musicians to protect our ever-valuable hearing but still be able to hear the mix to play the music properly. Allow me to present the ART HeadAmp4 Four Channel Headphone Amplifier. I chose the Art HeadAmp4 because of its simplicity and small size. This is not a wireless unit so it is useful for the performer that is typically staying within about a 5 to 10 foot radius. The greatness of this piece of equipment lies in its size, versatility and low price. It is simple to use; just get a shurescl4feed from the sound guy, whether it be a specific mix created from the Aux sends to built your personal mix or it could be just a control room output which feeds the same signal as the main outputs of the mixer. Either way, once your mix is created, you will have the ability to increase or decrease the volume of the sound being piped into your earbuds of choice. Personally I use the older model Shure E2 earbuds but one could use the newer model and even upgrade to some such as the Shure SCL4 Sound Isolating Earphones. Now, keep in mind that this is not a wireless solution so you may still need to use some sort of a headphone extension cable if your ultimate plan is not to have the headphone amp in your pocket, this is sort of a way for your not-so-active band member to help protect their ears without cutting out the monitor mix by using those foam type ear plugs. It also gives you, the performers a really good idea of what the audience is hearing rather than what you typically hear from a standard monitor mix being amplified through a wedge-type stage monitor. This isn’t perfect for everybody, but very useful for many. I hope this helps.

-Ryan

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Posted in Live-Sound | Leave a Comment »

Take a break without stopping the music

05/26/2009

bossRC50In a previous post I talked about setups for guys that have one man bands and the tools they can use to help achieve their independence from other musicians. In this post I would to talk about one of those tools in particular, the Boss RC50 Stereo Loop Station Pedal. Now, I’m just going to dive right in to discuss a way to use this that I have tested and found to be awesome. Think about a gig you played where you were only half done with your set but just couldn’t hold it any more and you needed to take a break to hit the restroom. It’s likely only happened once or twice because it doesn’t look good to leave the stage midway through your set, does it? Nope. One way around that would be to utilize the RC50 in just such a way where the music can keep going without the band even playing it. The idea is simple and goes something like this. Get a feed from the Front-of-house engineer which includes everything, maybe the output B from the board, so that you have a feed offering the same musical elements at the same levels as the front-of-house. Feed that signal into the Boss RC50 via the AUX connection on the back panel. It is 1/8 inch connection so you may need some adapters or cables to get the signal in there. Set your input level using the input signal indicator on the front of the RC50 and just make sure it is not overloading the input. If the signal is too hot, ask the sound engineer to reduce the level of the mix B output until it is good. Now, you will need to get the signal back into the sound system and for that you can simply use a standard instrument cable or 2 if the system is wired in stereo, mono operation should do the trick. Play a song that is just a simple 4 bar groove that can easily be looped…hit the Rec/Play button at the beginning of the musical groove you want to record and then hit it again at the point in which you want it to loop. Simple, but if you don’t time it right it will sound strange and you have to stop playing your instruments right after you hit the Rec/Play button to begin the loop playback. It actually works quite well but you definitely need to practice your timing and make sure to find a groove that won’t get too annoying when it loops for a few bars while you are in the can. Thanks for reading!

-Ryan

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Posted in Live-Sound | Leave a Comment »

Catalog your Live Gigs with Help From Tascam

05/26/2009

I love the idea of capturing all the live gigs which my band plays to possibly use for online promotion on such sites as Myspace, Facebook and the band home page. Live performance, if mixed right capture different energy than many studio sessions can since most studio work is done on a individual basis. What I mean is, in a live performance of your music, the entire band is playing together, at the same time whereas in the studio, many times each member will record his or her parts separately from the rest of the group for better isolation. Now, the point here isn’t get actually achieve studio quality sound but to capture the band in its prime of performance and offer it up to potential fans so that they know what to expect when attending your bands concert. Make sense?

tascamssr1My weapon of choice to capture quality audio without spending a fortune on the unit itself is the Tascam SSR1 Compact Flash Stereo Digital Recorder. This single rack-space unit houses the recording power of even some studios. It records to readily available Compact Flash media cards so you will never need to worry about running out of room, just pick up a few cards and be prepared. It can record in either WAVE or MP3 through its balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA line inputs. It also features a S/PDIF coaxial digital in and out with sample rate converter. The perfect balance between power, versatility and a fair price, start capturing your live performance now!

-Ryan

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Posted in Live-Sound | Leave a Comment »

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