Roland releases V Studio20 for Guitarists

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Cakewalk joint project show cool gear for guitarist / singers who want to create their own demos

Cakewalk Roland V-Studio 20

Cakewalk Sonar is great digital audio recording software but a complete setup can be complex and expensive. The merger with Roland has produced a single box that allows a guitarist. The V-Studio 20 is the third in the series that includes the VS-700and VS-100

The V-Studio 20 is part guitar modeler and part recording control surface. It mates COSM technology and BOSS guitar effects. Plug in a mic and you have a recording surface.

The unit can work on its own or connected to a computer or laptop. The computer screen allows the modeling software to be seen in full screen view.

The specs show 24 bit processing, 44.1 kHz, 20 Hz to 20 kHz (+0/-3 dB), 90 dBu or less residual noise (not real quiet but this is a compact box). They don’t give headroom so that’s hard to tell but if you are recording bass and electric guitar it should be able to handle anything.
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Free Gibson app for iPhone

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Tuner, metronome and guitar lessons on iPhone

Does Nickelback tune with an iPhone? Chad Kroeger with Gibson app

Unlike millions of people who pay for iPhone apps, the only one’s I like are free. Added to the short list is the new Gibson Guitar iPhone app.

Now your iPhone can include a tuner, metronome, and rudimentary chord guide. Included for good measure are some decent video lessons and a link to the Gibson site which is pretty slow.

The weird thing is the graphic of a Gibson guitar headstock is not included.

The tuner works in a reasonably quiet setting, which is a limitation of iPhone audio. It would be handy for practicing acoustic guitar or tuning a banjo, mandolin or other instrument. No 1/4″ plug in so it is not going to work for your electric guitar.

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Polytune tunes 6 strings at once – cool

Posted on January 23, 2010 by Stephen Pate

TC Electronic Polytune stomp box tunes guitars in one pass

TC Electronic Polytune

A new $99 tuner promises to tune all your guitar strings at once.

Possible? Of course it is.

Tuning one string at a time is too slow during a performance. It’s embarrassing to watch an singer try to stall with a lame joke while he/she is looking down tuning their guitar between songs.

The Gibson Robot Guitar tunes all six strings at once and does it well.

TC Helicon are about to ship – - February 18, 2010 – the latest in guitar tuners.

No only does it tell you which strings are out when you strum the guitar, it will narrow down tuning to one string once you find which ones are sharp or flat.
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Digital Guitar Uses no Frets, Strings

Posted on January 19, 2010 by Stephen Pate

The Misa Digital Kitara, an open source, Linux-powered MIDI controller, brings shredding to the 21st century by dumping traditional guitar strings for buttons and a futuristic touch screen.

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Gibson releases Keb Mo 12 fret blues guitar

Posted on December 29, 2009 by Stephen Pate

Guitar freaks might check out all the toys on Guitar International

Keb Mo Gibson

Updated April 19, 2011 with Acoustic Guitar video review

Gibson has a new Keb Mo signature guitar than might suit someone who is looking for a quality small body, 12 fret blues job. The press release is long on verbiage and short on sounds so it’s not easy to tell if the guitar is great or just another “name” guitar.

I’m a fan of 12-fret necks since I don’t play blistering high-note leads. The tone is mellow and the guitars ofter have a longer but thinner body.

The irony is blues guitarists didn’t need $3,800 guitars to get great tone. They practiced and the tone came from their fingers and the primitive sound recording used back in the 30′s and 40′s. Robert Johnson’s L 00 cost about $30 back in his day and you can find a few of them for less than $4,000.

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First Look – VoiceLive 2 quality voice processing ease of use

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Stephen Pate

TC Helicon VoiceLive 2

2nd Generation voice pedal works right out of the box

The new TC-Helicon VoiceLive 2 looks like it will become the standard for performing vocalists for pitch correction, harmony and other vocal effects. It is a magnitude easier than the original VoiceLive to learn and use. I’m taking it to a performance today so that will be the next test.

I purchased the original VoiceLive for a performance vocalists pedal but I never used it in that capacity. My band mates in Expecting Rain complained the pedal was distorting the vocals. Making it follow the singer on harmony was a midi programming job, perhaps for a keyboard artist. It was only last year the TC Helicon released a pedal for VoiceLive that could read the chord or key changes automatically, the Harmony Control Guitar.

Essentially all that is wrapped up in the VoiceLive 2. Plug in the guitar (pass through is recommended) microphone, set 48V and auto set the level, tune the guitar and it is ready to produce some pretty amazing harmony voices. More than 200 different presets are in the box. I spent a night auditioning the first 80, found 5 I liked and quit.

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The perfect valentine

Posted on February 15, 2007 by Stephen Pate

I gave my girl the perfect Valentine. I wrote her a love song called “Your Song”, recorded it in my office using gear I had and wrote it on a lightscribe CD labeled ‘Valentines 2007 Your Song’. She was non-plussed. Next I have to figure how to publish the song on this blog. If you know how to do that, leave a comment please.

The song is a pretty decent love song. I tried it out at Baba’s, Piazza Joe’s and Brennans and people like it. She loves it. A friend warned me not to play it again: his girlfriend was asking him to write one.

All of the recording was done on a Korg D1600MKII purchased two years ago. Every step of the process was a big learning curve since I hadn’t learned how to use the Korg. It’s an all-in-one recorder: 4 XLR inputs, 4 balanced inputs, 16 tracks, mixer, EQ, Fx, pre and post effects and CD recorder. The Korg has a touch screen but most of the command sets are pretty complex and referring to the manual is only partially helpful. Try that with a fever headache. Some things had to be done over and over until I got it right.

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Synthesizer Guitar part 2

Posted on February 10, 2007 by Stephen Pate

CBC came to the house yesterday to film a story. Turns out the camera man is a guitar player. He was intrigued by the Godin midi guitar and Roland synth module. After the filming and while Erin Moore got ready to leave, we jammed for a minute. ‘I real like the sound of that guitar. Keep playing.’

As I get used to how different the guitar is to play and the various sounds, this setup is growing on me. Practicing with headphones allows you to hear exactly what the guitar – synthesizer mix sounds like. Sometimes more is better sometimes less. Each song has different settings. Sometimes it sounds distorted which might be a miss-match between my playing and the patch.

On a Chet Atkins laser disc he sings a nostalgic song about his father ‘I Just Can’t Say Goodbye’. The song will bring a tear to the eye. Obviously I’m not Chet Atkins but I can finger pick the song. With ‘Nashville Strings’ as the synth patch, it almost sounds like Chet on the disc. Tres cool.

Great night at Baba’s – the jury is out on guitar synthesizer

Posted on January 26, 2007 by Stephen Pate

Sorry to take to long to do this. I had the meeting day from Hell yesterday: big name in medical community on disability and then the Minister and his Deputy on disability.

So Wednesday night at Babba’s? It went pretty cool. The guitar / man / synthesizer interaction was a little rough on the first song, Mean Hearted Woman which has a Hootchie Cootchie Man thing going. I was using the hold pedal for the slide from E to G to A. Thought it would sound great – sucked big time.

Audience feedback was solicited and it came. Ivan told me later it was jarring on his ears. OK. Andrea said it sounded noisy. Lucky I dropped the Hold thingy half way through the song.
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Synthesizer Guitar To Perform at Baba’s, Stephen will accompany

Posted on January 24, 2007 by Stephen Pate

Tonight is the big debut for my new guitar. It’s working well enough that if I strum or pick music comes out. That is no small feat considering it has MIDI pickups and is processing everything differently until the output. For example, it makes a music note when fingers hit strings, lift off strings. Adjustments help but you can’t whack away.

With 400 or more different synthesizer effects, its a big job to pick the right one for the song. Will the strings sound silly, too loud or support the mood of the song. This is more complex that just playing. It’s arranging. How well we, the guitar/synth and I, do is up to the audience.
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Guitar Pro Does Not Do Midi Guitar Notation

Posted on January 23, 2007 by Stephen Pate

The primary objective in getting the MIDI Godin guitar and the Roland GR-20 was to use them to produce music notation for the songs I write. Despite written assurances that it would handle the task with the specified equipment, Guitar Pro does not do notation from your MIDI guitar. I wish they had told me sooner.

I have been using Guitar Pro for several years. You can find lots of free tabs out on the web. They can help to teach you what the famous artists are doing. The number of tabs has fallen off as the music publishers threaten lawsuits. At one point the whole Bob Dylan catalogue was removed from the internet! Exactly, you are as shocked as I was. Good news: they moved it offshore and it is available again. Whew!
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