Musical Instruments

You’ve got your guitar, and a tune in your head. But you also imagine a particular tone you’d like your skull crushing rock epic to sound like. Your guitar is certainly a part of that overall sound, and your playing styles and techniques will certainly contribute. Ultimately, though, your amplifier is what will define your tone. The number of amplifier options and technologies involved seem endless, and can be confusing. How do you even begin looking? I’ll try to help you find the amp that will deliver the sound you want.  

While we’ve been at NAMM, we’ve been hearing about the dreaded Saturday crush from the vendors and NAMM ventrans we’ve talked to. Up until today, it’s been fairly easy to navigate the aisles between the booths. You might get the odd small crowd gathering around a performance, but nothing that would put you out.   Today, the artists showed up for their endorsement deals obligations and the crowds followed.

Any meaningful discussion with an recording engineer will inevitably morph into a discussion about microphones. Just as a closet full of shoes is never enough for a lot of the women I’ve known, a closet full of microphones is rarely ever enough for most recording engineers. There are a lot of different types of microphones and there are a many, many brands, shapes and sizes to pick from. I hope to at least get you started with a road-map of what to look for in microphones and I apologize in advance for setting you on this path! If you’re set on recording as a hobby or career, there’s a very good chance that you’re going to get slightly obsessed with microphones.

If you have a guitar player in your life and aren't sure exactly what to get them for a gift, this blog entry may be able to give you a few ideas and get you headed in the right direction.

The Roland CUBE GX20 is a compact 20 watt guitar amplifier with an 8” speaker and an attitude that aggressively snarls in your face metal. It features independent Clean, Lead, and Solo channels as well as modelling for 6 different amp types. This ensures that whether you’re sitting in your room shredding or running a line out from your GX20 to do some home recording, your needs are met with this lightweight, solidly constructed, and versatile bad boy.

As with any NAMM, there are artist endorsements and demonstrations galore. Just look for a crowd around a booth and there’s probably somebody you know sitting there talking or playing an instrument. Saturday (today) is usually when they come out in force, but yesterday proved to be fruitful.

Get your inner diva or rock god flowing in your own home surrounded by friends. A home karaoke machine will make your parties the talk of the town!

Taking time to work on guitar gear maintenance will help make your next show or session even better. Amplifiers, effects pedals and cables needs TLC too.

Yamaha has evolved their near-field monitor line through the years—beginning with the “industry standard” NS10’s back in the 1980’s and arriving at the latest HS series today. The HS5’s are small, but they pack a lot of performance and value into their diminutive size. I had the chance to put them through their paces in my studio for a few days and found them to be a small dark horse that defied my expectations.

The M-Audio Producer USB was one of the first USB microphones to hit the market a few years ago – ushering in an era of minimalistic mobile recording solutions. You no longer needed a host of middleware hardware to deliver decent audio into your computer or mobile device. USB microphones allow you to plug directly into your computers USB port and start recording. As a solid, professional-looking microphone that’s simple to setup and use, the M-Audio Producer USB is a decent choice in this category of microphones.