Musical Instruments

The FG800 acoustic guitar is a new offering from Yamaha that features a traditional western body style and in perhaps its greatest feature, has a solid spruce top. Best Buy just sent one to me for this review, so read on to find out why I liked this guitar.

The iLoud Studio Monitor Speaker is a small package that can pack a hefty little punch. It’s meant for listening to music like other wireless speakers, but it also has special features. If you’re a musician looking for a small keyboard amp or software-driven guitar amp, or if you need to check mixes on the go to make sure they’ll translate well to other systems, the iLoud has you covered.

If, like most home or project studio owners, you’ve opted to use a computer as the center of your studio, then you’ll most likely be hearing a lot about audio interfaces.    For the typical home user, the sound card on your computer is just fine. Unfortunately, for a studio owner, you’ll very quickly find that the onboard sound system is inadequate for your needs. They’re typically noisy, they lack inputs and outputs you’ll most likely need and they can be inefficient in the way they translate analog and digital audio.   That’s where audio interfaces come into the picture. An audio interface is a piece of dedicated hardware that you connect to your computer. In the most basic sense, the interface is the audio middleman between you (the real world) and the computer. 

The Marshall name is synonymous with tube amplification and loud gritty rock music. In 2010 Marshall took an exploratory foray into digital modelling with the JMD line but for the most part has remained on the outside of this hotly contested field. That is likely to change with the introduction of the CODE series at NAMM 2016.    

The single channel XSW 1-825-A and dual channel XSW 1-835 DUAL-A microphone sets from Sennheiser offer great sound and easy set up for beginners and professionals.

Although NAMM wasn't in person this year, the Believe in Music Week was a success, and a lot of new products were revealed virtually. Here are some of the most notable ones.

The Shure SRH840A and SRH440A are revisions of classic monitor headphones that will interest audio creators, musicians and podcasters.

Casio's CDP-S360 is a great starting point for beginners or for those that are looking to upgrade to a full-sized portable digital piano.

I’m a gear geek. I’ll admit it.   When I was asked to cover NAMM for Best Buy Canada, I was on cloud nine. The show was busy and we had a lot of appointments with vendors with a focus to get a first look at the exciting gear that Best Buy will be offering you.   Along the way, I HAD to take a look at the gear that I’d love to take home to my studio. Here are some of the products I saw that had me checking my bank account.

Shure's SM58 and SM57 are industry standard for live vocals and many different studio applications.