You may not be familiar with the company Tronical but you will know their work because they are responsible for Gibson’s Robot Guitar tuning systems. Well judging by this video it appears that Tronical are about to launch some standalone systems that can be retrofit to pretty much any guitar be it a Les Paul [...]
Category: Guitars
3 ways to improve your guitar sounds in Logic’s Amp Designer
There are a lot of guitar simulation plug-ins available for digital musicians these days. Included with Logic 9 is Amp Designer and Pedal Board – a welcome departure from the older Guitar Amp Pro plug-in. They stack up very well against the competition and are versatile in tone, emulation and layout. In my opinion, the clean amps achieve impressive results when compared to their hardware cousins.
Beyond the presets, there’s a lot more you can do with Amp Designer that is apparent. Toby Pitman goes much deeper in his excellent tutorial, ‘Logic 402 – Logic’s Guitar Recording Toolbox’. Packed with tips and tricks and practical step-by-step approaches to using both Amp Designer and Pedal Board.
In this Quick Tip I’m going to highlight 3 useful tips for guitar tone sculpting glory built-in to Amp Designer.
01 – Move the Mic
When recording a traditional guitar amp there are a two important considerations: what type of mic to use and where to position the mic. The resulting tone can be vastly different if the mic is placed dead-center or to the side of the speaker cone.
In Amp Designer you can choose between using a Condenser, Ribbon or Dynamic microphone emulation from the Mic pop-up menu.
Hover your mouse over the cabinet on the right of the interface (above the Mic pop-up menu) and the Speaker Adjustment graphic is displayed. Drag the white dot to adjust the placement of the mic. Generally, for Rock and brighter guitar tones place it to the side as shown below.
02 – More Equalizers
There are plenty of Amp types and presets. If you still can’t create quite the guitar sound you’re looking for you can mix and match the Model, Amp and Cabinet to build your own custom amp! This incredible… but one lesser known tip is you can choose different EQ types per amp.
Mouse over the word ‘EQ’ and click to display the EQ pop-up menu. From here you can choose between Bright British, Vintage, U.S. Classic, Modern and Boutique.
I find myself tending towards the Vintage and U.S. Classic more often than not.
03 – More Reverb
Rather than insert an instance of Space Designer (or other reverb plug-in) on your guitar channel strip to add space to your sound, you can set the reverb levels directly on the Amp Designer interface. Like the EQ, Amp Designer comes with more than one Reverb type.
Click on the Reverb label (top, middle of the amp) to display this Reverb type pop-up menu.
You can choose between Vintage Spring, Simple Spring, Mellow Spring, Bright Spring, Dark Spring, Resonant Spring, Boutique Spring, Sweet Reverb, Rich Reverb and Warm Reverb.
It’s well worth checking these types out on your guitar sounds. The change to your sound can be dramatic and save you from using a separate reverb plug-in!
Check out Toby Pitman’s Logic 402 – Logic’s Guitar Recording Toolbox to learn much, much more about how to get the best out of Amp Designer, Pedal Board and Logic’s other built-in tools for guitarists.
Cry Baby – The Pedal That Rocked The World
Check this out, Dunlop have made a 25 minute documentary about one of the most greatest effect pedals ever invented the Cry Baby Wah!
Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World tells the story of the wah wah effect pedal, from its invention in 1966 to the present day. Musicians, engineers, and historians discuss the impact of the pedal on popular music and demonstrate the various ways it has been used, as well as how its evolution has improved the ability of artists to express themselves musically. The film features interviews with Brad Plunkett, the inventor of the pedal, plus many other musical luminaries such as Ben Fong-Torres, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Buddy Guy, Art Thompson, Eddie Kramer, Kirk Hammett, Dweezil Zappa, and Jim Dunlop. These professionals explain how a musical novelty transcended convention and has become timelessly woven into the fabric of modern pop-culture.
For more info keep an eye on www.crybabydoc.com
Love The Way You Lie
Gianni Luminati does a rendition of “Love The Way You Lie” with loop pedals, a kids xylophone, a drum set, and a ukulele.
Even if you’re sick of this song you should really watch this
10 Cool Tips and Tricks for GarageBand 11
The new GarageBand features are impressive. You can fix your guitarist’s inability to keep a beat. You can extend that final note of your song. You can even keep track of your progress as you learn the guitar or keyboards.
But before you get the guitar, keyboards or mics out, it’s actually helpful if you know how to use some of the big ticket items without fumbling around for hours. We even highlighted a few little known features to help round out your GarageBand knowledge.
Gibson Firebird X Guitar Features Auto-tuning And Built-in Effects
Not everybody will want tech wizardry on their musical instruments, but if you do, the Gibson Firebird X is definitely something to consider. The guitar features automatic tuning, previously seen on the company’s Robot guitars, and offers a suite of effects built-in. You’ve got the standard pickup selector, volume and tone controls, an 11 position rotary knob for selecting effects such as echo, reverb, compression, distortion, modulation and EQ. There are also switches for mixing effects’ signal strength and changing between the standard and piezo pickups. The inclusion of Bluetooth for wireless pedal switching also takes it one step closer to gadget Nirvana. Pricing hasn’t been mentioned just yet, but it’s expected to be available on a limited run from December 11th 2010, so don’t expect it to come cheap.
(Via Ubergizmo.)
AmpliTube 2 for iPhone, as the Handheld Music Workflow Gets Clearer
AmpliTube 2 arrives today with new effects, recording, bounce to audio, export/import, practice tools, and in-app purchase of extra stomp modules. I’ve been playing with a pre-release version for the last few days. Combined with an audio interface like IK Multimedia’s own iRig, AmpliTube 2 turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a handheld, pocket-able workstation.
ROCKLOCK Guitar Theft Deterrent
Gear Thieves Will Think Twice
New products day or what?!
Obviously spinning off the bike lock thing ROCKLOCK is a terrific idea that is waaaay overdue!
Okay, so this is not gonna stop seasoned criminals from haulin’ off your gear, BUT I kinda think this will keep some ‘honest’ people honest– which is all locks do, and prevent many of those quick phantom, would-be heists that have been known to occur between sets.
AND… if you somehow manage to lose those keys during a break, ROCKLOCK will also double as the capo you can’t lose;)))
(Via Strat-O-Blogster Guitar Blog.)
Roger Mayer, guitar effects maker for Hendrix, Page, Beck
Roger Mayer was an acoustic engineer for the British Navy who in the late 1960s, through his pal Jimmy Page, became the go-to electronic effects whiz for Jimmy Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, and a bunch of other innovative musicians. For Hendrix, he built the Octavia, a pedal that doubled the input pitch an octave higher or lower and, natch, added fuzz. I love the 1968 photo above of Mayer with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Mayer is still in the game, making and selling guitar effects pedals via his site here. And for an interview with Mayer, check out the video below.
(Via Boing Boing.)
Recent Comments