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Most of the emphasis in reviews of Amp Sim apps these days seems to focus on tone, and the application’s ability to achieve, with flawless accuracy, the nuances of the classic gear we all love.

This obsession with perfect tone in software is a bit misguided at times. With the $60 I spent on AmpliTube for iPhone and iRig, I was mostly interested in a practice solution that didn’t disturb my neighbors, or wake up my girlfriend late at night.

I got exactly that, and the tone was pretty decent considering that I was playing my Gibson ES-135 into my phone.

In addition to being able to upload your own songs and loops, one extraordinary feature that caught my eye was the SpeedTrainer slider. This allows you to slow down the tempo without changing the pitch of whatever song you are working on, perfect for uploading and practicing with Aebersold tracks.

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Tags: aebersold, amp sim, amplitube, guitar, iphone, ipod touch, irig, practice, tempo



It’s a shame when life gets in the way of your blogging. This has been the case with me ever since the holidays, but I’ll be back soon with some projects and interesting ideas to share.

In the meantime, I highly recommend listening to 23 Standards by Anthony Braxton. The entire album is amazing, but as a guitarist I was immediately impressed with the performance of Kevin O’Neil. His sense of timing and phrasing is completely original, entirely different from the funk sensibilities of my old favorites such as Grant Green or Melvin Sparks. Rather than constraining his improvisations to the “in the pocket” feel that most guitar players stick to, he manages to push, pull, and destroy the groove more like an avant-guard tenor sax player.

He also shreds with incredible speed and persistence throughout the entire range of the guitar. I have this image in my mind of him having to buy a new guitar every few years or so after wearing down the fretboard on the one he currently owns. It’s probably not true, but his playing sounds that sick.

Give it a listen until you hear from me next. You won’t be disappointed.

Tags: anthony braxton, Grant Green, guitar, Jazz, kevin o'neil, melvin sparks, standards

An assortment of random guitar samples, mostly of the funk variety, for use with Beatmaker on your iPhone. I wouldn’t recommend trying to make a song with these samples alone, although some can be used together, most of them are at different tempos, and in different keys; as well as being mixed differently.

I just wanted to offer up some guitar samples to the BeatMaker community. The process actually took much longer than I thought. Honestly, I think some of the samples are a bit rough around the edges, but whatever, they are free for non-commercial use, so slice’em up and have fun!

Here are a few examples of what you get when you download the kit. Also, I have included a small .txt file that gives the bpm for each sample to save you some trouble.

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Tags: BeatMaker, free, funk, funky, guitar, Jazz, Jazzy, Kit, samples

During what free time I have, I usually devote my energy to music, or all things audible for that matter, but recently I have begun experimenting with creating visual effects as well.

Original Image

Kaleidoscope Effect

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Tags: cycling 74, effect, ES-135, fireworks, gibson, guitar, jitter, kaleidoscope, math, mirror, photography, spiral, trigonometry, tutorial, wave

After hearing some subtle yet effective use of the wah-wah pedal on Yusef Lateef’s album, Yusef Lateef’s Detroit Latitude 42º 30º Longitude 83º, I was compelled to attempt writing my own “wah” effect patch in Max/MSP.

I’ve been tinkering with this patch for a few days now, and even though I know it’s surely not perfect, I think it sounds reasonably cool. Also, I’m tired of messing with it, so I figured I just post it here for anyone interested, or anyone who can provide some advice on how to make it better. Here is a short sample.

Bear in mind this sample is to display the sound of the effect not my guitar playing. I didn’t spend much time focussing on “getting guitar part right” if you know what I mean.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Tags: cycling 74, DSP, effect, guitar, Max/Msp, wah-wah effect, yusef lateef

I’ve been having entirely too much fun with this awesome iPhone/iPod Touch application by Intua. I put off buying BeatMaker for a long time because of the 19.99 price tag. When there are so many good music applications for much less, why bother, right?

The reason I bothered was that you can upload custom sounds. I searched and searched for a cheaper application that has this same functionality, but in the end I just gave up and dished out the 20 bucks — it was totally worth it!

I don’t really want to make this a review since there have already been plenty of great reviews on BeatMaker, (you can find a very thorough review here) but I do want to show some of what I have been doing with it.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

After playing around, making beats on the train like the one above, and learning the ins and outs of this app, I finally got around to creating my own kit. I used a collection of samples that I downloaded from freesound.org, (attribution page included in download) and I also made some samples using my keyboard and guitar.

I wanted to have an amount of variety with each sample that I created. The C7_Rhodes, Organ&GuitarVamp, and OrganBass samples are probably all best used after slicing down the audio file to a specific section that you want to use. This isn’t a problem because you can crop down any audio file within BeatMaker easily. Here is a little beat I created with my custom set.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Tags: BeatMaker, berimbau, drum kit, electric organ, free, guitar, Intua, iphone, ipod touch, rhodes, samples