Chris Loeffler

Earthquaker Devices Aqueduct Vibrato Can this vibrato pedal quench your thirst? by Chris Loeffler Vibrato is, by this reviewers count, one of the most underserved effects categories available for guitar. Whether driven by a lazy, 100%-wet LFO modulation for a passable, if uninspiring, coloring of tone or yet another VB-1 clone, one of the potentially most expressive of effects has yet to reach its potential… until now. The Earthquaker Devices Aqueduct is a dedicated vibrato effect pedal that creates true pitch bending through time-delayed signal processing and features three knobs, Speed, Depth, and Mode. The Aqueduct runs on a standard 9v power supply and features true-bypass switching. What You Need to Know With only three controls, the Earthquaker Devices Aqueduct is both immediately accessible and undeniably deep. The Depth and Speed controls provide an intuitive control panel for standard vibrato modes like sine, triangle, ramp down, square, and random waveforms. Three dynamic envelope modes allow for the input signal of the guitar to activate the speed, depth, or pitch of the effect in real time. The Speed and Depth knobs see most of their work happening between 10 and 2, with anything below that being so subtle it will likely be lost in the mix and anything above that veering into the seasick territory of near non-musicality. The Sine wave will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played with modulation effects in the past, and the Triangle and Square waves introduce more dramatic, effected tones that will likely find their way onto future albums but that lack the organic naturalness of their more subtle brethren. The Ramp mode creates a cycling pitch up and dramatic drop and the Random mode seems to pick various snapshots of the sonic cycle of the vibrato effect for a sample-and-hold feel. Aside from the five more traditional modes, the Aqueduct’s really makes its statement with its three dynamic modes. An envelop controlling depth, speed, or pitch responds dynamically to how hard you pick. The rate control sets the sensitivity and the depth sets the wet/dry mix. The result is truly an effect that feels like it lives, breathes, and responds to your playing. Within minutes of dialing in my preferred sensitivity I found myself in complete control of a virtual whammy bar (something I’ve never been great at). With the Depth mode, the vibrato pulses into being based on the input signal, creating an expressive equivilent to using the vibrato arm. The Speed mode takes the vibrato from static to almost tremolo-like statacto before settling down. The Pitch mode, however, is what it going to get most people excited. It's effectily Kevin Shields in a box, perfectly recreating the sound of leaning in on the whammy bar to bend a note into (and out of) tune. The moment I was able to effortlessly lean in to notes and have them bend back into key I found it hard to turn the pedal off. Limitations Without a visual indicator, the envelope controls can be challenging for a first-time user. I found one of my guitars to have too hot an output signal to effectively be used with the envelope modes, and had I not been aware of how an envelope works I could have found myself assuming the pedal wasn’t working. Conclusion Earthquaker devices blew the doors off the barn with the Aqueduct… it does traditional vibrato to a “T” with just enough vibe to be musical without sounding effected, but the various envelope and step modes are what make it a true pioneering effect. It honors the spirit of vibrato as a tool of expression as opposed to tonal coloration - HC- Resources Earthquaker Devices Aqueduct Product Page Buy the Earthquaker Devices Aqueduct at Sweetwater (MSRP $249.00, Street $199.00) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Roland FA-06 61-Key Music Workstation and Synthesizer Could this be the ultimate all-in-one workstation? by Chris Loeffler Roland’s Fantom series has been around in different configurations for a while, showing up in many project and professional studios as well as being a touring workhorse (several HC contributors have been seen with one on the road). The now half-decade old FA06 is still a top-tier consideration for synthesis or general workstation duties, so we’ve been asked to see how it holds up in 2018, given the Fantom’s consistent standing as a top consideration for keyboards under $1,500. What You Need to Know The Roland FA06 keyboard weighs in at less than 13 pounds and features velocity sensitivity, but no aftertouch. The workstation is powered by a 128-note polyphonic synth engine with 16-channel multitimbral capability. The onboard sound library pulls from Roland’s flagship Integra-7 module, and is built around the SuperNatural synth engine. PCM-based programs can use up to four partials, and SuperNatural synth sounds allow up to three oscillators per voice. Single-cycle waveforms feature a couple of different variations, and the sawtooth wave has the iconic “Super Saw” detune option on tap. Two filters—two-pole (12dB per octave) and four-pole (24dB per octave)—are available, each with multiple lowpass, highpass, and bandpass options. ADSR envelopes for the Filter and Amp sections (Pitch has a simple attack-decay envelope) and two LFOs round out the modulators. Upon first use, the FA06’s interface seems almost too easy, especially when compared to the clunky user interfaces Roland has utlizied in the past. The user experience is refreshingly intuitive, with top level features and edits available in the first level of the setting and deeper edits available by holding down the Shift key and pushing another button, including the soft keys under the display to navigate the menus. The large color LCD screen clearly displays what’s happening within a setting without being too bright (the bane of live performance) or distractingly large. There are ten high-level categories, six of which (2–7) do double duty as soft keys in many of the editing modes. While using all the buttons to navigate the display isn’t complicated, it sometimes can take more than a few button presses to get around, and I found myself at times wishing for the modernity of a touch screen on the main display. There are twenty “categories” of tone based on popular instrumentation, each, accessed using the row of ten buttons under the display. The FA-06’s tones are organized into Studio Sets, which can be composed of up to 16 parts of onboard Tones or external sounds. These can be further split and layered across the keys in any combination, so it’s possible to play as many as you want at one time. Ten banks of Favorite sounds each can be stored for easy recall using the Category buttons. Tones, Splits, Duals or entire Studio Sets can be saved as Favorites. Depending on the setting of the Select button, which toggles them between four different rows, the six control knobs handle the heavy lifting of tone editing. The first row sets control Cutoff, Resonance, Attack (amp), Release (amp), Pan, and Level for each sound, and the second set cuts or boosts different EQ bands. The assignable third row allows for customization to meet individual players’ desires. The fourth row of controls dives deeply into the world of effects; each of the parts in a Studio set can have it’s own multi-effect (MFX), chosen from a list of 67 effects (44 individual and 23 combinations). If you plug a microphone into the keyboard you can access Vocoder effects. Said plainly, there is so much happening within the FA06’s various menus that I could spend months exploring every nook and cranny of the software. That said, the purpose of any instrument is to perform, and anyone with a passing knoweldge ofg how keyboards work could be gig ready in under 15 minutes. Limitations As a casual keyboard player, I found myself surprised how much I missed having true weighted-key feel or aftertouch. It can even be fatiguing after multi-hour sessions. Conclusion There is no reason to not recommend the Roland FA06 to a keyboardist or aspiring songwriter. The tones are crisp and realistic, the user interface is as intuitive as can be without sacrificing depth and customization for a power user. Compared to similar price-point keyboard workstations, the only reason I found to look beyond the Roland FA06 is if you’re fixated on a specific brass or orchestral tone. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for power, tone, and versatility, the Roland FA06 has you covered. Few pieces of gear, especially in the world of digital sampling and modeling, hold up this well five years later, and the FA06 sounds as fresh as it did the day it was released. - HC - Resources Roland FA06 Keyboard Probuct Page Buy the Roland FA06 Keyboard at Full Compass (MSRP $1,399, Street $1,299) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

JHS Panther Cub V2 Analog Delay Could it be their most intriguing pedal to date? by Chris Loeffler JHS made quite a name for themselves in the late 00’s with their combination of of modding pedals, cloning discontinued ones, and producing their own circuits. One of their bolder moves in the beginning was releasing the Panther and Panther Cub, analog delays with modulation and a feature set that put it near parity with the venerable Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man 1100. Players looking for true analog delay that exceeded one second of delay time pounced on the Panther Cub, and its legend was born. JHS revised the circuit slightly in in 2013, calling it version 1.5 and greatly reducing the size of the pedal while making a few sonic enhancements, and again in 2018, when they replaced V1.5 with V2 to stand in line with their new, even smaller form-factor for their tap-tempo effects. The JHS Panther Cub V2 is half the size of V1 and V.15, featuring six knobs for Time, Volume, Mix, Ration, Feedback, and EQ as well as side switches for Modulation On/Off and Speed. The Panther Cub runs on standard 9V DC negative power and ships from their factory in Kansas City. What You Need to Know Because the Panther Cub can’t avoid comparisons to the EHX Deluxe Memory Man, here’s a brief tour for those who like to geek out on guts… EHX’s extremely limited (and costly) doubling down on delay time with their Deluxe Memory Man 1100 against their own Deluxe Memory Man originally included the long-discontinuned Panasonic 3005 BBD chips. Due to limited supply of the 3005, only 300 were manufactured during its original manufacture dates of 2011-2012 and again in 2015. A couple of years ago, Electro-Harmonix reintroduced the Deluxe Memory Man 1100-TT with new production Xvive 3005 chips. The JHS Panther Cub was originally released with 3005 chips (I can’t confirm they were Panasonic or Xvive), but changed to Xvive 3205 with V2. While gearheads make much to-do about the chip used in a circuit, the low-pass filtering and companding introduced to manage an unwieldy noise-floor have as much a role in the “analog” sound as the chips themselves. We will get back to that in a few paragraphs, but let’s talk about the JHS Panther Cub V2 on its own merits first. The JHS Panther Cub has the slight noise-floor I’ve come to expect from analog delays, not at all distracting the moment you start playing and certainly not egregious enough to be distracting. The delays exhibit a hint of compression in their initial attack, but not as percussive nor abrupt as many analog delays I have played. The Delay time starts at around 40ms and goes up to 1,000ms at the highest setting. I was impressed with how little change their was in tone from the shortest delay time to the longest, as most analog delays I have played tend to introduce aliasing, noise, and general signal degradation once they creep past 300ms-500ms. The Panther Cub’s delayed tone stayed consistent regardless of whether I was using a snappy slap-back at the lower end or call-and-response one second delay times. At the lowest Feedback setting the Panther Cub produced a single repeat, which expanded to eight repeats by the time the control was on noon. Anything beyond 1:00 on the Feedback knob introduced progressive oscillation that was smooth and musical, with the biggest difference being how quickly the effect ran away from itself. The EQ control is an active Tilt style EQ that is more natural sounding than the typical EQ control found on most delay pedals in that adjusts both the high and low frequencies rather than being a standard high-end rolloff. With the EQ all the way up the repeats are bell-like and bright, and as the EQ is pulled back the delays produce a grittier tone with fatter lows. The Volume control, another rarely seen feature on a delay, reaches unity with the input signal around 1:00 and is slightly boosted beyond that point. While not as aggressively louder as a dedicated boost pedal, I can see why many players may view the option for more volume as a great way to make lead parts jump out a bit more when the pedals is activated in front of an amp that is already cooking a bit in the preamp. The Mix control has the repeats even with the direct signal by 1:00; all the way up is 100% wet signal and all the way down produces no delay. I found a cool bonus tone when running the Mix at 100% with the modulation on; the combination of warmth, compression, and warble create a fantastic music box type sound when playing arpeggios or melodies above the 10th fret. Modulation is turned on via a side DIP switch, with a second DIP switch selecting between two modulation speeds, + and -. The - setting is the more subtle of the two, with about 750ms to complete a full LFO cycle, and the + mode speeds up the modulation to about 500ms per cycle with what seems to be a bit more depth/range the the modulation. Both mods produced about a 1/4 step of pitch variance from the direct signal. There is an expression pedal jack that is assignable for tap slaving to other devices or can be assigned to Time, Ratio, and Modulation if you want to adjust those settings on the fly. Additionally, the pedal can be split into wet and dry signals with a TRS splitter for a stereo field of sound. While I would have loved to have had the modulation go true stereo, it was still a bigger sound when run this way into two different amps. The Ratio control selects between four tap divisions, 1/4, 1/8, dotted 1/8, and triplets. This is incredibly useful for players looking to tap in delay times that aren’t perfect one-to-one ratios as they play. So is the JHS Panther Cub V2 a dead-ringer for the EHX DMM 1100-TT (original or reissue)? It is certainly close and sounds like the DMM to my ears, but not exactly. The reissued DMM 1100-TT (with the Xvive 3005 chips) is slightly darker and features a longer delay time at the highest settings. While the difference was subtle, the DMM 1100-TT I demoed against the Panther Cub V2 was darker and had more presence, whereas the Panther Cub V2 was a bit more airy. The modulation in the DMM also seemed a touch cleaner and had more headroom when hit with a hot signal, but the unmodulated repeats were slightly more articulate in the high-end with the Panther Cub. A final difference that required multiple sessions to suss out was the way the effect reacted to a hot signal, like a boosted signal coil or cranked active pickup. Whereas the DMM 1100-TT has a Gain control to manage how hard the input signal hits the delay line, the Panther Cub doesn’t. One of the reasons DMMs have never found a permanent placement on my pedalboard was that fact that the input signal can distort as much as the delayed signal when hit with too hot a signal, creating breakup I didn’t want in extremely clean but dynamic situations. While EHX has certainly made strides with how the DMM handles this (especially compared to units I’ve played from the 70’s and 80’s), there’s still a line to be walked between enough signal to maintain unity and clipping both signals. The Panther Cub, in contrast, only seemed to be effected with the wet signal, meaning I could maintain my direct signal regardless of input volume and only the delays, which are already slightly smeared, were impacted. For me, that gave the Panther Cub a leg up. Limitations The Panther Cub V2 only has two pre-set speculation speeds and no depth control, which may be a turn-off. They are also recessed, so you’ll need a pick to change which setting you are using. Conclusion The JHS Panther Cub V2 has a chewy, ambient delay tone that is as sweet as it is musical. Without the modulation, it can serve as either a dreamy ambient delay that hovers above your direct signal or the rhythmic syncopatior made famous by players like The Edge. With the modulation engaged, you have two more flavors of delay that further fill in the sound. Given that it’s the same size as a MXR Phase 90, that’s a lot of heavy lifting for such a small footprint. While not the cheapest delay pedal on the market, -HC- Resources JSH Panther Cub V2 Analog Delay Product Page Buy the JHS Panther Cub V2 at Sweetwater (Street $299.00) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Electro-Harmonix Ocean's 11 Reverb Sand, sunburn, and salt spray not included... by Chris Loeffler Has Electro-Harmonix had a time where they haven't been on fire this last decade? It seems like every year they manage to release a couple of game-changing new effects while continuing to beef up the more affordable part of their line with reissues of sought-after circuits and multi-effects in increasingly small enclosures. Leaping off from their excellent and exceedingly affordable Canyons delay and looper, EHX recently added the Oceans Eleven reverb to their assortment. Boasting eleven reverb types, three external controls and a bevy of hidden “second” controls, the Electro-Harmonix Oceans Eleven features mono input and outputs and is powered by a standard Boss-style 9v power supply. What You Need to Know The Electro-Harmonix Oceans Eleven offers 11 distinct type of reverb effect in about as small a form-factor as possible while still offering traditional effect controls. Rather than inventing a new way to describe the various settings from a functional standpoint, I’ll crib from the manufacturer’s site- HALL – the rich reverberant sound of a grand concert hall 2. SPRING – pays homage to the classic Fender 6G15 tube spring reverb 3. PLATE – the lush, warm reverb that got its name because a large metal plate was originally used to create it 4. REVRS – emulates the quirky reverse reverb effect where a note’s reverb fades-in backwards. (Jimmy Page claims to have invented it.) 5. ECHO –sends a recirculating echo thru the Plate reverb. The crisp clear delays get tastefully smudged by the airy plate reverb 6. TREM – reverb plus tremolo that’s applied to both the wet and dry mix of a Hall reverb, your choice of three different tremolo shapes 7. MOD – modulated reverb, three modes. Chorus laced onto the reverb tails creates a luscious atmospheric effect. Flanger wraps around the reverb tails and weaves a hypnotic tapestry. Chorus and flanger combined. 8. DYNA – Swell, gate and duck. Swell silences your notes’ attacks before blooming the tails back into the soundscape. Gate passes the reverb tail thru a noise gate that opens when it detects playing. (Phil Collins popularized the technique by applying it to drums.) Duck compresses the reverb tail while you’re playing and fades it back in when you’re resting. 9. AUTO-INF – Auto-infinite reverb that triggers a reverb wash for each note or chord. When a new one is struck, the previously resounding reverb crossfades to the new one 10. SHIM – Shimmer generates a rich octave-shifted reverb wash that modulates and blossoms behind your signal 11. POLY – Polyphonic reverb, two configurable bi-directional pitch shifts operating on your pre-reverb signal. Combine dissonant intervals with near infinite decays to create disorienting soundtracks, or choose perfect/major intervals to generate creative harmonies when jumping around a key signature One of the ways Electro-Harmonix found to keep the pedal small but tonally flexible was to include second, and even tertiary, functions for the external knobs, selectable by the soft push-button in the center or via different stomp switch actions. The result is the first layer of most common parameters for each reverb type are readily available- FX LVL, Tone, and Time. Less common or type-specific controls are accessed by diving deeper with the Mode button, such as Pre Delay Time, LFO shape, or Octave split. A Trails switch hidden inside the enclosure selects wether the effect is fully-bypassed when off so that the reverb is killed as soon as the effect is disengaged or if the effect stays in the signal path when off, allowing the residual reverb wash to decay naturally once the effect is off. I didn’t dive into a deep A/B comparison, but in the few back-and-forths I tested I didn’t hear a discernible difference to the audio quality between the two. There’s an Infinite jack that allows any mode to have momentary infinite hold of the reverb to play over if you have an optional momentary-latching pedal with 1/4” in. As to how they sound, I found the Hall to create a convincing and musical simulation of a large room but maybe a touch short on character or quirk. Spring mode, on the other hand, drips with personality up to incorporating some of the limitations of the original tube-and-spring Fender reverb, like headroom and a touch of white noise as the “spring” dies out. The ability to “kick” the tank is unique, but it’s something of a one-trick pony as players who really lean in on those effects apply different levels of force on different parts of the tank to coax out specific sounds, where as the effect in the Oceans Eleven is simply triggered. Plate, like Hall, nails a generic version of the Plate sound and behavior without any specific quirks or personality. I struggle using the word “generic” given its many negative implications, but I mean it in the truest sense… the effects sound like a general version of the reverb type should, just not like one specific model. Reverse mode fades the reverb trail in after a note is played for a hybrid reverse reverb/reverse delay sound that is perfect for faux-pads and swells. I heard a few people at the music shop grumble that it’s more like reverse delay than reverse reverb, apparently unaware that the laws of time and space don’t allow for application of reverse reverb to real-time playing. Echo mode throws a delayed echo through the wet reverb signal for a slightly smeared sound. Trem mode is interesting in that it leveraged the Hall algorithm rather than the Spring, and similar to the Echo mode it creates a more subtle version of tremolo by applying it to the reverb side but offers a parallel tremolo effect to the dry signal path. There are three standard waveforms to choose from (sine, square, triangle), going from vintage smooth to helicopter-like kill cycles. Modulation mode modulates the reverb with a chorus or flanging effect and adds dreamy swirl to the reverb. While it can get pretty over the top, I didn’t find it to be nearly as gimmicky as the Flerb setting in the original Holy Grail line. Dyna mode allows for different dynamic overlays of the reverb, such as swelling up as the dry notes decay or ducking the reverb when notes are played and then increasing volume to unity when there isn’t an input signal. It’s a subtle mode that’s well suited to subtle playing where you don’t want the wet effect muddying up the definition of the direct signal. Auto-Inf is a unique hold feature that effectively freezes the last part you play and holds it indefinitely until a new input signal is detected and it clamps down and kills that piece in anticipation of the next. It’s different from the Infinite external pedal option in that it uses an envelope to open and close the hold as opposed to manually holding down a stomp switch. Shim is the now-ubiquitous octave up shimmer reverb effect that swells and adds a crystalline halo to the direct signal. The character of shimmer effects can vary wildly, and the Ocean’s Eleven shimmer mode is a bit more refined and less grainy than similar price point attempts. The default mode is an octave up, but hidden controls allow for incremental pitch shifts in either direction up to two octaves. Poly expands on that even further by introducing two different pitch shifts. While the top-level controls are all set based on where they physically are (except when editing the second level controls, in which case the top-level settings are stored so when you exit editing the second-level controls things stay the same), the second level controls are actually saved even when you change reverb mode and turn the pedal off. Across all settings the theme for me was solid and functional sonic treatments that offer a good balance of ease-of-use and flexibility. Unlike the EHX of a decade ago that released most pedals with such extreme control ranges that there was a good 20%-30% of each parameters range that went way beyond typical application, there really aren’t any “bad” (I prefer the term non-traditional) settings to be found. Reverb gets swampy at the most extreme settings and certainly starts to smear the original notes being played, but never to the point where digital artifacts start popping up or ungainly oscillation and feedback occurs. Limitations No stereo ins or outs Infinite reverb has a slight delay when triggered, which creates dead space if the effect is being run 100% wet. Conclusion The Electro-Harmonix Oceans Eleven is yet another contender for “best value” from EHX, with 11 distinct reverb types, tons of hidden parameters, and the infinite reverb feature. All the reverbs are quality and, with nearly six control options for each one, are recording ready. A serious reverb snob will likely find the Oceans Eleven only gets them 85% of the way to the specific tone they hear in their head, but most players will find it a smorgasbord of nearly every popular reverb type under the sun. It’s more than a sampler… its a full-blown feast. -HC- Resources Electro-Harmonix Oceans Eleven Product Page Buy Electro-Harmonix Oceans Eleven at Full Compass (MSRP $197.10 , Street $147.80) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

BandLab Link Analog Version 1 Audio Interface for Mobile Now you can be creative inside the box! by Chris Loeffler BandLab debuted a family of three portable audio interfaces at 2018 Winter NAMM and walked aways with the Best in Show Award in the “Gotta Stock It” category. As if industry accolades weren’t enough to make the BandLab Link Analog (the lowest priced of the group) worthy of our attention, the fact that it’s a simple, dedicated hardware interface for under $40 is something of a game changer as it effectively puts entry-level recording into the affordability bracket of any musician. The BandLab Link Analog is a simple, one knob audio interface with a single channel of input/output that was designed to pair with most popular DAW mobile apps. The Link Analog is powered by a rechargeable internal battery via USB charging and accepts 1/4”, XLR, or Neutrik input and has two 1/8” outputs, one to connect to mobile devices (or a computer’s audio input) and the other for headphone monitoring. What You Need to Know The BandLab Machines Link Analog Portable Studio Recorder ships in a diminutive cube package that includes the Link Analog device, a shielded TRRS cable to connect the interface to a mobile device or mixer, a micro USB charging cable, and a bare-bones infographic for first use. The form factor of the interface is pleasingly spartan, with a black on white aesthetic and icons in place of text for labels. While there were certain concessions undoubtedly needed to hit the price-point, like plastic connections and knob, the housing itself feels sufficiently suited to the bumps and bangs of life on the go and is weighted enough to stay stationary with the light pulls and pushes of the input and output cables being jostled during recording. Even with consistently careless storage during the evaluation period I didn’t cause any wear or stress on the components. The BandLab Machines series were designed with BandLab, Garageband, Music Memo, FL Studio, and more in mind and I had all four of those, plus a couple of powerhouses like Logic Pro X and Pro Tools 10, immediately recognize the device upon startup. In fact, the Link Analog may be the first audio interface I’ve used that didn’t require a little menu diving in at least one of those programs upon initial launch. It’s worth noting, if you don’t already use a basic DAW, that BandLab is a free app and Garageband is preloaded into most Apple products, so the full price of admission to the world of scratch and mobile recording is still only $39.99. The BandLab Link Audio features a combo input that accepts 1/4”, XLR, and Neutrik cables with an accompanying gain knob to find the optimal spot between increasing input gain without clipping the preamp. There are two separate outputs for simultaneous feeding of Headphones and TRRS to run into a mobile device or monitors. In service of being a mobile solution, the BandLab Link Analog features a rechargeable battery with a 350 mAh battery capacity and a healthy eight hour active recording time between charges. I brought the battery from dead to fully charged in less than an hour, and over the four months of continued evaluation I didn’t experience a reduction in the battery life. An additional benefit to being powered by an internal battery is a dramatically lower noise-floor than other entry-level interfaces utilizing traditional wall warts or USB powering, which introduce ground issues, dirty power, etc. Even players with zero prior recording experience will find setting up and dialing in the Link Analog to be incredibly intuitive. The green LED light indicates the Link Analog has detected an input and is being accessed by software, so it’s easy to see if there is a problem. How does it sound? Removing all external factors (DAW preference, any virtual instruments piled on, etc) I found both instruments like guitar, bass, and keyboards and microphones for vocals or acoustic guitar recording to be clean, neutrally EQed, and with little-to-no white noise in the background. Obviously, when examining the waveforms and EQ graphs for the Link Analog in Logic Pro X and compared to signals captured from studio-grade preamps I was able to see where headroom and some of the furthest reaching frequencies on either end were slightly truncated, but using just my ears I was able to easily capture mix-ready scratch tracks to reamp. The noise floor is exceptionally manageable (considering the price) and even when running a Strat with single coils into a Tech21 Character Series Liverpool with moderate gain there was little hiss to hear between notes. Although the typical application for the Link Analog is leveraging the amps and effects simulators in BandLab or Garageband, I was especially pleased with the results from using an amp simulator in from of the interface for a more “analog” approach to dialing in tone. I tested a few vocal mic classics, like the SM57 and Electro-Voice RE20, and was able to capture reasonably full and rich recordings through basic best-practice mic techniques. While I found a couple mics to require quite a bit of gain boost to reach the level of detail and presence I wanted, the fact that I was mostly working against the character of the microphones is a testament to the transparency of the interface. Limitations There isn’t a clipping indicator on the device itself, so you’ll ned to rely on the input clipping meter within the DAW. No phantom power. Conclusion If you don’t already have a solution for scratch recording, demos, or basic field capture there’s a lot to love about BandLab’s Link Analog… it’s dead simple, integrates across platforms without issue, and is likely the most affordable dedicated audio interfaces available. The minuscule form factor and internal battery are perfectly suited to storage in a gig bag or backpack, leaving the only real question as to whether or not the BandLab Link Analog is for you… do you have a current solution to mobile recording or basic track creation? If you don’t but aren’t ready or willing to drop serious coin on a more traditional recording setup, the BandLab Link Analog is the perfect entry into recording, mobile or otherwise, and will likely you take you a lot further than $40 ought to. -HC- Resources BandLab Machines Link Analog Mobile Audio Interface Product Page Buy BandLab Machines Link Analog at Amazon ($39.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Electro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory Will this pedal leave you loopy? by Chris Loeffler Before we even dive into the unit, it’s worth noting the Electro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory won Best in Show at the 2018 Winter NAMM show. The feature-rich but surprisingly compact aluminum-chassis pedal records up to 375 minutes and 100 loops and has a wide range of essential looper features including two-octave speed adjustment, overdubbing and reverse playback. The EHX 95000 looper ships with a 16GB microSDHC card (can take an optional 32GB card), features six tracks plus a seventh mixdown track, stereo XLR and ¼” inputs (48v phantom power provided for applicable mics), stereo ¼”, monitor, and heaphone outputs, and runs on a standard Boss-style 9v adaptor (a wall wart is included). What You Need to Know The Electro-Harmonix 95000 features a single Clip input control shared across both stereo inputs and allows for stereo panning and mix volume for all six tracks. Dry signal is passed through Left and Right tracks as well and features independent panning and fading. There is a click track (CLIX) for those who want a count in when using pre-recorded background track controlled by a tempo slider or via tap tempo. Loop selection is handled via Next/Previous loop stomp switches, and the LED display will show you the BPM and selected loop. Pressing the Record footswitch begins recording on the selected loop, and the LED display switches to show the progression of the loop in bars and beats. Once a loop is completed, you can step on Play to immediately go into overdub mode to record a new part on the subsequent loop, or Record to stop the recording and immediately begin playing the beginning of the recorded loop. You can also record overdubs on the same track by selecting the already recorded track again and hitting Record. Recording in stereo (two tracks simultaneously) follows the same process, with each side being assigned to a track beforehand. To undo a track, simply push the UNDO footswitch and the last recorded action will be dropped. To entirely erase a track, hold the appropriate track footswitch down for three seconds and it will stop and erase the track. Nearly identical actions are followed to erase an entire loop. It’s worth noting that erasing a track can be undone but erasing a loop cannot. Loops in the EHX 95000 can be recorded in quantize or normal modes. Normal modes create the loop to the exact duration between the Record button is engaged and when the recording is stopped (either by stomping on REC or PLAY). This is the standard version of looping for most people and has the disadvantage of only being as “on” the beat as the rhythm and stomp-savviness of the player but the advantage of allowing for odd-tempo and time signature loops. In quantize mode, the looper intelligently counts out the beats of what’s being recorded Tracks can be mixed down to the stereo mixdown rack at any time by pressing the MIXDOWN button. At this point, the tracks begin playing and any final panning or volume adjustments can be made. The stereo mixdown is a final track that can’t be remixed, so it’s worth noting that you can’t undo mixes from that file, but luckily the Electro-Harmonix 95000 does maintain the tracks as discrete files, so you could drop the raw tracks into our favorite mixing software if you want to continue to be able to tweak volume and pan of individual tracks in post. The monitoring controls and outputs are incredibly helpful in that they are independent from the main outputs and can therefore be used as a true monitoring tool for the click track, headphones, and dry outputs. The Octave function is accessible via a push button and will half the speed of the recorded track (and entire loop) while dropping the audio a full octave. The Tempo slider can be used to adjust the pitch by semi-tone in ½ step increments with the corresponding tempo adjustment. Octaves can be dropped a whole step (half time) or raised a whole step (double time). The reverse function doesn’t alter the tempo or loop length but does entirely reverse the audio on the entire loop, starting with the last note played and reverse-playing to end the loop on the first note. Reverse is a global function, so all tracks are flip-flopped when it is activated. It is possible to record a straight track on track one, put the looper in reverse, record a straight track on track two, and then hit reverse again to have the first track play in sequence and the second track in reverse, but unfortunately it isn’t possible to flip individual tracks without effecting the other tracks, so some planning is required when you intend to use multiple layered tracks with different directions of audio. There are 20 included factory drum loops courtesy of studio drummer Hans Eijkenaar, all of which are authentic enough to not be distracting but characterless enough to not clash with whatever you put against it. Beats run the gamut from straight-ahead 4/4 rock beats to 6/8 rhythms and hip hop inspired percussion. While none of these will likely show up on a professional album soon, their sound quality and utility ensure users are street-ready for one-man shows without missing the beat. MIDI works as it should, although there is a quirk that you need a trigger to start a loop from you’re master MIDI controller. Limitations The first track in a loop dictates the length of the entire loop, meaning if the first track you lay down is twelve bars, that is the maximum length the loop will run. While this is an edge case that won’t impact traditional music arrangement, ambient-chaos performers seeking the ability to loop different lengths of tracks for additional randomness will have to get tricky and think ahead. Audio recording quality is 16-bit, 44.1 kHz. While enough tests exist to suggest that difference between 16-bit and 24-bit audio quality isn’t perceptible to most sound geeks even through a high-quality sound system and even the difference between 44.1 kHz and 176.4 kHz is at most a benefit for headroom and dynamic in high-resolution mixing, number snobs should take note. The 95000 doesn’t feature XLR outputs. Conclusion The Electro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory meets or beats the looping competition in nearly every feature, with an intuitive user interface and immediate tactile access to nearly all its features. Essentially a six-track mixer in pedal form, the inclusion of MIDI syncing means it’s ready to plug in with the most high-end rack gear, and there is an entire world of backing tracks to explore for beefing up live performances with pre-recorded pieces. The biggest differentiator between the 95000 PLL and loopers at a similar price point is that nearly everything a player could want to do is accessible through controls on the until itself rather than menu diving for deep features. As performance looping continues to evolve and expand, its nice to see manufacturers can keep up with increased features and flexibility without sacrificing ease of use. -HC- Resources Electro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory Product Page Buy Electro-Harmonix 95000 Performance Loop Laboratory at Full Compass (MRSP $733.30, Street $550.00) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

JHS Emperor Chorus V2 Does this stompbox give others the big freeze? by Chris Loeffler JHS has recently been unleashing consistently high-quality upgraded takes on sought after vintage classics, and their JHS Emperor V2 Chorus/Vibrato sees them making their mark on the world of analog modulation with a true-to-spec recreation of the Arion SCH-1 Stereo Chorus, a recently “rediscovered” effect on forums that has become something of a cult classic thanks to its use by Michael Landau and Steve Lukather for thick, swirly sounds that tend to fall on either side of the more mid-heavy, subtler Boss CE-2. The JHS Emperor V2 features Volume, Speed, Depth, and EQ controls as well as selectable Chorus/Vibrato modes and three different wave forms. The JHS Emperor V2 is an upgrade from their original version in that it comes in nearly half the footprint and replaces the original true-to-spec Tone control with the infinitely more musical active EQ tilt control. What You Need to Know The JHS Emperor V2 features two modes, Chorus and Vibrato, that adjust the amount of wet signal that is fed against the direct signal. In Chorus mode, the blend is about 50/50 between wet and dry signals, giving a nice, spacious delay accompaniment to the original signal that can get dark or even add a little sparkle to the top end. Vibrato mode, by contrast, takes the signal 100% wet to accommodate true pitch bending and creates a thick but less expansive tone. The three waveforms (sine, square, and triangle) do quite a bit more to change the sound and utility of the effect than I expected. The sine wave is your typical undulating chorus sound, with soft shoulders to the LFO that flow smoothly at all depth levels. The square wave, by contrast, step-jumps between the low and high points of the depth setting for dramatic leaps (especially in Vibrato mode with the depth up, where it almost sounds like infinite hammer-ons). The triangle wave falls somewhere in between the two with hard starts and stops to the ramp direction but no abrupt “skips”. The Speed control goes from nearly five seconds to reach a crescendo in the wave form to stuttering glitches at the highest settings, and the Depth control thickens the wet effect up until noon and then starts introducing pitch shifts that peel away from the direct signal. At the highest depth setting there is a little over a half-step bend to the pitch. Tap tempo overrides the Speed setting and perfectly matches the rate of the modulation to the tap. I didn't attempt using an external tap tempo device to test it as I already have with the JHS Lucky Cat and JHS Unicorn and found them to work flawlessly (even if the feature seems unnecessary given the inclusion of the tap-tempo stomp switch). In general, the wet effect is chewy and rather full-range, occupying a bigger sonic space than some of its vintage contemporaries, and the unique tilt EQ makes it the most versatile-voiced chorus effect I’ve played through outside of the (now discontinued) Red Witch Empress Chorus, although I would say it is a bit more refined in the high-end. One of the sonic signatures of the original SCH-1 was the Leslie-like extreme end of the effect, which was more dimensional and convincing that the competition at that time. I can say that, paired next to my original Arion SCH-1, it nails the sound but strips away some of the white noise of the original until (how much of that is due to tolerance drift over the last couple of decades I can’t say). Yes, there are dedicated effects now that better capture the sound (the Electro-Harmonix Lester G comes to mind), but there is a breath to the Emperor that is richer than simple “swirling”. I found in the subtler settings in the Chorus setting on sine way mode that I was able to coax out a pretty convincing Boss Dimension C “matrix” sound as well. A bonus feature to the Emperor V2 is that it can be chained to their other tap-tempo effects (Unicorn, Panther Cub, etc) to control the rate of all the effects at once. Limitations No true stereo without a TRS splitter cable. Conclusion The JHS Emperor V2 removes all the negatives of the original Arion SCH-1 (cheap plastic casing, flimsy knobs and parts, terrible buffered bypass) and adds a few new options (tap tempo, additional wave modes) to create an infinitely more versatile chorus pedal than its inspiration. Leslie-style doppler effects, glassy crisp chorus, and grungy lo-fi are all attainable and the ability to select between Chorus and Vibrato effects takes the pedal even further. There are some many different sounds hidden in that pastel purple/pink box that I doubt any player will find every setting perfect, but I am positive every player would find their perfect setting. -HC- Resources JHS Emperor V2 Product Page Buy the JHS Emperor V2 at Sweetwater (MSRP $229.99, Street $199.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Ernie Ball StingRay 5-String Electric Bass Give all 5 fingers equal time ... by Chris Loeffler When Ernie Ball, maker of Music Man guitars and basses, tastefully launched some forward-thinking artists guitars these last few years it got many (myself included) wondering what that might mean for their future releases of guitars and basses. The Music Man brand is storied, and the iconic looks never quite penetrated the mainstream the way Fender and Gibson did, but Music Man’s continued to churn out and build a reputation as a player’s instrument, something unique with very practical innovations to set it apart. In the bass world, it was the aggressive midrange and rise of bass as groove instrument in the 70’s that brought the Music Many bass to the limelight, and it’s been (not so quietly) doing its thing every since. As Ernie Ball has proven itself a brand looking to innovate in everything it touches these last few years, its exciting to see it revisit the iconic StingRay bass for this anniversary release. What You Need to Know The original StingRay was known for its heft, non-nonsense aggressiveness, and punch (thanks to its early active preamp) and love-it-or-leave it midrange, and an initial unboxing of the new StringRay immediately took those preconceptions to task. The carefully contoured body looks modern, the maple neck suggested high-end snappiness, and the instrument itself is just damned lighter than I was expecting, even with the heads up there was some modernization in place. Everything seemed dialed in to reduce weight (metal hardware, the subtle body carves) without straying from the icon StingRay look. The bass is full-sized without being unwieldy to smaller players and is well balanced. One of the quirks of the original StingRay was the lack of mid control, and the Anniversary edition handily addresses that with a three-band active EQ/preamp that runs at 18v for pure headroom without turning into a battery-eating monster fed by redesigned neodymium humbucker at the bridge. The humbucker provides a rich, if different than the original, midrange as a platform for the bass’ tone, but the EQ in the preamp really rounds out the highs and lows for the full, high-fidelity sound expected of modern basses. The lows are throaty but clear, and the highs are defined and can be strong but never quite sparkle (a good thing when it comes to competing for space with a guitar). Because I’m a guitar player, I cranked everything to eleven to see how my early 70’s Music Man bass head could handle it, and was pleased (if not surprised) by the take-no-prisoners aggressiveness of the StingRay, even through a 4x10 collection of Fatar speakers. I don’t think most pop arrangements could survive that sort of up-front sonic assault, but there are undoubtedly thousands of brash young men and women who will use that tone to grab their audience by the throat in the first song of their set. Limitations I’ve heard basses with more high-end, and while I wouldn’t want one I did note there was only so much top-end to be milked from the pickup/preamp combination. Conclusion The Ernie Ball Music Man Anniversary StingRay bass squeezes more versatility and function out of a single pickup instrument that I would have thought possible, achieving a vibey, lived-in sound that could hand in almost any application but that isn’t so two dimensional as to be a “signature” sound or behavior. The instrument snaps, booms, and thuds exactly like it should, with each component and design choice clearly feeding in to the final output sound in an intentional way. For an Anniversary model, the StingRay is more forward-thinking than I would have expected, sharing more visual similarity to its early ancestors than their thuggish sonic funk. - HC- Resources Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay Special Product Page Buy Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay Special at Sweetwater ($2,199.99 Street) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

IK Multimedia iRig Stomp I/O Get a foothold on performance technology! by Chris Loeffler IK Multimedia has been leading the pack for over a decade now with their virtual instruments and sound creation software as well as quickly taking over the space for semi-pro audio interfaces that bridge mobile devices and tablets to traditional instruments and recording setups. The release of the IM Multimedia Stomp I/O is the logical next step in their goal to bridge traditional and high-tech approaches to making music for musicians. Clearly designed to incorporate the best of what works in modern effect and modeling units to bring their software to the traditional musicians used to analog signal paths, the Stomp I/O is a USB pedalboard controller. Given the copious amounts of reviewing the Harmony Central staff has done of various IK Multimedia products, both software and hardware, I will leave diving into the deep product that is AmpliTube to the dozens of well-written reviews on this site and focus on the platform/controller itself and how it integrates into the IK library and traditional guitar setups, although it goes without stating that Stomp I/O comes bundles with the most recent IK Multimedia guitar software (a has dropping $800 worth, if bought individually) for both live and studio use. What You Need to Know The IK Multimedia Stomp I/O is heavy, sturdy, and feels more than ready for the light beating that the rigors of the road will bring. It seems like a small thing, but anyone who has picked up a multi-effect or controller that feel too light, has the tell-tale rattle of loose components, or felt the flimsy travel of controls that clearly aren’t designed to take the abuse of constant tweaking knows how easy it is to do ground controllers wrong, and my hands-on review experience never gave me a moment of pause in considering extended use of the Stomp I/O. Even removing the cost of software from the equation, it is impressive to have such a solid piece with so many moving parts available for under the $300 street price. While clearly designed to run Amplitube and integrate with IK multimedia apps first and foremost, the Stomp I/O generously allows the addition of up to two switches or pedals to be incorporated into its platform, so if there’s that one pedal you can’t do without (it’s probably an overdrive or fuzz… am I right?) the Stomp I/O has you covered. Even with over 15 years of MIDI use, I’m far from the expert in deep programing; I found the Stomp I/O integrated seamlessly with my rack effects and seldom used MIDI floor-controller without the typically obligatory manual dive. Because this Stomp I/O is a controller first and foremost, how it handles the input and output signals is the most important thing I could evaluate it ion, and the 1/4" XLR Neutrik combo jack to accept instrument and microphone (including condenser mics with switchable 48V phantom power) were solid an snug, both on the enclosure and in accepting name-brand cables. A balanced stereo output connects to an external amp, mixer or PA for monitoring or studio use and a 1/4" stereo headphone output is available for late night playing. The input gain and volume output knobs are handily placed on the front panel, with VU-Meter indicators for the quick-and-easy setting of levels, much more reminiscent of high-end recording interfaces than the “behind the scenes” placement found own many modern keyboards. I tested the headphones as a monitoring tool in both a recording session and when jamming with friends and was pleased with how well it worked, keeping me connected with the output sound without having me dig around to get a mix right. Immediate integration with AmpliTube and VocaLive, powered with a 96kHz/24-bit audio interface makes iRig Stomp I/O setup a breeze, and you need only add 5-10 minutes if you haven’t used those programs before to purchase and license them. It easily ups the quality output from predicting mobile platforms like the iPad or iPhones I had previously used to evaluate their software, and while “transparent” isn’t a term typically throw around in the guitar world (no, “transparent” overdrive isn’t a thing), the preamps in the Stomp I/O performed flawlessly in the couple of dozen hours I played with them, with no perceivable distortion nor artifacts and any coloring that happened was only to the benefit of the mics and instruments I ran into it. As a floor controller, iRig Stomp I/O’s expression pedal and four foot switches felt as solid and natural as any dedicated piece of gear I’ve played, with immediate activation with the foot switches (I’ve noticed more companies using footswitches that activate when the footswitch disengages, which is maddening to me). The travel and resistance of the expression pedal was aces right out of the packaging, and again, the Stomp I/O feels like a piece of gear that is meant to be played with your feet, and not just a desktop controller in a different form factor. The enclosure deign also incorporates a stand for your mobile device or tablet, which is considerate but I found to be unnecessary given tablet and phone mounts are now readily available for music stands, reducing the amount of bending over I had to do when creating and tweaking presets. Limitations For what it was designed to do, none. While it lacks some of the more marketed expansions of high-end multi-effect boxes like Boss, Line 6, and Axe-FX, there’s a point where endless integration with any guitar processing setup becomes unnecessary, and the Stomp I/O know where that line is. Conclusion There’s never been a better combination of features, integration, and value put forth for the performer looking to move to software-based processing of their instruments that the IK Multimedia Stomp I/O. The software and interface are proven commodities, and the layout and implementation of the footcontroller is an exercise in taking everything that’s worked for other brands and leaving behind anything that’s meerly interesting. I enjoyed how it walked the line between traditional guitar gear and modern sound engineering in its design to create an intuitive and informative (behind the scenes) experience for the more rounded musician who is considering stepping into software. Considering most players still look to tube technology as the “only” way to process their sound, I don’t see the Stomp I/O taking over the way guitars and basses are played in the next year, but it is a solid bridge with no compromises for the modern player more concerned with getting the sound and performance they want than they are in emulating the past. - HC - Resources IK Multimedia Stomp I/O Guitar and Bass Effects Control Product Page Buy IK Multimedia Stomp I/O at Sweetwater (MSRP $399.99, Street $299.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Despite a crumbling record label industry and plummeting album sales (and royalties), there has likely never been a better time to be a musician; gear is affordable, the infrastructure to support live music is mature (some will say past mature and well into the territory of being antiquated), and there are more avenues to ever to reaching listeners. Technology, our course, is at the forefront of the these changes and, as it has done with everyone from pre-teens to doting grandparents, has made us more social. Record labels are dead or dying, promotors stopped raking in serious coin years ago, and music stores, one of the final standing in the concrete deserts that were suburban shopping malls are on their final legs, so traditional avenues of exposure for new musicians are effectively gone. This is great for musicians looking to make a modest living without needing to rely on the corporate machines to pump their music out in exchange for 80% of the profits, but means musicians need to become evermore savvy on self promotion and participate in the dissemination of their music. This move to social media has certainly changed the way things are done, beyond removing middle-men from the artist/listener infrastructure; it has changed how accessible a musician is to the average fan to how big a window listeners have into the conception and creation of their favorite music. In the early 00’s most bands learned the value of a MySpace page as both a place to connect with their fans and a place to control and push their catalog. The coming of FaceBook quickly supplanted MySpace from its dominant throne in the burgeoning new world of “social” media, creating a more fluid and conversational interface that connected people easily and whose algorithms created an addictive stream of personalized content to each user. The file-sharing, unilaterally digested format of MySpace, which was more conducive to playlists and as a homepage to traditional bands, was a superior early option for musicians but as the casual listeners (and world at large) disconnected from MySpace and took up permanent residence in Facebook it soon became more frequented by spam bots than people seeking new music. With no audience participating, most bands moved on, following the masses to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Today, platforms like BandCamp and LastFM provide vibrant, if flawed, digital spaces for bands to share their music and connect with their fans. None have the audience nor the dedication of mainstream social media giants, but neither have the top-trafficked social media sites evolved a dedicated platform for consuming professional media. In fact, their democratization of “content” means that a new song from a top-ten band will still have to battle with the polarity of a low-res iPhone-shot video of a rat showering to stay at the top of the stream, with little archiving or browesability to make it accessible beyond its initial moment in the sun. So now bands are managing several platforms; the BandCamp store for album sales and official band information, their Facebook page to keep casual fans informed of day-to-day antics, upcoming bands, and hopefully have something viral enough that it gets shared beyond your core fans, an Instagram page to reach fans who are more visual or just too cool for Facebook where you share picks from your latest photoshoot, gear and gig shots, and explore your visual aesthetic with likeminded people. Just like you didn’t find the newest Skinny Puppy CD in Target in the 90’s (your likely-now-closed local CD store was your best bet for that), you probably aren’t going to find your favorite deep-genre artist trolling the front page of your Facebook page, so it’s understandable that there likely won’t be an “all things for every person platform” (well, the internet). - HC - __________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Blue Audio Blue Cat's Axiom Multieffect While the cat's here...the mouse will cheer... by Chris Loeffler Blue Cat's Axiom is a open multi effects processor and amp simulation software for guitar and bass by way of synthesizer designers, with a feature set that leads more towards innovation than replication of classic guitar tones. The bundle is built on the Axiom’s Destructor amp simulation plug-in and offers an controls that are founded on deep sonic manipulation. Axiom includes two amp simulations channels that can be mixed together or run in parallel. Each amp channel can be assigned to one of hundreds of presets or built from scratch in Destructor and includes four effect slots . What You Need to Know Axiom ships with 40 built-in effects that can be loaded in any of the 32 plug-in slots, but is not limited to its built-in effects: these slots can also host third party Audio Unit, VST or VST3 plug-ins. Unlike most dedicated guitar amp and effect plug-ins, Axiom includes a tools section with 3 additional slots to load virtual instruments. As mentioned, Destructor is the distortion/and amp sim engine that drives the Axiom package, and it is a behemoth. Built with four stages, Destructor allows you to build an amp from scratch using waveforms and other synthesis nuttiness via a path of Gate/Comp, Preamp, Destruction, and Post-Filter. The typical analog guitar player would do well to start with Easy mode, as the sheer amount of control easily exceeds the most complex modeling amp menu. It is hard to describe what Destructor sounds like, because it can truly sound like anything once you get done tearing apart and warping the various components. What it does well is dialing any sonic tweak... what it doesn’t do well is “Sound like a ‘67 Blackface” unless you know how that sonic signature is made. They have presets, but their naming convention obscures more than most guitar gear. Late Replies is to delay what Destructor is to amp modeling. A fully sequencable 8-tap delay with per-tap effects inserts, 2 feedback loops with effects inserts, pre-fx inserts, post-fx inserts and ducking, the 24 included effects that can be used on the inserts as well as adding VST/VST3/AU effects, or you can just keep inserting Late Replies into Late Replies until you’re CPU gives up. System Requirements Windows • An SSE2-enabled processor (Pentium 4 or newer). • Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8 or 10. • For the plug-in, any VST / AAX compatible host software (32 or 64 bit). • For the standalone application, an ASIO, MME or WASAPI compatible audio interface (ASIO recommended). Mac OS X • An Intel processor. • Mac OS 10.7 or newer. • For the plug-in, any VST / Audio Unit (32/64-bit) / AAX compatible application. • For the standalone application, a Core Audio compatible audio interface. Limitations I had some challenges with the user interface and found the dozens of windows being open confusing at times. Well not unique to Axiom, I found most of the presets to be pretty bad sounding. I suspect some people checking out on trial will never get to hear how great it can sound based on a quick sort through the various preset amps and effects. Conclusion Im not aware of a product built specifically for guitar or bass that does what Blue Cat Axiom does. By approaching guitar rig building by way of synthesizers and deep audio engineering, there is something incredibly exciting for the truly curious. The VST/VST3/AU hosting is an incredible feature that expands Axiom well beyond its own impressive sonic array, with is impressive when most people will never find an end to the sonic shaping of Destructor and Late Replies is easily in the top five delay plug-ins currently available. For guitarists/bassists that enjoy experimenting, there’s nothing comparable that’s targeted to you. If you’re a guitarist that knows exactly what amp setup you want and aren’t looking to innovate, then you may want to keep looking... -HC- Resources Buy Blue Cat Audio Blue Cat's Axiom ($199.95 Direct Download or $199.00 at Sweetwater) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

I was speaking with the guitar player of relatively new band recently as they passed through southern Oregon on their first multi-day tour. They were of course looking for a carpet to crash on and free beer from any appreciative audience members who milled around once the show was over. He got on the subject of their current challenges trying to get anything going in the small town of 2,800 they were from. Not every band or musician can relocate to the sort of big city that is populated with venues and eager music supporters... some choose to stay in their small town, grabbing gigs where they can and banking enough vacation time to strap together a small tour in support of their latest album. So what does that look like? (Obviously, life is a rich tapestry of unique and different things, and the following is the experience of a handful of bands I’ve interviewed that, while true for them, doesn’t mean there aren’t other truths to being a band in a small town) You Play Some Pretty Weird Gigs The smaller population of your town, the less diversity you are likely going to experience. At the very least, that diversity can only be supported by so many people and venues. If you live in a rural town and 70’s country radio is the only channel on the dial, that’s most likely the sort of music that is going to be supported at the local bar. You’re awesome Baroque covers of Depeche Mode songs? Probably not going to get booked as the headliner with similar supporting acts. The typical community is supportive of local bands, however, so you might find yourself sandwiched between hard-core biker blues and bafflingly sincere 80s pop karaoke when you do get a gig. As you can imagine, the crowd-crossover means the audience engagement varies from enthusiastic to supportive to uncomfortable. You Become the Headliner at... Everything Small towns aren’t good at “the newest and latest, but they are great at tradition and keeping what works. As such, it’s not unheard to have the local band who aspires to be the next Radiohead get to bill at the Annual Turnip Harvest Celebration, the 4th of July Firework Show at the Little League Fields, and play the County Fair opening for Jason Aldean. You Are a Local Hero If everyone is famous in a small town, public performers are flat out rock stars. Whether you are a pump jockey in your day-gig or the principal of the high school, people tend to think of you as “the musician.” Whereas in Los Angeles everyone is writing a screenplay, and in Portland everyone is starting an ironic, Ned Flanders themed thrash metal band, being in a band in a small town often isn’t being part of a thing, it is YOUR thing. It makes you unique and interesting. People dig that, regardless of whether or not they like your music. You Eventually Move... Or Move On Pursuing ongoing improvement of your playing and creating music takes time and dedication. It can be the sort of invigorating energy that gets you pumped or results in artistic fulfillment, but eventually, if there isn’t enough external feedback to motivate it gets hard to keep a handful of musician-types committed to showing up to practice and songwriting sessions every week so they can play the same three venues for the same few dozen people. Without the aforementioned infrastructure and audiences of a larger city to provide diverse performance experiences and the possibility of growing your audience of listeners, it’s hard to avoid the feeling of “been there, done that” eventually, which is why most young bands in this situation make the move. Otherwise, you’ll likely find yourself at a point where things hit an inevitable end. In this case, all those things that draw your attention (family, house repairs, grueling work schedule) start to take over your time and space. If music already feels stalled, it’s easy to put it in autopilot and find gigging and creating music demoted to a victory lap once every couple of months with friends. There’s nothing wrong with that end to a band, as music transitions from being a calling to a hobby, and even if you do, you’ll still be a small town hero. __________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Fender Limited Edition American Elite HSS Telecaster A Tele fit for a king... by Chris Loeffler Fender Guitars have been mainstays in music for more than 60 years, but like most iconic guitar brands, their bread and butter tends to come from variations of proven hits rather than pushing for true innovation. The announcement early in 2018 about their new Parallel Universe series of guitars seemed to change that, as their designers decided to ask a whole bunch of “what ifs” and explore how some of their iconic designs might have come out very differently in another space and time. Part of the new Fender Parallel Universe series is the American Elite Telecaster HSS I was sent to review… What You Need to Know The Fender American Elite Telecaster HSS ships in a molded hardshell case with Certificate of Authenticity and comes in cherry sunburst. The contoured ash body keeps the guitar pure classic Tele, and the Nitrocellulose lacquer allows the wood to breathe, promising an ever-improving sound as the guitar ages. The American Elite Tele keeps with tradition with its bone nut, maple neck and fingerboard, and Pure Vintage Gray-Bottom 64’ single coil pickups but then veers with the addition of a Shawbucker neck humbucking pickup and compound-profile modern ‘C-to-D” neck shape. The guitar plays like a dream and will feel immediately familiar to Fender players both in the neck and how the weight is distributed. The frets were well seated and rounded, and the pickups were so dialed in that after doing some of my typical monkeying around with their height and position I realized I’d just dialed them back to where they were when they left the factory. The Pure Vintage Gray-Bottom 64’ pickups immediately produced that Tele snap and quack, with just enough heat to excite an overdriven preamp. The Shawbucker kicks the hum that sometimes (but rarely) came through on the single coils and creates a fuller sound without sacrificing the clarity of the instrument… a Tele is all about being a Tele, and I’ve found poor pickup choices for other Tele’s I’ve evaluated rob the instrument of it’s character. Limitations Such is the nature of pairing low output single coil pickups with humbuckers, care needs to be taken when jumping between pickups as the output level of the Shawbucker is significantly higher than the other two. Conclusion The Fender American Elite Telecaster HSS is about as robust and flexible as possible without being a modern Stratocaster. The build quality and attention to detail of the guitar I evaluated was top tier. While there was nothing so dramatically different about the appointments that it felt distinctly different from other American-made Teles, one of the sweet spots Fender has always found with new product releases is the marriage of familiarity with just enough variation to scratch a new itch, and the Fender American Elite Telecaster HSS handles that in spades. -HC- Resources Fender American Elite Telecaster HSS Product Page Buy the Fender American Elite Telecaster HSS ($1,999.99 Direct) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

TC Electronics 3rd Dimension Chorus A pedal from the Twilight Zone? by Chris Loeffler How the Boss DC-2 has flown so low on the radar for decades is a mystery to me; I assume it has something to do with its relative rarity and the overuse of chorus in the 80’s that led guitar players to shun it for decades. The good folks at TC Electronic obviously have harbored a love for the circuit for some time, and recently released their version of it in their new budget line of effects under the name 3rdDimension. The TC Electronic 3rd Dimension Chorus is a true bypass analog chorusing effect with mono inputs and outputs that is powered by a standard 9v adaptor (not included). What You Need to Know TC Electronic 3rd Dimension Chorus features four buttons that activate varying levels of a delayed signal that create a chorusing effect when paired against the direct signal. Unlike most chorus effects, which rely on modulation to create space and movement, this chorus effect is relatively static, sounding more like a sonic thickener than a wobbly special effect. The four buttons turn on slightly different delay times, and each has its own flavor and perceived level of depth. The more you run at a single time, the bigger the chorus effect. Like trying to dance to describe a color, the only way to truly understand how the different modes sound individually and stacked is to hear them, so I’ll let this video do the talking… For those not counting, the ability to mix and match the four chorus modes creates 16 unique chorus modes, and one of the most unique things about the format of the pedal is how repeatable and reliable it is. Knobs can drift or get bumped by an errant cable during transport, but the four buttons turn on the exact same effect, every time. A big part of the appeal of the original Boss DC-2 was the true stereo outputs, which created a wall of space that was nothing short of magical, so it is curious that TC Electronic made the decision to recreate the effect without that feature. The result is, ironically, the opposite of the pedal’s name… a two dimensional chorusing effect that sounds great but lacks the wow-factor and room-consuming sonics of its inspiration. Limitations The 3rd Dimension not being stereo is a big miss. Conclusion The TC Electronic 3rdDimension Chorus is a sturdy, incredibly affordable chorus effect that nails the sound of the original Boss DC-2 (sans the stereo output). -HC- Resources TC Electronic 3rdDimension Chorus Prodcut Page Buy the TC Electronic 3rdDimension Chorus on Reveb ($89.99 MSRP, $69.99 Street) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Heavy Leather NYC Vegan Guitar Straps Get your vegan on with leather! by Chris Loeffler We’ve reviewed Heavy Leather NYC guitar and Bass straps in the past and found them to be worthy accessories for those looking for extravagant bling that is both incredibly comfortable and and exceedingly well designed for ergonomics. Recently, Heavy Leather NYV released a new series of Artist Signature vegan straps that honor the artists’ lifestyle while carrying forward the Heavy Leather NYC aesthetic, including the Geezer Butler vegan bass strap and Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein Stitches vegan guitar strap. The black-on-black Geezer Butler strap is padded and features over-bound trim to minimize restriction at points of contact, and features a heavy Martexin 38oz cotton insert. At 3” in width, the strap is robust without become unwieldy for smaller framed players. The tail adjustment is made from memory vinyl that allows flexibility without giving up shape over time. The shoulder sleeve features Geezer’s logo in silver. The Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein Stitches vegan guitar strap features the same basic construction quality and dimensions as the Geezer, with a regular and extended tail length to accommodate nearly any instrument (44”-50”). A white stitches motif runs the course of the strap, culminating in Doyle pitchfork logo and Frankenstein’s Monster head places near the upper shoulder of the strap. Both straps are made in the USA with premium marine-grade waterproof vinyl as the cloth foundation. Limitations The review straps I reviewed were brand new, and they carried a distinct vinyl smell for the first hour or two of being unboxed. The odor dissipated entirely in the first 12 hours, but I wouldn’t just put the straps on without giving them some time to breathe if purchased straight from Heavy Leather NYC. Conclusion At $60 retail, these aren’t entry level straps and although the signature flourishes are relatively subdued, these straps will most likely appeal to fans of the respective artists. The straps appear more substantial (bulkier, even) than your typical generic guitar store strap, but they sit amazingly well and distribute the weight more effectively than my smaller go-to straps. Out of the box they hang and support great, and with minimal break-in time they really adjust to your body and posture and almost become unnoticeable. - HC- Resources Heavy Leather NYC Geezer Butler Vegan Bass Strap ($60.00) Heavy Leather NYC Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein Stitches Vegan Guitar Strap ($60.00) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Stories of the death of the guitar seem to rear their head every few years when a major manufacturer, dealer, or retailer faces financial challenges as an alarmist cry of what is wrong with the music instrument category. Soft sales of a particular region or model tend to turn talk quickly to how the market today compares unfavorably with the mid 00’s, while the flood of hip hop, rap, and pop that dominates commercial radio sends industry reporters reeling as they lament the lack of guitar heroes or rock bands leading the cultural wagon. With stories of Gibson’s bankruptcy, the precarious financial Guitar Center continues to find itself in, and the decline of Guitar-centric video games, a new batch of “the end of guitars as we know them” articles are popping up, mostly written as click-bait by people looking to place the blame for slow sales at the feet of an apathetic generation who was raised on electronica and who have workstations and recording platforms built into every smart device they own. So how true is that? Electric guitar sales are slightly down in the US, true, but semi-hollow electric and Acoustic sales are actually growing and there are dozens of new guitar makers at NAMM every year, never mind the hundreds of smaller boutique makers who hawk their instruments locally and on Reverb. There is no shortage of new guitar related gear released every year in the form of amplifiers, effects pedals, and software emulation packages, implying there is a robust community of guitar players already in the game. Most bands headlining the hottest festivals this year have at least one guitar on stage, and even hip hop and rap groups are more frequently bringing full bands to the stage to support their performance. True, epic extended solos rarely grace a modern popular song and the mastery of modes is seldom highlighted by current radio darlings, but these thing come in waves, and the current explosion of channels to discover and stream music has just pushed guitar music into several niches. I can make it my entire life without discovering the hottest new rap band because my playlists and existing bench of music has effectively filled my music listening day. I don’t see the guitar disappearing from the lexicon of modern American music anytime soon, and I don’t see most rising singer-songwriters abandoning the guitar entirely in favor of piano and digital production. What I do see are millions of new guitars being sold in the US every year, hundreds of thousands of used guitars being resold online and in music shops, and even non-musical households sitting on a sleeper guitar or two in case one of the kids takes an interest. Music evolves through cultural tastes and technological advancements, but the roots of guitar run deep in American music and aren’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Don’t lament the (inaccurate) death of the guitar and guitar music... seek it out and support it. -HC- ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

JHS Pedals Unicorn V2 Tap-Tempo Vibe Believe in Unicorns? by Chris Loeffler The Univibe is one of the most classic guitar effects that you won’t find on most players’ pedalboards today, and hails from the early years of modulation solutions. Unlike chorus, phasing, or flanging effects, which rely on resisters to create a symmetrically modulating LFO, the univibe features a series of photosensitive cells under a shroud that surround a LED and manually manipulate the LFO based on the pulsing of the light. In practice, this creates a slightly lopsided undulation that is subtle but liquid. Some of the most notable users of the effect were Hendrix, Trower, Lifeson, and more. JHS recently updated and relaunched several modulation and delay pedals from their early lineup with modern updates, tap tempo (a first for analog Univibe effects), and upgraded components, bringing their take on the Univibe curriculum, the Unicorn, back into circulation. The JHS Unicorn V2 Univibe features controlls for Volume, Speed, Depth, Tap Ratio, and a switch to select between Chorus (blended wet and dry signals) or Vibrato (100% wet). The effect is powered by a standard Boss-style 9v adaptor. What You Need to Know The JHS Unicorn V2 Univibe effect is vintage voiced and deceptively simple to dial in. The Volume control compensates for any perceived volume drop from unity when the pedal is engaged, and I found a healthy boost on the far end of the sweep that boosted the signal enough to overdrive my amp for a sweet lead boost. The Depth and Speed controls adjust the duration and strength of the modulation, with barely-perceived motion in the most subtle settings and Leslie speakers about to fly out of their cabinet madness at the most extreme settings. The Depth sets how pronounced the effect is, and the Speed control allows users to manually dial in their rate if they don’t want to tap it in with the switch. The Ratio knob allows 1/4, dotted 1/8, 1/8, triplets, or a blend in-between tap divisions. The Wet/Dry switch is a call-back to the original Univibe unit, with Chorus mode creating a 50/50 blend of dry and effected signal for more classic modulation tones and Vibrato mode going 100% wet and introducing distinct pitch bending to the overall tone. The Chorus mode feels fuller overall, but there are some fun warped tape sounds to be coaxed from the Vibrato side and the sonic focus of the mode sometimes creates a better fit in the context of sparse mixes. The JHS Unicorn Univibe holds its own against the Voodoo Labs, Shin-ei, and Aquavibe I put it against, standing out with slightly more headroom and treble fidelity. The noise floor is extremely low and there aren’t any of the awkward points in the modulation sweep I find in some pedals where the effect gets congested. The sweep is chewy and the transition of the LFO at the start and end of each ramp creates a cool, Doppler-like effect that I find less fatiguing over extended periods than perfectly circular waveforms. Limitations I would have traded the Speed control for a Tone control for the ability to be darker and more Lo-Fi at times. Conclusion The JHS Unicorn V2 is a small miracle in that it adds modern tap-tempo controls to the classic vibe effect while shrinking it to probably the smallest form-factor I have come across to date. Unlike many smaller vibe effects, which are actually 2-stage phasers, the historically accurate circuit remains untouched. When traditional modulation effects are too exaggerated or the rise and fall too monotonous, the Unicorn steps up with subtle, liquidy waves that take your tone with them without ever overwhelming. -HC- Resources JHS Unicorn V2 Tap-Tempo Univibe Pedal Product Page Buy JHS Unicorn V2 Tap-Tempo Univibe Pedal at Sweetwater (MSRP $229,00, MAP $199.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

JHS Pedals - The @ Andy Timmons Signature Dual Drive Seeing red @ a different level... by Chris Loeffler Andy Timmons is a player’s player and has appeared on more than two dozen albums, so it’s safe to say his pedigree as a tone hound is well established. Known for his mid-forward pushing of classic Marshall amps and thick, dynamic tone, Andy has his feet solidly planted in the camp of Vai and Satriani but with a modern edge. Timmons previously used a signature Xotic BB Preamp pedal to push his classic amps, but he recently partnered with JHS Pedals to get his signature tone built into a box meant to feed a clean(ish) amp with an included Boost to really goose things. The JHS The AT+distortion pedal features Volume, Drive, EQ, Air and Boost controls as well as a three-way toggle switch to select between 25, 50, and 100 watt modes and is powered by a standard, Boss-style power adaptor. What You Need to Know With over a dozen gain pedals in their current line-up covering everything from tweaks on the classic Tube Screamer with the Bonsai to the six-way Muff sandwich that is the Muffeletta, what does JHS have left to say in the world of overdrives? My hands-on time with the JHS AT+ revealed a tweaked version of the Angry Charlie, Marshall Amp-in-a-box tone that is meaty without some of the low-end mush found in similar pedals. The Volume control easily exceeds unity gain by the midway point and can slam an amp hard without even tapping the included Boost circuit, and the Drive control takes the pedal from Bluesy break-up at the lowest settings (with passive single coils) to raging JCM2000 tones all the way up. The EQ control works similar to most drive effects, boosting the lows while taming the highs counter-clockwise and pushing the highs forward while attenuating bass clockwise on the dial. The Air control fine-tunes the EQ setting, similar to the Presence control on a modern Marshall, and adjusts the frequencies and peak of the high frequencies. I found the two controls to be very interactive, and started with the Air at noon to dial in the EQ to where it fit best with my amp and the general mix and made tweaks to the Air control from there for maximum articulation. The 25/50/100 switch is interesting in that it feels like it is handling a few things at once- the compression of the overdrive, the headroom, and the overall output volume. In the 25 Watt mode, The AT+ sounds the most “pedal-like” and constricted, with pretty heavy compression and a fairly contained sound that really shows well in the context of recording, where it keeps to its own and occupies a very specific space. The 100 Watt setting, the other extreme, is enormously louder in output volume than the 25 Watt mode and is much more open. Chords and articulate passages stand out the most in this mode, but there’s a bit less of the classic Marshall focus exhibited. The 50 Watt mode falls squarely in-between the two mode, balancing compression with articulation and volume. The Boost side of the pedal is loud and clean, with a touch for textured grit added at extreme settings but no real EQ shift. Because it’s placed before the Drive section, it can be used either independently or to slam the front of the Drive circuit for an even creamier, longer sustained gain stage. The AT+performs equally as well with chords as it does with leads, and unlike a lot of Marshall-inspired effects it doesn’t hide your playing. Fumbled runs and “not quite there” chord fingerings don’t get lost in the distortion, and it’s exactly the type of voicing I’d expect from a technical player like Timmons. It performs particularly well in front of a clean amp and turned my Fender Pro Reverb into a modern sounding monster. The bottom end can get a little flabby if the Air control is in the bottom quarter of the dial, but I’ve yet to find a sonic need to EQ it as such (even with a relatively shrill Super Reverb). Limitations Like most overdrive/distortion effects the JHS The AT+ has places where it shines and areas it is limited. Extremely low gain settings to “warm up” your tone more than distort it are hard to come by with high-output hum bucking pickups. Conclusion The JHS The AT+ Andy Timmon’s signature distortion is one of the most articulate “Marshall in a box” pedals I’ve played, with extra versatility and care given to the Air and 25/50/100 controls to tailor a tone to your exact rig without giving up the flavor of the effect itself. Resources JHS The @ Andy Timmons Distortion Product Page Buy JHS The @ Andy Timmons Distortion ($219.00 Street) @ Sweetwater ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Spire Mobile Studio Recording System Remember when 'mobile studio' meant a van? by Chris Loeffler iZotope Spire Studio recently completed its Kickstarter campaign and is a multitrack recorder that combines hardware recording with an iOS app for deep control that allows up to 8 tracks of 24-bit audio. The Spire automatically sets input levels based on its assessment of the signal it’s receiving and provides options for mixing, effects, exporting and sharing your music. What You Need To Know The Spire’s physical recording package is small enough to fit into a gig bag and, in conjunction with an iOS device, creates a powerful and portable recording bundle. Equipped with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a four-hour capacity, the Spire can also be powered in real time with the included AC adapter. The Spire seems to be built around the concept that most musicians lack deep recording experience and knowledge, and operates via an exceptionally simplified user interface to give access to everything needed to polish a track, featuring as much automation in mixing and EQ as possible. This ease of use is a godsend for players not looking to master audio engineering, but leaves enough control for those with well-honed studio experience to capture mix-ready scratch tracks. The top panel on the Spire Studio hardware device has a touch-sensitive display that lights up with status indicators for various functions such as headphone and microphone level and track activity. The five physical buttons include Play, Record, New Song, Soundcheck, and Volume. The Biggest surprise the Spire held for me was how good the built-in omnidirectional mono condenser mic sounds. Acoustic guitars, vocals, and light hand percussion all recorded large and detailed, and whatever combination of software and hardware the Spitre uses organically dropped virtually all the room noise without compromising the fullness of the instruments. It has plenty of gain and is surprisingly quiet. Connecting instruments and external mics to the Spire Is as simple as using the included combo jacks to feed the Grace Design preamps that form the heart of the unit. Phantom power is available, and a handy lighted power button functions as a battery status indicator. The spire allows for up to six hours of recorded music to be stored internally (that’s an hour of six track recording), which can be downloaded to your personal computer for archiving or mixing/mastering within you primary DAW. The Spire Studio app is a free app and runs on an iPhone or iPad. WiFi setup to the Spire is a breeze and is accomplished in a few minutes the first time and then is nearly instantaneous. The app is built around projects and lets you launch, preview, or delete existing projects in addition to creating a new one. The Spire Studio supports AIFF, WAV (stereo only), m4a and mp3 formats and can also import preexisting audio files. The recording and mixing process is as intuitive as possible without doing everything for you, and the visual interface is a 101 class to get you what you want. The Soundcheck feature is an optional, automatic level-setting feature accessible from either the app or the hardware unit that automatically adjusts the input level to an appropriate setting, allowing recording without the worry of unwanted distortion. Monitoring On, helpfully, lets you monitor a track’s input in the headphones without affecting playback. The Recording Effects option includes seven effects. Three of them are amp models; a clean Fender-like amp with tremolo and reverb, an AC30-style amp with tremolo, and a bass amp. All have simple EQ, and the AC30 and Bass models have Drive controls. The other effects category, Spaces, has four delay/reverb effects, all of which have good default settings and can be tweaked. While there aren’t user-controlled EQ or compressor settings, there is no doubt there is some EQ and compression tone sweetening going on behind the scenes as is evidenced in the polished recording. Tracks you record have a finished sound to them, which is like magic for the novice, but might irk a mixing purist. I was somewhat surprised to discover that the Spire Studio’s effects are only available on input, requiring you to commit to a particular effect and setting in advance if you want to use it. The Spire Studio app only offers rudimentary waveform editing; there aren’t cut, copy and paste editing options, which is limiting, and it only offers limited zooming of the waveform display. Each track in the app’s Mixer page is represented by a circle, which you can drag up or down to change its volume and side to side to change its panning position. The mixer is easy to use and makes level setting and panning very intuitive. The option exists to mute individual tracks as well as changing tracks that have been converted to stereo by the effects to mono. You can export the entire mix as an M4a file, send it to Sound-Cloud or another music app on your mobile device, or share it to another Apple device using AirDrop. Individual tracks can be exported as 24-bit WAV files to import into your DAW, which most seasoned studio guys will probably want to do. You can also export a Spire Studio project file (.spire) for archiving in your PC or Mac. Limitations Effects can only be added on input. Rudimentary editing features. Conclusion The Spire is a highly portable, self-contained way to capture high quality recordings either through direct inputs or via the built-in microphone. Wi-Fi connectivity and app controls are so seamless they are nearly invisible in the user interface and everything just works well, especially for the low price of entry. While deeper users may miss the ability to apply additional effects during mix down, they likely already have the tools to do it in their main DAW. If you don’t already have a portable solution for capturing quality recordings in the move, the Spire might be just what you’re looking for. -HC- Resources iZotope Spire Studio Product Page ($349.99 Street) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo Pedal When you just need to express yourself ... by Chris Loeffler Ernie Ball released the Expression Overdrive and Expression Delay, the first two pedals in the Expression line, to great acclaim last year for players looking for more flexibility from classic effects types. By having the most tweaked aspect of an overdrive (gain) or delay (blend) controllable via foot pedal, fine-tuning textures on the fly suddenly became much easier, and thus the effect use more expressive. Ernie Ball teased a new addition to the Ernie Ball Expression line at Winter NAMM of 2018, the Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo, and has finally released the pedal to retailers throughout the US. The Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo features controls for Depth, Rate, Wave Shape, and Reverb and runs an a standard 9v power supply. What You Need to Know The Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo offers five modes of classic tremolo (slow rise, slow fall, sine, square, and harmonic) and adds a classic spring reverb emulation to blend in (or not) as you see fit. The slow rise mode creates a rhythmic LFO that rises from no signal to full signal for a ramped swell while the slow fall mode does the opposite and starts the tremolo cycle at the highest volume and drops off to near-full signal cut. Either way, the tremolo sounds like ocean waves crashing over each other as opposed to the symmetrical warble of a vintage tremolo. The sine and square modes produce the most standard and amp-like of tremolo styles, with a smooth, undulating wave in the sine mode and a choppy, almost on-off stutter in the square wave mode. Placed head-to-head with a 1966 Fender Super Reverb’s tremolo, the sine mode was eerily similar in behavior, with the difference being it could go much faster and much slower than the amp’s limited range. The square wave almost sounds like a sequenced synthesizer at the most extreme settings, with carefully timed arpeggio work yielding start/stop patterns that could have been created by a keyboard. The harmonic tremolo mode is the most radical of the available modes, moving beyond amplitude (volume) modulation and into the swirly world of cross-phase shifted chewy sweeps that sounds similar to, but not exactly like, a cross between a Univibe, a phaser, a tremolo, and an envelope filter. In short, it could stand in for any of those classic modulation effects, but has its own unique flavor. The expression pedal is ingeniously designed to be assigned to either the depth, the rate, or both. When solely dedicated to the depth control, the expression pedal effectively fades the effect in and out to allow for more dynamics between subtle and in-your-face throb of the tremolo. When dedicated to the rate control and used similar to how guitar players use vibrato on sustained notes you can make it should like a helicopter taking off or landing with each sustained note, the sort of effect rarely achieved outside of studio trickery before now. Things really kick into overdrive when you tether both the rate and depth to the expression pedal and the depth and speed increase or decrease at the same time. In practice, it sounds like all Hell breaking loose at the most extreme settings, with incrementally deeper tremolo cuts as the speed goes from a lazy throb to near ring modulation inducing speeds. The Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo is housed in a sealed aircraft aluminum chassis for a sturdy enclosure that feels up to the rigors of the road and provides a solid platform for fancy expression work without slipping. The knobs feel more solid than your typical effect, with tight, concise travel, and the treadle mechanic between the expression pedal and the enclosure is perfectly tensioned to lock in at any point in the sweep without pulling away nor timidly setting in when left half-cocked. The Ernie Ball Expression tremolo screams build quality. Limitations Modern feature sets have really spoiled me, and while there’s absolutely nothing to fault the Expression Tremolo from a sonic standpoint, it would have been icing on the cake for true stereo-outputs for stereo panning and the harmonic tremolo modes for those with two amp setups. Conclusion While tap-tempo has begun to show up on more tremolo effects, the pure flexibility the expression pedal platform grants to the tremolo effect takes it to a different level, and the Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo's ability to control the transitions between the gaps will really connect with players who value nuance and personality in their playing. Yes, you could stomp and rip through an entire set with tap-tempo dicatated tremolo depths and speeds, but the Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo pedal is more about expanding your own voice than it is about giving you a rhythm to play over. -HC- Resources Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo Product Page Buy the Ernie Ball Expression Tremolo @ Sweetwater (MSRP $299.99, Street $199.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

JHS Lucky Cat Digital Delay with Modulation Here kitty, kitty, kitty ... by Chris Loeffler The JHS Pink Panther modulated digital delay was released over a decade ago and was joined a few years later by its analog siblings, the JHS Panther and Panther Cub. With analog delays being all the rage, the Pink Panther found itself side-lined and facing an uncertain future. Fast forward to today and the recently released JHS Lucky Cat (not surprisingly, a certain entertainment company eventually took notice of the Pink Panther and kindly asked JHS reconsider the name) takes the Pink Panther’s place in the JHS lineup. The JHS Lucky Cay is a digital delay that features two delay voicings, two modulation modes, and controls for Time, Mix, Dark, and Repeats. Additionally, the Lucky Cay includes a tap-tempo footswitch and ratio selector for hands-free delay time adjustment. The JHS Lucky Cat runs on a standard 9v adaptor and includes a Tap Out jack to hook it up to an optional tap tempo controller. What You Need to Know The JHS Lucky Cat is about as dead-simple and fully featured as most players would want their delay to be. Starting with the Voice control, located on the side of the enclosure, you select between a pristine, musical clean delay tone and a more saturated, darker tape setting. Both are surprisingly textured and distinct in the mix without any of the sterility people associate with early delay units. The tape voicing has a sound and feel that go beyond a simple high-end roll off; there is warmth and bloom to the notes that suggests soft gain stages helping drive the character. What was surprising to me was was discovering that each voice mode reacted differently when the modulation was engaged. The modulation switch has three settings; light, off, and heavy. In the tape voicing, the light modulation mode emulates the wow of a tape that’s slightly used but none of the pitch-bending flutter. The heavy modulation mode, on the other hand, kicks in more warble and gets funky without being distracting or stepping over the direct signal. In the digital voicing, the light modulation adds a dreamy warmth to the delayed signal that lets it sit back and fill in more ambient space, and the heavy modulation gets into exaggerated DMM vibrato tones, especially with the Dark knob rolled back. To round out the controls, the Mix knob sets the blend of the delay against the original signal, from bone dry to 100% wet. The Time control is a somewhat curious addition, given the speed is also set via tap tempo, but does its job. The Repeats knob sets the delay line from a single repeat to infinite playback, and the squealing wall of sound that comes with it is appropriately UFO sounding while not surfacing some of the more unpleasant artifacts associated with digital oscillation. The Dark knob rolls off high end, and works well at pulling the delayed signal into a more spacious, ambient place that lets the direct signal step forward a bit. Even with two controls that feel redundant (Time knob and Tap Tempo out jack), it is amazing how much JHS was able to cram into such a small format, and the top placement of the jacks meana it takes up even less space on a pedal board. Limitations The modulation in both voicings is so lush that I found myself wishing the Lucky Cat had a true stereo output to build even more space with the delayed signal. Conclusion The JHS Lucky Cat is a rare offering in the delay world, being a relatively straightforward approach to classic digital and tape delay sounds without a bunch of sonic gimmicks, but also more fully featured than the three-knob options that inhabit the entry level of the delay world. Tap-tempo and modulation really bring the delay to the modern world of flexibility, but it is the rich, velvety voicing of both the digital and tape modes that will make most players fall in love with the Lucky Cat -HC- Resources JHS Lucky Cat Delay Product Pages Buy JHS Lucky Cat Delay at Amazon.com (Street $199.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

MOD Kits DIY Contortionist II High Octane Fuzz Remember...never wear boxers while you solder... by Chris Loeffler MOD Kits DIY pedal building kits have been reviewed on Harmony Central before, and we all walked away surprised by the quality of components, circuit design, and incredibly low prices. Designing a kit to give players looking for some hands-on soldering experience a useful tone they’ll use for under $50 is no small feat, especially considering comparable DIY clone kit from other manufacturers easily come in between $70-100 dollars. What surprised us even more than the quality and value, though, was that their customer support for troubleshooting build problems involved a real-live human being, not an outsourced user forum. After touching base this past NAMM, I was sent one of their most popular effects builds to review. I spent the last week building their MOD Kits DIY Contortionist II High Octane Fuzz pedal (well, less than an hour the first evening building it and a week of running it through the paces) and am reporting back for those curious what the first step towards building your own effects with a MOD Kits DIY package is like. What You Need to Know The MOD Kits Contortionist II arrived neatly packaged with a pre-drilled enclosure, three terminal strips, a handful of quality resistors, caps, transistors, and a true-bypass switch. The printed instructions were concise and descriptive, and a quick peek online revealed quite a few tutorials (both official and not) to walk through the build process. It’s truer than I’d like to admit that I got through the Contortionist II build with less ambiguity and rework than my last Lego project. If you’ve ever used a soldering iron before, the build process is a cinch. If you haven’t, a 45 second YouTube video will get you started and a few test runs with soldering and desoldering wire will have you creating a tour-ready circuit board. The eyelets in the terminal strips were clean and inserting and temporarily mounting the components in them to solder was a breeze. The instructions are written in sequence, so if you follow them step-by-step you’d be hard pressed to do something wrong or need to reference previous steps. How does the Contortionist II sound? Thick and throaty, with ghostly octaves jumping out on sustained notes that create an almost feedback-like wail. The fuzz is very sensitive to gain and shines best with single coils and lower output pickups. Vintage Noiseless pickups in a Strat bark and bit, while the BurstBuckers in my Les Paul seemed to overdrive the fuzz and congest it a bit, especially with chords, unless I rolled back the volume. I found dozens of applications for the fuzz, from lo-fi blues to stoner riff rock, and there is a reed-like attack to notes that sets it apart from a stereotypical fuzz. The Contortionist II most shines in a lead setting, where its sensitivity translates to articulate solo parts with expressive dynamics and a fair amount of sustain. The raw power of the gain structure also opens doors to some creative post-fuzz EQ sculpting through an EQ or colored overdrive devices. The Contortionist II is a secret weapon waiting to happen in the studio. Limitations While a true vintage-flavored fuzz, there isn’t a traditional low-gain setting to the fuzz… it does weak fuzz, strong fuzz, or rip your face off fuzz. This is especially true when using higher output pickups. Conclusion There are two points of consideration for how successful the MOD Kits DIY Contortionist II is; as a DIY pedal building project and as an addition to your pedal board. From a build perspective, MOD Kits create a satisfying build experience that holds your hand but doesn’t baby you. My one critique of the build process is that I think there would be value in explaining the circuit itself and how the components work within the circuit to better educate first-time builders as to why there are doing what are are doing, but I also know from experience that it’s a near-impossible tightrope to walk between educating and overwhelming when it comes to explaining electronics. Sonically, the MOD Kits DIY Contortionist II is an absolute delight, and stands out from a field of Fuzz Face clones by being aggressive, unique, and filled with character. It’s the sort of tone you’d expect will show up on a Jack White or Black Keys album at some point, but you can beat them to the punch for under $50! -HC- Resources MOD Kits DIY Contortionist II High Octane Fuzz Box Product Page (Available from Manufacturer for $47.95) MOD Kits DIY Contortionist II High Octane Fuzz Box Product Build Instructions MOD Kits DIY Contortionist II High Octane Fuzz Box Product Schematic MOD Kits DIY Contortionist II High Octane Fuzz Box Product Troubleshooting Tips ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

User Reviews Make the World Go 'Round And can help you with your next music gear purchase ... by Chris Loeffler A musician tends to have already done quite a bit of research before they are ready to break open their (often light) wallet and get a new piece of gear. Most things you can add to your rig out there do something that’s just a shade different from any number of competing products, so making the right choice for the player, their existing gear, and their sonic goals is important the first time. While some players have the luxury of buying and trying many pieces of gear to chase their elusive sound, most will be stuck with their next purchase for at least the short term future. How does a musician who doesn’t have immediate access to the piece of gear they are considering know whether or not they are making the right decision? They read the product specs and all the manufacture information on the product page. They pour over PDFs of instruction manuals, watch demo videos, and scour forums for people willing to share their hands-on time with the object of their desire... and they of course read user reviews. In the e-commerce world at large, more than 90% of shoppers say they read at least a few reviews online before making a purchase. Things they’re looking for include statements of quality, unexpected user errors, and, most importantly, someone who seems to have been looking for a solution similar to their own goals. Reviewing a half-dozen or so user reviews typically surfaces enough common experiences to legitimize (or refute) one-off observations, and even the writing style and areas of focus help qualify the reviewer. Harmony Central features over 285,000 user reviews spanning two decades and receives over a quarter million visits every month just in the user reviews section. This is a testament to the power of peer reviews and a sign of how much we value each other’s opinion. We review dozens of user reviews every week that are submitted to Harmony Central, and do our best to only post the most real and authentic ones we find. You had better believe we come across some clear shill work, and you’ bet we reach out to the authors of questionable reviews asking them to speak further about the reviews written. As you can imagine, we tend not to hear back, especially when the IP traces to a manufacturer! :-) Opinions are subjective, but any genuine opinion has some validity and deserves consideration by future potential purchasers. By sharing your experience, good or bad, with gear you are helping your fellow musicians make more informed decisions, and hopefully what goes around will come back around and reward you with a strong set of helpful user reviews the next time you’re investigating a piece of gear! All this is to say, whether on Harmony Central or elsewhere, help each other make solid investments to further your craft by reviewing the gear you purchase. Say what you’re current rig is, what you were hoping to accomplish, whether the gear did or didn’t help you achieve that goal, and unexpected or surprising benefits and challenges you experienced. If something didn’t work for you, is it because it is subjectively bad, or was the fit just not right? If it changed your world and is the holy grail, what makes it so great? Pay it forward and let’s keep each other informed! Harmony Central User Reviews are available to review (or add to!) here. - HC - ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Mackie Thump Boosted Series - Thump15BST - 15" Powered Loudspeaker Thump's got bump! by Chris Loeffler Mackie has long reigned in the mid-tier category of powered monitors, offering quality and power to stomp the competition with a feature-set that typically pushes it beyond comparably priced powered speakers. Mackie’s Thump series, in particular, bring the sort of exaggerated (if you want it) bass to the powered monitors that quash any concepts of thin or feeble sound reproduction at a modest price point, so it makes sense that their Thump Boosted series would only take this concept further. The Mackie Thump Boosted 15” powered monitor set I evaluated features wireless streaming capability, their well-received Vita+ preamps for microphone inputs, onboard three-channel mixer, and each produces a staggering 1300 watts of power per speaker. What You Need to Know Here’s a quick tech rundown of the Mackie Thump 15BST speaker- 15″ high-output woofer 1.4″ titanium dome driver 1300 watts of system power Class-D amplifier with Dynamic Bass Response Built-in three-channel digital mixer Effective DSP for high and low-frequency distribution Two-way crossover Built-in stereo Bluetooth Three-band EQ Variable high-pass filters (channel 1 and 2) Six built-in application-specific modes Three memory recall presets The rear panels of the speakers provide a pretty deep level of tweaking the monitors, and includes two input channels with Vita preamps (more on that later) for microphone or other line-level signals, a mix output that allows you to connect either a subwoofer or perhaps additional full range speakers, and an additional mixable channel for bluetooth streaming. A full-color display reveals channel metering, levels, and EQ for a quick visual reference, and a nice touch is the ability to dim or even completely turn off the display for darker venues and performances. Better yet, every control on the backside is also adjustable remotely via the Thump Connect App (iOS and Android compatible). Syncing the two 15BST units I reviewed together was less of a challenge than I expected due to previous (not so great) bluetooth technology. Syncing is as simple as accessing the menu and selecting ‘sync’ to both speakers. Within a couple of minutes both were perfectly paired and didn’t drop out during the weeks of evaluation I put them through. Pairing with my phone was also seamless, with the Mackie Thump Boosted showing up a logical ‘Thump15BST’ in the list of sync-able devices and flawless connections (I’ve experience some devices that occasionally drop the signal at random, but not the Mackie Thump). Avoiding hyperbole, I’ll simply state the Mackie Thump Boosted monitors I reviewed at LOUD. There’s more than enough volume to address a mid-sized venue and within the context of a coffee-house type setting you’d be unlikely to go past 10 o’clock before people started walking. The Thump has a very clear hit to the subs that both befits its name and is likely to appeal to DJs and people who like sub-heavy music loud (and that wasn’t even evaluated with the additional subwoofer offering). While falling short of getting cartoonishly exaggerated, experienced sound people used to more traditional mixes for performing bands will likely pull the lows back in line with the other frequencies, but there’s comfort in knowing you can get the walls shaking if you want to. The three-band EQ goes a long way towards adjusting it’s three frequencies well (mids and highs perform equally admirably, if less up front, than the bass). This level of control isn’t as fine as running several rack parametric EQs and a full-functioning mixing board, but it took care of 90% of the situation I tested the speakers in without ever leaving me feeling there was need for additional tweaking. The clarity of the audio is due in large part to the Mackie Thump Boosted’s separate circuitry for low and high-end processing and two—way crossover. Unlike similar price-point speakers, the Mackie Thump Boosted takes the incoming audio signal and creates two separate signals for the lows and highs and re-aligns the two signals to make sure they’re in sync for a more clearer, crisp audio signal. The Dynamic Bass Response operates at a higher voltage supply than normal and quickens the processing response of the built-in amplifier. There are six application-specific audio modes to the speakers… preset EQ and tuning settings that are tailored to create a damned good start to a set-it-and-forget-it EQ for live music, DJ, and music streaming settings. The speaker modes are Music, Live, Speech, Music+Sub, Live+Sub, and Monitor. Music mode is the fullest in frequency, with a note of a lift to the highs and lows to add feel to the bass and punch to the highs. Live mode features a bit of a scoop on the low end to keep instruments from getting too flabby, and is especially useful in acoustic singer/songwriter applications. Speech more also rolls back some of the lows, but also adds presence and volume to the upper-mid range for clear vocal applications with minimal feedback. The +Sub modes are designed to distribute the sound similarly but with the additional consideration of the ground the optional subwoofer would add, and Monitor mode features some low and high end reduction to keep stage noise uncluttered. The aforementioned Vita preamps, which have already been installed in some of their best selling newer monitors, work extremely well to boost the signal in microphones or low-output devices in a musical and multi-dimensional way. No, they aren’t going to have you tossing your vintage Neve preamps, but they sound great and remove one more barrier from building a budget live/recording rig without needing to invest in off board gear. The Vita preamps feature Mackie’s Wide-Z technology built-in, which allows for some intelligent handling of input signal conversion. The Mackie Thump Connect app gives you control of everything on the back mixer on the go. Through a simple, look-alike GUI, the app allows you to engineer a performance from the sweet spot in the room and eliminates a lot of the guesswork and hassle of dialing in your sound when you don’t have a dedicated sound person on your crew. For DJs or house parties, this is as simple as getting a track going and walking the floor to make sure you’re pushing through the sound the way you want it to be heard. I’ve yet to really fall in love with app-controlled features in my music gear, but I found no fault in the initial sync and overall stability of the app and its connection to the speakers. The Mackie Thump Boosted cabinets are finished in a textured black finish polypropylene and feel overbuilt and sturdy. Side handles and a top carry make moving the not insignificant weight of the monitors as easy as moving 35 pounds at a time can be, and the mounting design offers multiple options, including standard upright positioning, horizontal for a wider dispersion, and the obligatory pole and M10 mounting options for elevated stations. Limitations Sonic purists will find themselves pulling back the bass on all of the presets, as the low-end is musical but undoubtedly exaggerated out of the box. Conclusion The Mackie Thump Boosted 15BST is a force to be reckoned with, and two paired via bluetooth produce more high-quality audio output than nearly an venue you perform in will be able to handle. Even as a simple system to stream music, it is formidable (overkill, maybe?) and brings forward the audio in a musical, sweetened way. Even in a market as crowded as mass manufactured powered monitors within $100 of the price of the Thump Boosted, there’s nothing I’ve demoed that will match the simplicity, sound quality, flexibility, and raw volume of the the Thump 15BST. - HC - Follow my Pro-Review Express here and join the conversation, ask questions, and share your experiences with the Mackie Thump Boosted 15BST! -HC- Resources Mackie Thump Boosted 15BST Powered Monitor Product Page Buy Mackie Thump Boosted 15BST Powered Monitors at Sweetwater (MSRP $499.99, Street $449.99) ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.

Music Instrument Industry Retail Trends Is it just a case of follow the leader? by Chris Loeffler Curious what’s new in the music instrument industry? So is every retailer! That said, there are a couple of interesting trends that seem to be shaping 2018 as a resurgence in an industry that has gone a little soft in recent years, which is exacerbated as a competitive environment given the increasing number of manufacturers, big and small, throwing their hats into the ring to vie for a share of the market. As expected, DJ, synthesizers, and basically any gear that is tied to solo composition continues to rise an incredibly healthy rate to address the newer entrants into the music instrument world and their musical tastes. More surprising, you may find, is how well the acoustic guitar category has grown within the US. NAMM reports that acoustic guitar sales are up a whopping 36% over the same time eight years ago, suggesting the kids are just fine. There’s something else that’s been looming in the horizon that officially became a “now” thing in the last 18 months… used instruments and reselling channels. While sites like eBay and Craigslist have existed for over a decade, and forums (like our own) have provided places for musicians to list used gear, but Reverb created a centralized location where used value is actively recorded and has a large following, meaning the market value for nearly any piece of gear is now well established and easy to reference/discover. This obviously creates a challenge for new gear retailers, as the abundance of used gear is more easy to surface and browse than ever, but it also represents an opportunity for retailers to easily price (and rationalize) their used gear to ensure sales and capture the “showroom queen”, or person who tests in the shop an buys online for a slightly cheaper price. Another trend, probably the most heartening one, is that music education in public schools is actually on the rise. Contribute it to the political climate or people donating after finally accepting that public schools themselves aren’t going to save music, but in more than 35 states more money is going into public schools’ music programs than the year prior. New players mean more music sales (or at least rentals), and the possibility of a more musically educated generation than the one before; one more likely to buy. At the time this article was written, the stock market is tanking, BitCoin is creating and erasing fortunes, and we may well be entering a trade war with, well, everyone, so it’s far from certain where we will be at the tail end of 2018, but for now all signs are pointing towards a bright future! Do your part to support the industry... play out, recruit new players, spread the word! ____________________________________________ Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer.