If you’ve had your headphones for as long as I have and they’re only just hanging on by a thread, it might be time for a new pair. Now you have a new problem – having to choose a new pair. Well, for the musically minded, Marshall (yes, the same company that make great amps) has come to the party with their own line of ‘cans’ to keep your music moving when you are.
Taking their style inspiration from their amp selection, the Marshall Major Headphones (in a variety of colors – including eye-popping white) are a stylish set of cans that reproduce your music with pronounced bass and crisp treble.
The earcups are soft, comfortable and fit snugly over most ears letting very little, if any sound out, for less disturbance when in the company of strangers. The head band has the same rugged good looks and bears the same Marshall Texture.
True to vintage stylings, they come with a stretch cord which helps considerably with the portability factor, eliminating the need for the unwieldy, tangle prone alternatives. When it comes time to take them, they’ve been designed to be fully collapsible for easy storage and safe travel.
They also come equipped with an in-line microphone and remote for use with cell phones or Skype calls incorporating the 3.4mm standard. A 6.3 mm adapter comes with the Majors for use with your amplifier, stereo or any sound source requiring a 6.3 mm jack.
Admittedly, you are paying a little extra for the Marshall name on the headphones which doesn’t necessarily correspond to much better sound for your dollar, but if you’re willing to shell out a little extra for great looks, you won’t be disappointed.
If you are looking for someone else’s point of view, check out this great review made by Unboxtherapy.
A very common question for every beginner guitarist:
How do I find musical ideas? How do I write music?
Not an easy question to answer I would say!
One of the challenges all musicians have is finding ideas for music. When you are creating original music it is important to have steady stream of inspiration. It is important to note that people can find inspiration from many differing things depending on their personality.
Living your life is the best source of material for songs. Try and be aware of everything around you. Take notes about people and situations you experience, documenting your reactions to them. Your own reactions are important because personal songs are often the best and easiest to write for many musicians.
Another tool that can be very useful when writing a song is to put yourself in someone else’s shoes or situation. If you find yourself stuck in a rut then this can also be a good way to change your style of writing.
When it comes to writing music it is important to try and develop you musicianship. New skills are like doorways to new songs. Many times you will learn a new technique and a whole song can be built around that. For this reason it is important to always be on the lookout for new skills and ideas.
One of the best ways to pick up the new skills is to learn other musician’s techniques. When you see one of your musician friends playing something interesting try and learn it. This does not mean you should rip off another person’s song, however use those musical ideas to inspire you.
Becoming proficient at your instrument will make it a lot simpler to think of good ideas for your songs.
Melodies are all inside you and they don’t have to be complex. When you are singing to yourself in the shower remember that even the simplest three note melodies have the potential to become songs.
You can find ideas for music and lyrics all around you. Don’t be afraid to open your mind and come up with new and interesting concepts. Experiment with your song and music writing until you create something that you believe in and that is fun to play. And be sure to let me know how your writing is going!
If you’re always on the go, like being able to play anywhere, anytime, and don’t want to be bogged down with having to lug all your guitar gear around with you, the IK Multimedia Amplitube iRig might be right up your alley. Oh, and you have an iPhone.
Founded in 1996 and operating in four countries (Italy, UK, US and Japan), IK Multimedia has been busy developing software for anyone with a musical bent. Leveraging the exponential growth of the personal computer and advancing technologies they’re enabling musicians of all walks of live play, product and listen to music like never before.
Throughout this time, they’ve partnered with the likes of DigiDesign, Intel, Mackie, EMU, Roland, Apple and many others and it’s their partnership with Apple where the iRig comes in.
A simple download from the iTunes App store effectively turns your iPhone into a complete multi-effects processor, recording studio and learning tool that’s always in your pocket. All effects are tweak-able at the slightest touch and swipe. Not only that but you can easily upgrade your ‘rig’ from the Amplitube iRig app Custom Shop with up to 11 stomps, 5 amps, 5 cabinets and 2 microphones.
With plug n play technology It’s as easy as plugging in the iRig interface to your iPhone, plugging your guitar into the right input and then plugging in your amp, powered speakers or headphones to start playing or recording..
They really have thought of everything. You can even import a track so you can jam along with it, providing your own lead lick or sharpening up your strum. For Jamorama users out there, this is a very usual feature that can easily be used with our Jamtracks. Simply import a jamtrack, print out or bring up the tab on your computer screen and jam away.
It also comes loaded with a metronome to keep yourself in time, and a chromatic tuner so you’re always in tune.
I took a few minutes out of my work day to give Dave’s iRig a go with his iPhone and have to say it is a really simple app to navigate. I dug out a pair of headphones and a lead to plug in my acoustic mini Maton, clicked on the Amplitube App and I was away.
The free app had enough for me to have a bit of fun with. It comes with a Noise filter, Delay and Distortion effects. Tweaking the effects is as easy as selecting it and dragging the slider up or down depending the desired effect. I even had time to record a quick track, which again was as easy as pressing record. The paid version does give you more recording capabilities but to quickly get an idea down, it’s a good option.
All in all the IK Multimedia Amplitube iRig for iPhone app is a neat little app with a multitude of uses. Being able to record your playing to hear how your it’s progressing or quickly get a copy of a musical idea before you forget it, is a really useful thing to always have in your pocket.
If you’re like me and iPhone-less, IK Multimedia have not forgotten us. They also have a USB audio interface in the form of Steath Plug so you too can download the Amplitube software, plug your guitar into your computer and experience all the great features your iPhone friends can access.
Check out the video below to hear and see how easy the iRig is to use.
Yesterday we took in our final day at the NAMM show. Being Saturday, it was the day where the big crowds turned out to see the big name artists and the big changes taking place in the world of music gear.
After seeing pretty much everything that’s being exhibited this year we thought it would be cool to share a couple of new developments here that we think you are going to like and that maybe, will change the way we interact with music in the future.
The first thing that really got us buzzing is the new Eleven Amp from Avid (the guys behind Pro Tools).
They call it the killer rack because it puts professional recording and signal processing in the hands of every guitarist. Eleven has been an amp-cab-mic modeling software plug-in for pro-tools for some time now, but recently the avid team have developed the idea and turned it into a stand alone piece of hardware.
Taking Cool Processing technology from their Pro equipment TDM HD systems (big $$) and adding that to the software, Avid have produced a box that completes all the intensive algorithms that drive the complex software and delivers the audio to your speakers, amp setup and or via USB to your computer and pro tools environment with no latency.
The Eleven rack will suit the guitarist that is at the level where studio and stage is becoming part of their musicianship experience. This is a tool that will allow you to record your guitar straight into the digital world and have the end signal sounding very nice indeed. The quest for analog tone in the digital world drives these development teams project by project and the reality is that one day a cheap $100 guitar will sound like a rare 70′s telecaster through a 60′s fender combo.
The well trained ears have previous said, these emulation plug-in sounds are good, but they don’t sound like the real thing being mic’d up with the old 60′s combo.
James Michael – Producer, engineer,songwriter; motley crue, meatloaf, scorpions said, ” I’ve seen the potential for years with small preamps and amp emulation plug-ins, but Eleven is the first plug-in that can honestly replace the guitar amp.” Very exciting future for production.
Another interesting development is the new partnership between Fender Guitars and eJamming. We all know what Fender are famous for, but you may not have heard of the eJamming crew before. eJamming have been around for a few years now but it’s only recently that they have partnered with Fender and gained more exposure.
Basically, eJamming is just that – jamming online. eJamming’s online platform allows you to connect and jam out with your friends and other musicians no matter where both parties are in the world. The Fender representatives we spoke to said the partnership was a natural progression for Fender and that they chose eJamming as it offers the lowest amount of delay in signal.
This is definitely worth checking out and it’s free to try, so you can test it out with your friends before signing on. Check it out here.
If you do get a chance to try these things out then please leave a comment on this post so others can read your thoughts about them.
So, that is it from us at the show for now. While we’ve shared only a few interesting highlights here on the blog, we’ve taken a lot more information away from the show that will help us develop a better service for all of you in 2010. Also, look forward to to more NAMM related posts in the next couple of weeks.
SO you’ve mastered a few chord progressions and you’re looking to play a few lead lines from the JAMORAMA lead course too. Now, unless you’re about 300 years old you probably don’t own a cassette recorder or even really know what a cassette tape looks like – “I mean music comes out of thin air these days doesn’t it?” – just like it used to when the internet was in black and white right?
If you’re laying those chords down on cassette right now, then skip this post, ’cause you’re probably still busy playing PAC MAN, buying hair gel and listening to Huey Lewis and the News.
Just HOW are you going to master the idiosyncracies of the modes in relation to all those far out jazz chords you’ve been inventing of late? Well, it`s easy in a digital world and Ovation have had the bright iDEA of building a digital MP3 recorder straight into their new iDEA guitar – FRESH!
A digital recorder is part of the on-board Ovation preamp as well as an inbuilt microphone. A simple and direct recording control makes it easy to record entire songs, riffs, fragments, vocals and commentary. The iDea is also a learning tool, with audio lessons pre-installed in the memory.
The Idea also connects via USB to your computer so you can edit, rearrange, move, rename right on your desktop. Mixes from recording software, rhythm tracks, even songs can be played back through the headphones or the guitar itself.
What makes this guitar so invaluable as a learning tool is probably the fact that the recording ability allows the player to self accompany and therefore to focus upon building an innate understanding of how a guitar actually works in terms of scales, chords and their interrelationships.
If you were learning the JAMORAMA LEAD course this machine would really help you in understanding how the CAGED system works and prove ultimately beneficial in unlocking some of the musical mysteries of the guitar’s neck. Simply being able to record chord sequences and then play back over the top of them anywhere and at anytime means your practice could reach a whole new level of focus and put you on the fast track to becoming a more competent guitarist.
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