Tag Archives: technology

Agile Partners Guitar Tool Kit 2.0

Written by admin on January 24, 2012 — Leave a Comment

If you haven’t already searched the slew of music apps available for the iPad, you won’t be surprised to learn that are some great guitar apps worth checking out. One such app is Agile Partners’ Guitar Tool Kit 2.0 featuring a number of essential tools any guitarist will benefit from.

For a very reasonable fee ($9.99), you can load your iPad, iPhone or Ipod Touch up with a tuner, metronome, chord, scale and arpeggio library. The tuner will give you accurate tunings not just for 6 string guitars, but also 7 and 12 as well. It also support 4, 5 and 6-string bass, banjo, mandolin and ukulele, with alternate tunings for each instrument. You can also dial in your own custom tunings.
newsletter25 review agilepartners Agile Partners Guitar Tool Kit 2.0
The metronome can be run in the background while you use other Guitartoolkit tools. It features a tempo tap pad, 25 sound effects and 22 time signatures meaning you’ll be keeping rock steady rhythms from now on.

The massive chord library gives you over 2 million chord diagrams, scales and appegios so you’ll never get stuck finding a chord and if you need to transpose a song, you can add in a capo and the chords will automatically adjust for the new key. For scales you can simply click on a note and a range of possible scales will be displayed. You just need to know how you use them.

There’s also an app upgrade ($4.99) that will give you the Advanced Metronome (for your iPad now and iPhone/Touch soon), giving you the ability to create your own drum beats with 32 instrument tracks and 75 distinct sounds to make your practice sessions all the more fun.

You’ll also be able to create your own interactive chord sheets and print or email them to a band member or friend. Click on any chord in the progression you’ve created and hear how it sounds.

And if that wasn’t enough, you will also have 60 instrument sounds at your fingertips to create custom instrument sounds for both acoustic and electric guitar through Agile Partners’ AmpKit tone engine.

For a quick video overview, check Agile Partners’ release video.

If you want essential guitar tools at your fingertips then Agile Partners’ Guitartoolkit 2.0 is well worth considering.

Posted by Dan Orr.

Posted in acoustic guitars, computing, Electric Guitars, gear, Guitar Tools, learning | Tagged electronics, gear, iPad, iphone, learning

IK Multimedia Amplitube iRig

Written by admin on November 26, 2011 — 1 Comment

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.

Posted by Dan Orr

Posted in acoustic guitars, amplifiers / pickups, buying guitars, computing, Electric Guitars, gear, guitar effects / pedals, Guitar Tools, recording | Tagged gear, iPad, iphone

USB Guitars Laptop Rock updated

Written by Jamorama on August 2, 2009 — 1 Comment

rx5 USB Guitars Laptop Rock updated Edit

Back in `81 Alvin Lee of the rock band Ten Years After released a studio solo album called RX5 featuring a gold robot playing an electric guitar in deep space. At the time album cover art was still hand painted and the notion of robots and guitars were simply an excerpt from the vivid imaginations of artists and science fiction afficionados. The hallowed album artist Roger Dean had created a trend of bio-cybernetics in his artwork fusing animal and machine in several of his pieces and perhaps this cover was an extension of this idea. If you want to hear some great Alvin Lee guitar playing it’s probably best to have a look at some of the Ten Years After material from the late 60`s.

Although a formidable live presence (see their legendary performance at Woodstock here) Ten Years After began as a jazz & blues, rock and roll fusion band that really made the most of Alvin Lee`s talented, energetic and idiosyncratic guitar style. I recommend the 1967 eponymous album Ten Years After, and Ssssh – if you can get the live at Steve Paul`s scene gig then even better.

What’s great about Alvin Lee is his swinging fusion of jazz and blues. I saw Lee live in London in the early 90`s and he was smoking. He played a scorching slide piece using a harmonica as a slide and he also used a drumstick in place of his right hand whilst burning through some ultra fast licks.

Anyway, the meeting of modern digital technology and the tradition of guitar manufacturing is continuing to blossom with plenty of new products that bring the two together and one of these is the inclusion of USB connectivity into guitars. IN SHORT what this means is that you can plug your guitar straight into your computer without the need for any interface. This allows you to jam directly alongside you Tube videos, or any other music source on your computer.

Hell, why would anyone wanna play through an ear bleedingly huge stack anyway?

OF course, this probably wont give you the ear splitting god like ultra-harmonics of Jeff Beck or Joe Satriani
but if you`re a composer on the move or you are a parent sick of listening to Johnny`s atonal guitar noodling then have a look at the JAM MATE UG1 because it`ll certainly take the headache out of the learning curve for everyone.

The Jam Mate has a discretely placed USB socket on the back, enabling a digital connection to the USB port of virtually any modern computer. The supplied software gives access to a huge range of presets so you can create huge sounds without resorting to a stadium sized guitar rig. HOwever, if you still like the idea ofan interface have alook at the Line 6 Guitar Port.

start USB Guitars Laptop Rock updated

If you happen to be the sickly offspring of an oil millionaire there`s no need to worry either – that 1954 Stratocaster isn`t going to waste either – there are plenty of other USB adapters that you can beg for to plug into your shiny new platinum laptop or home studio. Have alook at the LEXICON OMEGA studio or the DIGIDESIGN Mbox2 mini. I use an mbox mini myself and its a great interface for cleanly capturing song ideas quickly and what your microphones and instruments really sound like.