Rockshop Blogs - 20 Most Recent Posts

Future Sound Vol.1 - Gearing Up For Home Recording

Scott Brown — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:21:42 +0000

I have had a long romance with music, one that goes back far as I can remember. My parents have embarrassing photos of me as a toddler dancing to Rod Stewart records and in one way or another I can recall music always having an amazing impact on me. I hit my formative years in the 90's so Grunge was the dominant scene at that time - I had the long hair, faded cardigan, and electric guitar and I was ready to change the world, just like everyone else.

Garage bands were in abundance, and I'm not talking about the kind made by Apple. We filled our parents basements with terrible renditions of Nirvana and Black Sabbath songs and our ears pulsed with the distorted tones of rebellion. I have wonderful memories of this era and it was during this time that I discovered the drums, something that would become a huge passion for me.

I played drums for about 10 years in and out of bands but nothing really serious, mostly bad cover bands with big ambitions of writing original material. After having a couple of Kids I didn't have a lot of time (or space!) to pursue drumming so I sold my kit and vowed that one day I would try to write and record my own material and learn how to produce it all myself, and that is what I have been delving into for the last 6 months.

I've always enjoyed listening to electronic music, especially artists that can fuse live instruments and electronic sounds together to create something highly emotive. I remember hearing Massive Attack's "Mezzanine" for the first time back in 1998 and being totally floored by it's brilliance - the dark vibe and heavy beats instantly connected with me, I knew that this was the type of music that I wanted to make someday.

It was around that time that a friend introduced me to Nine Inch Nails and the genius that is Trent Reznor. Over a decade later I am still an obsessive NIN fan and the man is still making fantastic (although much mellower) music.

I knew going into this adventure that I wanted to bring that dark vibe that artists like Massive Attack and Nine Inch Nails capture so well, sometimes it's aggressive, sometimes it's melodic and ambient… there is no real definitive genre that their music fits into and that is what makes it so interesting.

Conceptually everything sounded wonderful, I knew what I wanted to do - then came the learning process, something that I have discovered becomes more and more difficult with age!

To say that learning how to write and record your own music is a steep learning curve is a giant understatement. There is a lot to learn and it can certainly seem like an overwhelming task. I have definitely hit the point where I have considered throwing this pursuit into the "too hard" basket after reading in-depth articles on mastering and understanding compressors.

Sometimes it is good to just dive in and have a play around with your recording setup, try out different things and see what works and what inevitably doesn't but don;t get too bogged down in technical stuff.

Luckily there are some great resources and forums online where people are happy to share what they have learnt and also explain things in a way that a newbie can understand.

In the spirit of sharing knowledge I wanted to start writing about what I have learnt so far. I am hoping to write a few articles to cover the many divergent subjects that a beginner needs to think about - everything from technical stuff, writing process, equipment, getting your music out to the world and whatever else I work out along the way, I am still learning myself so it is also good for me to get all this down in writing.

So once you decide you want to write and record your own music, what comes next? Equipment. Let's take a look at where you should begin and what you need to keep in mind.

There is an abundance of equipment out there to add to your home recording setup. A lot of gear looks cool and seems like a wonderful idea, but as a beginner do you really need it?

If you are like me and working to a fairly tight budget you need to purchase wisely. I would recommend not buying the cheapest equipment as inevitably you will grow out of it and need to upgrade, the last thing you want is technical limitations and frustrations turning you off writing your own material. So you might not start out with everything you need, but that's OK, just work with what you have and add equipment to your setup as you can, if you work out a good process you can work around limitations.

For example, I am currently saving for a microphone, so for now my focus is getting the tracks I am working on into a good structure so that when I do get a microphone I can basically go straight into laying vocal tracks.

First of all you will need a fairly kick ass computer. Recording software (Also known as a DAW or Digital Audio Work Station ) is processor intensive and you will no doubt spend a lot of time working to the sound of your computer fan blasting. I am working on a Macbook Pro with 4GB memory - So far this setup runs smoothly with minimal overload.

If you are reading this site then congratulations! You have the first piece of equipment you need. From here it gets slightly more confusing. The diagram below shows a fairly standard home recording setup and how each item works together.

When I first started thinking about recording I naively thought that I would be able to plug my guitar into my computer, fire up Garageband and create an epic CD quality recording, this is of course not going to happen.

To get the editing capabilities required to record/mix/master high quality music you are going to need professional level recording software - Pro Tools is a widely used DAW and one that most people have heard of, there are a few other great options out there such as Logic, Ableton Live and Reason.

Finding the DAW that best suits you is really a matter of doing some research and checking out the features that make each one different. I chose Logic as I am a fan of Apple products and I was impressed with the instrument library that it came with. The general specs and operational functions across all DAWs are fairly similar but I liked Logic's interface and capabilities.

I have heard some really good things about Ableton Live and have a "lite" version that I'll definitely check out sometime soon, but for now I am making Logic the core of my musical world (bad Apple joke not intended).

Logic, like all DAWs, is a complicated beast. It is jam packed full of features and you are really going to need to take the time to read some documentation and/or watch some video tutorials about it, youtube is full of helpful videos to get you going. Start simple and build your way up to more complex editing procedures, sometimes it's a matter of hitting a wall with what you are working on and having to learn your way out of it!

A midi-controller is essentially a keyboard that allows you to control instruments within your software, this can be done using your computer keyboard and mouse but for a more hands on "real" feel you need a good controller.

There are a lot of midi-controllers around and they range from a simple 25 key to the more complicated 61 key with additional features like faders, knobs, drum pads etc… a great start is the Alesis Q25, it has a 25 note keyboard, modulation/pitch wheels, and one fader that controls the track volume, you simply plug it in and play. Most controllers are USB powered.

I recently upgraded to a Novation Impulse 61 - this has a 61 note keyboard, drum pads, knobs and faders to control various DAW and instrument settings, The extended features of this controller mean less time using your mouse to click tiny controls on screen, there is definitely something nice about getting more "hand's on" and it has definitely helped my writing process.

Again, it is really a matter of doing your research and also checking out some controllers in-store so that you can get a feel for how they work, many of them have semi-weighted keys to give them a more natural feel so find one that suits you.

Read some online forums and see if people are having any issues with certain brands of controller and also try and find people that are using the same DAW as you. Sometimes there can be controller/software issues that may create problems while you are trying to record.

Also check out the company that makes the controller and see if they regularly release bug fixes for their software - more complicated controllers come with "mapping" software that will map the controls on your midi-controller to functions within your software, the easier it is to setup the better!

If you are lucky enough to own an iPad there are controller apps available that will provide you with some really experiemental methods of working in your DAW. Lemur and TouchOSC are two great options.

This little box will be the main go-between from your live instruments/monitors to your computer. You can think of this device as an external sound card made for studio quality recording and playback, rather than for home users.

The Audio Interface plugs into your computer via USB and has all the plugs on it that you will need to track guitars, vocals, keyboards and output the audio from your DAW to your studio monitors.

With home recording you probably won't be tracking more than one or two instruments at a time so you only need a couple of inputs to get the job done. As long as it has good quality pre-amps, low-latency (a short amount of time to get the data from your instrument to the computer) and 24-bit or higher resolution you should get a good result.

A little research will show you that there are loads of options out there, so just compare the specs and see what comes out on top. One that has grabbed my attention is the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 - they have packed a lot of high quality features into this interface and I can't wait to get mine!

Studio monitors or reference monitors are speakers designed for audio production, they produce a flat signal so that you get an accurate representation of how your music will sound when you create your final mix.

Hearing an accurate version of your music is absolutely crucial to getting a good consistent sound. Your music will be listened to on a huge array of devices so you what to ensure that it sounds good in all possible situations.

Different brands of monitors will give you slight variations in sound, some have a tendency towards a more low end reproduction and others have a higher peak. You will often see a wall of monitors in a studio so that they can test songs on the most popular options.

It is always a good rule that if a company specialises in only one type of product, then they are going to know what they are doing - KRK Systems have a great reputation and have everything from entry level to high end options. Go to your local music store and check out some different monitors, see what your ears can pick up and what you feel gives you the best playback.

A new and really price friendly option is the Focusrite VRM Box - it is a virtual monitor system that allows you to mix your tracks through headphones, It uses mathematical formulas to reproduce the sound of some of the top brands of monitor. It should give you hints as to where your mix might be off. You also need a really good set of headphones to get the full benefit from it.

Microphones are complex little devices and you can easily spend a lot of money on them. For home recording you want a decent quality condenser mic, this will let you record vocals and achieve relatively good results recording live instruments such as acoustic guitar.

A condenser microphone has a greater frequency response which means it is better at reproducing the speed of an instrument or voice. Condenser mic's are typically used in studio setups and dynamic mic's are more geared towards live performance.

Initially I really underestimated the importance of a good microphone (and admittedly, vocals in general) - the way your vocals sound within a song will make it something special or a complete failure, it is not something that you can go back and fix within your software, if your microphone isn't up to the job your music will never reach a professional level.

There is also a great deal you can do with layering vocals within a song, and also manipulating vocal tracks with effects to create interesting soundscapes - essentially your vocal tracks can really shape the sound and flow of your song.

Companies like Shure and Rode make great microphones that are generally considered "industry standard". The Rode NT1-A comes highly recommended and it is packaged with a shock mount and pop filter - basically everything you need in one box.

So there you have it, a breakdown of the basic equipment that you will need to start thinking about if you want to put together a home recording studio.

Depending on the style of music you are creating there are probably certain items you can skip over but generally speaking these are the basic things you need to record and mix effectively. For me, it's about fusing electronic and live instrumentation so things like microphones are required.

The best thing you can do is hit some online forums and start reading up and comparing the specs of the products you are considering purchasing. Familiarize yourself with the terminology and basic functions of recording equipment so that you have some idea of what achieves a good result.

There are some great resources out there where real people (non-endorsed) are talking and comparing products and aren't afraid to tell you what sounds like shit. Always try and find people that are using your DAW with the equipment you are thinking of purchasing to ensure that there are no driver or compatibility issues.

The market these days is quite competitive so companies are fairly quick to release bug fixes if you do happen to encounter issues.

Get down to your local music store and try everything out, most places will have monitors and equipment setup so that you can listen and compare brands and talk to the staff about what they recommend.

All the equipment I have talked about is available at your local Rockshop, I have been dealing with the Tauranga branch and the guys there have been great, very knowledgeable bunch of people!

In Future Sound no.2 I'll talk about the writing process, admittedly this is something I am still learning but I am starting to work out methods that help move things forward.

Scott Brown is the Creative Director at one of New Zealand's premiere web development companies, he maintains a blog at www.scottbrown.co.nz

He has been a drummer for over a decade and is now turning his attention to writing and recording original material under the name Fake Empire.

Notes on Recording Pre-production and Choosing a Recording Studio

Jeremy McPike of York Street Studios, Auckland, New Zealand — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:21:42 +0000

: Recording Notes from York Street Studios :

In our years of experience at York Street Studios, we have found that there are certain aspects of producing a recording that should not be overlooked.

To maximize your budget and to help you to achieve the best recording possible, we have outlined some tips below on pre-production, selecting a studio and engineer, and what to look for in the recording process in order to get the most from your budget.

Pre-production:

Pre-production (sometimes overseen by a producer) is the first stage in the recording process and ensures you have a smooth and time-efficient session once you get into the studio.

Pre-production is your opportunity to ensure the successful outcome of your recording through good preparation, which is the most important part in any creative process, especially when time spent in the studio, is both limited and expensive.

Think of pre-production as the foundation that you build upon, a solid foundation is vital to a successful recording.

Here are some areas to focus on before you enter the studio:

Song direction, structure and arrangement:

It is important to decide early on which direction you want your song to go in as countless hours can be lost in the studio sorting out musical issues.
Pre-production is the time to fine-tune the arrangement (for example the placement and order of verses and choruses), and make key decisions such as whether you will record with a full band (live) or individually. This is also the time to decide which instruments and or backing vocals to use and in which part of the song.

Rehearse:

Whether you are recording with a band or as a soloist, every musician needs to know the song well before going into the studio. The only way to achieve this is through practice!

Once the song structure and arrangement has been decided, practice the song, as you would like to perform it. The main point here is that you do not want to learn or write the song in the studio. Practice will make the performance tight and will ensure a stress free time in the studio.

If your song has drums, it is always beneficial to practice with a click-track. Find a drum machine that you can borrow to generate a click. In this age of digital recording, much can be achieved through the process of digital editing; a process that is made much simpler if the performance was recorded along to a click track. Practicing to a click track can be very difficult, but we guarantee that it will achieve a better recording.

Being organized and ready to use the limited studio time efficiently is what you can do to help the engineer get the result you want from your recording.

Instruments:

Assess the quality of the instruments you have at your disposal and try to acquire the best ones you can, it will make a huge difference. The studio you choose to record in may have some quality instruments available, or it may be able to hire some in for you; it is best to discuss this with the studio well in advance.

We recommended that you re-string all guitars (but not always bass guitars as this can be an expensive exercise), and re-skin your drum kit as it can notably improve the sound. It is of particular importance that your drums have good skins and are re-tuned before a recording session.

Starting with instruments that sound great and are in good condition will get you a long way towards achieving a good sound in the studio.

Choosing a studio / engineer:

It is important to discuss your budget and expectations openly with the studio you choose so that everyone is clear on details such as how many studio hours you actually have.

Regardless of any financial arrangements that are made between you and the studio, we strongly believe that if a studio or engineer agrees to work with you, you have every right to expect their full attention and dedication to providing you with a product that is to the best of their capabilities.

In order to make the most of your time and money, it is important that you choose a studio and an engineer that is suitable for your project. Ask the engineer for examples of their previous recordings to get an idea of their style and abilities. It is important to visit the studio for a tour. The day of your recording should not be the first time you set foot in the studio.

If you are impressed with the facilities and staff, play your demo for the engineer and discuss what direction you want the song to go in. It is a good idea to bring some reference material (for example bands that you like the style of) as it helps the engineer determine how you would like your recording to sound.

At this stage, you will need to develop a plan with the engineer as to how your studio time will be structured to ensure all elements are recorded and mixed in the time available.

We hope this information will help you achieve the best recording possible, and make your recording experience an enjoyable one.

Good luck with your music.

Jeremy McPike
York Street Recording Studios.

NZ Rockshops are proud to support York Street Studios. You can view our York Street Studios page here...

About York Street Studios

"We offer the best vintage analogue and state of the art digital equipment, friendly and knowledgeable staff, a clean and comfortable environment... and extremely good espresso coffee!"

From demos to "single" production packages and full albums, your project will be given the attention and enthusiasm it deserves. It becomes your studio, with a comfortable TV lounge and a separate kitchen, even free pinball!

Located in Parnell, Auckland, our studio is only minutes from the central city and is surrounded by restaurants, bars, cafes and retails stores. It is also very close to some of New Zealand's finest hotels.

For Bookings and Studio Enquiries call Jeremy McPike
Ph: +64 9 307-1444 Fax: +64 9 3071454 Mob: 021-309-300 e-mail: jeremy@yorkstreet.co.nz
www.yorkstreet.co.nz, 28 York Street, Parnell, Auckland

The term “DJ” covers so many basses these days…

James Lissette — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:21:42 +0000

The term “DJ” covers so many basses these days…

You could be someone who just plays at home, on the radio or gets to move crowds. You could be into hip hop, dance, country, reggae or just plain ol’ weirdness with sound.
It used to be that life was all about 2 turntables, a mixer and a bunch of records. Along came samplers and the mighty Akai MPC and that changed the face of things.
You could sample up loops and breaks, sounds and sequence them together into songs all from records!

Things then began to move away from the traditional format of two turntables and a mixer. CD players advanced! Not only can you scratch with a CD these days, you can loop easily with it and trigger samples from it. Modern CD players these days such as Numark, Stanton and Pioneer allow you to play a track from a CD and scratch up another one from the same CD all on one player.

Play one track and then blend in another is not a problem. Put a memory stick in with your MP3's on it and away you go.
They also feature great effects such as choppers, phasers, echos and reverbs. These further add to the tricks of the trade.

Check out the Numark NDX range and the Pioneer CDJ range. The Stanton CMP800 has a sampler, effects, loops and can be used as a software controller, as can some models from Numark & Pioneer.

Also as CD players advanced so did computers. It was a grand moment when you could burn your own CD! Though over the last few years the advancement of computer speeds and storage space along with software has meant the world has really began to spin. This along with the invention of our humble friend the USB Control Surface has changed the face of DJ.

Computer program wise Native Instruments’ Traktor (Pro 2, Duo 2, Scratch Pro2, Scratch Duo 2), Ableton’s Live and Rane Serato’s Scratch Live have ramped it up. Serato Scratch Live and Native Instruments Traktor are the Grand Masters of digital vinyl control were you use data control records to control the audio in the software giving you the same control as using a record.
Both of these programs also integrate with controls surfaces as well, do be having a look at the most excellent Native Instruments Kontrol S2 & Kontrol S4. Numark’s NS6 & NS7 as well as Novation's Twitch controller for Serato’s Itch as just a few examples of awesome DJ controllers. I'd also recommend checking out Pioneer's DDJ controllers as well as the Denon MC6000.

Great USB controllers to add to a set up (or just use on their own) are Novation's Dicers and Native Instruments Kontrol X1. The Dicers are great for attaching to turntables and using for loop points although I recently watched an awesome live performance with them being used to trigger sounds held in peoples hands. The Kontrol X1 is a wide scoping device with many possibilities, you can use pre set mappings to software or easily map your own.

This is were Ableton has really come into it's own and created its large fan set with the drum & bass, Dub step and electronic music set. You can use any controller with Ableton, easily able to map to anything and integrate to other software as well.

I do have to mention Native Instruments Maschine here and the new Mikro and the iMaschine for iPad/iPhone. I mentioned the MPC before and the Maschine takes that concept and leaps it forward. The best thing about the Maschine is that it's super easy to grasp the concept of how it works and the control surface leads you into the software so that you are simply able to make music, not have to spend hours in the manual.

So there is now I think an answer for just about everyone’s DJ needs, I still love records but I use a Stanton DaScratch system with Traktor Pro live for instance. It's well worth checking out some of the products I have mentioned and exploring others as well to find what suits you and gets ya groove on.

PS. Still want just two turntables and a mixer? I'd say you can't go past the Stanton ST150 turntable as the deck of choice, and I don't think you can ever have too many records.

James Lissette is the Branch Manager of our Palmerston North store.
James plays many different instruments, has an obsession for restoring old Rhodes pianos and tone wheel organs, as well as DJ’s kooky noise music in his spare time.

Pro Vocals Books

Rachel — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:21:42 +0000

It’s been an absolute age since my last (and first) blog!! And I’d originally planned to make them a regular occurrence!! So my theory this time is to keep it very short and sweet! Hopefully that will mean write more of them more often!!

Print Music caters well to guitarists and pianists, but a question I get asked fairly regularly is, what’s available if you’re a vocalist, especially in regards to backing tracks (or karaoke style discs)?

The main series we stock, and probably the most popular book and backing track series, is the Hal Leonard Pro Vocal series.

These books contain the lyrics, vocal line and chords for eight hit songs. The CDs contain demos for listening, and separate backing tracks so you can sing along. The CD is playable on any CD player, but it is also enhanced so that PC and Mac computer users can adjust the recording to any pitch without changing the tempo! This is a fabulous feature as it allows vocalists to transpose songs to any key in order to suit their vocal range which makes a great choice for home rehearsal, parties, auditions, corporate events, and gigs without a backup band. These are also a great resource for NCEA (or similar) assessments.

I’ve had a listen and the tracks are really good. but don’t just take my word for it take a listen yourself!! (click the Audio link). Sounds great right? This is Heart’s Alone from Glee Pro Vocal. There are many other audio links I could have chosen to put up as an example here but I love this song! Yup I’m a true child from of the 80’s and one of the reasons I’m heading to Def Leppard is to hear Heart live!

Other songs in the Glee album include: Bust Your Windows • Defying Gravity • Don't Stop Believin' • Keep Holding On • No Air • Somebody to Love • Take a Bow.
There are a heap of titles available in the Pro Vocal series...nearly a hundred.

Current best selling Pro Vocal books include:

GLEE•LADY GAGA •MICHAEL BUBLE •JAZZ STANDARDS •.CONTEMPORARY HITS • MORE SONGS FROM GLEE.

Amazingly of all the vocal books in Hal Leonard Australia’s catalogue, not just Pro Vocal titles, but anything in the vocal category eg. method/tutor, other songs books, vocal technique books etc etc Glee Pro Vocal is their current overall best seller– so that’s gotta tell you something! (but it’s not just vocal books, all Glee music is taking the world by storm piano, easy piano, ukulele…. you name it they are selling like hotcakes!)

If you’d like a more detailed list of what’s available in the Pro Vocal series (and the songs in each book) then click here or please don’t hesitate to flick me an email.

Till next time,

Rachel

Bobby Kennedy - Roland SPD-S

Bobby Kennedy — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:21:42 +0000

Roland SPD-S, KD8 & FD8
with Bobby Kennedy - Op Shop

We take a quick moment with noted New Zealand drummer Bobby Kennedy, from the chart topping Kiwi icon band Op Shop, to talk about how he uses the Roland SPD-S Sampling Pad.

Roland SPD-S

My Roland SPD-S has proved invaluable for getting pattern ideas down in hurry when I don't have access to my kit.

"The best part is that I can plug in some headphones and not annoy the neighbours or keep the household awake."

I even use it live. The SPD-S comes with a bunch of great sounding samples but I can expand my sounds even further by hooking it in to my MacBook Pro running my favourite drum samples.

Roland KD8
(showing front and back)
(kick pedal not included)

Roland FD8

If I then add my KD8 Kick Pad controller and my FD8 Hi-hat controller I can get a full kit sound all in a compact set-up.

"I call it "Drumkit-in-a-bag". Its awesome!"

Bobby Kennedy

Editors Note : The KD8 and FD8 simply plug into the reverse of the SPD-S allowing you to assign sounds to the two pedals. Using the 6 pads and 3 edge pads you can then program up your favourite kit. Two feet, two hands - you're all set.

With the onboard sequencer and sampler, you can also record patterns and export them via flash cards, or midi to other devices.

As Bobby says, this literally means that you can have a basic kit in your bag ready to go with in a few minutes.

Ladyhawke - Roland Products

Ladyhawke — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:21:42 +0000

Q: Your debut album was a huge success in both Australia and New Zealand and created waves around the world. What have been some of the highlights of the last couple of years?

A: I spent the last 3 years living in London, which gave me so many opportunities to tour all over UK and Europe. One of my best memories is playing Glastonbury last year, it has blown everything else out of the water. Definitely something I will not soon forget.

Q: You collaborated with a number of different writers on the first album. Has that continued on this record?

A: I’ve toned it down as far as collaborators go for this record. I am working mainly with Pascal Gabriel, who I have been friends with and worked with for 4 years now. We have great song writing chemistry, and intend on producing the entire record together.

Q: You’ve very much worn your influences on your sleeve to date, particularly that 80’s pop sound. Is there anything you’ve been listening to lately that will permeate this record?

A: Nothing out of the ordinary for me, my influences are extremely varied. I have a very broad music collection. This next record is going to sound quite a bit different to the first one. probably closer to the roots of where I come from musically.

Q: You recently added the Roland TD9KX V-Drums kit to your sound arsenal. How has that impacted your writing and recording?

A: It’s been a massive help and addition to the recording process. I’m running the native instruments Abbey Road 60’s drums through it, so I can play live and get the exact sound I want. I love the bounce on the skins too, doing a drum roll on the snare feels pretty close to the real thing. It’s very user friendly as well!

Q: What other Roland and Boss products are you currently using?

A: Some of these are used live and the rest I use in my studio ...

FZ-5

Vintage fuzz through BOSS state-of-the-art COSM® technology.

OC-3

The BOSS OC-3 Super Octave gives guitarists high-quality octave effects with a single stomp.

DD-20

The World’s Most Powerful Delay Pedal in a Twin Pedal format.

TR-2

The classic tremolo sound of vintage amps in a modern compact pedal.

SD-1

A very natural, overdriven tube amp sound.

DS-1

One of the most popular distortions ever made, used by pros everywhere.

RV-5

The RV-5 Digital Reverb offers six of BOSS’ best reverbs in an all-new stereo effects pedal.

BCB-60

The BOSS BCB-60 Pedal Board is a convenient way to set up and transport all your compact effects.

TD-9KX

A touring kit including the TD-9 sound module and upgraded components.

An Intro To Lighting

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:21:42 +0000

:: An Intro to Lighting ::

Once you have yourself a band or DJ setup, a PA, a setlist and some gigs – the next thing you might want to think about is some lighting. Even if you play at a variety of venues that already have lighting, there’s always going to be some new venue or some private function where you turn up and there’s only fluorescent lights with one switch. All on, or all off.

The great thing about lighting is that so much of it is ‘plug n play’ these days that you don’t need a lighting guy, you literally put it somewhere and turn it on. And with the advent of LED lighting, you also don’t need to worry about overloading power sockets. More on that later.

Why do you need lighting? Lighting creates ambiance, allows you to highlight areas and provide a point of difference to other acts. A professional act gets paid more. The more professional you look and sound, the more work you will get, and the more you can charge.

:: Positioning :: .

You can use lighting in a number of ways. The most obvious is to point the lights at the band members. This has the effect of lighting them up, and also reflecting off the instruments. Drumkits with chrome or shiny surfaces look really good under lights, as do instruments with polished surfaces.

However, some band members / DJs don’t want lights in their eyes all night, so another option is to point it at the amplifiers or the drum kits / keyboard / decks etc to highlight them. This looks really effective although the band members may still be in the dark.

Another popular option is to use lighting as a colour wash against the wall behind the band, or on the roof. This makes the band noticeable without blinding the band or the punters, and can be a great visual look as well.

To some degree, you can set out a dance floor by pointing lights at the floor in front of the band or wherever you want people to dance. Most people like to dance in the light, rather than dance in the dark. It’s surprising how well this little tip works.

Most lights can be mounted on stands so they are up and out of the way. You can also purchase H stands where lights can be mounted on to, and the light can sit securely on the floor. Bear in mind that if you perform in bars and licensed venues that intoxicated patrons could be an issue – so lighting does need to be appropriately positioned.

:: Types of Lights ::

For me, lights fall into three categories, effects lights, specialty lights and colour wash. I will deal with fog/smoke/haze and bubble machines in a later blog but I will say that fog machines really up the visual appeal and presentation of lights because it allows you to see the beams of the light, gobo or effect.

Effect lights would be moving lights with different colours and different gobos/patterns. Most of these are sound activated and some can be controlled and linked together to expand the lighting coverage.

Specialty lights would be strobes, mirror balls with pin spots and lasers. Some of these can be controlled.

Colour wash are lights that emit a bank of colour … red yellow blue green etc. This can be a single colour, but most of them are colour mixers or colour banks. A colour mixer mixs 3 or 4 colours to produce dozens of different colours. They don’t use a colour wheel inside the light. I’d also consider the fire and water effects lights as colour wash lights. Most colour wash lights can be controlled and linked together.

:: LED versus Lamp ::

LED lighting is all the rage and thankfully have started to come down in price but a lot of people are still unfamiliar with why LED lighting is so popular, and sought after. LED stand for light emitting diode and LED lights are all the rage because they are usually

-smaller
-lighter
-give off little or no heat
-have incredibly low power consumption
-no replacing bulbs

This power consumption is a huge part of their attraction. Consider that a 1000w Par64 uses 1000w of power but you only have 2400w to use (the maxmium on single-phase, standard output wall sockets). So you can only use two lights before you run the risk of overloading the power socket. Not many pubs and local venues have 3-phase power wired up ready for you to use with your banks and banks of Bon Jovi inspired-lighting.

Bar or venue owners can now have this type of LED lighting on all day and all night for a mere fraction of the power cost.

A Par64 LED can uses just 32w … so you could have nearly 75 of them … instead of 2 lamp based versions.

The heat reduction is another major advantage. I've played on stages with 6-8 1000w Par64 cans as stage fill colour ... that's like having 5 kilowatt heater sitting beside you all night. The smaller the venue, the closer the lights are. With LED, you don't have the heat component, or the power draw to worry about.

People have always thought that LED lighting was too costly to be effective - but I'm here to tell you that it's not. As a comparison consider the cost of setting up a four way lamp based system.

Lamp Based Par64 Setup		LED Based PowerBar Setup
$356 $348 $129 $99 $149 $149	4 x Par64 Lights 4 x Par64 Lamps 1 x Lightweight T Bar Stand 1 x Hand Controller 1 x Dimmer Pack 1 x Carry Bag	4 x Par64 Lights 4 x Par64 Lamps 1 x Lightweight T Bar Stand 1 x Hand Controller 1 x Dimmer Pack 1 x Carry Bag
$1230	-Power Consumption - up to 4000w -Replacement lamps - $85 upwards each -Gel Paper required -Two people or two trips to carry -Up to 4 colours depending gel paper	$995	-Power Consumption - around 200w -No need for replacement lamps -No Gel Paper required -One person carry (only one arm as well) -9 Colour presets with 12 shows and fade in/out

Lamp based lights are still available and prevalent in a lot of clubs / bars / pubs and sometimes the only way to get certain effects. Replacing all the lights in a club / band / dj rig can be expensive but have a chat with us about what you'd like to do, and we can offer suggestions and a plan to make it happen sooner rather than later.

Naturally, we still have access to a wide range a lamps for lights, so let us know if you need anything lamp related.

All products mentioned in this blog are in stock and available now from us, If you have any questions at all in relation to lighting and visual effects, please send an email below (and you might win something).

:: Conclusion ::

As noted at the start, this was just an overview of lighting, in the next blog I will aim to get into the effects and different types and how to use them.

Piano & Keyboard Cleaning

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:21:42 +0000

:: Piano and Keyboard Cleaning ::

Whilst it's not the most exciting blog topic in the world, one of the most frequently asked questions is :

"How do I polish or clean my piano/keyboard?"

And it's a good question too, because there are few things to be aware of especially with upright/grand acoustic pianos due to the types of finishes that they can have.

You will notice that we haven't recommended any specific products below, this is because we don't want someone to skim read the blog, or have a internet search engine partially reply to a query. Using the wrong chemicals may result in a damaged finish - and there is no 'one cleaner does all' fix for all products.

Read on and if you have any questions, send an email to the Keyboard Department on our Contact Us page.

:: Cleaning your Piano ::

A piano is a major investment so taking care of this investment is important. When it comes to pianos, cleaning and polishing are two different actions. Polishing should be kept to a bare minimum. Dust is ideally removed by a feather duster.

Dusting with a dry cloth should be avoided at all costs; a dry cloth will allow the dust to scratch the finish!!! Not a good idea.

If dusting with a cloth, always use a soft fabric such as flannel or chamois. Never use rags or paper towels.

How often you would clean your piano keyboard is entirely dependant on how often you use your piano. For instance, piano teachers may need to clean off collected fingerprints regularly while a seldom used piano keyboard needs to be cleaned only once or twice a year.

Here are some instructions that may help with cleaning you Piano Keyboard.

Things you will Need:

*2 soft, clean colour free dry cloths
*Gentle dish-washing soap and warm water

1/ Make a cleaning solution in a small bowl. Mix warm water with a drop of two of gentle dish washing-soap

2/ Dampen a soft, clean, colour free cloth slightly in the cleaning solution. Rub the dampened cloth gently over each white key individually to remove dust and fingerprints. Then use a soft, dry cloth to wipe off any moisture left on the keyboard.

3/ Dampen a second soft cloth with the cleaning solution and wipe each black key in a similar manner.

Before polishing your piano you need to find out whether it has a polymer or lacquer finish; these two finishes must be polished differently to avoid possibly irreversible damage.

If you want to use a commercial spray on your piano contact your local piano tuner to see what they would recommend to use. They are typically the experts on pianos and can advise what they would use. Some households sprays are not suitable and can damage the coating and finish of the piano so ring before using them to avoid damage.

:: Cleaning your Electronic Keyboard ::

Electronic keyboards can equally be important to keep in good condition. Avoid chemical spray cleaners as they can damage keys and internal components - especially if too much is applied and allowed to drip into the internal workings of the keyboards.

Avoid abrasive scrubbing and brushing as this scratch the key surface and this may not be able to be repaired.

Before beginning, make sure the unit is turned off and disconnected from the wall power socket.

Below are some Instructions to help you

Things You Will Need:

*Water
*Mild dishwashing Liquid
*2 clean, white cloths
*Cotton swabs

1/ Mix warm water and a small amount of gentle dishwashing soap in a bowl

2/ Moisten slightly a clean, white cloth. Wipe carefully over the surface of each key and other exposed surface areas of the keyboard with the moistened cloth. Keep water out of speakers or other internal components.

3/ Wipe over the cleaned areas with the other dry, clean cloth to soak up excess moisture.

:: Additional Tips for both pianos and keyboards ::

Another note to add is to avoid placing objects on your piano or keyboard. If you use a piano lamp, make sure it has a cloth or felt base, or place it on top of a piece of fabric.

Never spray products directly onto your piano or keyboard. If you are using a product suggested by your piano tuner, spray the polish onto a cloth, and stand at least three feet away from the piano to prevent the particles from landing on your keys, strings or other delicate areas.

If you've never cleaned your piano, or keyboard, and don't know whom to contact ... get in touch with your nearest Rockshop or KBB store and they can give you advice on piano tuners in your area, or products specific to your keyboard.

Keyboards for Beginners - Where To Start?

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:21:42 +0000

:: Keyboards for beginners - Where to start? ::
*"I want to play piano/ keyboard what sort of instrument do I need?"* This is a question we hear a lot from parents and beginners alike. Because there are so many options, we need to narrow it down to the most suitable option for you. Have a look at these questions below :
-How old is the student? -What style of keyboard/Piano do you ultimately want to play? -Do you have a budget to work to? -Do you want it to be portable or a more furniture style piece? -Will you be sitting piano exams? -Will you be taking lessons from a qualified teacher? -Should you have an acoustic piano or will a keyboard or digital piano be ok?
Hopefully by the end of this blog you might have a better understanding of what you may need.
:: Keyboard Types and Terminology::
To help you I will summarize what sort of keyboard types there are: 1/ Beginner Keyboards 2/ Advanced Keyboards 3/ Digital Pianos 4/ Stage Pianos 5/ Workstations and Synths 6/ Digital Grands 7/ Acoustic Pianos Also, some terminology that keyboard salespeople will talk about regularly will be: *Touch Response* - volume of tone will change depending on how hard or soft the key is played. This allows you to play your pieces with expression. Graded Hammer Action or Hammer Action - keys feel and react the same way as an acoustic piano. The keys are weighted and respond in relation to how you are playing. Polyphony - this relates to how many sounds can be played at the same time. Tones - different instruments available e.g guitar tone or piano tone.
:: Getting Started ::
Ok, here is the first and probably most common scenario. You are a family that’s child or children are about to have keyboard lessons. You may walk into a Music store to look at what’s available and walk out with a minor headache. For many parents we want to get our kids started but don’t want to invest too much in case the initial enthusiasm wears off and they don’t continue. Having taught for over 8 years there are a few tips that I suggest. Invest in a reputable brand, from a bona fide professional retailer. Should you or your child not wish to continue, a reputable brand will get a better second hand sale price. Reputable brands also offer backup, parts and servicing that you will not get from other suppliers - especially internet-only based sellers. Buy the best you can afford at the time! Like any electronic piece of equipment the higher the price, the better the quality, sound and touch of the keyboard. This in turn can be more appealing to play and keep young beginners much more inspired early on. If budget allows make sure your keyboard is at least a touch response keyboard. This allows the student to play with expression which is a technique that needs to be learnt. Make sure the keyboard key is the same width as a normal piano key. There are some mini keyboards with mini keys out there that are cheap, but will confuse and frustrate beginners if every time they go to their lesson they find the keyboard or piano keys are a different size than the ones they have been playing and practicing on. For most beginners, a choice of tones is not necessarily a big factor. Most of the time they will use the on board piano sound for lessons and will use the other sounds for fun. An excellent beginner keyboard is the Casio CTK3000 (pictured below). It is a 61 note touch response keyboard with 400 high quality tones. The Retail price of this is $599 but is on special in any Rockshop for $399 (just to give you a guide of price). Beginner keyboards can start from around $249 to $1299. Casio CTK3000 - $399 ($599) Again many people will ask me “what is the difference between the one at $699 and the one at $899?”. This relates quite nicely to car buying. Will the car at $1000 be ok for a beginner to learn on? The answer would probably be 'yes'. Will the car at $2000 be better for a beginner to learn on than the $1000 car and the answer again will be yes of course. The higher the price of the car usually means that the car has better features and therefore would be a better car for a beginner to learn on. This is true of keyboards as well. The $399 keyboard will certainly be ok for a true beginner but the $699 keyboard will have more features, sound better and will probably last longer before needing to be replaced.
:: Digital Pianos ::
Above we have spoken about Beginner keyboards. There are now a growing number of people that prefer to buy a Digital Piano instead of an Acoustic Piano. Buying a digital piano certainly has some advantages over buying an acoustic piano. 1/ you don’t need to tune them 2/ you can put headphones on while practicing and not annoy the whole family 3/ they are easier to move and more compact than most acoustic pianos I have both an acoustic piano and a digital piano and whilst I wouldn’t trade my acoustic for anything, I play my digital piano much more than the acoustic. Digital pianos typically have either a Graded Hammer Action or Hammer Action. This is very beneficial when beginning to learn the piano. Anyone can play the piano but not everyone can play the piano well. Good technique is essentially being able to play the piano well and a good keyboard action goes hand in hand with this. As noted above, the Hammer action acts similarly to an Acoustic Piano. To achieve success in piano exams a good technique is essential and although at prep grades, grade one and two we may be able to get by with practicing with our small touch response keyboard at home, within a few years we need a larger keyboard (88 notes rather than the smaller 61 note models) with a better key action to achieve success at the higher grades. Casio CDP 100 with stand $999 ($1295) Digital Pianos such as the Casio CDP100 start at around $1000 (see picture above). Again as the price increases so do the features. Instead of a sustain pedal that attaches by a chord we get built in pedal systems (see Casio PX730 below). Cabinet styles change and improve. For instance if you look at the Casio PX730 you can see that this unit is very appealing in its look, has the pedal board attached and has a better speaker system than the CDP100. The PX730 also has 128 note polyphony while the CDP100 has 32 note polyphony. For a little more it certainly has a better feature set that ultimately gives a better playing experience and sound. Casio PX 730 $1695 ($1895) As mentioned before a quality key action is paramount to long term playing success. The Roland digital pianos have the best action on the market. For a seriously beautiful digital piano with the best sound quality compare this when looking around. They have an astounding new range out at the moment. The new F110 is a sleek style digital piano which comes in black or white (depending on the style of your home) and is on special from $2499RRP to $1999. This is hard to beat as it's features include 128 note polyphony, a quality sound source, built in three pedal system, key cover and Roland’s PHA alpha II keyboard action. (see picture below). Roland’s cabinets are all solid wood and pedals are metal rather than plastic. Roland F110 $1999 ($2499)
:: Acoustic Pianos ::
Acoustic Pianos for the beginner are another choice. If you are looking at this sort of purchase, try and take someone with you that knows a little about acoustic pianos and what to look for. Again key action and tone quality are very important. Older second hand pianos might need work done to them to bring them up to a workable level which can be expensive, so choose carefully. Acoustic pianos are also difficult to move so make sure you factor the moving cost in the budget as well as regular tuning costs which should ideally be done every 6 months. A good acoustic piano can not only take you through to Diploma level Piano but it can also be an heir loom for the family to cherish.

Home Recording 101 by James Lissette

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:21:42 +0000

I have always thought that after you learn to play your instrument and then played a gig or 2 then the next thing to do is record your music. Now if you are not fortunate to live in Palmerston North where we have cheap recording studios like the Stomach and the City Library (yes we have a studio in our library here) the cost of going into a studio can be a bit daunting.

Professional studios certainly have their place for people who want to go in, pay their money, play their song and get a CD … but for those of you that like to DIY and learn about the process … then it’s an amazingly fun and enjoyable ride.

What I am going to talk about here is the basics of what you need to set up a small and productive studio for yourself. Further blogs will advance and expand upon this. This one here is just a bit of an introduction and explains the basics of what you will need. Later on we will get into Mics and setups, monitors and headphones.

You can take over the garage, record on your bed or just have a small setup in a cupboard.

So what are you going to need?
Well to start with ... something to record onto. There are two main options, computer or digital recorder. There are a few keyboards that have multitrack recorders in them, but those features will be covered in a later keyboard blog.

Computer Based
These days 9 times out of 10 it’s going to be a computer. It's important to note that you will need a small degree of computer experience to begin with. Clicking, dragging, double clicking, right clicking, folders, copy, paste, delete - if you are familiar with all of them ... then you'll be almost set to go computer based.

Either an Apple (Mac) or a PC. There are endless debates about the merits of both, but in the end I think the most important thing is to find the computer that works for you. It’s important to make the computer and software package decisions BEFORE you purchase the computer.

Despite computer stores saying that their system will run just about everything … computer recording has some specific requirements and the newest, hottest, fastest PC on the planet … may not be ideal for recording.

So what to buy a laptop or a desktop? Well from my own experience if you want to move about a bit, you should buy a laptop. A laptop allows you make your studio portable, take it on holiday with you, or take it to the band room etc. The smaller screen can be a hassle sometimes and it pays to remember that a lot of laptops have slower speed drives than desktops. Desktops are the business for at home and if you want to separate the computer away from were you are making music so you don’t hear the fan noise or any hum etc from it. You can also have a large monitor (or two) with a desktop. I mostly use a laptop as I can take it to band practice and set up for gigs easy as, and I have found it suits what I do.

PC have the heritage of being cheaper and having cheaper, more expandable parts, however they also have the pedigree of operating system issues. A lot of these issues have been ironed out now and there are some very professional recordings being done on PC these days.

Mac, have been the solid workhouse of audio/video studios the world over. You have very little worry about whether your Mac will be compatible with the software – because 99% of the time, the answer is yes. Certainly anything you buy today will be excellent. As an Apple Authorised Reseller, we actually provide custom configured and installed Mac based recording packages which you can see on our website under the Packages section.

When you are researching your computer, one of the most important things to consider I reckon, is what software you are going to use and then get a computer to suit that. Check out programs like Pro Tools, Logic Audio, Record and Sonar. Most software comes with recommendations as to what processor and RAM it needs and it is very important to get a computer to suit this otherwise you will just get errors and a sore head from hitting the table in frustration. If you’re not sure, make sure you ask one of our staff before you purchase the computer to make sure that it will do what you want it to.

You will find once you start recording you can fill up a drive quick so get a big one and also a portable drive just for backing up. A 1TB (that’s 1000 GBs) drive is very cheap today and is becoming more common in computers.

Inputs / Outputs / Interfaces
The next thing to think about is what you want to record.

Is it just you and your accordion or do you want to record drums etc as well? Perhaps you want to record your whole band at once?

The reason to think about this is that the next most important thing to get is an interface. These connect to the computer via USB or Firewire. This is what you plug your mic and/or instrument into. To get an acceptable quality of sound, you can’t use the default MIC input on a computer. It also plays your music back out of the computer into headphones or speakers so you can play along with what you have recorded (this is what multitrack recording is). My good hint here is to think about how many inputs you need, two will suit most people but if you want to record a few things at once then get one with 8 inputs. Remember, that multitracking allows you to record many tracks alongside other tracks so you may be able to just use two.

The difference between 2 inputs and 8 inputs is a few hundred dollars, so it’s worth considering if you are working to a budget

Digital Recorder / Workstations Based
If you don’t want to go the way of the computer you can still get a good ol’ fashioned 4 track tapedeck but one of the best ways is to get a Boss BR digital recorder. There are a few models in the range to suit all needs ranging from models that record to flash media to models that record to a hard drive.. My personal fave is the Micro BR (4 track recorder with drum patterns and effects!!!).


MICRO BR	BR 600	BR 900 CD	BR 1200 CD	BR 1600 CD
Click to enlarge

What these machines are is an all-in-one recording device with mic and instrument inputs and have a fantastic sound. The BR1600 features 8 mic inputs!!! They have effects and amplifier simulators in them and record to an internal hard drive like a computer does. Some of the larger models in the BR series have a built-in CD burner with mastering software which means you can go from playing to recording to mastering to burning a CD - on the unit. They are easy to use, as portable as a laptop and very creative.

Some models having drum and bass sequencers in them as well. This allows you to program up drum beats and bass lines (very useful if you don’t have a band). They have faders and are a very “hands on” machine.

Final Thoughts
So either a computer or a hard drive recorder are the main two options. These days we are almost spoilt for choice with options but this also means you are going to be sure to find what you want. After you have made your decision, the most important thing is to record as much as possible as this is the best way to learn but more on that later …

James Lissette is the Hi Tech Guy and Branch Manager at the Palmerston North Rockshop.

He has been making music and recording it for far too long. Starting out with a tapedeck he then got a 4 track reel to reel before progressing to using a computer.

Being a little over the top he has a rather large garage studio and has also taken over a room at home.

Darren Mathiassen - Sabian

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:21:42 +0000


I chose Legacy series cymbals by Sabian. They are the best all round cymbals in my arsenal.. So good in fact, that my sound man went out and bought himself a set! A perfect balance of smokey dark tones and icy shimmer.. They play equally well from large stage to small club gigs.. I never leave home without them.
	Sabian HHX Legacy 14" Hihats - Very responsive pairing delivers clean, crisp stick articulation and solid pedal 'chick', with warm, tonal color.

	Sabian HHX Legacy 17" Crash - With its dark response, this highly responsive model can play loudly but its always musical.

	Sabian HHX Legacy 18" Crash - With its dark response, this highly responsive model can play loudly but its always musical.

	Sabian HHX Legacy 21" Ride - This light, crashable model delivers stick definition, wash, and darkness with an unlathed 'control band' limiting spread.

:: Other Sabian Cymbals in Darren's setup ::
	Sabian’s Signature Fierce crashes are an essential part of my setup, to me they sit somewhere between a crash, china, and an effects cymbal.. They are excellent for riding and crashing.. They also make crispy sounding stacks!


	My Sabian Signature Encore cymbals are dark, dry, and dynamically controlled.. Always an excellent choice for the studio and any environment where I need extra control and articulation... They have a unique and unmistakable sound, and an aesthetically pleasing matte finish.

Darren Mathiassen - Sonor

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:21:42 +0000

Darren Mathiassen currently plays for Hollie Smith, Bella Kalolo, The Nok and Iva Lamkum, he also played for Trinity Roots. He is one of the country’s most in demand session and live players, being one New Zealand’s finest talents behind the kit. He took the time to jot down some ideas on the setup he uses, and how he blends traditional acoustic drums of Sonor, the cymbals of Sabian, with some of the latest electric drum kit offerings from Roland. :: Sonor ::

Darren's priced Earth Snare	Sonor’s Artist Series Earth Snare AS1305 is one stonking piece of engineering. It’s like Hummer meets Bugatti. It hits like a freight train, and yet, is super responsive to head selection. The 27 ply shell enables me to take the tension through the roof, or send it through the floor if I need to. The Earth Snare is my main touring snare drum and is guaranteed to cut through any live mix! With the stunning 24 carat gold plated plated hardware and gloss Earth finish, it really stands out on stage!


	The Sonor S-Classix Series ... Most of the shows and recordings I do these days demand a certain retro flavor.. This beautiful kit is the perfect balance between old school and new school. Sonor has hit my sweet spot with this one. With its 5mm 9ply birch shells, and all German construction, It has an open full-spectrum sound that will punch an effervescent Jazz tone, or rain thunder on the parade. S-Classix will never bottom-out with low tuning because Sonor includes their ‘Tune-Safe‘ technology, which turns out to be no minor detail. The tension bolts will not back off in the studio or on the live show. Sonor’s skill and reputation with drum finishes and veneers spearheads the industry. The stunning satin veneers and wraps available in the S-Classix series definitely stand out from the crowd. And as my daily driver, the thin shell construction is also indispensable for a light weight load out after the gig! Left : Darren on his Sonor S-Classix kit finished in the colour option, Walnut Roots


	The Sonor Jungle Kit seriously has the biggest bang for such a little buck! It’s no toy with its 9-ply Maple shells. A little killer for Jazz and Breakbeats especially. The 10” jingle snare really pops as a main snare for snappy beats, and the kick always punches in any situation. An indispensable swiss army knife from Sonor! Bass Drum - 16" x 16" Tom Tom - 10" x 8" Floor Tom - 14" x 12" Jungle 'Jingle' Snare - 10" x 2" (also known as 'snare-bourine') Sonor Series 200 hardware Left : Picture taken from Sonor catalogue and shows demonstration hardware, kick and throne

Darren Mathiassen - Roland

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:21:42 +0000

:: Roland TD9-KX ::

Darren Mathiassen

The Roland V-Drums TD-9KX drum kit is my daily workhorse and essential instrument in my studio. There’s a plethora of outstanding on-board sounds, and they’re all very malleable right from within the module, and translate awesomely through the live PA system. This kit is totally plug-and-play, yet still has power-user tactics. The large display and function keys are unbelievably quick and easy to use, and all the extra detail in assignability and functionality you’d expect is right in there.

Roland's mesh head dual-trigger pads have the most accurate feel and response. Their quality construction and hardware eliminate crosstalk while still enabling a huge dynamic range!

This is essential when I’m using the TD-9KX to trigger other instruments, samples, and sound banks! Another cool trick for live use is I’ll throw my favourite acoustic Sonor snare and Sabian cymbals into the mix, and the V-Drums will give the most consistent and beefiest live sound.

Click here for more details on the TD-9K ...
Click here for more details on the TD-9KX ...

:: Roland SPD-S ::

Roland SPD-S

Roland’s SPD-S Sampler pad is perfect for taking on the road, it’s compact, robust, and powerful. I can load up samples and loops that I’ve created in the studio and play them all in realtime on stage. With its extra trigger inputs, I can jack in a KD7 kick trigger and an FD8 hihat pedal for total kit-like control.

These are awesome triggers and super portable too. And an extra bonus with the FD8 hihat controller is there’s no messing about with hihat calibration.

The SPD-S also has a mic/line input to record audio grabs directly to the internal memory. You can also enhance any content with the onboard effects processor. It really is a killer piece of kit that ads dimension to the show.

Click here for more details ...

:: Roland SPD-20 ::

Roland SPD-20

The Roland SPD-20 multi-percussion pad by Roland is packed full of awesome sounds, over 700. Ranging from Roland’s classic 808 and 909 kits, to orchestral, tuned and world percussion, and sound effects. I use the 4x stereo trigger inputs to add a PDX-8 snare, KD-7 kick, FD-8 hihat pedal, and CY-5 hihat cymbal. This builds a great little fully functional basic kit for live use and studio. And like all great Roland gear, it is further expandable via its MIDI ports.

Acoustic Guitar Body Shapes

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:21:42 +0000

How does the shape of an acoustic guitar affect it's sound?

A question that people ask me a lot is ...

'How does the size and shape of an Acoustic Guitar affect the tone of the instrument?'

A lot of guitar buyers are blissfully unaware how different guitar shapes give you different tonal 'colors'. A lot of acoustic guitar shoppers aren’t even aware there are different sizes to choose from, as “a guitar is just a guitar, isn’t it?” Well … yes and no.

A guitar is, indeed, just a guitar but there is however, a huge difference in tone depending on what size and body-shape the guitar happens to be. This also determines the style(s) of music a particular instrument is suitable for. These days there are a huge number of guitar shapes available and it can all be quite baffling to the potential buyer, so I’ll try and give a general outline of the history of the most commonly used guitar shapes and what they’re suitable for.

It all comes down to four shapes!!

Yes, all guitars on the market today are a direct descendant from one of four shapes, the Parlor Guitar, the Orchestra Model Guitar, the Dreadnought Guitar and the Jumbo (or Super Jumbo) Guitar. So let’s start with the smallest shape in the guitar family.

Parlor Guitar

The Parlor Guitar is the earliest (oldest) shape of acoustic guitars on the market today. Generally pioneered by the C.F. Martin Co, it's design goes back to the 1800’s. They all have the following features in common: a small, relatively shallow body, a slightly wider finger-board (1 ¾ inches or wider) and a slotted headstock.
I believe the Parlor Guitar is the most misunderstood guitar on the market today. It is generally assumed that a small bodied guitar, like this, will put out a 'small' sound.

Not necessarily so!

A good Parlor will have a strong mid-range focus and round, singing trebles and still enough bass to please most listeners. They tend to have amazing “cut through” power, because of their enhanced mid-range frequencies. I’ve played Parlor Guitars in a room full of Dreadnought players and the little Parlor would cut through the mix like a bell! They are also a favorite choice amongst finger-style players, they have great string to string tonal balance, each note rings clearly and the wider fingerboard makes them ideal for finger-style playing or single note runs.

Mark Knopfler, John Mellencamp, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Miller play Parlour Guitars

They also tend to make great recording guitars as they don’t suffer from over-powering bass and other unwieldy frequencies that can so annoy sound engineers. Their only downside is the fact there’s only 12 frets to the body, which may be a stumbling block to a potential buyer, however, most people who play acoustic guitar don’t often venture beyond the 12th fret anyway so it would be a shame to not buy one for this reason. Owning a 12 fret Parlor Guitar can be a very rewarding experience, I’ve owned several and they have been amongst the best sounding guitars I’ve had my hands on. Every reputable guitar manufacturer today will have a couple of Parlor Guitars in their line up, try one of the Taylor parlors, they’re stunning!

Parlour Guitar

Orchestra Model Guitar

Another C.F. Martin design, the Orchestra Model, or OM, as it’s generally called, was really the first 'modern' guitar on the market. Its origins date back to the 1930’s as players called out for guitars with bigger bodies, more volume and guitars with 14 frets to the body. The body size of an Orchestra model is noticeably bigger than a Parlor, however, it’s still got a fairly shallow body depth. This makes it very comfortable to sit down with. Like Parlors, OMs have a well balanced, clear tone with beautiful mids and trebles and strong but not over-bearing bass frequencies. They tend to have incredible 'projection' so they can be clearly heard in the mix.

John Mayer and Eric Clapton play Orchestra Models

An OM has 14 frets to the body so it feels more like a 'modern' guitar. They also have a slightly wider fingerboard, 1 ¾ inches, which makes them a great choice for finger-style playing. This is another guitar that makes a great recording instrument, all frequencies are beautifully balanced and they are generally a joy to play! I have to admit, this is my favorite guitar shape! Various guitar makers manufacture OM shapes, however, they are not always called OM, some manufacturers use the term “Grand Concert”, however, these are all variations on the OM design and have a lot in common with the original OM shape. For example, modern guitars like the Taylor 312, 412, 512 etc…and the Takamine TAN76 and TAN77 owe a lot of their design features to the OM’s of old.

Orchestra Model

Dreadnought Guitar

The Dreadnought is the guitar shape that most people think of when describing an acoustic guitar. It is the most popular shape on the planet, the majority of buyers will claim this to be the shape an acoustic guitar should be! Also dating back to the 1930’s this is the shape that has taken the guitar world by storm. When it was released it was the loudest, biggest thing out there and changed the acoustic guitar market almost overnight. The word “dreadnought” itself is a reference to the biggest, baddest warship in the US navy at the time so they were clearly trying to make an impression with this design.

The Dreadnought has everything a good acoustic should have, it’s loud, it’s got a big voice with whopping bass, and warm, melodic trebles. Some Dreads can lack a bit in the mid-range but that generally comes down to what timbers are used and who the manufacturer is. My guess would be that 75% of acoustic guitar sales in the world are dreadnoughts. It is the shape that appeals most to people. Dreadnoughts have been used by a variety of artists, ranging from the Beatles and the Stones to Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Elvis. In fact, anybody who is anybody in the history of rock and pop music would have played a dreadnought at some stage. It is also the essential guitar for anybody playing bluegrass. It excels at loud single note runs and unlike some small bodied guitars, it handles vigorous strumming extremely well. Which is the reason it’s always been a popular choice amongst rockers. Dreadnoughts generally also have a slightly narrower fingerboard, 1 11/16 inches, which is closer to the size of an electric guitar neck.

Tom Petty, Jack Johnson, John Lennon, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Neil Young and Curt Kobain plays/played a Dreadnought Model

This smaller neck size is another reason this guitar is so popular, it fits most people’s hands!! Funnily enough dreads don’t always make for the best recording guitar, their huge bass response isn’t always conducive for getting a good recorded sound, however, they are the guitar of choice of most live performers and excel at most applications. Notable dreadnought manufacturers: Martin (of course), Taylor and my current favorite, Cole Clark, they make a dread called “Fat Lady”, excellent, affordable dreads with amazing electronics.

Dreadnought Guitar

Jumbo Guitar

The biggest of all acoustic guitars! When Gibson Guitars introduced this shape back in the 1940’s/50’s they labeled it “the King of the Flattops” and with good reason. The Jumbo (or Super Jumbo) is simply huge! Size wise this guitar dwarfs a standard Dreadnought guitar. Gibson set out to outdo Martin in the acoustic guitar market with an even bigger, bolder instrument and they succeeded, at least temporarily. This is the guitar that was made famous by Elvis as he used it on the black and white TV clip of Jailhouse Rock. As indicated by their size, Jumbo guitars sound big! They have huge bass, (and I mean, HUGE!), big mids and clear trebles. However, due to their physical size, they are not the most popular guitar around. For instance, people of smaller stature would have trouble playing this instrument, it’s big!

Emmylou Harris plays a Jumbo Model

Jumbos can sound incredible though, they are excellent for strumming and I’ve seen a few in the hands of serious finger-stylists too, however, their deep, thudding bass doesn’t always make them suitable for the finger-style guitarist. For this reason it wouldn’t be my first choice as a recording guitar either.
So, while they may not be the most all-round instrument of the acoustic guitar family they are seriously cool, have big sound and they look great. This particular size lends itself really well to 12 string options. The Guild company in the 1970’s made beautiful 12 string jumbos that are still sought after today. Today, Taylor make a range of 12 strings with this body-shape and they sound incredible.

Jumbo Guitar

To summarize

Yes, these four shapes pretty much started it all! Every guitar on the market today is a variation on one of these four shapes. A number of manufacturers now put cutaways on guitars to allow access to the upper frets and the above models are all available with cutaways and various electronics options. Modern guitar makers will also deviate from the above shapes by making minor adjustments to body-size, body-depth and overall dimensions. However, these four guitar shapes are the basis of all modern acoustic guitar manufacturing and looking at the assortment of guitars available today, it’s easy to spot where the inspiration has come from.

New Developments, Honorable mention. Grand Auditorium Guitar

One guitar shape that deserves a special mention is the Grand Auditorium (GA) shape. This is a shape pioneered by Taylor guitars. Taylor came up with this design in 1994 and it became an instant hit. In fact this is considered to be the essential Taylor shape. This guitar has the same width and depth as a traditional dreadnought but it’s much more tapered at the waist and looks way more “curvey”, (and more sexy IMO). Taylor set out to design a guitar that, in their words, is “the Swiss Army Knife” of guitars. A guitar that can handle aggressive strumming as well as gentle finger-picking. For those who want a guitar capable of virtually anything you throw at it, this guitar would be it. These instruments have exceptional balance, strong, but not boomy, bass, good mid-range projection and sparkling trebles.

The Grand Auditorium is currently competing with the Dreadnought as the most popular acoustic guitar shape available today. They are excellent recording guitars as well as excellent live performance guitars. The Grand Auditorium shape has been copied by various companies in the last 15 years, to the point where it has now become as standard a shape as the Parlor, OM, Dreadnought and Jumbo. Notable Grand Auditorium Manufacturers: Taylor (they designed it!) Models, 314, 414, 514 etc…, Takamine, they do a series called the Nex Series, all Grand Auditoriums with various timber/electronics options. Cole Clark make a GA called the “Angel”, a beautiful example of what a Grand Auditorium can be. If there ever was a guitar that can do just about anything and handle just about any style, look no further.

Line6 G30 Digital Wireless System - guest penned by Ben White (Dane Rumble / Sola Rosa)

Wed, 12 May 2010 16:21:42 +0000

:: Line6 Relay G30 Wireless Guitar System ::

This summer I have been lucky enough to trial the Line 6 Relay G30 wireless guitar system. After many years of playing guitar and experiencing wireless freedom very rarely, I was excited at the opportunity to perform with wireless full time.

The unit itself is very simple and consists of four pieces, TBP06 transmitter, cable, RXS06 receiver and power supply. Straight out of the box at the first rehearsal I had the unit setup and ready to rock in under five minutes. With both the transmitter and receiver set on channel one I noticed no interference whatsoever and found no need to darken the tone with the two cable tone options (see below Fig1). Tone wise I heard little difference between the wireless and cabled sound, if anything a touch brighter and louder. Further rehearsals proved the same and I was looking forward to taking it on the road.

On the road the unit performed just as well, if not better. On the small stage, setup was simple, transmitter clipped to guitar strap (fastened with the help of trusty gaffer tape for safety) and receiver placed on top of my amp or with my pedal board. Although I wasn't utilizing the range of the system, on the small stage I had complete freedom to roam without any annoying twisted cables or tangles. I also had many comments from other bands regarding the units simple design and sound quality compared to other top of the range systems they had tried.

Line6 G30 Relay Digital Wireless

Cable tone simulation.

Using a cable and a wireless system? Now you can switch back and forth without having to adjust the tone settings on your amplifier. Relay digital wireless systems feature a Cable Tone Simulator, which lets you match the sound of your Relay to the sound of your cable.

The big stage was where the system really performed. Sound wise I had absolutely no problems. My sound was clear and articulate from anywhere on stage, in the crowd, running around the crowd and all the way to the mixing desk. I noticed some latency the further I roamed from the receiver, but this was to be expected. Again I received compliments from other musicians regarding the quality of my sound. The only problem I had was when the clip came loose of the transmitter and I had to play the rest of the gig with it in my back pocket. This however is easily remedied with some careful fastening of the transmitter before performing.

Overall, from the rehearsal room to the big stage the Line 6 Relay G30 wireless guitar system lived up to all my expectations and more. I would happily include it as part of my setup in the future.

Specifications - Line6 Relay G30 Wireless Guitar System
Transmission Format	Line 6 proprietary digital audio transmission
Frequency Response	10Hz - 20kHz
Dynamic Range	118 dB
RF Carrier Frequency	2.4GHz
Compatible Channels	6
Transmission Range	100 feet line-of-sight (may vary due to local conditions)
FCC Approval	Part 15 approved, no user-license required

TBP06 Transmitter
A/D Conversion	24-bit Delta Sigma, 128 times oversampling
Input Impedance	1.3 M-Ohm
Connectors	1/4-inch unbalanced input
Controls	Power On/Off, Channel Select
LEDs Display	Power, Audio Status
Battery Life	Approx. 8 hours (2x AA alkaline batteries)

RXS06 Receiver
D/A Conversion	24-bit Delta Sigma, 128 times oversampling
Connections	1/4-inch output
LEDs Display	Power On, Data Link, Audio Status
LCD Displays	n/a
Controls	Power On/Off, Channel Select, Cable Tone Simulator
Power Requirements	DC-1g power supply (9VDC)

The Revolution is here ...

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:21:42 +0000

:: The Revolution is here….low price, low wattage tube amps (and why you need to have one) ::
One of the most interesting things about working in this industry is watching the way the market changes as new products come to light. Technology changes and generally keeps on making a guitarist’s life better, whether it be through advances in the way guitars are built, whole new sounds that can be created with pedals and digital effects, or whetever. It all keeps the game fresh and interesting. However, the developments that always hold the MOST interest for me, are the changes that occur in the realm of guitar amplifiers. Although I love all guitar gear - whether it be guitars pedals, cables or whatever, I am actually (in my heart of hearts) really an amplifier guy. After all, an amplifier is , in my opinion, THE most important part about your electric guitar tone. Consider this ... a $200 cheapo guitar through a $5,000 MESA amp sounds pretty darn good and a competent guitarist could certainly play a gig with this rig. However, a $5,000 Gibson guitar through a $200 practice amp sounds like ... well ... a $200 practice amp. As I’ve often said (to anybody who'll bother listening) – your amplifier is what defines your overall tone, and as such – it’s important to get the right amp to suit your style. So over the years, there have been a number of changes in guitar amplifier technology that have given guitarists many MANY options towards tonal nirvana. From tube amps, to the onset of solid state amps (late 1970's), hybrid designs (ealry 1990's) and into the recent realm of digital “modelling” amps (2000's) - technology has twisted and turned to provide a variety of amplification options to today's guitarists. Right now though, at the turn of the decade we are at the cusp of another big change, the onset of low price, low wattage valve amplification which is not only affordable, but also addresses the growing market demand for low power (5W to 30W) guitar amplifiers…
Why do I need a tube amp? Isn’t that really old technology?
Yes, it IS old technology but there is a good reason why tube amps (or valve amps as the Brits prefer to call them) are still around and in high demand. They just sound and feel better to play to most guitarists. Solid-State amps for years were the “cheap”option. They were priced much lower than tube amps to make amps accessible to beginner/intermediate players. Aside from a few notable exceptions (such as the almighty Roland JC120) they had a reputation for sounding “thin” and “brittle” as opposed to the big, warm tones that tube amps produce. Also solid-state amps, when driven to distortion, tend to sound harsh, cutting and not at all pleasant. So for many years, the market made a natural diversion, expensive tube amps for pro players, cheap solid state amps for beginner / home players. Large advances were made in the late 1990’s with the advent of Line 6’s “digital modelling” technology (soon copied by everyone else on the market). Digital technology was used to accurately “model” the tone produced by much larger and more expensive amplifiers gave a quantum leap to the quality of sound that could be produced from cheap amplifiers and processors. This technology has been so successful in fact that it has been incorporated into everything from the cheapest of small practice amps, up into processing units used by the world’s top recording studios– many of your favourite songs may have been recorded completely using digital modelling techology. However, as good as digital modelling sounds it still cannot replicate the feel of playing through a tube amp. It is something that is very difficult to describe, but the visceral, immediate feel of hitting the strings with your pick and feeling the response and sound that emanates from a tube amplifier is truly addictive and has an amazing, 3-dimensional quality. Little wonder that despite the prevalence of digital modelling technology in the world’s leading studios, the vast majority of professional guitarists will still be playing tube amps at every gig they do!
What’s the deal with “low-wattage”? Will a 5w or 20w amp be enough for me?
Yes, probably! 50w – 100w tube amps are great for some players – especially Hard Rock/Metal players who require amps with a lot of headroom to accurately amplify their preamp-distortion based tone. (not to mention to cope with the low frequencies produced by down-tuned guitars). Also Jazz and Country players will often still favour high-wattage amps so they can keep a pristine clean at any volume. For the majority of today’s rock/blues/indie guitarists who are looking for an involving, responsive and organic guitar tone – then a low-wattage amp is just the ticket!! Most people have never driven a 100w, 50w or even 30w amp into overdrive and don’t realise just how loud it is! Bear in mind that The Beatles used 100W guitar amps to fill a stadium – before the days of miking guitar amps through a PA system!!! Individual scenarios can vary, but here is a bit of a guide… *5w tube amp* Perfect for at home or in the studio. Still much louder than you might think, but perfect for dialing up some juicy overdriven tones at tolerable levels. 15w – 20w tube amp Can deliver “edgy” clean tones and organic/aggressive distorted tones at gig volumes suitable to be heard over the drummer. 30w tube amp Suitable if you want your clean tones a little cleaner, or if you play with a particularly heavy-handed drummer
The Good news ...
Guitarists have been asking for lower-priced, low wattage tube amps for a while and I think the dam has been on the verge of breaking for a while – but in 2009 it actually happened and we have now seen a veritable flood of new low wattage tube amps hit the market at VERY affordable prices. It’s been amost like from famine to feast - so to help you make sense of it - here is a roundup of my favourite low-wattage beasts out right now!!!
Blackstar HT-5 - 5w amp ($899 combo, $799 head, $1,299 mini-stack) Blackstar are a fledgeling company, formed in 2007 from some ex-Marshall employees. They were not only one of the first companies to market with an affordable 5w tube amp – but the first to deliver a high gain, channel switching little beast that can go from clean to scream at the touch of a button. This little amp has been a worldwide phenomenon and brings a smile to the face of everybody who plugs into it. This amp is definitely tilted towards the Hard Rock genre and delivers some surprisingly tight high-gain tones. Awesome!!!! The Bottom Line: For the “at-home” rocker. Hi-Gain saturated tones at palatable (but still raucous) volumes.
	Marshall Class 5 – 5w Combo ($899) One of the most jaw-dropping little amps I’ve played in some time. There is a reason that people worship the tones of vintage Marshalls – because the experience of playing through an old Marshall “Plexi” amp is a sublime one. Nothing on the planet feels like a Marshall and the aggressive yet silky, enveloping sound of an old Marshall running hard is truly breathtaking. It is also rip-your-face-off loud – so it is a welcome relief to have Marshall create a 5w amp that truly delivers the vibe and tone of it’s granddaddy. It really sounds that good….and it’s still loud enough to scare the cat! Every Marshall fan needs one of these amps. The Bottom Line: Vintage “Plexi” tone in a bedroom-friendly package.
Epiphone Valve Junior – 5w amp ($279 head, $369 combo) Surely no amp on the planet has the “bang for buck factor” of the Epiphone Valve Junior. 5 watts and one knob of awesomely fun, rip-snorting Class A fun. No other controls required – just a volume knob – the more you turn it up, the more the amp overdrives and the bigger your smile gets. The combo is my personal fave, but you can get a massive dose of fun by plugging the head version into your nearest Marshall 4x12 cabinet and watch the jaws drop around you! The Bottom Line: Absolutely immense fun – and a good sounding little amp.
	Orange Tiny Terror – 15w amp ($999 head, $1,599 combo) The amp that kicked off the low cost low wattage tube revolution. Now in it’s 3rd year on the market the Tiny Terror continues to impress with it’s edgy, organic tone in a compact form factor. At 15W it is well-suited for gigging and has turned up on stage with a number of touring artists including NZ’s own Elemeno P. With 3 tube gain stages, this little bad boy has reasonable hi-gain capabilities – although it can tend to start sounding a little loose at high gain levels. It’s core competency is in it’s mid-gain rock tones where it delivers a great staple sound. The head version is the “must have” - paired with a good cab it will produce surprisingly large sounds as opposed to the combo which can sound a little impeded. The Bottom Line: A giggable amp that gives a solid foundation of tone to work with.
Jet City Amplification (JCA20H 20w head $799, JCA2112RC 20w combo $1,099) My absolute favourite amplifiers of the moment right now are the brand new, hot off the line, and righteously good JET CITY AMPS. These amps have just hit the world market this month and my prediction is that they are going to see some stellar success in 2010. JET CITY have managed to create some excellent sounding, cool looking, giggable amps at super affordable prices. The excellent tone comes courtesy of Mike Soldano who designed these amps. Soldano became one of the most revered names in amp design in the late 1980’s after building amps for Eddie Van Halen, Eric Clapton and many others. This lineage is clear in the JET CITY amps which produce Soldano’s trademark high gain sounds with awesome clarity. Whether you set them clean, dirty, or anywhere in between – the tone is addictive and very responsive. High class tone at cheapskate prices. The Bottom Line: Try one. Now!!!!

Print Music

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:21:42 +0000

Rachel's Print Music Blog

Welcome to my first print music blog …

My name is Rachel and I’m the Print Music Product Manager for NZ Rockshops. I have been working for the Rockshop for over 10 years and I admit it: I love books – and you know what the best thing is….. you can get more and more cool stuff in print now! Basically anything and everything you can imagine is available in print… and for someone who can’t play by ear this is brilliant!!

My aim is to make sure I can find even the most obscure book and put it in your hands….
‘’Smells Like Teen Spirit for Trombone” I hear you ask??? Well - if it’s in print I will find it! (and just so you know- this one actually is)

If there’s a guitar technique you want to perfect or if you want to know whether your favourite band is in print or not then I’m the gal to ask…

Email me anytime: rachel@rockshop.co.nz

return to blog index

:: Print Music Basics ::

My blogs are going to focus anything new in print or any series or books that are just plain fantastic that you may or may not know about yet!

But first, a rough idea of what different descriptions mean in book land:

GUITAR TABALTURE Guitar tab books are made up of guitar tablature which is a notation method showing the six strings of the guitar and which frets/strings need to be played. It's considered a standard notation (for the guitar part), and also has a vocal melody line, lyrics, chord names and guitar chord boxes. Our guitar tab books cover a range of artists and also compilations. There are literally 1000’s of titles available, a lot that we stock but others we can order in fairly quickly… often it’s takes a little over a week from when you place your order to when the book arrives in stock.

BASS TABLATURE Bass tab is similar to the guitar tablature version. The books contain standard notation, vocal melody line, lyrics and chord names. Not as many titles as guitar tab but, still lots of artists and compilations available.

DRUMS books contain drum notation, vocal melody line, lyrics and chord names.

TRANSCRIBED SCORES – these are vocal and instrumental arrangements of music for various bands. Books have transcribed parts for lead vocals, backup vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, drums, and all of the various instruments used in each specific recording session - all songs are arranged exactly the way the artists recorded them.

PVG (piano, vocal guitar also referred to as piano vocal chords) these books have piano part and vocal line as well as the guitar chords (and normally chord boxes as well). There are lots of titles available for both artists and compilation books.

EASY PIANO Books are arranged for piano (there isn’t a separate vocal line) but lyrics are included as well as chord names (not chord boxes). Music is simplified but normally arrangements still sound really good. These are great for someone who just wants to sit down and play straight away without too much effort – two or three years of lessons would probably be enough to start playing this or if you are getting back playing after a few years break.

BIG NOTE PIANO. These books are arranged for piano with lyrics and chord names. Great for someone who has had a year or two of lessons – using limited hand movements and simple chords.

EZ PLAY TODAY Ez Play books use the treble/melody line of music with very simple notation, they contain lyrics and also chord names above the melody line. The notes are named to make playing easy. Perfect for keyboard or organ players who like to use the auto accompaniment on their instrument.

:: Hal Leonard - Guitar Play-Along Series::

This month I’m going to focus on one of our most popular guitar series: the Hal Leonard Guitar Play Along series.

There are literally 100’s of titles to choose from.

The Guitar Play-Along Series helps you play your favourite songs quickly and easily! Just follow the tab, listen to the CD to hear how the song should sound, and then play along to the separate backing tracks on the CD. (Lyrics and melody lines are also included in the book).

The backing tracks are awesome too… none of that MIDI backing track sound, these ones sound great!

One of the best things about this series is something Hal Leonard have coined the AMAZING SLOWDOWNER… - yes seriously I’m pretty sure this phrase has been trademarked… basically it is what it says; stick the CD into your PC and you can adjust the tempo to any speed without adjusting the pitch …

And because there are so many titles (both artist related and styles) there is something for everyone.

Here's a few selections that have been really popular ...

JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE SMASH HITS GUITAR PLAYALONG VOL 47 BK AND CD $49.00

Songs: All Along the Watchtower • Can You See Me? • Crosstown Traffic • Fire • Foxey Lady • Hey Joe • Manic Depression • Purple Haze • Red House • Remember • Stone Free • The Wind Cries Mary.

FOO FIGHTERS GUITAR PLAY ALONG VOL 56 BK AND CD
$45.00

Songs: All My Life • Best of You • DOA • I'll Stick Around • Learn to Fly • Monkey Wrench • My Hero • This Is a Call.

ROCK ANTHOLOGY GUITAR PLAY ALONG VOL 81 BOOK AND 2 CDs
$69.00

Songs: Baba O'Riley • Barracuda • Can't Get Enough • Carry On Wayward Son • Don't Fear the Reaper • Free Ride • Hurts So Good • I Need to Know • Let It Ride • Oye Como Va • Rhiannon • Ridin' the Storm Out • School's Out • Sultans of Swing • Ziggy Stardust.

NIRVANA GUITAR PLAY ALONG VOLUME 78 BK AND CD
$45.00

Songs: All Apologies • Come As You Are • Dumb • Heart Shaped Box • In Bloom • Lithium • Rape Me • Smells like Teen Spirit.

ERIC CLAPTON GUITAR PLAY ALONG VOL 24 BK AND CD
$45.00

Songs: Badge • Bell Bottom Blues • Change the World • Cocaine • Key to the Highway • Lay Down Sally • White Room • Wonderful Tonight

ESSENTIAL OZZY OSBOURNE GUITAR PLAY-ALONG VOL 70 BK AND CD
$49.00

Songs include: Time After Time • Perry Mason • I Don't Know • Crazy Babies • Goodbye To Romance • Mama, I'm Coming Home • Over The Mountain • Suicide Solution

Tuning / Guitar Mechanics / Other Good Stuff

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:21:42 +0000

:: Tuning / Guitar Mechanics / Other good stuff ::

One of the most common problems for any guitarist are the challenges associated with keeping an instrument in tune. There are a huge number of issues that can contribute to a guitar’s tuning stability, ranging from the simple to the complex. If you have or ever have had tuning issues with any of your guitars, then read on and just maybe I might be able to help you solve a problem….

Click to enlarge

1. STRINGS
Probably the easiest way to dramatically help tuning stability is to ensure that you stretch your strings properly when you first put them on your guitar. New strings have a certain amount of “give” which needs to be worked out of them when you first install them on your guitar. When the string is up to pitch, just lift it up above the fretboard and apply a gentle “bouncing” action 5-6 times to stretch it out. Play the string again and it will be much lower in pitch. Tune back up to pitch and repeat.

Nylon strings stretch a LOT more than steel strings do and may require you to repeat this action 4 or 5 times before they are fully stretched in. Eventually though the strings will reach a level of stability and your tuning stability will be greatly improved.

Click to enlarge

2. MACHINE HEADS
Usually the prime suspect for tuning problems, there are a number of issues that can occur with your guitar’s machine heads.

Some cheap machine heads are of a poor design that can actually begin to slip over time – affecting your guitar’s tuning. A change to a quality brand of machine heads such as Wilkinson or Gotoh can help out a lot here.

It is also important when restringing to take note of how many times you wrap the string around the machine head post. A good rough guide is 2-3 times for wound strings and 5-6 times for plain strings Too few winds and the string will not be secure on the post and may slip out a little – changing your tuning. Too MANY winds and the string will be winding around itself and can shift around during playing - especially if you use a tremolo/whammy bar.

Both of these issues can be resolved by installing “locking” machine heads which clamp the string in place and then do not require any winds around the post. However, with some careful restringing techniques, you can achieve excellent stability from any good quality machine heads.

Check out this excellent guide from D’Addario showing how to restring an acoustic guitar (more links on this site for electric/bass/classical guitars). http://www.tothestage.com/MediaDetail.Page?MediaId=33

Click to enlarge

3. NUT
OK so the nut is the silent terrorist when it comes to tuning problems. This little part of your guitar is the source of MANY MANY tuning problems, though it often flies beneath the radar and is often not thought of.

It’s the grooves on the nut (where the strings pass over) that cause so much grief. If the grooves have been cut too small, the string windings will actually snag in the grooves and hamper your ability to tune. This problem often manifests itself when you are tuning and the string stops going up in pitch, then you hear a little “ping” as the string unsnags itself. This “snagging” is one of the main things which causes tuning problems with whammy-bar-equipped guitars.

If the nut grooves are cut too wide, then the string will literally move around within the groove, which slightly alters the length of your string and hence the tuning. This is disasterous as the tuning will be constantly changing.

These problems used to be extremely prevalent in cheap guitars and although the problem is not as pronounced as it used to be – it is still one to watch out for. There are a couple of solutions to this:

-Get a new nut PROPERLY cut by a professional guitar repairperson/luthier. A good luthier will know how to properly slot a nut to minimise or eliminate these issues.

-Install some sort of low-friction nut. There are a number of products on the market such as GRAPH TECH nuts. These nuts are made from graphite impregnated with Teflon and provide an extremely lubricated surface which stops the strings from snagging. Some Fender guitars use the LSR Roller Nut which achieves similar results through a ball-bearing system.

Click to enlarge

4. TREMOLO BRIDGE (VINTAGE STYLE)
The Fender Stratocaster is the most imitated guitar on the planet, and as such there are millions of guitars in existence with a vintage-style fulcrum tremolo. Whilst having a whammy bar on your guitar is great fun and a wonderful creative tool, it can also cause serious tuning issues once you start going for the big “dive bombs”. Even the best of the best Custom Shop vintage bridges are an imperfect design and are more or less impossible to keep in tune completely if you use the tremolo extensively.

However, light to moderate use of the tremolo on a well set-up, quality vintage-style bridge should not give you problems.

Click to enlarge

5. FLOYD ROSE BRIDGES
Once upon a time there was a young guitarist named Floyd Rose who got so completely frustrated by the limitations of his vintage-style tremolo (as above) that he decided to design a completely new system. He designed a “double-locking” system that worked so well that it soon took the world by storm and became an industry-standard item as it is today.

The Floyd Rose tremolo bridge quite literally “locks” down the strings at both ends.

When this system is set up correctly it is absolutely the most stable tuning system available and will ensure your guitar stays in tune through ANY amount of abuse.

The key phrase here though is “set up correctly” as there are few things that can cause quite so much frustration as a Floyd Rose system that is not set up correctly. Be sure to get your Floyd Rose system set up by a professional – then once it is set up:

-Don’t change your string gauge (this changes the tension on the system and will screw up your guitar’s setup)

-Don’t alter the tuning of the guitar (i.e. alternate tunings). Floyd Rose systems can work in ONE TUNING only. If you like to play around with a bunch of different tunings, then a Floyd Rose system is NOT going to work for you.

If you stick to the above rules however, then you will get flawless performance from your Floyd Rose bridge and realise why it has been the tremolo of choice for so many amazing players over the years.

6. QUALITY OF HARDWARE
What I am about to write in this section actually addresses one of the most major, but also one of the most insidious issues that can cause tuning problems in guitar – the quality of your hardware.

I often talk about quality hardware being the “invisible factor” in keeping a guitar in tune, and getting great tone too!

As the world market keeps demanding lower-priced guitars that still look and play great, guitar manufacturers are forced to find ways to cut costs on guitars. HARDWARE (i.e. bridges and machine heads) is a great way for them to cut costs as you can still make a cheap bridge look fantastic with a layer of chrome plating – in fact it is often very difficult to tell a cheap bridge from an expensive one – but there are indeed differences….

Most hardware on cheap to midrange guitars is manufactured through a process known as die-casting. Die-casting is an extremely cost-effective process that involves “casting” parts from molten metal poured into moulds. It is a lot easier to make parts in this manner, than in the traditional fashion of stamping and machining parts.

For some parts of the guitar, the die-casting process produces excellent results – most good machine heads for example (from companies such as Grover, Schaller, Gotoh etc) are die-cast and are of very high quality.

For other parts of the guitar however, die cast hardware can be disasterous – such as on tremolo bridges. Traditional “machined” parts are made from very strong metals such as steel or brass. Die cast parts are made from alloys (usually zinc/magnesium alloys) which are not as strong as Steel and brass. Often these die-cast parts can actually start wearing away – particularly in high-tension areas such as the tremolo bridge. As the bridge starts wearing away, it can start developing some “give” which will quickly start giving you tuning problems.

This oft-overlooked factor is a major contributor to tuning difficulties, and remains one of the most compelling reasons to purchase quality instruments with good, strong hardware.

CONCLUSION
So there you go – just a glimpse at the multitude of variables that can contribute to tuning difficulties in your guitar. Remember that in any instance, it’s always recommendable, if you have any difficulties, to get your guitar looked at by a professional repair-person.

If in doubt, bring it into your nearest Rockshop and the staff will be glad to help you out.

Till next time….

Brass / Woodwind

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:21:42 +0000

:: Jupiter Brass/Woodwind ::

When one of the company directors asked for my input in establishing the Rockshop as a respected supplier of brass and woodwind, I said ‘Sure. What brand are we going to be doing?’

The reply was ‘Jupiter’;

I’ve been playing in and conducting brass bands for 28 years and know that any serious brass and woodwind player will tell you that Jupiter is an entry level product. When I discovered the Jupiter catalogue, my perception and enthusiasm changed instantly. I had no idea that Jupiter made high end professional models from mini trombones to pocket trumpets, from bass clarinets to baritone saxophones and everything in between. I was like a kid in a candy shop.

How good is this product?

Well after having played a few of them, I have to say, it’s excellent.

So why is there a misconception in NZ, that Jupiter equals cheap and entry level products? That’s probably due to the fact that over recent years, only the low end entry level product has been brought into NZ. Now we have a HUGE selection across the board from entry level to professional, all of which of much higher standard than I was previously aware of.

The entry level instruments are as good as anything on the market (features, playability and price) but it's the intermediate and professional models - that really caught my eye.

-For Trumpet (incl piccolo), Trombone, Flugal Horns and Saxophone players, the XO Series is as good as any I have ever seen or played, and I can say I have played most of the top products.

-There is also a professional Artist Series for Saxophone players which is also of a high quality.

-For Flute players, they get spoilt with the DiMedici Series of professional flutes - which are stunning.

-And Clarinet players can choose a fine instrument with either Parisienne or German style keywork.

So who is using Jupiter?

The Jupiter website has an endorsement list on and has names on it like Dirty Dozen (all Jupiter endorsees) and Don Radar who was the lead trumpet player for Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and the Manhatten Transfer. He now resides in Australia and uses Jupiter exclusively.

-Dirty Dozen - http://www.dirtydozenbrass.com/
-Don Radar - http://www.jupiterinstrument.com/artist-australia.htm#don

The list of Who’s Who playing this product is growing by the week and we are now starting to see that in NZ. One of the best trumpet players this country has ever produced is a Christchurch local called Chris Harris (not the cricketer). Chris has just spent the last ten years playing all over the world on cruise ships and uses a very expensive, handmade Schilke trumpet. He came into the Christchurch store earlier this year and tried the Jupiter range – and within half an hour had purchased a mid range trumpet ($1799) and said it was the nicest trumpet he had ever played. He now also owns a Jupiter Flugal Horn and is in the stages of purchasing a pocket trumpet and a piccolo trumpet.

So how reliable is Jupiter?

Jupiter have been making instruments since 1979, and are now one of the world’s largest producers of brass and woodwind, and is part of the world's second largest instrument company. Now, call me cynical, but I don’t think you’d become that big if your product wasn’t good.

A WORLD OF QUALITY
Working under a philosophy to support music education and community since 1930, Jupiter’s parent company, KHS Musical Instruments Co. Ltd. has become one of the largest musical instrument producers in the world today. Incorporating some of the fastest growing brands today, KHS can offer a full line of quality instruments to school music programs and individual players.

As a global company, KHS selects the finest materials available and controls all aspects of manufacturing in their state-of-the-art, company-owned factories, ensuring consistently high quality and reliability. Visit the Jupiter Factory Tour to learn more about the making of woodwind and brass instruments.

So if you are in the market, or know someone who is in the market for a high quality, reliable brass or woodwind instrument - then it's time visit your local Rockshop - or you can email me and we can talk more directly about your requirements. In the meantime you can check out the products we have in stock, here on our website.

Rockshop Jupiter Stock

For the full range of product, go to

Jupiter - Home Page

Distortion and Overdrive and Boost .... oh my !!!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:21:42 +0000

:: “Distortion” and “Overdrive” and “Boost”…..oh my!!! ::

I’m quite excited about this post – I reckon 30% of people reading it will be like “yeah, I knew that” but the other 70% will (hopefully) have a real lightbulb moment. In my years in this industry I have seen SO much misunderstanding regarding the subject of Overdrive and Boost pedals that I am very much looking forward to setting the record somewhat straight…. Terminology: Overdrive vs Distortion– what’s the difference? The two terms “overdrive” and “distortion” can get quite confusing. They are sometimes used interchangeably, and sometimes used for separate meanings. The reality is that they both refer to pretty much exactly the same thing (the sound of an overloaded audio device) – however in guitar terms, we tend to use “Overdrive” to describe lightly distorted sounds, and “Distortion” to describe harder-edged high-gain sounds. Really, it’s all the same thing though… Using OD/Distortion pedals in front of a clean amp. This is how most of us are very familiar with using OD/Dist pedals. It’s pretty simple – you plug a pedal into a amp set “clean”, turn on the pedal and you get an overdriven effect. Simple huh? You select a pedal based on the sort of tone you are after and the amount of distortion that you want: Some examples ... click image for larger picture.

	BOSS DS-1 – The biggest selling pedal on the planet. Still sounds good after all these years – can provide medium to semi-high gain tones and gives a good solid classic-rock tone.
	VISUAL SOUND Open Road Overdrive – A wonderful sounding pedal that does low-gain sounds with zero tone coloration. Just sounds like YOUR guitar into YOUR amp – but overdriven. Awesome stuff.
	CROWTHER Hot Cake – A NZ-made pedal that has become a worldwide classic. If you have never experienced the wonderful gritty yet smooth grind that this pedal conjures up, then you really need to hear one soon. The better the amp you plug it into, the better it sounds!
	BOSS ML-2 Metal Core – From the people that brought you the insane MT-2 Metal Zone comes the ML-2 Metal Core. Has the same ridiculous levels of gain – for the dedicated Metal player, but has a much more natural, amp like response than the razor-sharp MT-2. METAL LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
	Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive/ IBANEZ TubeScreamer – These are the pedals which cause much MUCH misunderstanding and lead me to write this article. I will talk about the Tube Screamer (TS) and the SD-1 together because they are both classic pedals with similar uses and in fact share an almost identical circuit.
These 2 pedals are probably the most legendary pedals of all time. Almost every pro guitarist on the planet either owns or has owned one of these pedals. We’ve all heard stories about how indispensable these pedals are to such influential and diverse players as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Zakk Wylde, George Lynch, Kirk Hammett and countless others. I can’t tell you though, just how often I have seen people buy one of these pedals after hearing that their idol uses one, plug it into a clean amp and be utterly disappointed by the mid-rangey, low-gain tone that comes out of them. What most people are not realising though is that the players above did not use their Overdrive pedals in the way you might expect….. Using OD/Dist pedals into an already overdriven amp. So you like the way your amp sounds, but can’t get enough gain from it? Well it’s simple really – you just need to give it a good old kick in the front end with an Overdrive pedal…….but perhaps a little differently than you might think. So here is a pic showing how most people would normally use on Overdrive pedal – as in the earlier scenarios - running it into a clean amp:

FIG 1		In Fig 1 The DRIVE knob has been set to sound like an overdriving amp, and the LEVEL knob has been set to taste – usually to around the same volume, or slightly louder than the clean sound. However, if you’re going to use your Overdrive pedal to boost your already-distorting amp into sonic meltdown – then you want to set it like below in Fig 2:

FIG 2		In Fig 2 the DRIVE knob is nearly all the way down so the impact it is having on your guitar’s tone is only slight – but the LEVEL knob is all the way up!! What you are doing with this setting is slamming the front end of your amp with a LOT more signal – which causes the amp to distort more heavily – whilst the pedal gives your tone only slight colouration. In other words – it’s just your amp sound with more GAIN.

This is where SD-1’s and TS-type pedals really made their mark on the world – as players like Zakk Wylde, Warren Dimartini, Stevie Ray Vaughan and a thousand other players in the early 80’s discovered – using an Overdrive pedal to “boost” the front end of your amp could deliver previously unheard of levels of distortion and led to the high-gain revolution we’re still in today….

Here are some Overdrive pedals that work great as boosts:

	Visual Sound Route 808 Although Ibanez have recently reissued their TubeScreamer pedals, it is fairly well accepted that they “don’t make ‘em like they used to” – hence the proliferation of boutique pedal builders who will build (or convert) a pedal to the “original” Tube Screamer specs. Most of these pedals will cost you a small fortune, but one company – VISUAL SOUND has delivered a TS-clone which stays true to the original Tube Screamer circuit, but with high quality componentry and the added feature of a BASS BOOST switch to restore the bass that is lost in the TubeScreamer circuit ... all at a very reasonable price.
	BOSS SD-1 Super Overdrive As mentioned before – this pedal shares an almost identical circuit to the TubeScreamer, but with a slight change in the circuit to include Boss’s patented “assymetrical clipping”. The overall effect is a tone that is very similar to a TubeScreamer, but with noticeably more attack and bite to create a slightly more aggressive sound and enhance harmonics. This is the pedal favoured by Zakk Wylde for boosting his Marshall JCM800’s since his career started.
	BOSS OD-3 Overdrive Boss’s newest Overdrive pedal has been making waves as a pedal that puts many boutique pedals to shame with it’s complex overtones and natural feel. Currently sitting on my own pedalboard – this is an EXCELLENT pedal.
	DIGITECH Bad Monkey Few “new” pedals have created as many waves in the guitar community in the last 5-10 years as this one. This puppy delivers tone that is equally as good as the reissue TubeScreamers, with MUCH more versatility (from the 2-band EQ) and a meagre price tag.
Other types of Boost pedals. Since the key factor to boosting the front end of an amp is to overload the amp’s input, you can pretty much use ANYTHING that pumps out a hot output……and many people do. Here are some more pedals commonly used for boosting amps….
	BOSS GE-7 A 7-Band Graphic EQ pedal that can not only boost individual frequencies (to tailor your tone) but has a master volume boost as well that can really slam the front end of an amp hard. U2’s THE EDGE makes good use of a GE-7 to boost his Vox AC30’s into overdrive.
	MXR 10-Band EQ Same deal as the Boss GE-7 – but with more frequencies and more boost. Kerry King of Slayer famously uses this pedal to slam his Marshall amps with.
	Blackstar HT-BOOST For those who like to keep their signal path pure, the Blackstar HT-BOOST is the newcomer on the scene which is getting rave reviews worldwide. It uses a 12AX7 tube running at almost 300volts to produce some exquisite sounding clean boost. Absolutely sublime for creating more “modern” boosted tones…

Can I use some of the “Distortion” pedals mentioned earlier as boosts? Yup sure can! Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have both been users of Boss DS-1’s for creating their boosted tones for years. There’s something about a Crowther Hot Cake boosting an already overdriven Vox amp that is just spine-tingling and must be experienced… Just remember – DRIVE down, LEVEL up!!!! Can I boost any amp? Yes of course! Any amp that is already overdriving (whether by being turned up loud or on it’s “OVERDRIVE” channel) can benefit from being boosted by a pedal. I do have a few pointers however…. - The whole “boosting” phenomena started with Marshall amps in the late 70’s and has continued ever since. For some reason, Marshall amps LOVE to be boosted and are a great place to start experimenting with. While many amps (such as Fender or MESA) can be tricky to find the right boost for, Marshall amps will happily take pretty much anything you throw at it and deliver a great tone… - Watch out for the BASS control on your amp. When boosting your amp – the bass can easily get out of control, creating not-too-pleasant farty, flubby noises. You may have to start experimenting with your BASS control on your amplifier set much lower than you are used to. …….and that’s it. Can I boost an OD/Dist pedal with another OD/Dist pedal? Yes indeed you can – and this is where things can get REALLY fun. This is known as “stacking pedals” and is a great way to create a variety of fantastic tones from an amp that only has a clean sound. If you have one pedal set for a nice mild overdrive sound (as in the earlier Fig 1), you can boost it with another pedal placed before it in the signal chain, set up as in Fig 2 to boost the original pedal into high-gain heaven. Some pedals (such as the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde) actually have 2 separate OD/Dist pedals in one box and are set up so that you can boost one with the other… If you haven’t already discovered the joys of “boosting” your amp, then you owe it to yourself to blow a few bucks on a inexpensive Overdrive pedal and spark some new life into your rig. Coolness ... There’s so much fun to be had, and so much that I haven’t covered. If you have any questions, then you are welcome to contact us on the email address above. Hopefully that has enlightened you a little and gives you some inspiration to go down to your local Rockshop and try some of this stuff out. You may find your own “signature tone” just hiding away waiting to be discovered. Most importantly though – have fun with it and remember that although the suggestions I have made above are all tried and tested to sound great – the key to finding your tone is experimentation. The rules are: there are no rules. Go nuts!!!! Till next time…… Gear Boss DS-1 Distortion = $99 Visual Sound Open Road = $279 Crowther Hot Cake = $269 Boss ML-2 Metal Core = $189 Boss SD1 Super Overdrive = $109 Visual Sound Route 808 = $239 Boss OD-3 Overdrive = $149 Digitech Bad Monkey = $139 Boss GE-7 = $149 MXR 10-Band EQ = $399 Blackstar HT-Boost = $329 Visual Sound V2 Jekyll & Hyde - $379

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