There are numerous sites for backtracks (like http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com and http://guitarbt.com), i.e. songs with no guitar tracks that allow you to jam over them yourself or make a cover of a known song. The best backtracks are originals with all other tracks, even vocals. These are quite hard to come by as no artists (at least […]
Read more
After having found out about Focusrites hardware solution to emulate a perfect mixing environment in headphones I looked a bit harder for software solutions and have come across three with the help of members at forums I frequent. TB Isone (€20, free trial) – VST with parameters for room layout, monitor angle etc. HDPHX (free) […]
Read more Now that we know there’s a way to emulate monitor output in rooms when mixing, wouldn’t it be cool if you could add room simulation to the cabinet or cabinet simulation you are using? Well, you can – using impulse responses. An impulse response is the recording of a special kind of sound – a […]
Read more
Total Guitar magazine and SoundCloud are hosting a guitar solo competition. The winner will get £600 worth of stuff from Ernie Ball and a premium SoundCloud account for one year. Download the backtrack (it’s the down arrow to the right of the track), shred your brains out and drop your track in Total Guitar’s drop […]
Read more
Like most bedroom guitarists I have my gear in – the bedroom. With a 1,5 yo, the time when I can play guitar and mix my tunes, the bedroom is occupied by someone sleeping. And even though she’s moving into her own room now, I still can’t crank the volume up. And even if I […]
Read more
When I was buying my first electric guitar I made a lot of research (because I always do). Having been a metal fan all of my life I found out I was pretty ignorant about guitars. I quickly found out that there are bunches of guitar makers, and more importantly two kinds of pickups. I […]
Read moreI currently own two acoustics and three electrics, the latter shown here: [slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157626503591114″ items=”50″ use_key=”y” sort=”date” order=”ascending”] Ibanez S470 BK with stock pickups, aching to be replaced Cort M520 with a Duncan Custom in the bridge and a Duncan Jazz arriving in the mail Schecter Omen 7 with Dimarzio Blaze in bridge, refitting […]
Read more To my great happiness I found that dominating metal record label Nuclear Blast released promo streams of Symphony X songs on SoundCloud. I’ve praised SoundCloud before, and this is why I think it’s great that bands and record labels use it instead of other platforms: It doesn’t look like Geocities from 1997 like MySpace. It’s […]
Read more
Fractal Audio’s Axe Fx is the only digital amp modeller (and multi effects unit) that professional artist actually use in their productions. With PODs and the Boss GTs being excellent units for the bedroom guitarist with lack of space, the just-announced Axe Fx 2 is really outside the competition. The new version has double the […]
Read moreI’m restarting the blog. I was pretty happy with it as it was, only one problem – it wasn’t getting any traffic. This means only half of its reason for being was working; keeping an archive for myself. The other half, sharing and getting feedback wasn’t. I’ve identified a number of potential reasons for this: […]
Read more