solusash's Reviews

Pretty Decent Controller

I have zero experience with MIDI controllers heretofore, but it does what it says on the tin--it controls MIDI, it has faders that fade, knobs that knob, pads that pad, and keys that key. It's affordable to most any level of musician, it has weighted keys that actually register velocity in your DAW (and it works with Cakewalk by Bandlab, so it should work with anything), so it's got some nice features.

The keys feel nice. They play well. The faders feel almost like a real console. The knobs are the best knobs I've ever hobknobbed with. Not really faffed about with the pads yet.

It also comes with a few extra software programs, all of which are really nice. LOADS of synth sounds, Abelton Live Lite, and uh... I forget what the other one was. But for less than $300, you could do a lot worse.

And it's all powered by a printer USB Cable!

Come on, buy it. You know you want to.

Quintessential Guitar for EVERY Guitarist

This guitar is THE guitar. When you think of the greats, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Eric Johnson, Dave Murray, Jimi Hendrix, even Yngwie Malmsteen--they all play Strats. The Made in Mexico Strat has been discontinued a while now, but you can still snag it used. If you can, you should. I myself am partial to the Midnight Wine colour, but that's just me.

The maple fretboard is silky smooth, like butter on a bald monkey.

The tone you can get from this axe is everything from soft clear just this side of acoustic all the way to hard hitting thrash.

The hardware is top-notch, feels good, looks good. The vibrato tailpiece is solid, easy to use, and don't feel like it's going to break--even when you're a little harder on it than you'd maybe think you should be (I've played on Strat Knockoffs, the tailpiece usually feels like it's going to break). The tuning stability is just amazing--I've been wailing on the whammy (as it were) all day, and not really had to tune up.

My advice? Pair this with a good tube amp, either a Vox AC15/30, or something with 6L6s in it. You won't regret it.

Iceman Looks on a Budget

Classic Iceman looks in a smaller body, so it's a bit lighter. The pickups sound pretty good for what they are, and the neck is fast. Could use an extra couple of frets, but that's alright. Gets an excellent crunchy tone through a good valve amp, or with a proper drive pedal.

I never take the stage without this in my arsenal. Neither should you.

Have used Cakewalk Products on and off Since Guitar Tracks 2.0

This'n's a winner. It does what it says on the tin. Most days, anyway. Sometimes you get weird distortion, audio dropouts, and just choppy playback. Not sure what the culprit is, as I've tried all the things online to "fix" it, including the BIOS fixes, the buffer fixes, and the driver/ASIO/MME fixes.

Ah well, it works pretty decent for the most part, and since it's free, who am I to complain about dropouts/choppy playback, eh?

Great for listening, not for mixing

These are great for listening to music, not so much for mixing. They have great bass, and they do great to isolate you from the outside world. I love them to death (they're also really solidly built). But don't try mixing on them. It don't work so very nice.

The mic on them is crap. Just... Don't.

High Gain, and I MEAN High Gain

This is probably the highest gain pedal I've ever played. It's great for Nu-Metal (in fact, the Tone Lok line was "endorsed" by Korn, as I recall--then again, that's been near on 15-20 years ago, so I could be misremembering) sounds, but if you roll off some of the drive, and put an EQ in front of it, you can make this pedal really shine.

I'm a bit biased, as it's the first effects pedal I ever bought for myself. I needed a quick distortion pedal, and the shop I was in was out of DS-1s, so they said "Hey, this is close!"

No. No it is not. It is not even remotely comparable to the DS-1.

Still, it's not a bad distortion unit if you want super high gain that borders on fuzz. Actually, if you're looking for fuzz, this is probably a good way to get it. Because it's a very, VERY hard clipping pedal.

Nice Concept, Bad Layout

Love the concept, the layout is terrible. Pads are too close, and they're too sensitive. You hit one, you may trigger any other around it.

That said, it's got MIDI out, and can be used as a controller. That, and the fact it'll sit on a snare stand, is why it's not a 1 Star rating.

Not Bad for the Price

You get 7 Harps. I got mine on sale, so can't complain. They wear out fast, though. Still, as the other user said, great case. And the harps are not all that bad. Just keep 'em clean, and they'll last a while. I've had mine going on 10 years now, and they're still all functional, so I mean, that's pretty good.

First Condenser I Ever Had

And it's STILL my Go-To. For the price, it can't be beat. It's right there with some other ones, sure, but the warmth, the clarity, the just plain goodness this one has... Oh man, it sounds so good. Put a decent preamp between it and your recording interface? Maybe something with a tube in it? Yeah, you're going to have a blast recording.

I honestly can't think of any downside to it. Other than the crappy micstand ring it comes with being made out of the cheapest quality metal I've ever seen in my life. But it also comes with an MXL branded microfiber cloth, and as someone who wears glasses, that's just GREAT! So 5 of 5 stars, best hotel ever, would recommend!

It's Popular for a Reason

It's easy to use, easy to set up, and easy to manage. Only real issue is just how much backing noise it picks up with minimal gain.

That said, the Sherpa software from Blue helps cut all that out. With that, you can fairly effectively dial in exactly what you need, for podcasting and streaming.

I do not recommend this mic for vocal work, voice overs, or recording music. Get even a barebones basic XLR mic of ANY kind for that. Even the cheapest on Amazon will be better suited for that than a USB mic. No, this is not prejudice, I have both, and have ran side-by-side in a quintuple blind (or would it be deaf?) sound shoot out, and 7 out of 10 times, the Yeti lost to XLR mics.

THAT said, if it's what you've got, don't let that stop you from making music!

For the Price, Can't Beat, 3.5 Stars though...

So for $30, you can get this, and "Decent Microphone Accessories." Those accessories include a crap cable, a crap "interface," and a pretty alright desk boom stand, pop filter, shock mount, and windscreen. It also has a "Seven Day No Reason to Return Policy." Nice.

So here's the deal. You need a mic. You don't have much scratch. This is the mic for you. Even the crappy little USB interface and cable are not bad if all you have is $30 (though if you've got a bit more, the BandLabs pocket interface (which is also $30) is far superior to the crappy interface this set comes with). It'll get you started, and with a decent DAW (like Cakewalk, by the aforementioned BandLabs), you can take out most of the hiss. And yes, there will be hiss unless you have something to get phantom power to the mic, because it's a cardioid condenser mic and they need phantom power.

Anyway, for the price, you're not going to find a better mic. And yes, I have one sitting on my desk right now. And plan on buying a few more.

Best Strings

These are what are on all my electrics. I mean, I'm not sure what you can say about this, other than they're amazing strings. They have a great sound, they feel great to play on them, they don't die for AGES... And as a bass player mostly, these let me do my bends on a guitar without fear of a break.

Replace Tube

As soon as you get it. I threw a Rube 12AX7 in mine. Yes, OK, I know, Ruby isn't the most popular choice. But for the voicing I wanted, it was what I needed.

You replace the tube, this little preamp is about as solid as they come. I've had mine near on a decade, and it's never once let me down. Ever. Just remember, it converts your signal to LINE LEVEL, even if you go XLR IN, you're going to be going a guitar cable OUT.

Save yourself hours of headache trying to figure out where all that hum is coming from, and just run LINE OUT.

Not Good Not Bad, Far Better Options, Unless You Need 9v Power

If you can get it on sale, go ahead. But for the price, there are far better options. At the time I got it, there wasn't many choices for what I was doing (I needed portability, and this one can function off of a 9v battery), but now? The market has many, many superior options.

Save yourself the trouble, avoid.

Hehehe Blue BALL

You know they named it that for a reason. I know they did. THEY know they did. And now I can say I have Blue BALL.

This mic sounds amazing in and out of the studio. I use it to mic up amps with, to record really loud vocals, and sometimes just doing voice over work. It's a phantom powered dynamic mic. Yes, a PHANTOM POWERED dynamic mic.

Why?

I don't know. Ask Blue. They're weird that way. I just know it works. And it's built like a tank. And it sounds friggin' amaziballs.

I'll see myself out after that one. I'm not proud of it.

I'm on my 3rd...

I've blown out two of already. Yes, blown out. Because gigs. Because I ran them hard. These are the best small gig amps in the world. Even Feist has used them (pretty sure she's got two of right now her own self).

Look, I'm not saying you have to buy a Vox Pathfinder 15R. I'm just saying if you DON'T, I'm going to be really, REALLY frustrated, OK? I mean, seriously, I know it's discontinued. I know they're hard to track down. But check Reverb or something. They should be less than $150. They're great for practice, bedrooms, garage bands, and small venue/coffeehouse gigging.

They sound good, they look good, and the built in tremolo sounds GREAT.

Just do it. OK? Just do it. I'm only trying to help you!

Mine's Blue, and this is really 3.5 Stars

Great travel guitar. Great tuning stability. Great fun to play. Great sounding when plugged in. Zero regrets buying.

Love this guitar to death. Been having a blast with it. Basically, bought it to give me a way to practice daily again, since my job don't allow for much free time--but with a hopeful promotion, that'll give me some free time coming up, and I can use this guitar to fill that free time, by taking it to work with me.

Fit and finish could have been a bit better, won't lie. One of the frets (the 11th, specifically) is a bit raised, could have been polished better. But it's a sub-$500 guitar, and it's a post 2015 Gibson offshoot brand. I didn't expect jawdropping quality.

Pickups are a bit underpowered, but I wasn't expecting high output, metal up your arse, MELT YOUR FACE sound out of 'em. I was expecting about what I got--vintage-esq voiced, medium powered, decent sounding pickups.

Neck feels good, man. Plays fast. Fretwork, apart from that one fret, is pretty good.

Not crazy about the trem. Won't lie. Could have been better.

Out of the box, you'll want to give it a proper setup job.

I would have given it 3.5 stars, but that don't seem to be an option.

Fun to Play

Bright sound, stays in tune for literally years, plays pretty good, strings are nice for what they are, can't comment on restringing it as I've never had to do that. But yeah, not bad. Not bad at all. For $50, you could do a whole lot worse.

On And On Anon

Loops for days. And days for loops! I've never really mastered the whole loop thing, and since there seems to be a slight (few millisecond) delay between the loop start/stop with this pedal (or my timing is slightly off, could be that, I won't front), that's made it a bit harder on me to get used to looping.

Still, this thing, when you do get it going, it goes and goes and goes! You can do all kinds of crazy things with it! Got a drum pad set? Play some drums, then loop a bass line over it, then play your guitar and sing. You're a one person band! Don't have drums? No problem! Use your acoustic guitar as a drum set! Bang on the body for the drums, use the strings as a snare and cymbals!

The possibilities are endless with this station. And with the new ones?

Dude, just go get one. Or the new ones. Or the RC-1. Or just SOMETHING that's got a looper built with it.

Meh. Not a Lot of Room.

For the dosh you pay, needs more room. Needs better power solution. Needs better cable management. In a nutshell, this case is not worth the price you pay considering the other options out there. I'm lucky, mine came with rather valuable pedals and gear with it, far outweighing the cost of the board, or else I'd have given it one star. Because seriously, this is not a great board, guys.