• You can learn what different amplifiers and stomp boxes sound like without having to spend years road tripping to every guitar shop in the state.

• Have a favourite guitarist, would love to get their sound, just don’t have the budget?
  Here you can find a database of guitarists rigs through the years.
  For under $10, Garage Band comes with dozens of amp and stomp box simulators that to play with. You can pop between a few guitarists rigs in minutes for less than the price of a guitar cable.

• You can replace the metronome, or “click track”, with a drumbeat. Try your hand playing against an offbeat reggae feel. Get a simple backbeat going, and you’ll find finger exercises far more enjoyable.

• You can record yourself playing rhythm parts, and spend sometime working out leads over it without having to wait on other peoples schedule to have someone to jam with.

• Learning the vernacular behind the guitar is like learning a new language, working in a DAW is the easiest way to immerse yourself amongst native speakers. So you’ll learn the language quicker.

• Delve into the world of MIDI instruments, everything from piano to violins at the click of a button.

Garage Band is the go to solution for the low budget mobile world in the Mac platform, it’s big brother, Logic Pro -by the way, great beginner’s tutorial here – takes on the same layout as Garage Band, and greatly expands the programs capabilities to allow for far larger amounts of tracks,  and effects usage.

Garage Band (below)

Logic Pro (below)

Pro Tools has been the industry standard recording software since the 1990’s, it’s pricier than the Mac made applications, it also consumes a much larger amount of CPU processing power. The upside of the software is an unparalleled editing capability, and audio manipulation. If you want to bring a project into a professional studio, you’ll just have to bring a hard drive filled with  your files from home into the studio, and you’ll have seamless integration.

Adobe Audition is seeing rising usage amongst Adobe cloud users, seeing as it’s part of the creative suite that Photoshop and Illustrator come in.

Ableton Live thrives on its looping capabilities, and it’s ease of incorporation to physical hardware, great for a guitarist looking to incorporate electronic elements into their live performances.

A few other popular DAWs on the market are Audacity, Nuendo, Digital Performer, Mixbus, and Cubase.

DAWs are much like guitars, in that marketing departments will have you believe in vast differences between them. This article will be an introduction to the similarities of the software.  Lets start with how to hook up your instrument to a computer. The audio interface (image below) is where you can plug-in your instruments, which will have some, if not all of the following aspects to it:

1. Analog to Digital Converters /Digital to Analog Converters (internal to the device, essentially a dedicated computer mother board)
2. Preamps
3. Analog I/O:Inputs (Mic, Instrument, Line),  Outputs (Balanced, Unbalanced)
4. Digital I/O: Inputs (ADAT, AES, SPDIF)/Outputs(ADAT, AES, SPDIF, USB, Firewire, Lighting, Thunderbolt)
5. MIDI I/O: Input/Output/Thru

1 – Analog to Digital Converters/Digital to Analog Converters

The interface is there to give you the ability to take the sine wave (analog) that is produced by any instrument, i.e., your vocal chords, or the string of a guitar, and translate it to the binary code (digital) that a computer understands so it can translate it back into the sine waves that we understand and play it back for you. This is the sole function of the Analog to Digital Converters and Digital to Analog Converters, most often refereed to as the AD and DA converters, .

2 – Preamps

The preamps essentially function the same as a gain knob on a guitar amplifier, allowing the user to dictate the volume of an instrument coming into the computer.

3 – Analog I/O

How to connect your instrument(s), the biggest sell point for an audio interface is how many of these come on each unit. Basically, find the unit that has the number you need, it’s very much a get what you pay for world. For most people, a 2 input, 2 output interface is all that is needed. Without going into too much detail, Balanced/Unblanced, Mic/Line, are easiest understood as the difference between a three pronged, grounded power outlet, and a two prong unpowered outlet.

4 – Digital I/O

In it’s most basic form, this is a way for digital devices to talk to each other without having to convert back into analog first. This will be how your computer and audio interface talk to each other.

5 – MIDI I/O

MIDI stands for musical instrument, digital interface. This is a computer code invented in the 1980’s, that allows for large amounts of information to be sent to a computer for it to decipher and playback into synthesized audio. MIDI is mostly used with keyboards, but there are guitar and bass MIDI pickups, as well as audio to MIDI interfaces available on the market. MIDI information can be carried through a USB cable or through a proprietary 5pin cable. Picking up a MIDI pickup for your guitar will allow you to trigger synth sounds like a keyboardist can. Want a banjo or a cello for a bit? Here’s how. The technology has never been terrific in the guitar to MIDI world, but it can be fun to play around with for a little while.

Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Controls

Now that you have a basic understanding of how to get your instrument talking to your computer, lets take a look at the DAW. DAWs will have controls for:

• Volume  – allowing you to turn tracks up and down compared to other tracks in the DAW
• Pan – allowing you to place each instrument in a specific location on your speaker system
• Inserts – a section of each track where effects, called plugins in the software world, can be placed on an audio track
• Sends  – for more advanced usages of the software that I will touch upon in a later article
• Input/Output Selection – how to route your interface in and out of the software
• Editsection – A window allowing for word processing like treatment of your audio. Where the ability to copy and paste, deletion of mistakes, movement of off beat notes, and the ability to program in moves in volumes, panning, and effects parameters (referred to as automation) are available to the user.

Garage Band Main Window (below)

Logic Pro Mix Window (below)

Logic Pro Edit Window (below)

Pro Tools Mix Window (below)

Pro Tools Edit Window (below)

Live’s “session” view,  a bit different from the mix window of the other DAWs, but the same principle elements are still present:

Live’s “arrangement view”, recalling the other DAWs edit window, with it’s own set twist on the deisgn.

DAWs allow several tracks of audio to be bounced down, or rendered, to a stereo file that can be played on the standard music player of your choice. So you can create a full demo for yourself with a fairly minimal software purchase, assuming you already own a computer or tablet.

The great thing about these programs is the number of online tutorials. Here are a few videos to help you get started:

An introduction to Pro Tools:

An introduction to Ableton Live:

An introduction to Logic Pro:

An introduction to Garage Band:

An introduction to Nuendo:

An introduction to Cubase:

The reality is that these pieces of software are can seem intimidating at first glance, but are only limited by your creativity. They are all very user friendly, and with just a couple of hours use, can become a powerful tool that works as easily as your favourite web browser, and can increase the fun of learning your new instrument.

The post A Guitar Beginner’s Guide To Recording In DAWs: Ableton, Garage Band & More appeared first on Uberchord App.

What you need is some effects—or “stomp”—pedals. But what should you get?

There is a huge amount of effects pedals available. A lot of famous guitarists still prefer stomp boxes—it looks like they’re using multi-effects boards, but really they have dedicated switch boards that specialist technicians wire up to an array of pedals inside.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What are the best stomp pedals for a novice player? Here are five I recommend that will give you an excellent head-start. And I’ve taken into account that your guitar amplifier probably has a basic overdrive setting and maybe a spring reverb, so let’s not double-up on those. These aren’t budget-priced, but they’ll last a lifetime. Seriously, in twenty years they’ll be scratched, dented and stomped on a million times—and still work.

1 – Delay Pedal

Boss Digital Delay DD7
Price: $149.00

The trick with delay effects is not to have them too loud unless you’re deliberately playing along with the echo, creating a harmonising effect, a method pioneered by Brian May of Queen.

A delay effect is used by a lot of players, ranging from a very short “doubling” effect you hear on country music solos to long settings in metal and progressive rock. This is a digital pedal, not analogue (but it has an analogue mode).

Digital pedals let you set the delay times more accurately so you can synchronise with the BPM of a song or DAW, plus the quality of a digital delay’s echoes doesn’t change—it sounds the same as the original until the delays fade away. With an analogue delay pedal the echoes lose sound quality over the repeats, but this isn’t a bad thing. Some players don’t like the clean, bright sound of a digital pedal. This pedal can do heaps, it’s versatile and you’ll never need another delay pedal again.

PRO TIP: The trick with delay effects is not to have them too loud unless you’re deliberately playing along with the echo, creating a harmonising effect, a method pioneered by Brian May of Queen. Otherwise, keeping the delay subtle and in the background adds more body and sustain to your playing.

2 – Reverb

TC Electronics Hall of Fame Reverb Pedal
Price: $149.00

Putting a reverb at the end of your stomp pedal chain is usually best. You can create huge, atmospheric soundscapes with a big reverb.

I did say that I wouldn’t double-up on any effects you’ve probably got in your guitar amp—but that will be a Spring reverb, a classic sound from the very early amplifiers. A fully-featured reverb stomp pedal can give you very long, rich reverbs that are an excellent effect, rather than just a means to thicken up the sound. You can create huge, atmospheric soundscapes with a big reverb. At the same time, a short reverb will give you that full tone, too. Spring reverbs in amplifiers are only a vintage sound and can be harsh or brittle. The other types of reverbs offered by this pedal are different altogether and well worth getting the all-in-one effect.

PRO TIP: Putting a reverb at the end of your stomp pedal chain is usually best.

3 – Chorus

MXR M234 Analog Chorus Pedal
Price: $99.99

A chorus pedal adds a magical sound to clean tones, or combined with a distortion effect it can make a really full, heavy metal power-chord tone.

A chorus pedal adds a magical sound to clean tones, or combined with a distortion effect it can make a really full, heavy metal power-chord tone. But clean sounds are where a chorus effect really shines. Cranked up to full it makes a spacey, swirling effect that can be overdone, but it’s a good way to hear what a chorus is doing, before dialling it back a bit. A chorus pedal adds modulation and delay to one half of a split signal and sounds like a second guitar in the background. Some pedals let you add anything up to five “voices” (thus the name “chorus” like a choir of voices) and you can create some fantastic effects.

PRO TIP: If you have a pickup installed in an acoustic guitar, try the chorus pedal. It can sound awesome.

4 – Tube Screamer

Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer
Price: $99.99

Ibanez stopped making it for a while, then had to bring it back by popular demand.

There are countless distortion pedals around, but the Tube Screamer has a special place in electric guitar history. It became popular when transistor-designed amplifiers became available that didn’t have vacuum tubes in the circuitry—an essential ingredient in an over-driven sound from an amplifier head. The Tube Screamer added that grit and distortion back in, replacing the noise of tubes running into the red, and did it so well the effect earned a reputation all of its own.

Ibanez stopped making it for a while, then had to bring it back by popular demand. But it’s important to know that a Tube Screamer isn’t a heavy effect—it doesn’t create a wall of speaker-shredding metal mayhem. It creates a more subtle bite, an edgy distortion that can cut through without being overwhelming. That’s why it’s a good stomp pedal to include here. You can learn how to create distortion from very low levels to a smooth crunch, whereas a lot of true distortion pedals can’t be backed off from serious grunge even at minimum settings.

PRO TIP: A Tube Screamer with a small distortion setting and extra volume makes for a good, clean solo boost.

5 – Compressor

Boss CS-3 Compressor
Price: $98.49

In a nut shell, compressors can even out playing, making the soft notes louder and clamping down on loud ones.

They say—and it’s true—that the best compressor effect is one you can’t hear. Compressors do some pretty clever things, but it’s not an in-your-face effect and many new players quickly give up on them, because they don’t take the time to learn how compression works. You rarely want to use compressors at extreme settings, but again it’s a good way to hear what’s going on. In a nut shell, compressors can even out playing, making the soft notes louder and clamping down on loud ones. They also add sustain, keeping those hanging notes ringing a lot longer. And some compressors will add a nice distortion, if you overdrive the input. There are many different kinds of compressor, both digital and analogue, and with varying designs they create unique sounds. So you’ll see plenty of choice. For a basic stomp box compressor with individual controls—vital for learning—this pedal is great.

PRO TIP: A Compressor pedal works best at the beginning of the pedal chain, smoothing and sustaining the playing so the other pedals get a consistent signal.

All Together Now…

All kinds of exciting stuff starts to happen and you’ll notice that the order in which you have the pedals connected can make a big difference to the final tone.

Experiment and discover what each pedal has to offer by itself. Then later begin running more than one effect, which means the different pedals feed an effected signal into the next one, not a clean sound. All kinds of exciting stuff starts to happen and you’ll notice that the order in which you have the pedals connected can make a big difference to the final tone. Although I’ve made suggestions about what pedal should go first and last, these five pedals can be arranged any way you want. All together that’s twenty-five possible combinations—it’ll keep you busy for a while. Have fun and enjoy the noise.

PRO TIP: If you’re running your stomp pedals on battery, always disconnect the guitar cables when you’re not using them. The input plug “grounds” the power supply, so even turned off pedal uses a small amount of battery. Unplug the cables to save battery life.

Now that you feel more comfortable using your guitar pedals it’s time to find more places to use them! Our free blog has so many resources to help you find ways to be creative with your sounds and playing. Many topics range between lessons, theory, and gear topics like these including how to get hardcore guitar tone, what is travis picking, and cool beginner progressive riffs. 

The post 5 Guitar Stomp-Box Pedals Every Guitarist Needs | 2016 appeared first on Uberchord App.

1. Blackstar ID:Core Stereo 20

Particularly if you want to get into recording and production, this Blackstar model is ideal. With six distinct “voices” from Clean Warm to OD2, as well as 12 stereo effects, there is a huge range of tones and options to play with. Together with the patented ISF control it allows for a nuanced choice of timbres, allowing you to immerse into exactly the sound you are after in gloriously deep Super Wide Stereo.

Other standard features include a tuner, headphone output, aux input, and a memory bank to store your favorite sounds. And: it comes with excellent Insider software. Simply connect it to your Mac or PC to start recording, looping, and manipulating your creations and sharing them online!

Price: ca. 160€

2. Marshall MG30CFX

Most guitarists like a bit of rock, which is why most guitarists should have a Marshall knocking about somewhere…

The MG30 is a good place to start. A reliable and lightweight transistor amp, loud enough for jamming and with straight-forward features, it’s especially good for beginners to understand how amps work (e.g. figuring out what the “mids” are on the EQ). Along with a headphones output and aux input (to play along to songs) it also has a useful effects bank with a choice of chorus, phase, flanger or delay, plus two types of reverb!

Add to that four channels (Clean, Crunch, OD1 and OD2), an inbuilt tuner and optional footswitch… what more can you want? Oh, and a really nice classic Marshall roar!

Price ca. 220€

3. Line6 Spider IV

Having perfected the modeling amp concept, Line 6 have become experts at delivering a huge variety of great sounds in a convenient, affordable package. Experiment with 12 different amp models, from classic 1960s Fender tone to the “Insane Red”, inspired by the mental Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, and sculpt your tone further with the seven built-in effects.

The 30 watts of Celestion speakers produce a powerful sound, loud enough for band practice and even small venues. And at only 200€, you’ll get a lot of amp for not much money.

Price: ca. 200€

4. Roland Cube Street EX

Fancy doing some busking, or a no-frills gig at an outdoors picnic? The Roland Cube Street EX not only comes with 15 hours battery life, but also has multiple inputs for playing guitar plus other instrument/vocals, each with its independent channel!

While both channels have an EQ, gain settings and simple reverb/delay options, the guitar channel has more effects and a choice of 8 different amp models. It doubles as a practice amp, a convenient gig tool as well a super powerful portable speaker for outdoor partying. It will even find use as a wedge monitor.

With its lightweight (<6kg) and robust construction, it has become the standard among battery-powered amps; and if 5 watts is not enough, there’s always the older brother with 50 watts.

Price: ca. 300€

5. Vox Valvetronix VT20+

Tube or solid-state? One has a nice warm vintage tone, but the other is just so much simpler and free of hassle. Vox makes one of the best hybrid amps, which heats up your guitar signal with a proper 12AX7 tube in the preamp before it becomes amplified by conventional transistors to deliver up to 30 Watts. A warm tone with smooth overdrive, but without aggravation.

It has tons of effects: 33 amp presets, 33 song presets modeled on the most iconic tunes, and if that weren’t enough, you still have 11 pedal effects, 11 modulation types and 3 reverbs (all on independent controls), to really get stuck in and sculpt your own sound. Save it for later on the memory bank.

With so many options and a real valve sound, this is the perfect first “tube” amp before moving on to an AC30.

Price: ca. 170€

6. DV Mark Little Jazz

For those who are after a clean sound, either for shimmering chord work, Jazz improv or even stuff like funk and blues, Italian manufacturer DV Mark makes an amazing amp that packs a lot of power into a tiny package.

This amazing amp is so small it would fit into a budget airline’s hand luggage and yet produces 45 solid-state watts in a surprisingly rich and spacious sound. Simple features include a three-band EQ, Reverb and Volume, as well as outputs for headphone, XLR and external cab.

If you need a loud and great-sounding amp but don’t fancy the idea of lugging a huge heavy box around, look no further.

Price: ca. 350€

7. Yamaha THR10

Perhaps an entirely new category, this is what might be called “office amp”: it was designed as a smart and high-quality amp for living room situations, combining a wonderful tube tone with clean aesthetics for you to practice and play without annoying anyone.

From Clean to Modern, chose from 8 amp settings, four modulation effects and four delay/reverb effects, with tap tempo. Its Hi-Fi sound can be sculpted by a three-band EQ, giving it a lovely spacious sound distribution; and special off-stage circuit gives it excellent overdrive qualities even at low, discreet volumes. Finally, its sleek designer looks will fit into any living space, especially with its soft tube glow.

Price: ca. 300€

8. Orange Tiny Terror

If you want something a bit more serious, check out the Orange Tiny Terror. This is an amp head, you will need a speaker cabinet to go with it; but it’s worth it for the complex and rich tube sound.

There are no frills: a single channel controlled with a Volume, Tone and Gain knob. You can switch between 15 and 7 watts, and don’t forget that for an all-tube amp, that is a lot of volume! While not having effects may sound like a bummer, the stripped-down circuitry helps your guitar signal to maintain its purest tone. Simple, raw and with attitude, cool looks and a mere 5.5kg; be prepared to rattle your brain with an authentic “British” sound.

Price: ca. 550€

9. Fender Pro Junior III   

Fender has a reputation for amps just as much as for guitars; and for their famous tone, the Pro Junior III is a great place to start.

Particularly suited to clean tones, bluesy chords or a warm crunch at higher volumes, this is a simple 15 watt combo that is a delight for home, studio or small gig settings. It’s a reliable little amp with a dynamic, sensitive feel to let you hear every nuance and also improve your playing.

It’s as simple as it gets: On/Off, Tone and a “clean-to-drive” Volume switch that becomes dirtier at higher volumes. For anything else, you will need stomp-boxes, which this amp pairs well with thanks to its no-frills concept. Just do yourself the favor and invest in high-end pedals – otherwise, you will ruin the amp’s exquisite tone with unsuitable digital effects.

Price: ca. 550€

10. Vox amPlug 2

Batteries – remember them? You’ll need some for this, because it’s a headphone amp! Ok, it’s a bit of a wildcard, but it has the triple advantage of 1) fitting in your pocket or guitar case, 2) you can play without annoying your relatives/neighbors late at night and 3) it won’t cost a fortune.

It has up to 15 hours battery life (with two AAA batteries). Simply plug it into the guitar jack, stick in your headphones and use it like a normal amp. It has knobs for Gain, Tone and Volume – and even has an aux input so that you can jam along to your favourite tunes from your iPod.

Vox makes three different ones, each with unique gain types (AC, Classic and Metal). So next time you go traveling, why not take your electric along?

Price ca. 50€

Obviously, it’s always best to test them out in your local music shop – depending on who works there you might even get some great advice. If you have any recommendations for me, please leave a comment below.

The post 10 Best Guitar Amps for Beginners | 2016 | appeared first on Uberchord App.

Everyone who has to create chord chart and sheets and embed them in a blog knows how tedious the process is and that in most cases the results don’t even look nice. Then, when you readers actually want to use such sheets, the print results are awful, because of the low image resolution.

This is why we created the Uberchord SVG chord rendering engine. It’s powerful, easy to use and delivers supreme, crisp results that look good anywhere — even on a sheet of paper.

Example 1: Embed chords with a single line of code

This is the most straight forward example of how to use the rendering engine inside a blog or any website. You use our code generator or simply write one line of code yourself and embed it anywhere in your blog.

Example 2: Customization

Here we have more complex chords, hid the Uberchord Icon and added a title and description will be shown once you click on the “open” link.

If you are interested in using Uberchord’s rendering engine: it’s free. Shoot us an email.

The post Embed a Chord Chart on Your Website using Uberchord’s Rendering Engine appeared first on Uberchord App.

Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing has the answer, he says: “Musicians around the world, from the biggest artists to aspiring students, use Apple devices to create amazing music; the innovative new Music Memos app will help them quickly capture their ideas on iPhone and iPad whenever inspiration strikes,”

Musicians and songwriters around the world have used the Voice Memos app on their iPhone to quickly record ideas, and many hit songs first started as Voice Memos. The new Music Memos app is inspired by Voice Memos and takes the functionality even further by adding musician-friendly features designed specifically for songwriting and developing musical ideas. With Music Memos, you can record any musical instrument through the iPhone’s built-in microphone in a high-quality, uncompressed format, then name, tag and rate it to start building a library of your ideas.

While Ryan Adams, critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and producer’s mind was blown away by the app, well, not literally, here is what he had to say about it: “Sometimes ideas come faster than I can get them into my notebook so I’ve used Voice Memos and Notes to quickly capture songs before they’re lost. Music Memos is like if those two apps came together to form some kind of superpower for songs,”. He further claimed: “It quite literally blew my mind how Music Memos could transform a single guitar idea into a whole composition with a virtual drummer loose enough that it felt like you were having your mind read by some A.I. musician and a choice of stand-up or electric bass accompaniments.”

After reading the press release, we couldn’t control our excitement and downloaded this mind-blowing app. To our amazement, Music Memos is surely a great app for musicians on-the-go and for the freedom it provides to store your musical ideas. The app can analyze rhythm and chords of acoustic guitar and piano recordings, and instantly add drums and a bass line to provide a virtual, customizable backing band that plays along to match the feel of your song. Somehow, when we tried some augmented, diminished chords, it failed to recognize the complex chords and ended up showing their just their root notes. Of-course, we understand this is just the first release and the chord recognition will probably improve over time.

While we are really happy about Music Memos for the fun and freedom it brings to us musicians, the functionality of chord recognition and chord finder in the Uberchord app seems to be precisely accurate, recognising even dark, evil sounding chords.

Music Memos is available for free on the App Store® and is compatible with iPhone 4s and later, and iPad 2 and later.

The post Apple releases Music Memos an iOS App for Musicians appeared first on Uberchord App.

All musicians love the idea of a “jam”. To get together with your friends and bash out some tunes in the garage or wherever you’re allowed to make lots of noise. Some venues host Jam Nights too where they’re maybe called “Open Microphone” nights.

It can be frightening and a huge amount of fun at the same time. You might find yourself on stage with a bunch of total strangers and playing songs you’ve never heard before in your life.

Let’s be honest, you’ll discover it’s not that easy. It can take quite some time before you learn the skill of hearing and recognising what other people are playing simply by listening to them.

Don’t worry, you won’t be alone and often jamming sessions can be reduced to really easy songs and the same tunes every time — which is kind of boring, right? But what if you were really good at picking out what the others are playing? That’s impressive.

Rockin’ Around The Clock.

An app called Musiclock (like, “Music Clock”) developed by Finnish startup company perTunes can give you a great platform for practising your jamming “ear” and it explains some useful music theory in a simple GUI at the same time.

Before you start playing, Musiclock displays all the correct notes in your chosen key signature in a round, clock configuration. An overlay blanks out those notes that don’t belong in that key and you can turn the overlay around to select a different root note.

If you want to hear another type of key such as a Minor or Major Pentatonic the overlay switches its shape accordingly. Above the clock a traditional music staff gives you the key in notation form.

Below the Musiclock you have the choice of a piano keyboard with the key’s notes marked or you can have a guitar fret board showing the same — essentially providing how to play the scales for any key, which I found really useful.

The piano is playable, as are the notes on the Musiclock, whereas the fret board zooms to a larger view when you tap it. Notes up to the sixteenth fret are shown.

Jazz Anyone? Got The Blues?

So what do you jam to? Musiclock comes with a good selection of backing track loops in a variety genres across eight different key types. Choosing your key signature can determine how many backing tracks are available.

For example — and not surprisingly — seven tracks are shown for any Major key. Choose a Melodic Minor key and only a single backing track is shown, because… well, Melodic Minor isn’t exactly the go-to key for most players.

Changing the root note on the Musiclock does alter the backing track to suit, however you can’t adjust the tempos. Instead, the backing tracks have a wide variety of base tempos.

The sound quality of the tracks is good and some of the loops are quite long. You won’t find yourself jamming to just a four-bar riff.

It took me less than ten minutes to grasp the Musiclock GUI and there was only one adjustment in the settings that tricked me — a “note naming convention” that allowed either “H” or “B” to be shown.

Hmm… say what? A quick search tells me that in some European countries a B note is labelled as an “H” — and music historians will argue for many hours over exactly how that happened.

You learn something every day, right?

Here are the five best things I like about Musiclock.

The Clock Itself: It’s not an entirely new idea at all, but Musiclock implements the rotating clock GUI really well. The way that the overlay hides any wrong notes is very clear and conversely the included notes are plain to see.

The Piano/Fret Board Display: We’re all about guitars here at Uberchord and the correct finger positions shown on a fret board can be a great tool for learning scales in each key. Still, Musiclock will work just as well for aspiring keyboards players and guitarists can benefit from seeing how the notes translate to a keyboard, too. Use this Piano mode sometimes to learn a keyboard layout.

The Choice Of Scales: Aside from the root note you can select keys that are Major, Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic, Natural Minor, Melodic Minor, Harmonic Minor, Blues and Dominant Bebop (this last being an older jazz style). Of course, there are plenty of others not listed, but these are a smart selection that will introduce users to interesting variations. Don’t get stuck in a rut and stick with your favourites. Try all the keys.

The Backing Tracks: You’ll always want more (and you’d expect perTunes to add extras over time and development updates), but for the time being Musiclock gives you plenty of music to begin your jamming education. Also, it encourages users to experiment in styles you might otherwise avoid. Again, don’t be scared!

Playable Notes: By making the displayed notes on the Musiclock playable (with a piano tone) with a finger tap, it lets you compare to the scale you’re playing on your guitar. Something doesn’t sound quite right? Check your fingering…

Feature Request:

Here are a few things I’d like to see included in the App for the future…

Chord Display: In the fret board mode below the clock, rather than show the correct positions for the notes it’d be cool to see chord charts for each key instead — just one chord for each note would do. Of course, you’ve already got Uberchord to do that — along with all the variations, but I’m just saying…

Note Highlight: I’m guessing this wouldn’t be easy to code since the backing tracks are likely to be wave files and not MIDI, but it would be really helpful if the notes on the Musiclock were highlighted in synch with those backing tracks. So if the backing track hits an A Major (for example) that note on the Musiclock is indicated. Yes, that kind of defeats the purpose of learning how to listen, but it could be a feature that might be turned off as your confidence grows.

Audiobus Capatibility: At the moment Musiclock doesn’t support Audiobus, so jamming with a guitar app like Amplitube can’t be done without some kind of external mixer. The crew at perTunes assure me it’s on their to-do list.

The Verdict?

Musiclock is a great app that can only, hopefully, get better with more keys and more backing tracks. Keeping one eye on the music theory it offers will always hold you in good stead later. Definitely worth downloading.

 Want more? Why not check out these other Music Reviews on the blog?

The post App Review: Musiclock appeared first on Uberchord App.

Our friends over at Tin Pan have come up with a clever new app that offers an easy and educational way to discover those alternative chords that will augment your playing. Read on to see why we think this app has so much potential!

I reckon that I’m pretty much like a lot of other song writers. Okay, I haven’t yet penned a “Stairway To Heaven” or an “Every Breath You Take” (or maybe I have!), but when I’m composing a new tune I never imagine the whole song, right? Instead, I’ll pick up my guitar and began fooling around with a few riffs and licks or perhaps some simple chord progressions. I’m looking for that elusive “hook” that’s in every good tune.

I’m never really working beyond a four or eight bar phrase. That hook — that magical four bar riff I’ll discover — is something I’ll repeat throughout the song.

But here’s a problem. Many musicians get into habits with their playing. Yes, you know what I mean. We always go to the same chords, the same progressions and licks, and find it hard to explore new places on the fret board. If you’ve got a good knowledge of musical theory that’s great, because it can show you all the different possibilities, but if you don’t… well, old habits die hard. This is where the Tin Pan Rhythm app comes in.

Main Features

The Tin Pan Rhythm app is based around a GUI displaying a pyramid of three root and common chords according to the key you’ve chosen, along with the lower levels showing a selection of seven parallel and alternate chords — that’s ten in total.

Next, using samples and a DAW-like playback system that come with the app, you can then play these chords in an arrangement of various patterns and styles across five tracks of piano, bass, guitar, percussion and drums.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was putting together unique phrases that opened up a lot of great song-writing ideas.

GUI Windows

Tin Pan Rhythm has Two GUI windows – the Chord Progression page and Arrangement window.

1. Chord Progression Page

You start with the Chord Progression and after using a side menu to select a musical key, tempo, the type of chord display and to choose between a four or eight bar “Phrase”, you’re presented with the pyramid of available chords. These can be drag-and-dropped into any of the eight slots above (if you’ve selected an eight-bar Phrase to create) and played back as a loop.

In the background, the Arrangement GUI has already defaulted to the last selection of instruments, patterns and styles you loaded. Your eight chosen chords can be switched around or replaced as much as you like with the same drag-and-drop function.

That chord display option in the side menu will show you either the chord’s correct name (D Minor, A Major, etc…) or its relative position to the root chord in degrees such as a second, a fifth, a flat third (you can learn more about Chords By Degrees in the box below).

2. Arrangement GUI

In the Arrangement GUI it’s important to understand that your sequence of chords is applied globally across all five tracks (obviously, it doesn’t really matter for percussion and drums). You don’t get to choose a different Phrase for your Bass and Guitar channels. That might make good sense musically, but for people like me who are used to more complex DAWs like Pro Tools and Studio One, it needed a moment to get my head around.

You get to choose from a palette of patterns for each instrument. The Piano has 56 different patterns ranging from single chords to short melodies and it can either be an acoustic piano or an organ/synth sound.

Likewise, the Bass channel is either an acoustic-like upright bass or a synth bass and has 34 patterns.

The Guitar track has only an acoustic guitar with five Picking patterns and seven Strum styles, plus a “Ring” for each — a sustained sound. Last, the Percussion and Drum tracks both have 45 different patterns each.

The electronic samples for the piano and bass are okay, but the acoustic samples for all five tracks are very good and I found myself sticking with these. The variations in pattern and style can make a significant difference to your Phrase and given the choice of musical keys, the individual patterns and the basic chord sequence of your Phrase, the possibilities are enormous. You can go further by raising or lowering the pitch of the instruments by dragging the track display up and down. This changes the fret (or piano keyboard) position of playing the same chord or creates an inversion, not the chord itself.

On the far right of each track a switch allows you to toggle between changing the pitch and pattern of all eight bars of the Phrase for that instrument or editing each individual bar (the slot for that chord). This gives you even more versatility in creating a unique Phrase.

You can save your phrases by using the star button. Otherwise, using a Record button you can export your loop as an AIFF file by email, upload it direct to Soundcloud or AudioCopy, or an “Open In” option will send it to another app on your iPad. The interesting thing is that the recorded file continues for as long as you like — for as long as you allow the Phrase to loop. So if you want a three minute wave file to base a song on, let the Phrase loop for three minutes and that’s how long your recording will be. Otherwise, users looking for closer synchronisation can use the exported wave files for slicing into sample-accurate lengths.

The Arrange window has volume sliders for each track, which lets you try out different mixes. I highly recommend using good headphones for this — as does Tin Pan when the app opens. Your iPad speakers don’t do the sounds any justice.

The Verdict?

Tin Pan Rhythm is still in the early stages of development and here at Uberchord we’re excited by its potential. It’s a cool scratch pad for ideas inspiring you to use those alternate and parallel chords. The app’s playback feature allows you to actually hear the Phrases being performed and lets you fool around with all kinds of song ideas in places where guitars are frowned upon. The Chord Degrees display is a valuable tool for learning the concept behind degrees.

So I’m giving Tin Pan Rhythm a good thumbs-up. Here are my favourite five features about the app:

Five Best Features:

1. Displays ten chords per key including cool alternate chords.
2. Simple drag-and-drop operation allows quick experimenting.
3. It can identify alternate chords by degrees rather than names.
4. Acoustic playback samples are good quality.
5. A large choice of patterns and styles provide a lot of variety.

More to come?

Features for the Future

There’s a lot to love about Tin Pan Rhythm… but there is definitely more to look forward to in the future. I’ve got a feature request list below. What do you think? What else would you like to see in Tin Pan Rhythm?

1. Help function or User manual — no doubt this is coming once more features of the app are locked in.
2. The Export function is good, but sometimes I found myself experimenting with the Phrase chord sequence too much and forgetting where I started.
3. Mute or Solo buttons. These would let you isolate channels and hear the pattern variations clearly without having to adjust your overall mix each time.
4. Allowing up to eight bars Phrases. Tin Pan Rhythm is locked into four or eight full bars of 4/4 timing. It’d be nice if the Phrase looped only (say) seven bars, if you leave the last slot empty.
5. Different colour schemes. Sorry guys, not a fan of the mushroom pink GUI. Can we have some choices?

The post App Review: Tin Pan Rhythm appeared first on Uberchord App.

Why do you want a good guitar amplifier app? Is it just to have some cool fun all on your own, jamming in a corner with a set of headphones and your favourite iOS app? That’s okay! We’re never going to complain about anyone picking up their guitar.

Maybe you’re looking for unique sounds for a recording project? That’s good thinking, because while most of the apps offer great “standard” sounds the subtle differences between the various software can mean that one app really hits the mark with a certain preset or stomp pedal.

All right, so what if you’re hoping that you can use a guitar amplifier simulator app for live work? Actually taking it out on the stage in front of an audience and using it in real-time for your guitar effects?

In that case JamUp Pro XT could be the app for you. Developed by Positive Grid the app provides all the usual suspects of selectable stomp pedal effects and filters, amplifiers and extra features like an eight-track recorder, a “sampler” (more on this below) and a Jam function for playing along to your own tunes and wave files.

Where JamUp Pro offers an extra edge is a “Live” mode GUI that allows you to use the app on stage — even without any optional foot pedal controller that JamUp Pro can support via Blue Tooth.

Sounds interesting? Then read on…

Main Features of JamUp Pro.

• Seven interchangeable slots for any effect or amplifier in whatever order you choose.
• A “Live” mode for using on stage.
• A fully-functional Loop Pedal.
• A large library of Factory and User presets.

JamUp Pro allows you to carefully build complex sounds up from scratch until you have something specific in mind (perhaps for recording into the eight-track) or you can try a more traditional live-sound approach with a straightforward amplifier setting that can be enhanced by switching on and off your favourite pedals.

The basic, free version is called JamUp XT with a single amplifier and six effects. Here we’re looking at JamUp Pro XT which is priced at US$9.99 (currently on special at US$4.99 — 50% off!) and has six amplifier models and sixteen effects.

Further expansion packs in styles like Vintage and Metal are reasonably priced or you can buy individual components. Positive Grid’s Store GUI gives you full information and a bit of background on each effect, so you’ll know exactly what you’re getting.

HERE ARE FIVE THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT THE JAMUP PRO APP

1: Any Which Way You Want.

JamUp Pro gives you a signal chain of seven effects including one of which must be an amplifier. Using a drag-and-drop function you can re-arrange these into any order you want which, as you’ll probably know, can significantly alter the final sounds. It’s good that you’re not restricted to any pre-amplifier signal chain for all your effects, giving you a lot more options, even if it is cheating a little.

2: Presets Galore.

With a system of four banks of eight pages with four-slots visible on each, JamUp Pro totals a massive 128 presets.

Yes, that sounds a bit confusing, but the maths works out. For example, Bank 1 Page 7 will give you presets 7A, 7B, 7C and 7D on screen. The presets switch over very fast even if they’re using completely different components.

3: Let’s Do It Live.

Jam Up Pro XT can be switched to a Live mode displaying a large, simplified screen that can be operated quickly on stage. Sure, you’ll be using your finger instead of your foot (unless you take a cue from Steve Wilson’s style, play bare-foot and use your big toe), but with practise it works well.

Aside from offering four presets on the screen (the A,B,C and D slots of the Bank/Page) you can also individually control your four core stomp pedals of Stomp (distortion), Delay, Modulation and Reverb within each preset — nice touch!

4: Looping It Up.

JamUp Pro XT has a Sampler function which is really a fully-featured loop pedal on its own with the added extra of being able to save loops you create — very handy for soloists who use loops for effect regularly and they don’t have to re-record them during each performance.

Playing with loops live is an art form of its own and maybe not for everyone, but musicians who do use loops will love JamUp Pro XT’s Sampler function. Give it a try! A whole new world of guitar playing will open up.

5: Jamming It Like A Pro.

Most guitar amplifier apps have a “Jam” Rnction for playing along to your selected tunes, but I really like JamUp Pro XT’s large interface with all the important controls clearly accessible.

The pitch of the loaded wave file can be raised or lowered by a factor of five, the speed reduced to just 25% of the original tempo or doubled (if you’re feeling talented!) and, of course, you have a Volume control.

You also get the all-important A and B in/out positions to select specific parts of a song you want repeated over and again. It’s a great feature for learning your entire songs, just your solos… or whatever you need.

Other Features.

I’ve gotta say, JamUp Pro’s optional eight-track recorder is about as basic as you’ll get with just eight recordable tracks, volume sliders for each and panning controls.

There are no Insert slots or included mixing effects.

To be honest I can’t access the recorder myself without purchasing it, but info within the app and on Positive Grid’s Store page all suggests nothing more comes with the mixer. It’s hard to get excited about it and fork out the dollars.

On the other hand, the in-built Tuner is another large, clear display that gigging musicians will love on stage. No more peering at small LCD screens or foot pedal tuners in the dark.

The Verdict?

JamUp Pro is another app that’s worth immediately upgrading from the free version at a relatively low cost to get a full appreciation of what it can do. Then you’ll get a larger selection of good amplifiers and stomp pedals, plus all the extra features.

As always, you need some kind of audio interface like Positive Grid’s own JamUp Plug HD. If you’re serious about using these kinds of apps, it’s a must-have anyway. It’s an impressive app that sounds good. That Live mode GUI interface will definitely tempt you to try it on stage.

If you’re looking for more gear articles like this then you’re definitely in the right place! Take a browse around our site and you may be surprised that we’ve covered what you’re looking for. A few articles we’ve done lately include soloing in a key, sailing sutherland brothers key, and how to get hardcore guitar tone. 

The post JamUp Pro Review: Five Things You’ll Love appeared first on Uberchord App.

The original Amplitube from IK Multimedia was the first guitar amplifier simulator I ever tried and I remember being instantly impressed at just how well it worked.

It had presets that flirted with all kinds of copyright issues with names like “Just Like Jimi” or “David’s Pink Delay” and figuring these out wasn’t difficult…

It was amazing that by simply selecting these presets your guitar’s sound was instantly turned into the trademark tones of Hendrix and Gilmour — to name just a few.

At the time, even though the technology had been around awhile, I think everyone was still coming to grips with the capabilities of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) and the audio effects that came with them. In particular, the sampling and “modelling” innovations.

The logic was straightforward.

Okay, it was digital and not analogue, and no one was going to say that software like Amplitube was as good as the older analogue amplifiers and foot pedals, but a lot of new, standalone guitar effects were digital and, quite simply, a good personal computer had heaps more processing power than a foot pedal. So making your PC emulate a guitar effect wasn’t such a big ask.

Wind forward to today and the Amplitube app uses the same concept. Your iOS device has an enormous amount of processing power behind that screen and cranking out awesome, digital guitar sounds is easy from a technical standpoint.

All you need is a good interface like IK Multimedia’s iRig, the software app and you’re good to go. All the same, I’m still amazed at how cool the app sounds.

Main Features of Amplitube

Features include:

• Four stomp pedals across the top and a selected amplifier beneath.
• Drop-down dialogues for each slot allow you to choose different pedals. Drag-and-drop each one to rearrange the order.
• Similarly, you can change amplifiers easily.
• A small tab on the right accesses your four post-FX pedal slots.

Amplitube is fun even in its basic, free version. Of course, there are plenty of in-app extras you can buy. Before anything else I recommend the eight-track recorder interface.

It looks awesome and nicely retro. Of course, the reels turn when you’re playing or recording! What I like is there’s no DAW time line in this mode.

You have to listen for your cues, not watch for them. That’s a good thing.

HERE ARE FIVE THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT THE AMPLITUBE APP

Here are my five favourite things about Amplitube with the eight-track tape machine included.

1: Less is Best.

Amplitube only allows four effects pedals to be used pre-amplifier and four as post-FX. This is minimal for most guitar rigs and I like it that way. A lot of novice players start believing that more effects, more pedals and processing will achieve that elusive “sound”.

Really, it’s all about learning how to set up the pedals you have before bothering about getting more. So I like the fact that Amplitube restricts you to just four on-screen and forces you get the most out of these. It can make you play better and that’s what you want, right?

2: The Amps Work Like the Real Thing.

All right, don’t shout at me — I know that Amplitube’s virtual amps are nothing like having a real, monster Marshall stack in the corner of your room. However, in a far cry from those “Just Like Jimi” beginnings, IK Multimedia has licensed permission to recreate the genuine articles, meaning that the amplifier controls are realistically modelled.

Small tweaks of the tones, the gain and volume controls, the reverb levels… these are all accurately represented and can teach you that small adjustments will make a big difference. It’s not all about turning everything to “Eleven”.

3: The Pedals Are Like The Real Thing, Too.

Are you seeing a pattern here? Amplitube offers a huge range of stomp effects pedals and like the amplifiers, IK Multimedia has a license to copy and model some of the most iconic and sought-after stomp boxes you might imagine. In fact, it’s managed to recreate a few vintage types that are next to impossible to buy in real life.

They sound good, look awesome in all their original design splendour and once again will teach you something valuable — the fine art of setting up your effects pedals. From the straightforward Noise Filter to the T-Rex Moller, they’re just like the real thing.

4: The Eight-Track Recorder Is Old-School.

The virtual eight-track tape machine is wonderfully old-school. The controls are rotary knobs, the meters are VU, and you only get two Sends for master FX. The actual GUI looks brilliant. Without the in-app purchase of the full-blown DAW interface, there’s no linear time grid for shifting and editing audio clips.

In this day and age that might sound like a bad thing. Instead, it’s kind of liberating that you need to listen to the other tracks for your cues. Your head isn’t caught up in too much DAW workflow. Again, you can concentrate on your playing, not your computer skills. Great fun.

Once you’re in the eight-track recorder interface you have a choice of different windows including EQ, Sends and this one – the Master display. In the picture here, you’ve got a global EQ and Compressor over the recorder’s main output (and therefore the app), plus you can select your preferred effect for the two Sends.

Again, the effects are wonderfully old-school, like something out of an analogue recording studio – a much sought-after sound these days – and you avoid messing around with a zillion presets. You can focus on your guitar playing.

5: The Drum Looper.

Amplitube comes with a Drum Looper offering a range of different styles and grooves. You only get one for free, before having to buy the others, but what I like is the realistic sounds of these drums and the simple interface for putting together quick, yet effective tunes with the included fills, intros and cymbal splashes. Learning to play your guitar to a metronome or click track is really important. However, playing along to a cool drum pattern is just as good and way more fun.

In the world of drum samplers it’s pretty basic and you don’t get a lot of choice in patterns and grooves, but the sampled sounds  are very good and all up the Drum Looper is more than enough to let you compose cool tunes in most styles. Being synced to a BPM tempo you can always replace the drums with something more complex later.

 The verdict?

On the basic Amplitube app, all premium functions are greyed out and tapping on these prompts a pop-up dialogue box from the IK Multimedia store and the opportunity to buy it. It’d be nice to be able to turn this off and only show the goodies you own, but then again a good thing about this is how each product is immediately displayed with a price, a full explanation of its use and sometimes a bit of history, too.

In the beginning, don’t be in too much of a hurry to buy stuff. Amplitube free is impressive on its own. You will need that interface and a good pair of headphones, and if you buy one of IK Multimedia’s devices they chuck in a version of Amplitube anyway.

You’ll find quite a few guitar amplifier apps available now, but maybe because Amplitube was one of the first is why I reckon it’s one of the best.

Remember that in order to get the best sound from this app you’ll need to brush up on your theory and technique. Our blog has hundreds of free articles and lessons that’ll help you create great recordings and licks when using Amplitube. A few of our most recent topics include first guitar for kids, the cure lovecats guitar tab, and the cure lullaby guitar tab. 

The post Amplitube App Review: 5 Things you’ll Love appeared first on Uberchord App.

The term ‘ear training’ means developing the competence to recognize instantly what you hear. This applies to all musical concepts including melodies, chords and rhythms. As a musician, the ability to respond spontaneously to the music around you is crucial, both on stage and in the studio. Not everything is rehearsed and written down, some of the most sublime moments in recorded and live music are improvised. This is where ear training comes in.

Having taught ear training for several years, I still have difficulties understanding why so people can do this naturally, whereas others may struggle for months on end without much progress. This secret may be revealed by neurologists some day. In the meantime, some of us will continue practicing the usual drills of music; triads, 7th chords, inversions, scales, rhythms and so on. All of these are well represented in apps like Ear Master, which are fine tools in their own right, but don’t make the process of ear training any smoother.

EAR TRAINING VOCABULARY

Maybe the fixed terms we use to denote what we hear form part of the struggle itself. Terms such as “major triad”, “minor seventh chord”, “2nd inversion”, “Dorian scale” can often sound alien and intimidating. If a student is not very familiar with these terms and the systems they represent then I can imagine this to be a big obstacle. The vocabulary itself can often also shroud the basic musical processes that they name.

INTRODUCING MELUDIA For EAR TRAINING

Meludia is a beautifully designed web app with quite a different approach to the subject. It doesn’t confront the user with any difficult jargon until the base process of recognition has been established. Instead it uses layman’s terms to annotate the exercises; such as high or low, stable or unstable. It starts at the very beginning. One must initially, for example, distinguish the difference between only one note or more than one, or make an assessment as to whether a fast flurry of notes is either ascending or descending in pitch.

It uses very good sounds, mainly piano, orchestra and drums for the rhythm exercises. Every once in a while, technical terms are tentatively introduced, like major and minor. They are not explained and nor do they need to be. Meludia conveys the lesson through audio, which greatly aids the process of ear training. Indeed, in most cases, the ideas explain themselves.

Each exercise is presented with gorgeous graphics and a kind user interface. Piano keyboards, interval numbers and other useful information is all helpfully displayed. Although designed to accommodate the very beginner, the tasks and theory presented in Meludia become very complex indeed.

Meludia is split across four difficulty levels – beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert. You can begin any of these at any time, but cannot skip ahead within a section. I think this allows a better learning curve.

Our friends at Meludia are offering our readers a two week free trial of their premium membership!

Use the code: UBERCHORD

WHO IS MELUDIA MADE FOR?

• Musicians or music students of any level, any age and any instrument
• All professional musicians
• Music teachers or professors for use in class

WHAT ARE THE KEY FEATURES?

• Practice sessions
• Perfect structure to slowly grasp how to ‘hear’ music
• Good sounds and overall design

OUR FIRST IMPRESSION

We had a very good first impression of Meludia. At Uberchord we share in the mission of developing innovative new ways to make learning music more accessible and enjoyable. The graphics are very appealing as are the sounds to the exercises. The exercises load quickly and we got into the flow of improving through the levels and took us all the way to the advanced level 27. Sharing Meludia with my students and colleagues led to a lot of positive feedback.

SUMMARY

Meludia will hopefully make ripples within the musical education market. It will improve the way its users hear and recognize music. It also trains both focus and memory, which can only lead to a higher level of composition among musicians. Ear training being one of the most difficult and unexplainable skills in music education – and also one of the most important – definitely needs some innovation. It is good to see Meludia finding new ways to approach this important and overdue domain! Can’t wait to enter the expert level!

If you’re not quite up to speed on intervals and chords yet, our blog articles may be able to help. Most of our lessons and articles here on Uberchord are free, and they will be a great introduction to the many concepts this app will go through. Some articles we’ve just published recently include the cure lovecats guitar tab, the cure lullaby guitar tab, and what key is equivalent to b flat minor. 

APP DETAILS

• Developer: Meludia (www.meludia.com)
• Platforms: Any (web application)
• Competition: Ear Master, Ear Trainer
• Free for basic subscription
• Premium Subscription:
  19,95€ / 3 months

  59,95€ / 1 year

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