Instrument Tuners--Snark And Behringer TU300

Concept: 3 out of 5 average
Execution: 3 out of 5
Yeah, but: They both work for me and cost little

The Long Version: In addition to running sound and lights for a rock band and a country music group, I'm also the bassist for a progressive rock band called Televators, and we're working on our debut CD.

When I started playing guitar in the '70s, you could tune with a pitch pipe, a tuning fork, some dude's piano, or spend over $500 on a Conn or Petersen strobe-based tuner. All bad choices for a kid just trying to play in-tune with his garage band. Luckily, cheaper electronic units came out around 1980, but they weren't very good, nor cheap enough. The situation is much better today.

Tuning is critical when money is on the line. While pouring dollars out a hose to record in a professional studio in April I used a rack-mounted Korg that's long been a favorite of professionals. The wide display that sweeps left-to-right and back again while you're playing earned this model the nickname "Cylon". It was great, but kinda pricey and I think it's been discontinued although other rack tuners are still available. For our live shows I kept getting lucky in that the amp rigs I was borrowing all had similar units, but as I've been building my own system the need arose to finally buy my own.

And suddenly I had two!

The pedal style tuner on the right is one I ordered from B&H in NYC. It's got all the features I'll never need just like most of the other brands out there, but at a much nicer price. Think 75% less, which is how I like to shop.
Behringer gets a bad rep sometimes because their very affordable gear, while based on excellent German designs, is made in China to meet the lowest possible price-point and tends to fail when subjected to rigorous touring conditions. My experience mirrors many online reports, so I just try not to let clumsy roadies carry any of the company's products, and never use them in critical show-ending parts of the audio chain unless I have a spare with me.
But even when considered slightly disposable, I like the results of many Behringer products. "Don't drop your toys or they'll break" was good advice when I was 4, and it still makes sense.
Plastic body shell and hinge points, not various metals like the competitor's $90+ offerings. Don't stomp on it = No problem.


Other online reviews of this tuner mention that it's a little slow to respond on the very lowest notes of 5+ string bass guitars. My testing agrees, but since Televators only go down to drop-D tuning it hasn't been an issue for me. Still, this can be a deal-breaker for bassists in a big hurry.

You don't get an AC adapter (wall-wart) for $25, but it uses the same plug, voltage, and polarity as most other pedals so chances are you have a spare. I had three.
It's a great tuner for the price, but I'll admit that it's a bit tricky to change 9-volt batteries if you want to power it that way.


For my birthday the guitarist for Televators gave me the same tuner he uses, a SNARK brand chromatic that clips onto your instrument's headstock and senses the vibrations physically:
Nothing to plug in, works on acoustic as well as electric instruments, and it's tiny.
The going price online is usually under $20.

When playing live I dislike having anything hitching a ride on my bass for both aesthetic and practical reasons, and to use the Snark between songs it's necessary to turn your guitar off so nobody has to listen to the annoying sound of a musician tuning up for however long it might take. Pedal tuners like my Behringer mute the sound while tuning with a simple tap of your foot, and I love that convenience.

But the Snark has it's good points, for sure.
It's surprisingly quick at picking up your note and displaying results--faster than the Behringer and the Korg Cylon and pretty much every other tuner I've used during the past 30+ years.
The display looks great under the usual lighting conditions, although I still haven't tried it in direct sunlight--no foreseeable need to.
It's tiny and light and runs off a standard CR2032 button cell.
Has a built-in metronome, apparently. For students I guess.

The best part is that you don't have to plug into it, so ANY instrument to which it can be clamped is tunable with great precision.
When I'm writing songs or learning covers it's usually in front of my PC with the speakers down low. No amplifier, just bare acoustic energy from my bass or guitar strings. Having to plug into a tuner is a hassle, so the Snark is a real time saver. Same thing at band practice or in our ProTools studio.
I also set-up other people's guitars and basses, adjusting the truss-rod and bridge so that they'll play nicely and in-tune all the way up the neck. Sometimes these instruments are waiting for electrical parts to arrive, so the Snark allows me to get work done ahead of time.

The funny thing is that while playing with the Snark I clamped it onto my Black & Decker cordless drill, and I'll be damned if it didn't track the RPMs accurately!
My brother is pretty excited about this, because all it takes is a note-to-Hz-to rpm conversion chart to be able to measure all kinds of motors and other things that vibrate, as long as the fundamental frequency or one of the major harmonics falls within the tuner's range and you have a good idea which octave you're dealing with.

My Samsung Galaxy S phone vibrates a little above F.



Note added by Matthew: The Televators' first single, Milk Run, can be found on iTunes.

Afterquake

Concept: 3 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: I liked it even before I knew the story.

The Long Version: Afterquake is a short album – 7 tracks, 18 minute run time – created by Abigail Washburn and David Liang, the latter doing business as the Shanghai Restoration Project, and the former being one of the most interesting clawhammer banjo players in America. Designed as a fundraiser for the reconstruction in China's Sichuan province following the 2008 earthquake, Afterquake is music primarily composed of "found" audio: children's singing, sounds from the reconstruction, and other local sources. There's no way to tell from the results that the entire project was completed in just a few weeks.

While the "genre" field in iTunes is notoriously inaccurate, it flags Afterquake as Electronic, which is reasonable enough even if it isn't exactly true. Irredeemable Metallica fans may not care for it, and anyone with an extensive opera collection is likewise better off elsewhere. But people with more diverse tastes in contemporary music will probably find it perfectly listenable, and any other modern bluegrass fans out there – I know there are a few of us – should check it out just to appreciate the amazing range of Béla Fleck's better half. It may not be something for non-Mandarin speakers to sing along to, but it's catchy just the same.

On an irrelevant aside, I also have to admit that I was pleased to see the distinctive shape of Sony's PCM-D50 audio recorder in a couple of the Afterquake videos. It's the same device that I use for field recordings, and while I'll never review it, I have looked at its case and some furry wind blockers. (For what it's worth, indoors they seem to prefer the Sony original, while outdoors it looks suspiciously like a Røde "Dead Kitten".) It's amazing what some solid but basic equipment can do when it's combined with tremendous skill and talent.

last updated 19 may 2011

99% Invisible

Concept: 4 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: Now I want to meet a vexillologist.

The Long Version: 99% Invisible is a tiny radio program about culture and design that's also a podcast. New episodes are mostly weekly, and past episodes have covered maps, city flags, sound design, concrete graffiti, cheque cashing stores, the considerations of authority and democracy in public space, and the possibilities of sending someone on a one-way mission to Mars. Pretty amazing stuff. It's rare for me to listen to an episode without scribbling a bunch of notes on ideas and websites to investigate.

Hosted by Roman Mars, the stock episodes run about four and a half minutes, although there are some extended podcast-only shows that break double digits. It's tightly focused and well edited, and strikes a great balance between providing enough depth without bogging down into the esoteric. Roman Mars serves as an eloquent narrator and provides bridges between interview clips from interesting people.

One of the best things about 99% Invisible is its production quality. Sound really matters, and there's none of the nonsense that mars so many amateur programs. Forget about those synthetic musical riffs accompanying long self-indulgent intros, and instead enjoy high production quality with some fascinating backing music. This is professional all the way, and it's worth listening to just for the sound of it all.

For further reading, there's also an article to check out on transom.org, which is a site worthy of exploration for anyone who's interested in capturing or sharing sound.

last updated 29 apr 2011

Old Crow Medicine Show Concert, Toronto, 13 July 2010

Concept: 3 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: Yes, I like Bluegrass. Is there a problem?

The Long Version: Concerts in particular, and music in general, are things that I really shouldn't review. I hardly ever go to concerts, don't really know anything about them, and yet somehow I've been to three of them in the past nine months. Each one has been a lot of fun and very loud, but it's hard to compare them since the genres have been so different. Still, one of the great things about the internet is the universal ability for people to speak beyond their authority - and it's far too late for me to stop doing that now.

Old Crow Medicine Show is a band that's a little tricky to pin down. They're a string band with at least a couple of banjos, acoustic guitars, and an occasional harmonica as well. A couple of cowboy hats were in evidence, but nobody was trying too hard: they certainly look a lot like a Bluegrass band. And of course they sound like a bluegrass band as well; I have to admit that listening to Willie Watson speaking reminded me of Boomhauer on King Of The Hill. I don't know if he was just mumbling through muddy speakers or if it was a legitimate accent, but dang ol', man, I could barely make out a word he said.

But just the same, this is far from a traditional jug band. They're decidedly modern, with roots as solidly in rock and roll as in bluegrass. So while there were some loud "yee-haw!" noises coming from the audience, it was hardly a New Country revival with wall-to-wall white suburbanites wearing snakeskin boots and checkered shirts over their Garth Brooks Souvenir Belt Buckles. It was more wall-to-wall pale folks in ball caps and the occasional sex pistol t-shirts, who might also listen to Nirvana or reggae in their spare time. What can I say? I fit in okay.

The doors to the very large, very dark main room at the Phoenix Concert Theatre opened at 7pm, and the band came on at twenty after eight. There was no opening act, just a solid hour of music followed by a bar break. Old Crow came back on again and played hard for about another hour and a half; the show wrapped up after a single encore slightly before eleven - just about right for a Tuesday night. Here's the setlist for the show at the Pheonix; songs that I didn't recognize and haven't been able to track down are simply left with a placeholder question mark, those marked '*' have been added with thanks to the thread at Old Crow Fans.

• Hard to Love
• Down Home Girl
• I Hear Them All
• Wheeling Breakdown (Instrumental)
• My Good Gal
• Humdinger
• Caroline
* We're All in This Together
• Next Go Round
• My Bones Gonna Rise Again
• Gospel Plow
• Big Time in the Jungle
• Minglewood Blues
Break - 30 minutes
* Shortnin' Bread
• Alabama High Test
• Let It Alone
• Highway Halo
* Trials & Troubles
* Raise a Ruckus
• New Virginia Creeper
* Reubins Train
• Mary's Kitchen
• Four Strong Winds (a Canadiana song written by Ian Tyson)
• Crazy Eyes
• Hard to Tell
• CC Rider
• Wagon Wheel
• Tell It To Me + band intro
Encore:
* Cowgirl in the Sand
• Fall On My Knees
• Tear It Down

There's lots of places online to hear anything from snippets to full songs, so I won't worry too much about describing the music. I like it, others won't, and that's life. What really impressed me at the concert was the sheer power and enthusiasm of the musicianship. It was stunning to watch them play - whether it was on a banjo, mandolin, or acoustic guitar, their fingers were often blurred to the point of invisibility. Ketch Secor shredded the bow for his fiddle during the first half, came back from the break with a new one, and had it shredded by the end of the show as well. Poor Willie Watson had to replace and tune a guitar string during the band intro. While Secor and/or Watson sing most of the main vocals, everyone but Morgan Jahnig – who had his hads full with the Upright Bass – lead at least one song. This is a very talented and hard-working band.

There were a couple of people in the audience - literally, two of them - hooting all night for 'Crazy Eyes', which surprised me because I've never particularly cared for it. On the other hand, I would have loved to hear 'Take Em Away' and 'Methamphetamine', which somehow didn't make it into the set. But hearing 'Hard To Tell' and 'Tear It Down' live was awesome, with huge energy from the audience, and 'Wagon Wheel' was probably the biggest hit of the night as a giant sing-along. The two blatant ode de pénis songs weren't quite as popular with the two women to my left, but upbeat numbers like 'Humdinger' kept us busy fending off drunken dancers for most of the night. Good times.

Having seen the band roaring through their two-plus-hour set, and knowing who's doing what, has made me like their recorded music even more. When hearing voices in harmony, I can now picture them singing together instead of suspecting that they're layering tracks in post-production. And while many of the songs were played faster at the show, I can absolutely imagine them rocking just as hard in the recording studio.

Next time they're here, I'll be there.

Behringer Tube UltraGain MIC200 Preamp/Direct Box

Concept: 3 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: The Price Is Right

The Long Version: One year ago we were at a party and after a few too many whiskys I suggested to my friends that we “put the old band back together” but that instead of running sound, I would play bass.
They called my bluff, and it’s been going great.
But I still don’t have a bass amp of my own, and borrowing got old after the second time.

As a professional sound engineer for over 20 years, I have dealt with almost every bass amp on the market and have come to a few conclusions as to what would work for me.
Foremost in my mind was to get the most accurate sound straight from the bass sent to the mixing board. Most bass amps have an output for this purpose, and it’ll usually be switchable so as to bypass the amp’s graphic EQ or other tone modifiers, but none of them are as close to the source as I would like.

When confronted with the ugly tone many amps are forced to produce as a crutch for bad players, the next best option is to use a “Direct Box” between the instrument and amp.
This is a simple box with a transformer that converts a high impedance instrument’s signal to the low impedance preferred by mixing boards, while also providing a hard-wired ¼” output to the amp. They don’t affect the player’s tone onstage, but they also don’t give the engineer a surplus of signal to work with and are as low-tech as it gets.

While taking a crap a few months back I was reading my B&H PhotoVideo catalog and stumbled upon a neat little device I had never seen before, the Behringer Tube UltraGain MIC200 Preamp/Direct Box.

Getting right to the heart of the matter, this little box rocks.
It has ALL of the features of the very best direct boxes, then goes to 11 by not only including a 12AX7 vacuum tube in the signal path but also giving the user voicing options and a limiter.
For those who don’t know about such things, a 12AX7 tube is the heart of most of the greatest sounding guitar amps since the 1950s.
If you crank up the input gain and send too much signal into one of these, it’ll get a bit hotter to the touch and might distort a bit, but the distortion will be very pleasing to the ears compared with what happens in a solid state device: even-order harmonics instead of the much harsher-sounding odd-order harmonics.
I already have some speaker cabinets, so all I need now is a power amp to complete my rig.

Glowing Tube = Tone!

For people who have a ProTools-based recording environment, this is an easy and affordable way to get some analog warmth without sacrificing signal integrity.

Using mine in both a recording and live environment I can report complete satisfaction.
Since I only play active basses with 3-band EQs, it was easy to get an amazing tone through the front-of-house system while also enjoying better sound than usual through my borrowed stage amp.
Standing in front of my band Loud Nine’s Crown-powered Peavey FOH speakers (SP4 & FH18) I noticed that my bass tone was far superior to anything I had heard previously. Clean, precise, solid, and I can get it to growl with the twist of one retro-looking knob.

Negative Points are awarded to the 8 voicings that use Behringer’s limiter (right side of the knob).
It is much too slow to respond, so the first 4 notes of a song will be way too loud before it clamps down on the output level.

If you buy one of these I strongly recommend visiting your local Goodwill or other thrift store to locate a spare 9vAC/1.3amp+ wall-wart power supply with the proper connector and polarity.
Because I use several Alesis products I’m very aware of the need to keep spare power supplies with me when they are 9volt AC compared to the more reliable DC units.

I have used many of Behringer's products over the last 10+ years with great results. They do what they're supposed to do and at much lower prices than the competition.
However, their gear doesn't stand up to the abuse of touring very well.
Mixing boards have had multiple channels die, stereo compressors have become mono compressors, and a failed crossover nearly ruined a show.
Bottom line is that the German design is fantastic, while the Chinese manufacturing can be improved.
My MIC200 travels in a padded case and sits on a sticky rubber mat to keep it from vibrating off the amp and hitting the floor.

Price?
Got mine from B&H for $40 with free shipping.
(ART sells a similar unit for more, and plain direct boxes with none of it's features also can cost more).
The MIC100 model omits the voicings knob, and goes for $30.

These units represent a significant value, and I recommend them highly.

Dragonette

Concept: 3 out of 5
Execution: 3 out of 5
Yeah, but: I'm the last person to ask.


The Long Version: I feel a little silly reviewing music or a band, since I'm definitely the least-qualified reviewer on this blog to do it, and while my musical tastes are varied I have no actual knowledge of the subject. But if I let things like skill, qualification, and knowledge matter this time, where will it end? It's a troubling precedent.

I found Dragonette when they were giving a free concert for Toronto's Cavalcade of Lights -- the start of bright-christmas-tree season at City Hall (reviewed) -- on December 13, 2008. They had an hour-long show, but I have to confess that I missed half of it. What I did hear was interesting: lively, energetic music that falls somewhere between pop and electronic, and maybe a few other influences mixed in as well. The crowd was also mixed, with ages ranging from infants to their parents, and was having a good time. To be fair, I didn't check the reactions of the people who were just there to skate.

With the magic of the internet, I was able to go on iTunes and find Galore, which is their first and so-far-only full-length album. The songs' lyrics tend to be edgy verging on explicit, and the ones that I added to my iPod aren't ones that I'd play when my mother-in-law is visiting. It also isn't music to play when you want to sit and savour every subtle acoustical nuance - that's what Blue Man Group is for. But it's great for anything active, like a dance club or housework.

Dragonette's lead singer is Martina Sorbara, whose last name will be familiar to many in Ontario. Her father, Greg, is the former Member of Provincial Parliament for York Centre, where I lived at the time, and also served as Finance Minister. (His name was also mistakenly included on a search warrant or two involving a real-estate development company coincidentally called the Sorbara Group.) Dragonette's drummer is Joel Stouffer, Will Stapleton plays guitar, and Dan Kurtz plays keyboards. He's also married to Martina, which makes her motivations in the video to "I Get Around" seem a little suspect - but I digress.