Review: Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST200

March 27th, 2009 by Andres Gallo

Turbo Tuner
$130

Design

When it comes to music, every musician knows how obviously important it is to sound good. Out of all the things that can make us sound bad, being “out of tune,” is perhaps the worst of evils, a musician can face during a performance or any event for that matter dealing with making music. With that said, I am sure most, if not all musicians, have used a tuner, then again not all tuners are equal; although it can seem like that at first.
This tuner for example stands out with it’s strobe display, true bypass, and insane accuracy. Being one of the few strobe tuners, the display response is incredibly fast and accurate, aiding for quick reliable tunings. I want to emphasize that I say incredibly fast, I mean incredibly fast. There are some videos of it live here in the internet; check them out to see what I mean. At +/-0.02 cents of accuracy, not only it is the most accurate compact tuner in the planet, but at 5 times the accuracy of the Peterson StroboStomp tuner, it might be the most accurate tuner period.
Although not the only stompbox tuner in the market, what I found most attractive amongst its many features is that it is true bypass. But I will discuss more about that in the sound section. It’s other features include factory preset tunings, and user defined preset tunings with up to 5 strings, a reference pitch that may be set anywhere from 300Hz to 599Hz, in 0.1Hz increments, and a muted out (when the unit is on). Most of those are features I don’t use, and I think most musicians probably won’t either, but I thought they are worth mentioning.

Sound

Since it is a tuner, there is not much I can say about what it does to the sound. Bringing the instruments to glorious harmony, or in other words in tune, helps the instrument sound more musical. Then again I could say that about other tuners. Although the accuracy is indeed superior, it is inaudible to my ears if compared to the competing tuners. The big plus on the sound here, however, and in my opinion the coolest feature here is its true bypass. There is nothing worst than a pedal eating your tone when it’s off, which makes true bypass godsend, as it will keep your tone heaven just how it should be.

Reliability

Physically this tuner is built like a tank. It’s definitely constructed to last. Furthermore, it is a very reliable tuner. When the strings are shown to be almost in tune, other tuners will show the strings as being in tune. It can get your instrument really in tune, which is really good, especially for techs and luthiers who need such precision for intonating and such. Overall, very reliable.

Customer Support

Have not dealt with their customer support so far.

Show us your guitar pedals, or your whole pedalboard

March 22nd, 2009 by Andres Gallo

Post an image or comment of you pedals or your entire pedal board.

The rules are simple. Show off you gear, and leave a comment if you’d like. As you leave comments let me know which pedalboards, or FX posted you guys like best. Once there are many pictures, I will move the images of the effects/pedalboards you guys like best into the main section of the article. After all, people like me love to see what pedals are out there, and what others are using for their sound. Me and some of my friends are always hungry for new sounds and pedals, and I am sure I will see some new pedals here.

Instructions.

At the bottom of this article’s page, is the textbox for comments. Right under it, is a button to upload images. Click on the “add image to comment button,” write the URL/link of the image in the pop up, and press “ok”. Submit the comment and the image should be uploaded.
Just in case, you can upload the image to the website http://imageshack.us/ and there you can copy and past the direct link which is what you will put in the comment.

Show us your sound.

New sonic bliss: Paulina Logan

March 21st, 2009 by Andres Gallo

Paulina Logan

Photo by Lori Laube

With influences like Jewel, and Norah Jones; Paulina Logan, a new California based artist, writes and performs music that packs lots of emotion. When I say a lot of emotion, I mean, I got goosebumps upon first hearing her voice on the track “lovely.” Complemented with some beautiful guitar harmonies, the lyrics are deep, and her voice perfectly expresses the emotion of her songs to the point where they can almost be felt. The lyrical message, and it’s music as a whole, supports the same message, creating a story, or a sort of sonic map. Other great examples of this, are the songs “Write you a song,” which creates and expresses a melancholic atmosphere, “Road Trip,” with its story like shifting ranges in tone, or “Sorry,” with it’s more uplifting tonality. Overall, a great aspect that creates a great deal of expression.
Another aspect I found intriguing upon listening to many of her tracks, is the sonic immersion the listeners will experience listening to the instrumental arrangements. Listening to the track “Disturbing behavior,” of her Wallflower album, I felt an euphoric feel of immersion into those great sounds; perhaps due the openness of the sounds. This is further helped with the quality of production, where all the little details show up clearly, decorating the sound for a very pleasant listening experience. Although different from pink floyd, and such, it reminds me of that feeling I get listening to their music. There are many small details, that help create some sort of sonic atmosphere.
Also worth noting, Paulina Logan’s albums show great variety in her songs, displaying great songwriting across various aspects of the genre. As previously mentioned, the songs range from slow and soothing, to pure rockin’. “Shut the door,” one of her more “overdriven” tracks, has a very punchy rocking sound, which many will probably associate with the 80s. It includes some really catchy galloping riffery, once again led by her smooth, unique voice. Paulina Logan is definitely one of the most intriguing songwriters I have heard as of late.
Be sure to check her out at www.myspace.com/paulinalogan
or at http://www.paulinalogan.com/

Review:Electro Harmonix Stereo Electric Mistress

March 13th, 2009 by Andres Gallo

Stereo Electric Mistress
$120

Design

Like the other Electro Harmonix effects, the Stereo Electric Mistress gives musicians a huge range of gorgeous tones, in an insanely simple and intuitive package. With that said, I think the design is great. With only three knobs, many different sorts of tones can be found, and more impressively is that the quality of the tones is very warm, and far from digital.
Most of you already know that this “flanger pedal”, also includes a chorus effect. The great thing about the implementation of these, is that here both effects run in parallel. This is something that is not possible using a separate pedal for the chorus, and one for the flanger. Having the effects run in parallel means that they are both blended together creating a much warmer, yet more defined mix. Instead of having the flanger run into the chorus or vice-versa, the effects are blended together. I also believe it is the only retail pedal in the market that has this feature.
My favorite feature and the last thing I discovered about the Stereo Electric Mistress is the filter matrix knob. While knob is literally the RATE knob, it’s function changes to a filter when its position is anywhere from all the way counter clockwise to a 10 O-clock position. This filter is awesome. It will freeze the sweep of the flange in a fixed position, so you don’t get that ever changing sweep that makes a flanger a flanger. Beyond 10-Oclock, on the other hand, the knob will control the rate of the sweep. Interestingly enough, the LED will change colors in accordance to the sweep. I know my tone is about right if the LED is yellow while on filter matrix mode.
The other two knobs, as obviously labeled, serve to control the depth of the flange and chorus effects. All in all, the Stereo Electric Mistress is very simple to use, without lacking in tones. Using it in stereo especially, it sounds completely amazing. The stereo is beautiful and gives the sound lots of body as the sweep pans between the two channels.
It isn’t a perfect pedal however. I mentioned I love the stereo outputs, but it lacks a second input for stereo. This means there is no way send another pedal’s stereo signal to it.

Sound

The Electric Mistress is known for being one of the musical flangers, where most sound overwhelmingly alien-like. With lots of transparency and tonal options it is definitely a must have modulation effect. The flanger itself is that famous Mistress tone, that shimmers, and yet unlike other flangers leave your tone thick and lush. Most flangers I have tried sound very, very different, and perhaps overly metallic. The chorus effect, is very good, and lush. The sweep which can be frozen has a huge range, and its beautiful when it creates those sweet flanger shimmering harmonics. The real beauty, however, comes in when both chorus and flanger are blended together. The sound achieved this way is very unique. The sound is very liquidy, but highly defined. It nails those classic tones from David Gilmour, and The Police, which are after all know for their use of the Electric Mistress.

Reliability

Construction is top notch. I don’t see this pedal breaking any time soon.

Customer Support

Electro Harmonix customer support is very good. They have always been quick to respond to my emails, and have provided me helpful answers to my questions.

RSS Feeds and Comments Now Added

March 3rd, 2009 by Frandy Veras

Ever since I started this blog I have been asked about implementing RSS Feeds, into this blog. I am not all that familiar with the technology, however, I have added it to the blog. If there are other features, or suggestions you would like to see in the blog let me know. Thank you for reading the blog. Enjoy!