Professional-Level Amateur Recording Options

While electric guitars, basses, and drum sets, have mostly maintained the same basic designs and options over the years, the ways in which to capture their sounds have progressed in leaps and bounds. Used to be, performers were forced to book studio time, paying high professional fees in order to produce professional level demo tapes or recordings. New innovations in recording technology has made it possible for artists to produce their own professional level recordings from the comfort of their home, on the road, and even outside in nature. This article will profile new products the budding amateur or professional musician can’t live without.

Since the advent of the personal computer, software companies have been working vigorously, realizing new software for home use that mimics and often times, is the exact same software used in large established studios in New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville. A leader in this field is the ProTools line of software, living up to its name by being the first choice of professional music studios around the world. ProTools offers many different options for all levels of musicians and recording enthusiasts, and even their more affordable software options possess the same usability and many of the same technical advances existing in their more expensive cousins. DAWs, or Digital Audio Workstations can be configured with different software, different audio interfaces that allow instruments to enjoy “plug and play” operation, and various “plug-ins” or extras offered by assorted software companies. The portability of laptops and the portability of smaller and smaller interfaces (a company named M-Audio has one that is fob sized, about as big as your thumb) are allowing musicians to take their projects on the road, experiencing total freedom of operation. If a musician doesn’t have the computer know-how or funds necessary to go the DAW or notebook route, there are many companies who offer standalone machines which record, mix, and often include onboard Cd burners to produce professional level Cds. Many of these machines come equipped with onboard microphones and battery powered operation, allowing them to be used at home or even around the campfire, whenever the mood strikes. A forerunner in this technology is Zoom, offering a portable four track and field recorder packed with editable effects that runs on AA batteries allowing musicians to go anywhere their spirit takes them without compromising quality or missing precious moments of inspiration.

Local music stores like Austin’s Strait Music Company carry a myriad of options, and employ dozens of well informed salespeople who are eager to talk about the many recording options available today.

About the Author: Clint Strait is a third generation owner and assistant manager of the Strait Music, Austin Music Stores, providing the best selection of recording software and interfaces to Austin and the surrounding area for over forty years. For more information please visit www.straitmusic.com.

Digital Pianos and Their Acoustic Counterparts

Many people are daunted by the large price tag not to mention the large size of a traditional acoustic piano. Many are not ready to make the spatial sacrifice especially in today’s world where a jumbo television screen can be mounted flush on any wall, taking up no floor space whatsoever. Modern advances in construction and the sampling of acoustic instruments has brought about the introduction of numerous new choices of excellent and affordable digital pianos that are growing in popularity as musicians realize they are not their “father’s keyboard”.

Many of today’s digital keyboards’ sound banks are chock full of sounds provided by true samples, recorded on fine concert and vintage pianos in acoustically desirable environments. The processors within new models translate these sounds to performance so exactingly that the mellifluous tones produced can hardly be discerned from the true originals. Many complain about the touch and playability of digital pianos compared to acoustic pianos, however, new innovations including fully weighted keys and hammer-strike mimicking technology has improved the newest digital keyboards’ playability exponentially. Most new digital pianos have effects which can be added to the sound produced. Digital effects like reverb, chorus, and others, can add space and depth to performance, often faithfully reproducing the acoustics found in fine concert halls, studios, or other venues. Digital pianos really flex their muscles when it is time to record. There is no need for strategically placed microphones, microphone preamps, or mixing of signals involved as with a traditional piano. Digital pianos are truly “plug and play”, allowing musicians to concentrate on their artistry, and not losing their inspiration and muse because of technical setup or the like. Many digital pianos actually have onboard recording and sequencing abilities, allowing the player to play 2 or more parts, actually accompanying him or herself while playing a melody with their own prerecorded backing track. This is invaluable when putting together that perfect right hand solo without having to worry about “comping” with your left while figuring it out; no extra equipment necessary.

Perhaps the greatest advantage a digital piano possesses over its acoustic counterpart is not even experienced by the player, but instead by the listener. For beginning pianists, sometimes it is not about what is heard, but what is not heard. Headphone ports come standard on nearly all digital pianos allowing for silent operation with no disturbance to neighbors, housemates, parents, or friends. Digital pianos are an excellent resource for the pianist who is just starting out, and local music stores like Austin’s trusted Strait Music Company stock many viable options and styles.

About the Author: Clint Strait is a third generation owner and assistant manager of the Strait Music, Austin Music Stores, providing the best selection of digital and acoustic pianos to Austin and the surrounding area for over forty years. For more information please visit www.straitmusic.com.

Choosing an Acoustic Piano for the Home

An acoustic piano is a wonderful addition to any living room, den, or music room, providing years of enjoyment and beautiful melodies for all lucky enough to be near it. The purchasing of a piano is quite a commitment and many contributing factors help determine which piano is the right choice for a particular household.

As an acoustic piano is a relatively large piece of furniture doubling as a musical instrument, space constraints can be a formidable issue. Luckily, pianos are available in all shapes and sizes, from a diminutive spinet, well suited for parlors or smaller rooms, to an enormous nine foot long grand piano for larger spaces and fine concert halls. Primarily, modern pianos can be divided into two basic types: the grand piano and the upright piano. Grand pianos take up much more space due the arrangement of their strings horizontally within the frames. A longer piano (i.e. concert grand up to 9 feet in length) has a much fuller, deeper, breadth of sound because the longer strings have the ability to vibrate freely within the larger cabinet. A more compact version of the grand piano which many opt for, the baby grand, will have less true overtones, or partials exuding from the true tone, because of the necessitation of shorter, thicker strings within its constrained cabinet. A professional player would obviously ultimately opt for the largest grand piano that would be conducive to the given space. Not only does a grand piano possess a better, fuller sound, its playability is far superior to the upright piano as well. An upright, or vertical piano houses its strings vertically, allowing it to squeeze into much smaller rooms because of its compact footprint. The hammers that strike the strings, creating the tones in a vertical piano move horizontally as opposed to vertically like the hammers in a grand piano. The vertical movement in a grand is superior because its hammers return to the stationary position using gravity, falling back into place rather than relying upon springs to return them to that position as in a vertical piano. These springs of course can lose their integrity over time and must be replaced due to wear and tear generated by normal playing. As earlier stated, longer strings ring and vibrate more truthfully so a taller, upright grand piano is best when considering an upright because of its ability to house the longer strings.

In this article, the surface has barely been scratched concerning the many choices and options available when choosing a modern piano. Music retailers like Strait Music Company in Austin, Texas, employ dozens of well-trained salespeople who are happy to help every budding musician considering a piano purchase.

About the Author: Clint Strait is a third generation owner and assistant manager of the Strait Music, Austin Music Stores, providing the best selection of new and used pianos to Austin and the surrounding area for over forty years. For more information please visit www.straitmusic.com.

What Makes an Electric Guitar a “Good One”

A good electric guitar has the ability to free the inner voice within a special guitar player, giving him or her the ability to sing from deep with in their soul, sending melodies outward from the tips of their fingers. Much work and extreme attention detail goes into the construction of a finely made electric guitar whether it be made on an assembly line of a large manufacturer or in a shop of a private luthier (guitar maker). A good electric guitar can be seen as a sum of individually selected parts that come together in a cooperative way to perform successfully, expressively and masterfully, in the hands of gifted and learning musicians alike.

A master luthier’s first mission is to find the wood for the body of the guitar. The resonance and tonal quality is different for every particular kind of wood. Ash, for example, is a very popular wood used in making electric guitar bodies. “Southern Soft” or “Swamp Ash” is found in the swamps of the Southern United States. Swamp ash trees spend their lives well hydrated by the waters they grow in, so the wood is very porous and lightweight, lending to resonance and sustain across the whole frequency spectrum of a guitar. A standard, non-exotic wood often used is alder. Alder is popular because of its lightweight and harder, thicker grains, offering long sustain, balanced tone, with a complex resonance, and good dynamic range, making alder very desirable for blues playing. As first choice body materials such as alder, ash, and mahogany become more scarce in the United States, luthiers look to other continents such as Africa and Australia, choosing woods such as bubinga and blackwood whose tonal qualities mirror those of woods found on the American continent.

What good is the resonance of an electric guitar’s body if that resonance is not transferred somehow to the listener? The purity of tone can be heard by placing one’s ear up to the body, experiencing the tonality and resonant vibration firsthand, but of course, that sound must be captured and amplified for it to be enjoyed by others. This is where the pickups on an electric guitar become important. Pickups on electric guitars act as microphones, picking up string vibration and sending it through the 1/4” cable to an awaiting amplifier for amplification. There are basically two different types of pickups, piezoelectric that capture vibrations of all types of strings, and magnetic pickups which naturally only work with steel strings.

Along with a choice of fingerboard and neck, the body and pickups work together resulting in a sweet amalgam that successfully captures and transmits the melodies and rhythms from guitarists’ hands to listeners’ ears. Specially trained salespeople at fine music stores like Strait Music of Austin, Texas, are available to assist all levels of musicians in the choosing and purchasing of a fine instrument that will prove to be an extension of the musician’s very soul.

About the Author: Clint Strait is a third generation owner and assistant manager of the Strait Music, Austin Music Stores, providing the best selection of electric guitars and guitar accessories to Austin and the surrounding area for over forty years. For more information please visit www.straitmusic.com.

Pricey Guitar Cables: Worth the Cost?

Electric guitar players search for many years, striving to find just the right guitar that provides just the right tone they desire. Most prefer tube amplifiers for their axes, because of the purity of tone and the clarity and ease of manipulation tried and true tube technology provides. After emptying their wallets and pocketbooks at their local music stores around town, does it make sense to plug a sub-standard, economy 1/4” cord into the boutique setup they’ve searched and searched for? The answer is a resounding “NO!”

Cheaply priced guitar cables are cheaply made. The inner cable is usually made from a less expensive, thinner gauge copper that will lose its integrity and fail at the worst possible moment whether it be on stage or in the recording studio. This thin copper cable also does not support the frequency response that a thicker gauge, copper cable provides. Since tone is an issue with all guitarists, attention to the entire frequency band should be essential. What’s the point of paying top dollar for the twelve-band equalizer on your favorite amplifier if the cheap guitar cable used merely supports the middle tone partials of the guitar’s broad frequency range? The thickness of the surrounding casing of the cable can be marginal in inexpensive cords as well, allowing for any twisting or bending of the cord at right angles to interrupt the signal immediately and irreparably without soldering the inner cable together again, costing much time and effort.

Most professional guitar players agree and would never use a cheaply made instrument cable on the road or in the studio, happily paying higher prices for higher quality cables because of the purer tone that the higher quality constructed cables provide. The amount paid for one, often lifetime guaranteed, guitar cable far outweighs the headaches incurred by choosing a less expensive, poorly made cable. Well-stocked retailers like Strait Music of Austin, Texas, carry many various options of guitar and instrument cables. When your favorite music store employee steers you in the direction of the higher priced instrument cables, it is not because they want to charge you this higher price unnecessarily. The higher quality cable is simply the better choice. Perhaps you enjoy often returning to your local music store, buying replacement cables; there are always friendly salespeople there who enjoy talking about guitars and amplifiers as much as you do. But if you’d rather enjoy playing and making music with your friends, a higher priced, better-made cable is the obvious choice.

About the Author: Clint Strait is a third generation owner and assistant manager of the Strait Music, Austin Music Stores, providing the best selection of instrument cables and other guitar accessories to Austin and the surrounding area for over forty years. For more information please visit www.straitmusic.com.

Tuning Your Guitar

One of the first skills necessary when learning to play the guitar has to be the process of tuning it. The wonderful thing about a guitar, and all string instruments, is the ability to tune to itself. This means that all strings can be in a state of “tuneness” with each other whether or not they are truly in tune as far as correct acoustically resonating pitches are concerned. For example, the true resonating frequency for the note “A” is 440 hz using a strobe tuner; if a tuner is not available, one can pick from a range of tones for this “A string” and then tune other strings to that theoretical “A”. Now, one must realize that if a tone is picked that is too far removed from the spectrum of a true “A” tone, this might prove difficult when tuning higher strings; undue stress could be placed upon their tensile strength, resulting in breakage from over-tightening. It is best to receive a true tone from either a tuner or perhaps a nearby piano (though they are not always in tune!) and begin the process.

It is easiest to begin with the lowest sounding string that should be tuned to the note “E” resonating at 329 hz. Match the tone given by the tuner or chosen instrument by turning the tuning pegs on the headstock of the guitar clockwise or counter-clockwise until the pitch lines up in your ear or on the meter of the tuner. You have now successfully tuned the lowest guitar string and are now one sixth of the way towards completion! Now look at the guitar neck. It is separated into different quadrants by vertically aligned pieces of metal called “frets”. The space to the left of each metal division or “fret” is usually also referred to as the fret position corresponding to the number of the dividing fret (metal piece). By pushing this “E” string to the fretboard at the fifth position (to the left of the 5th fret if you are right handed), it will result in the next string unfretted, or “A”, 440 hz. Turn the tuning peg to match accordingly. In order, the next four strings should be tuned in the same fashion: 3rd string “D”, fifth position on 2nd string, “A” – 4th string “G”, fifth position on 3rd string “D” – 5th string “B”, FOURTH position on 4th string “G” – and 6th string “E”, fifth position on 5th string “B”.

Following this easy procedure has resulted in your guitar being in tune with true acoustically resonating pitches provided the guitar is properly constructed. One way to make certain your guitar is made properly is by purchasing it from or having it inspected by a respected local dealer like Strait Music Company of Austin, Texas. Friendly musicians are employed by music stores and are happy to help answer all questions a budding guitarist might have.

About the Author: Clint Strait is a third generation owner and assistant manager of the Strait Music, Austin Music Stores, providing the best selection of electric guitars and guitar accessories to Austin and the surrounding area for over forty years. For more information please visit www.straitmusic.com.

Choosing Electric Guitar Strings

It is very easy to be overwhelmed in the string section of your favorite guitar shop if you don’t know what you’re looking for. The display wall is stocked full of many different brands in all different colors of attractive packaging, but how do you choose which one is right for you? The best way to avoid being overwhelmed by the shop’s selection is to be well informed about the differences between strings, not necessarily brands, but weights, and having an idea of what styles you are looking to play as well before perusing the assorted brands.

As one can imagine, the thickness of a guitar string has a large effect on its sound. Many players enjoy the thicker, more resonant sound a thicker string makes. One player of note who enjoyed thicker strings was the blues legend, Stevie Ray Vaughan. If you ever marveled at the thickness of Stevie Ray’s legendary tone, marvel no longer. His secret, besides his favorite Fender Stratocaster, was in the fact that he used some of the thickest strings on the market. Of course, when choosing thick strings, you must be confident in your ability to press them successfully to the fretboard at all different positions in order to make a full and stable tone. Not everyone possesses the hand strength of a fantastic player like Stevie Ray Vaughan, but if you desire his tone, thicker strings are the way to go.

Thicker strings, because of their larger surface area, are much more difficult to press to the fretboard, so many beginning players opt for the higher playability of thinner strings, though in trade, they receive a thinner tone as well. The playability, especially when bending strings to higher pitches while soloing can be very expressive and less physically demanding than with their thicker counterparts. Of course with a little manipulation of your favorite equalizer or effects pedal, a player can add more thickness to make up for the thinner tone a thin string creates. But remember, this thinner sound created by a thinner gauge of string is very desirable in many styles of playing such as surf rock and rockabilly, so perhaps this manipulation of tone by effects is not necessary.

In the end, the style of playing, ability and hand strength, as well as desired timbre of sound are all determining factors in string selection. At locally owned shops such as Strait Music Company in Austin, Texas, helpful salespeople have plenty of time and knowledge to help ensure each customer leaves with the perfect strings to fit their particular hands.

About the Author: Clint Strait is a third generation owner and assistant manager of the Strait Music, Austin Music Stores, providing the best selection of electric guitars and sheet music to Austin and the surrounding area for over forty years. For more information please visit www.straitmusic.com.