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M-Audio Fast Track II with Pro Tools – Review

July 14, 2010 in John's Equipment and Gear Reviews with 3 Comments

M-Audio Fast Track II with Pro Tools – Review by Alaa Marzouk

Well, I got the M-Audio Fast Track II with Pro Tools, and honestly, I did not like it.  Why?  Well, that’s a good question.  The product comes with M-Audio Fast Track unit with installation CD, Pro-Tools Essential Installation CD, and a USB cable to connect the M-Audio unit to a PC or laptop. The unit has 2 input/2 output audio interfaces, a 1/4 inch input for guitar, headphones output, microphone input with 48V phantom power, & RCA speaker outputs. First thing, let me tell you the pros of this product. It’s easy to install, but you have to go to the M-Audio website to download the latest driver for your operating system to prevent software crashes. The unit itself is somewhat solid & doesn’t look light or cheap. Along with the pros, here come the cons. I really don’t know where to start. Okay, the software is TERRIBLE and has a sad interface. It’s so complicated! It has VERY, VERY limited features, and the worst thing is that if you want just “okay results” you STILL have to pay A LOT!  You cannot record a track as an Mp3 unless you pay an additional fee.  Just to record a track you need to follow two or three steps.  You cannot just click record because simply it won’t work!  The sound quality is average.  Honestly, all you have to do is get a 1/4” to 1/8” converter jack from Radio Shack for $6.99, record with Audacity (free recording software), and you’ll have the same results. If you’re using Mac, it’s easier to record with Garage band. It pissed me off that even a simple guitar effect cannot be done without paying to buy a plug-in or so!  I feel bad because I had such high hopes for this product. *Sigh* I’m just a simple 26 year old man who wanted to record music for his wife.  I guess I’ll have to keep on searching for the right software to record and edit guitar music, but this time, I’ll stay far away from M-Audio and Avid.

LR Baggs Element Pickup system for Classical Guitar

June 22, 2010 in John's Equipment and Gear Reviews with 2 Comments

After my performances in San Francisco this past weekend I have to announce how wonderful it was to plug in my flamenco guitar with the LR Baggs “Element” pickup.

As you may have read in my previous posts regarding all the different guitar and pickup system nightmares I experienced in my San Francisco performances or If not here’s a brief summery…

I had 3 good flamenco guitars to choose from, all of which would have been great if we were using microphones to amplify the guitars. However, due to playing with bass and drums at a very loud stage volume I had to use the guitar’s under saddle pickup systems. My first guitar had a Fishman system and the treble strings were all evenly balanced however the bass strings were all about 6db quieter. Then there was the guitar with the RMC pickup system… The balance was better however the trebles sounded very thin against the bass and drums. Also, for some bizarre reason the bass strings had no definition and vanished against the sound of the bass and drums. The 3rd guitar was a Yamaha with a B-band system right of the store rack and again the string balance was uneven.

I use B-band systems in all my previous guitars and with a lot of patience and perseverance you can get the strings to balance well.

So what’s the point to all this?

I recently installed an LR Baggs Element pick up in my new flamenco guitar at home and what a treat it was to pick it up and plug it in. “Perfect string balance and a nice round warm tone”

Ok, so it still sounds like a clacky under saddle pickup however, Hats off to, and a big thank you to LR Baggs for creating a classical guitar pickup you can easily balance!

Now just for those comparing b-band to lr baggs. B-band does sound great, string balance can be achieved by a tech that really knows them. However the output on a b-band is really weak and that is something I would like them to improve on.

Now as for the lr baggs element… It’s a good sounding classical guitar pickup and I love the nice output level and most importantly, it’s very easy to balance. What’s important with both pickup is to be sure that the underside of the bridge saddle is perfectly flat!

I can’t hear my guitar!

May 28, 2010 in John's Equipment and Gear Reviews with 4 Comments 

hello john,

came across your fine website in my quest for
trying to get a decent and good live amplified
classical guitar sound. im from Dublin Ireland
and im doing a similar type of gig that your doing
small clubs laid back venues wine bar etc but am
havin real trouble in hearing myself when people
start yapping! some gigs worse than others. i see
you have an excellent set up gear wise and was
wondering hows it workin for you. 

i use two aer classic pro amps with a takamine tc132sc classical
using a digital delay over the two amps also two aer as 281 pa
speakers as an add on from the amps. yes really good gear but
cant hear myself! everything is fine except when people start
talking the sound is completely sucked up.when i turn my guitar
up the response and sound of the guitar is awful, like a electric
guitar with rubber bands as strings all the acoustic subtlety gone.
would a compressor help do you think or in your search for your
live sound have u encountered my problems. 

over here in Ireland none of the music shops understand
where im commin from and think im nutts but its a real problem as
id like to pursue this type of work more as i enjoy live playing
but cant play with the sound i have.im on you tube under pat
coldrick if you want to hear me play just so that you can see that
im real and not wastin your time!id apreciate any help john as your
the first person ive come across who seems to have a handle on the
whole issue of live amplified Spanish guitar sound. 

your website is excellent well done
and look forward to your reply.

p.s.ive noticed you say you use in ear
monitors im just wondrin would this solve my problem in
hearing myself? how do you find the sound of your guitar
through them? many thanks john and continued success with
your music.

regards pat coldrick
http://www.mesentertainments.com/PatColdrick.html


Hi Pat

Yes, I think I can most definitely help. 

A lot of my performing is corporate, just me,
my guitar, and 100 to 600 very valuable CEO’s
all networking in the same tiny room.

The answer to your question and sanity when
playing these events (and really any gig) is
most definitely “good professional” in ear
monitors!

I almost always perform with one in my ear and one out to hear
the ambient room. Unless the room is so loud that you can’t
speak to the person next to you. Then I put both monitors in.
(It’s hard to believe but I have performed in rooms so loud
that I’ve left the room with my ears ringing just from the
volume of everyone networking around me.

It takes a while to get them as you will need to visit an
ear specialist to take impressions of your ear. Then send them
in to have your in ear monitors created. I use monitors called
Livewires. They are located in San Francisco. 

I bought theirs because they are extremely reasonable,
the quality is very good and I was extremely impressed
with their customer service. They were also highly
recommended by a few industry friends of mine.

I currently use their duel driver monitors. They sound great.
You can also save a lot by not going wireless. The good wireless
systems can be around $1000 and is not necessary for what we’re
doing.

All the best, John G.

My live performance flamenco guitar set up

April 9, 2010 in Behind the scene at the Gigs, John's Equipment and Gear Reviews with 2 Comments

The Bose T-1 is a very small digital mixer. It’s pretty good. (the big issue I have with it is that I can’t assign the reverb to the monitor bus) I mic my guitar to channel #1. My nylon string guitar mic is an AKG C535 EB which I love!! I can use a little compression to keep the string balance even while close mic’ing the guitar. The compression also helps to keep me out in front of the mix without relying on a sound tech to properly ride the fader all night. I can also add reverb. The T-1 have a very decent reverb and is loaded with a lot of other great effects. I also run a line out of my guitar channel that goes to the input of my RC50 loopstation to record live guitar loops. BTW, the T1 has a 3 band eq and a parametric eq for each channel. These days I keep the eq on the T-1 flat.

Currently my guitar mic goes into a DBX 376 tube preamp. It’s great! It’s used for: – warming and fattening up my guitar – eq is great. I cut the low end, a little high end and carve out a little 1k – I’ll bypass the T1 compression and use the DBX compressor (overeasy @ about a 4:1 comp)

Channel #2 of the T-1 is the input for my loopstation’s output. I’ll add reveb to this channel as the channel #1 line output I assigned pre-effects.

I use the sub-output a from my loopstation to send a click into Channel #3 of the Bose T-1.

The T-1 has one aux send for each channel that I use to send a mix to the monitor output to my in-ear monitors. (I use live wire in-ear monitors) My monitor mix consists of my guitar, looped guitar & click. The mix is dry because of Bose’s reluctance to create a global reverb send to the monitor bus! (maybe if enough people complain Bose will fix this for us with an update) BTW, I only put my in-ear monitor in my right ear. I keep to other out to hear the room sound. I’ll only put both monitors in if I’m playing a corporate event were the room volume (people talking) is so loud that I can’t think. (300 to 600 people packed into a small venue all talking can really grind you down after a couple of hours) check out my Behind the scenes posts to see what I mean.

The main out of the T-1 is my channel #1 guitar and my loops created live to channel #2.

Now if you what to hear your guitar with reverb in the in-ear monitors hears what I do these days. I do not send Ch1 & Ch2 guitars to the aux. I use a splitter out of the T-1′s main output. One split goes to the PA system and the other goes into Channel #4 of the T-1 (now channel 4 is a guitar mix (my guitar and the loops) with reverb. I assign Channel #4 to the aux monitor mix.

My monitor mix now contains the ch3 click and the ch1 & ch2 guitar mix with reverb. It took a long time for me to sort this one all out but it works GREAT!

Live with the band I’ll use this system (only if I decide to perform w/loops) and each band member has an in-ear monitor with me and the click. This has also worked great when we’ve done multi-media shows with video, laser & lighting sync.

If I’m not playing with loops I only use my DBX 376 tube pre-amp and I take a direct line out for my in-ear monitor. (bought an inline $7 volume control from Radio Shack / The Source to control the in-ear volume) The beauty of this is I don’t have to rely on the FOH (Front Of House) sound tech to give me a good monitor mix. My guitar always sounds amazing to me on stage! And that is so very important to a great, relaxed performance!

One more note… I also have a TC Electronic reverb in my DBX pre-amp rack. I sometimes use the effects loop on the DBX to add a nice reverb to my guitar if I don’t feel the FOH sound tech doesn’t have one or I’m worried he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

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