TOOLS OF THE TUNESMITH’S TRADE

TOOLS OF THE TUNESMITH’S TRADE

EXTENSION CHORDS

Allen Hester

Musical, ideas come at the strangest times. Every songwriter has at least one story to tell about how a song idea popped up while the writer was driving down the freeway. Or, watching Bonanza reruns at the Seaside Motel at four in the morning. But when inspiration does come, the writer’s instinct is to grab the nearest available brown paper sack and piece of charcoal and start scribbling.

Getting a lyric on paper is hard enough in itself, but when it comes to getting a musical idea onto some kind of tape, the difficulty becomes even greater^ Relatively few musicians are in the position to be able to go into a studio and say to themselves, “I’ll just sit here in deep concentration until I write a hit song.”

True, some musicians have recording facilities at home which enable then to come up with ideas more or less at their leisure, but the cost of such home recording outfits keeps most people from having this luxury, and often times those musicia ns who1 can afford it are out on the road somewhere and can’t get to their recording gear when inspiration strikes.

Now there is a; recording system available that is both extremely portable and inexpensive enough for even the most humble musical budgets. The Teac Model 144 Portastudio is the answer to many musicians’ dreams: a multitracked cassette with a four-in two-out mixer that makes the capture of elusive musical ideas as easy as catching a cold. r

All one needs to operate the Portastudio is an AC outlet, a microphone, a set of headphones and some sort of input source, be it vocal, guitar or pian'o. The Portastudio is small and lightweight enough to pack into a suitcase, and this. makes rhobile recording in motel rooms, bus stations and all-night cafesa reality.

As many as ten instruments can be recorded qn the Portastudio by using the “ping pong” technique that has been in practice since the early days of recbrding. The Portastudio has the “simul-sync” feature which automatically syncronizes the overdub with the basic tracks, and although the model 144 will record only two tracks at a time, all four tracks can be played back simultaneously ^during the mixdown process.

The mixer section hbs four channels, each with its own mike or line inputs, pan pot, bass and treble control, tape cue, trim pot, fader and VU meter. A switching matrix on the master section of the. mixer provides track-to-track dubbing without any rewiring, as well as mixdown from four to two channels. The mixdown to two channel^ is necessary because, although themodel 144 uses standard cassette tape, it is not a standard cassette format.

The model 144 uses a faster-than-normal tape speed. Tape travels at 33/» ips in the model 144, which means that it uses more tape per sopg than a standard format recorder, but that increased speed also enhances the dynamic range of the recording, which id essential when as many as ten signals can be committed to the tape. Furthermore, the head configuration of the model 144 is unlike anything else in the Teac line, and is intended for use as a creative tool by musicians, composers and audio-visual technicians. In fact, Teac engineers stress the fact that the model 144 is not intended as a,high-fidelity product in the usual sense. However, the recording can be mixed down to two tracks, in stereo, and is then compatible with any other standard cassette system.

The Portastudio’s cassette section has a two-motor logic control transport. All transport controls are solenoid-operated, which makes switching functions easier and more reliable. The Portastudio has full-time Dolby noise reduction and an FG-servo control DC motor for the capstan.

Another nice feature of this recorder is the pitch control, which has a variant factor of + 15%. This enables the user to control tuning or timing problems, as well as create, some interesting special effects by detuning portions of the signal.

The rear panel of the model 144 contains a headphone-jack, auxiliary input and output, line Output, taped cue and auxiliary send jacks. All jacks are 1/8” phono plugs, except the headphone jack, which is V4” phone. The Portastudio pan be operated with headphones only, or the signal can be fed to external speakers through the line-out jacks. The auxiliary input makes use of external signal-processing gear such as echo units, equalizers or digital delay lines.

The model 144 has all the earmarks of a. great product: it is unique, inexpensive (only $1100 retail) and fulfills a very real need for musicians. However, as In almost every electronic design situation, there has to be some give and take somewhere. In this case, the specs of the model 144 are not as impressive as those of other Teac cassettes, but the respective buyer must keep the intention,of the designers in mind. By their own admission, Teac engineers were not trying to create a hi-fidehty audio product; but rather a useful creative device, one that could be available when the musician needed a creative outlet. So at first glance, the technical specifications such as signal-to-noise ratio, wow and flutter, and crosstalk may not seem imfftessive, but the features and the capabilities of the model 144 make it a very impressive product indeed.

Surprise! Not all musicians are super stars. In fact, some of the best of them aren’t even minor stars. Most of them make their living playing road circuits and night clubs and small concert halls, or in the studio, where commercial jingles occupy more of their time than commercial radio hits. Likewise, the majority of playing situations call for versatility rather than virtuosity in one idiom or style of playing.' The guitarist who is comfortable with a wide variety of styles is usually the one who will be called upon for studio and club dates.

Naturally, a musician working under such demanding conditions must be able to conjure up a vast array of sounds from his equipment. Of course, a good guitar is a necessity, and even the best guitar won’t make every sound that the musician wants, but the most vital piece of equipment for a versatile guitar is the amplifier. Many amplifiers are designed to produce one sound, and in some cases, especially in large concert situations, that one sound is all a guitarist has a need for. But more often than not, the situation calls for flexibility from the amplifier.

> Yamaha has a new line of amps that offer suchflexibility. In fact, the G100-212II is one of the, most versatile amps ever built, with features that no other amp on the market can boast of.

The G100 is a solid-state 100 watt self-contained amplifier with two 12-inch Yamaha speakers in an open-back enclosure. In this respect, it isjike the Fender Twin Reverb, with the exceptibn of being a solid-state amp. Also, the G100 has two channels, a Master Volume control, and built-in reverb. So far it is a lot like the Twin or Music Man, but the similarity ends there.

The most unique feature qf the G100, and a feature that working musicians should immediately see the advantage of, is the Bi-Sound system. By using the provided footswitch, the guitarist can immediately switch from a clean rhythfn sound in channel A to a nasty distorted TURN TO PAGE 65 sound in channel B. Volume, brightness, equalization and the'distortion in channel B are all completely independent of each other. This means that at long last the guitar player can completely alter his volume and tone for solo work without adjusting a single knob on the amp or the guitar. There are countless situations where this is desirable, as any player who has tried to dash off a hot, sustaining rock solo and immediately return to a clean chord pattern will understand. The-G100 differs from other amps that feature a Master Volume because the Master Volume only applies to channel B and not the entire amp. ' 1

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Each channel has its own Treble, Middle and Bass controls. Each channel -has its own “ptull-Fat” control; a pull-pot on the gain switch which boosts the midrange signal of that channel when the knob is pulled out. In addition to the individual tone control on each channel, the G100 has a parametric equalizer that functions simultaneously on both channels. The parametric provides a finer, more critical control over frequency response than do conventional tone controls. The parametric can be removed from the signal path by centering a level control at zero. The other parametric controls include a frequency knob, with a range of from 100Hz to 5kHz, and a “Q” control which will boost or cut the desired frequency. The reverb unit functions on both channels as well, but it too can be turned off with the foot switch.

On the rear panel, the pi00 has the usual speaker input, one main and one external, the foot switch jack and a direct output. The direct out comes in handy when the situation calls for running the signal directly to the sound Console or recording console, which i$ often the case, especially in the studio situation, because the direct out eliminates the necessity of close-miking and gives the engineer more control over the signal.

Much has been said about the differences between solid-state and tube amplifiers. Some die-hard tube amp users wouldn’t give any solid state amp a try, no matter what the advantages of more up-to-date features might be. This is foolish, because there are some amps on the market today that are solid state, yet can sound like a tube amp. Norlin’s Lab Series is one such amp, and this new line from Yamaha, the G Series, is another.

One must remember that the music business is very fast-paced, and that only those who keep an. eye towards the future will be able to keep up. Therefore, in evaluating any transistorized amplifier, it is wise to bear in mind that tubes have become obsolete in spite of their nostalgic appeal and “legendary” sound. The thrust of technology today is in the solid-state design and, in fact, transistor technology is really still in its infancy.

There is no doubt that research engineers will soon capture the sound of the~tilbe amp in the reliable solid-state design...if, in fact, they haven’t already done so. Guitarists who go into the music stores in the months to qome and check out the G100 amp may decide that Yamaha has captured the most elusive of all electronic critters: an all-around great little amplifier. #