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I need a practice device

Stonker

Junior Member
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I need to be able to practice with just my guitar, some device and my laptop.  I know I could use my POD HD500 (I do sometimes) but would like something smaller.  I want to be able to play along with youtube/media player/audacity etc through headphones.  If it also acted as a CD/DVD drive that would be a bonus but not a deal breaker.  Any suggestions?  (It doesn't have to be new)
 
Zoom R8. It's a multifx, drum machine, metronome, and 8 track recorder (2 at a time). Seem to go for $150ish on CL.
 
acoustic guitar and a metronome.  When you pick that electric up after a few weeks of that you'll sound like Hendrix no matter what rig you've got.
 
Mayfly said:
acoustic guitar and a metronome.  When you pick that electric up after a few weeks of that you'll sound like Hendrix no matter what rig you've got.


Agreed.  I think this was also the topic of a Steve Morse column in Guitar Player mag a couple centuries ago.  Work it out very diligently on the heavy strings and when you pick up your electric it will be so much easier to manipulate.
 
If you learn to use your guitar to make the noises that aren't there, you'll be a better guitarist. If you use your money to buy machines that make the noises that aren't there, you'll end up with a lot of machines. My students say I'm kind of confusing when I say things like that.

First things first is a long clean delay, surely the POD will. You DON'T want modulation, warble, you want to HEAR everything so you can duplicate with exactitude. Learn every lick you like in at least two places with different picking patterns, notes-per-string etc. (four places is better, EVERY place is... the goal). REAL speed comes from giving an EVEN value of time or length to every note in a lick - you can put an amazing amount of crank on one single lick in one place with enough repetition, but NOTHING about it will apply anywhere else as soon as you leave that exact pattern.

If you use a looper or recorder to make backing tracks instead of using backing tracks, you learn how to play rhythm guitar. Drum machines are so cheap/free with everything, and they're more interesting than metronomes. But don't mask mistakes, that's backwards - when you skip over a hard, uncomfortable part, you're building a pattern of defeat.
http://www.drumbot.com/projects/sequence/

Hands down the single best tool is a $1.29 notebook & pencils & erasers. Human brains are not, actually, that good at remembering EVERYTHING AT ONCE. Write down the dumb stuff so your brain has room to work on the good stuff. Can you play five notes over the space of four? Four over seven? You can't until you try, and you can't try just by laying around thinking - you HAVE to write out all those kinds of experiments. There's HUNDREDS of chord & scale superimpositions. This isn't music paper, this is just PAPER paper.
 
StübHead said:
But don't mask mistakes, that's backwards - when you skip over a hard, uncomfortable part, you're building a pattern of defeat.

Perzactly. If you practice mistakes, that's what you'll get good at. That's why you slow down to speed up. If you can't play it slow, you damn well will never do it fast. Accuracy is paramount. Do things deliberately. Use a metronome, and don't call it a liar. It really is you that can't keep time and play well. Just slow the bitch down, and get real.

Oh, yeah. Dare to suck  :icon_biggrin:
 
Why does everybody want to play fast?  I never was into keyboard acrobatics?  An odd fast phrase is fine but my preference is to feel and mean what I play.  I don't really need a lecture on how to practice.  I work away from home a lot and need something small and convenient that I can use to work on new material in a hotel room
 
And humble. Face it. None of us knows what we're doing. We're all a work in progress.
 
Ok with a laptop and for travelling assuming it's running windows. Scufffham S-Amps and an interface such as Focusrite Scarlett Solo ought to do the job.

Other software alternatives could be Peavey Revalver.

And a set of headphones and you are there.
 
For a versatile practice amp that won't break the bank, I have a Vamp 3 sitting here just rotting...

0403365305403_300X300.jpg

Bought it years ago when it first came out, and never really used it. Sounds surprisingly good, although I don't know that I'd use it for performance purposes. But for practice? It's the whip. First $50+shipping takes it.
 
They may be useful and sound good, but someone should be shot over those things. You can't step on it. You can't bolt it in.  What the heck are you supposed to do with it?
 
It's definitely not designed for roadwork - no question about that. It's basically a table-top device you use for practice purposes. Put it on the coffee table in the living room, plug in a set of headphones and call it good. If you get a headset with only one side, you can still have conversations, hear what's going on around the house, watch TV, etc. while still being able to wank and crank without bothering anybody. Or, get a stereo headset so you can get the full effect of modulation stuff like flangers, phasers, reverb, delay, etc. Anybody who ever had fun with the old Tom Scholtz Rockmans or anything like that would love this thing, as it's a million times better. It has amp and cab emulations along with a generous mittenful of effects, and while it's no AxeFx, it's still a lotta fun.
 
I know you can plug into a $70 jr. modeler and into your computer, and you can buy a $2,000 "audio interface" from Sweetwater too. Conversion rate? or conversion betteriness? seems to be the big whoop. I do kind of hope there's some big difference, but I also know you can drive a $1,400,000 Ferrari "LaFerrari" to the store to get a can of cat food. I think I use to like Sweetwater better when it was just me n' them.
 
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