Monday, March 2, 2009

Shard Fifteen - Wah Wahs And Phasers, Oh My!

Congrats to those of you who knew what Wahs and Phasers were when you first saw the title.

For those who didn't know, they're sound distortion effects/filters, generally used on electric guitars, but also used on other instruments as well.

The reason I bring them up is because I've gone and gotten myself a small amplifier and a left-handed electric guitar to plug into it.

Horay.

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

Alright, I wasn't quite certain if I would get an electric guitar, or save up for a keyboard, or just buy a solid editing program. But my trial of FL Studio is sitting unused currently (it's an amazing program and I love it, but I just can't get the hang of actually using it to make music), my keyboard synthesizer options are looking more expensive, and the electric guitar looked much more appealing in person then it did online.
For $150, I get a solid Squier left-handed Strat, which feels just awesome. $50 got me a little Crate Profiler 5 amp, which is surprisingly good, considering it's the cheapest amp you can get at Guitar Center. Ten effects/filters, nine Delay settings (echo), ten Reverb settings (reverberation), and eleven amp profiles (low-gain "clean" all the way up to dark, gritty high-gain profiles). And it came with Tracktion, a music recording and editing software I've never heard of, but it also surprisingly good. It's no FL Studio, you can't make your own sounds in it. But you can record about anything (the amp can be plugged into the computer via USB to record), edit or filter the recordings, arrange them, and, well, make music.

I still can't play the guitar, but I can play it; what I mean is, I can't play any songs on the thing, but I can certainly get some very interesting sounds out of it. It's got a tremolo bridge, but no tremolo bar, so I'll be shelling out ten bucks sometime soon for that. (Tremolo = what's often known as the "Whammy Bar", used to "bend" notes.) In the meantime, I have a screwdriver that fits perfectly in the hole, so I can mess around with it a bit. (don't worry, it's safe.)

I'll be spending a good deal of time trying to learn to actually play, I think; YouTube videos and other such things should get me up and rolling to a point where I can self-teach myself anything else.

Looking forward to this.


<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

On a similar note, my younger brother just got a used Pearl 5-piece drum set. I'm actually supposed to be helping him unload it now, so I'll make this short. He's excited to play the drums of course, and he's also excited at the prospect of me playing guitar along with him (he wants me to learn some actual chords for that). It'll be fun.
I don't think I'll be sleeping during the day anymore, though. Oh well, it was fun being nocturnal for a while, but it's not going to be possible anymore...

<<><>>---------------<<>>

ĜЄΘ.>