| Weekend Beat/ Axmen of air strike invisible chords
It happens all the time--adolescent boys get interested in guitars to attract girls. At 13, Tatsuya Kobayashi was no different. He bought an electric guitar and a small amp for 30,000 yen at a local music store in Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture. Secretly dreaming of passionate glances from teen bunnies, he struggled to master the instrument, following directions in a how-to guitar manual. Alas, he soon discovered there was more to it than he'd imagined. Just randomly plucking at the six strings wasn't working. Kobayashi's fantasy collided with reality and lost. He gave up. The guitar became a dusty ornament in his room. Ten years passed. It was a weekday night in May. The rock club Shinjuku Loft Plus One was packed. Rage Against the Machine's "Guerrilla Radio" burst out of the club's sound system.
SNAMM06: Line 6 Adds A Keyboard To Audio Interface
Line 6, Inc have introduced TonePort KB37, the latest addition to the TonePort line of USB recording and modeling interfaces. TonePort KB37 delivers Line 6 guitar, bass, and vocal tone with the added convenience of an integrated 37-note keyboard controller. Line 6 say that, compatible with both Mac and Windows computers, TonePort KB37 allows any musician from beginner to pro to easily record studio quality tracks.
TonePort KB37 comes with Line 6 GearBox modeling software, which provides a collection of 18 guitar amp and 5 bass amp models, 30 stompbox and studio effects, and 6 high-end studio microphone preamp models.
With Line 6's exclusive ToneDirect monitoring, guitarists can record in real-time with amps and multiple effects without the latency associated with standard computer plug-ins.
Motion City Soundtrack: 'We Are Evolving'
Since guitarist Josh Cain and his bandmates in Motion City Soundtrack made their way into the national music scene with 2003's I Am The Movie, life has been moving along at a lightening speed. In the past couple of years, MCS has found a cozy spot in Vans Warped Tour and worked with a producer whose name carries plenty of weight in today's music world - Mark Hoppus of Blink 182. Even with Hoppus at the helm of the band's latest CD Commit This To Memory (a deluxe edition with bonus DVD was released on June 20, 2006), the band is open to the possibility of working with new producers for future releases. But for now, the band is currently on a whirlwind trip, playing at all the dates on Warped Tour rather than just a portion as in year's past. While the band is not quite ready to start recording another full album just yet, Cain has gotten the ball rolling by setting up shop in the back of his tour bus.
Hughes & Kettner Ships Switchblade Combo Amps
Switchblade guitar amps were introduced at this year's Winter NAMM Show and combine real tube tone with the sound flexibility of fully programmable amps. The new combos complete the Switchblade line-up with a 1x12 50W and a 2x12 100W model. Like the Switchblade head, the combos provide 4 fully programmable tube channels, on-board digital multi- FX and include a MIDI-board for instant access to 128 user presets. The combos' four channels are optimized to cover a wide range of tones from California clean to British crunch and classic rock to contemporary American nu metal. The FX-section provides considerable effects power and features three independent blocks that all work simultaneously (delay, modulation and reverb). The amps' front panels offer classic tube amp look & feel - but are fully programmable for a total of 128 different tube tones at the touch of a button.
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