Making Tracks

I don't like to waste money. So since I didn't spend any money on air fare this holiday season, I decided I'd better put the money I saved to good use. That makes sense, doesn't it?

So I went out this past weekend and picked me up a cool new toy.

Been looking to get something like this for a little while now, and I figured now is the time. I'm just starting to work my way through the manual, and it's pretty damn cool. Seems very user-friendly. It's really geared towards guitar players; just plug straight in and play. It's got tons of pre-set amp modeling patches and other cool effects. And of course, you can create your own sound, from choosing the virtual amp (Fender Twin? Matchless? Marshall Stack?) to setting the distance the virtual microphone is from the virtual amp's speaker. Amazing.

There are several bass simulation patches, so you can lay down bass tracks using an electric 6-string. There's also an input for a microphone and a line-in for other devices such as keyboards. And the drum machine sounds quite good, fairly realistic.

I did quite a bit of research on the web before deciding on this particular model. It got very good reviews, and there's even a Yahoo Group dedicated to it (nobody there seemed to be having any major problems with it, and most seemed to like it a lot). It uses a CompactFlash media card, comes with a 128MB card but accepts cards up to 1GB. I like the fact that it has a USB port, so I can dump my finished tracks on my computer, convert them to MP3s and burn them to CD (why pay twice as much for a model with the same features that also has a hard drive and a CD burner on board, when I already have those things on my iMac?). The USB connection also allows you to import sounds for making loops and to import extra rhythm sounds to customize drum sounds, such as a different snare sound, for instance. It really seems to give the most bang for the buck.

Guess what I'll be doing while I'm off work for the next week?