I can still remember the first time I saw the "Mix Cubes" in the studio monitor section of a Sweetwater catalog. These interesting looking reference monitors piques my interest, and I did a little research to find the company that was making them. What I expected to find was small new company that was just getting started with a single new product. What I found was a new company working on making a name with a full features lineup of new microphones.

I contacted Avant Electronics and met Glen Heffner, who has to be one of the greatest people I have ever met in the industry. Glen has been in the musical instruments and recording industry since his very first job. He has worked as a sales rep for large musical instrument manufacturers, owned a music store, and a recording studio. He is well connected in many facets of the industry, and equally well liked by the people who know him. Every time I talk to Glen on the phone, it becomes a marathon session. Glen is full of great stories, advice, and of course we talk music business also.

At the NAMM show in January, I finally got to meet Glen personally as well as Ken and Sue Avant. This is the core team that is the driving force behind Avant Electronics. They are all great people who have a passion and desire to put out the absolute best, and affordable microphones in the business, and they are succeeding. Their microphones have received professional level reviews that have ranked their sound and quality on par with microphones costing thousands of dollars. If you have a few moments, I encourage you to head on over to www.avantelectronics.com and check out their product line. Do not be fooled by the prices. These microphones are being used in high end professional studios and on the big stages by some very well known artists.

If you are in the market for microphones, I need to warn you, you may need to wait a little while. These microphones are so popular that Avant Electronics can't make them fast enough to keep up with the demand. These microphones are worth the wait, and there are a lot of more qualified people in the major label studios who would tell you the same thing.

By: Gary Allen

I recently had the chance to beta test a new version of Song Surgeon. This program has been around for awhile, but they are going to be releasing a tweaked version with more features in October. Song Surgeon is used to slow down the tempo of your favorite songs so that you can hear what the instruments are doing better. This is great for fast songs where you can not quite figure out all the notes the guitar player is playing. You are able to keep the original pitch of the song intact when slowed down making it east to figure out these parts in the original key.

The only thing that I found to be somewhat strange is the fact that music that has been mixed in the studio with reverb, delay, and other time based effects gets a little muddy when slowed down. This is because these time based effects become more pronounced at slower setting and it comes across as a lot of echo. Since these effects are basically encoded into the musical tracks, there is really nothing that can be done to combat this, but it is not really that big of a deal. You can still hear what you need to hear to learn the song you are working on.

Some of the new features coming in the new version are:
1. Slower tempo reduction, down to 10%
2. Finer Pitch control… one cent increments
3. A vocal reduction technology to dampen vocals.
4. Keyboard shortcuts
5. Zooming capabilities in the loop editor window
6. Ability to change tempo/pitch directly from a CD, without first ripping the song
7. Autoplay audio on Song select, without opening
8. Foreign language version in French, Spanish, German, and Dutch.

Song Surgeon is doing a pre launch giveaway where you can win a free download. Click the banner below if you would like to enter.

Gary Allen

Recently on another forum that I participate in, the question of how non musical instrument big box stores entering the musical instrument market was going to affect the musical instrument market overall. I thought this might be a good discussion to bring up here. Dan and I get to see a lot of industry publication that you may not be able to see on the health on the musical instrument industry from the viewpoint of the instrument manufacturers and the music store owners. I would like to get your comments as a musical instrument and accessory consumer.

I thought I would start this out by sharing my opinion. I do not believe that cheap guitars sold at Best Buy or other big box stores are going to increase sales of better guitars at actual music stores. In fact, I think it is going to have the opposite effect in the long run. Let point out my use of the word "cheap". There is a huge difference between cheap and inexpensive. I have visited some big box retailers and checked out the guitars they are offering. With a little research I found that these instruments are made by some surprisingly big name guitar manufacturers. What I could not believe was the absolute awful playability of these guitars. The action was extremely bad, the tuners would not hold their tuning the wiring was shoddy, and even on a couple, the necks were already warped beyond repair. These guitars should not even be in a toy store.

What is happening is that young people who want to learn to play an instrument are ending up with these guitars, partly because their parents do not know the difference between quality and cheap. These guitars end up in a closet or under the bed because the kids feel it is too much work to learn to play. It is hard enough to learn to play a quality instrument without trying to wrestle with a badly constructed one. Most of these people will never pick up a guitar again, and that means that they will not be going to a dedicated music store to upgrade to a higher quality instrument.

I do not believe that the big box stores really care either way. They know that they are going to end up selling these kids an X-Box that they can play right out of the box. One question that has bothered me for many years now is simply, how many future SRV's and Jimmy Hendrix's have we already lost to the latest version of "Grand Theft Auto?". Games like "Guitar Hero" might be better, but how many people really move from that to a real musical instrument?

I would like to mention that I do not place the blame completely on the big box stores. Much of the blame lies with the manufacturers of these instruments. This whole situation boils down to the greed of making a quick profit now, and there is no consideration for the long term when so many potential future players, do not continue into the future as players at all. This hurts the industry, and I believe it will ultimately backfire on the guitar manufactures who are trying to make a profit in the short term.

In my job, I get the unique opportunity to try out many guitars from manufacturers that are considered budget minded guitars. Many of these guitars are incredibly well made and set up. With what I have seen, and the pricing some of these guitars are sold for, there is absolutely no excuse for guitars with extremely substandard quality making it onto the shelves of these stores.

Sorry to rant, but this situation coupled with the fact that schools are cutting music programs is something that weighs heavy on my mind. In that area, I believe that sports programs in schools are needed, but these students have a much better chance to remain a musician for life than they do being a quarterback, or pitcher for life. We need to give them every advantage and opportunity in this area.

Here is a link to an article that I wrote a few years ago on this subject from a music store and manufacturers point of view. http://www.guitargearheads.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=50

Gary Allen
President
GuitarGearHeads.com
gary@guitargearheads.com

I remember it very clearly. It was many years ago, long before the days of Musicians Friend and Guitar Center, and even before the Internet. I was just beginning my musical journey as a drummer in middle school. My music store shopping experience had been limited to the selections of a few very small local music stores with not much choice in variety of gear. I went out to the mail box one day and there was a catalog that had been sent to our address, but it had someone else's name on it. The catalog was for Sam Ash Music, and it was like a dream come true. There was a collection of musical equipment like I had never seen before. I learned about new drums, guitars, basses, and other equipment that I had never even heard of.

For almost three years I kept this catalog and when I finally had to throw it away, the pages were tattered, torn, dog-eared, and in general poor shape. I can not count how many nights I sat and flipped through the pages of this catalog dreaming of a day when I could buy and play with all these cool products.

Today I learned that Sam Ash Music time spent a lot of time, effort, and money in redesigning their website. It opened just yesterday, and will be going through the general tweaks and fixes that come with a website of this size. I have stumbled upon a few links that are not working correctly, but give them a little time. Working out the bugs takes some time, and I have been assured that they have a team on copious amounts of coffee and sugar working around the clock to get these minor problems fixed.

I wanted to let you all know about this so you can head on over and check it out. www.samash.com .

I am also honored to say that Sammy Ash has visited GuitarGearHeads.com and when I spoke with him today, he told me that he really likes what we are doing, and complimented the site and community we have built. When I got off the phone, my mind wandered back to that shabby looking catalog that stood up to the abuse of a young man dreaming. I am probably one of thousands who had a similar experience with a Sam Ash catalog. I feel privileged to be a person who is living the dream that catalog inspired all those years ago.