A very simple idea to deal with a very awkward problem: I’ve got my music on a tablet but I’ve got to the bottom of the first of four pages. Now what? How do I turn the page when both my hands are on my instrument? Well not being Zaphod Beeblebrox* and not wishing to employ someone to lean over my shoulder or sit on the floor to push the button or swipe right I need a solution. Technical, not liquid (that comes later.) Well, the folk at IK Multimedia came up with a solution. Say Hello to your onstage companion for the duration of this concert, the iRig Blueturn.
The dimensions of this piece of kit are 18.42 x 41.28 x 5.72 cm; and it weighs in at 119.07gms. It does need a couple of AAA batteries and to get you started there’s some in the box. Once you put those in you’ll notice the on-off switch underneath. That, and the two big white buttons (BWB) on the top are the only controls on the device. Do I need to tell you that the white ones are for your foot to stamp on though you’ll need to use your hands the first time you switch it on.
Switch it on. Well actually, don’t. you see this device has a few Modes that you need to understand before you do and you have an important decision to make. OK, now you know you have to decide we can turn it on. As this is your first time hold one of the BWBs down THEN turn it on. The BWBs will flash alternately. Now, pressing the Left button will put the device into Mode 1 and, obviously, the Right will put it into Mode 2. Pressing the Left and Right together will put you into Mode 3. So what are these modes?
Please make sure you have the up arrow foot switch on the left. Results can be unpredictable if you don’t
The manual says Mode 1 is the most common for IOS and Android devices. Well maybe. Possibly if you’re using the Irig Stage app. This mode is the Up Arrow foot switch is like pressing the Up Arrow on your keyboard and the Down Arrow is Down. With me so far?
If you go for Mode 2 the Up Arrow switch represent Page Up and the Down Arrow is Page Down . This is the one that works on my Android tablet but I suppose it depends on what you want the device to do as to which mode you end up choosing. Personally I would think that maybe Page Up/Down is what you might want the thing to do but you’ll need to experiment and see if the manual is right.
Mode 3: the Left (Up Arrow) switch sends a Left Arrow command and so, quite naturally, the Right (down arrow) represents a Right Arrow command.
Now you see why the original device orientation is important, and why, when you set out your stall, is important when in use. To help you, if the logo “BlueTurn” is upside down, so is the device.
You’re not out of the woods yet because you still have to pair it with your device. However, that bit is dead easy. Go to you Settings > Bluetooth section and you should see it there in Other Devices, or similar grouping, where you can select it to pair. No codes need to be entered to complete the paring.
In use, it works well and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. One caveat though. I’ve found that in direct on sunlight, even in the cold Summer days we have here in the UK (it’s mid-June as I write and the temperature is 16C) the device can stop working. Sometimes.
At the time of writing the RRP is £79.99 but you can get it at Amazon for £74.16, or Thomonn for £66.
*For those Earthlings not familiar with the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, President of said Galaxy, had a third arm fitted to help him with his ski-boxing.
I’ll be good, I promise, and try to avoid jokes about wind-up merchants, but I don’t promise nuffink. After all this is about a product whose whole purpose is winding things up. Well, strings anyway. On banjos, guitars, mandolins and ukuleles with breakdowns for different types of those instruments, And as if that wasn’t enough you can add in your own custom instruments and your own custom tunings. There’s 150 built-in tunings, yet you want more? Who do you think you are, Joni Mitchell?
Ok, so there’s an obvious difference between this string winder and many others out there. This one “knows” what the string you’ve attached it to should sound like and it will stop when it gets there. If it goes a bit past it, it will retune slightly until it’s right on. You can watch the progress on the built- in screen. when the tuning is right this winder give a little self-satisfied beep, which winds you up as well.
Oh, and it can also act as a metronome.
I tried it out on a number of instruments – a classical guitar, recently restrung, a Yamaha acoustic in standard tuning, a Fender acoustic in Open D. a Fender Telecaster, a Gretsch resonator (steel guitar) and a mandolin. This model doesn’t handle bass guitars.
One word of warning. When you’re unpacking this device the cardboard moulded to the shape of the gadget fits the gadget OK, but doesn’t fit the box it comes in. It’s theoretically glued to the box but in my case this had come away. This may have happened in transit as a result of being shaken for some time, but still, be careful. This isn’t a cheap device and if you insist on dropping it on things, try to make sure they’re padded.
Given that this device is also marketed as being useful to people “on the road” soft cover would be useful to prevent damage, especially considering the price. You can buy a hard case for it. RRP £29
This comes with an app to download. Do so and use it. You can enter your instruments and enter their names and all details one letter at a time,. scrolling through the alphabet, but even Stephen Hawking found a better way than that. Use the app. it will save your sanity. Because….. you can do things on the app you can’t do on the device, like picking the tuning you want.
What you’ve got here is a screenshot showing what you get when you select an instrument in the app. You get shown what each string will get tuned to, you can change the tuning in that little box marked Tuning (swipe up or down), and you’ll have noticed the really clever bit. You can set this up so that you can stick a capo on, say, the 3rd fret and have the winder get you the right tuning, so you’re not in Open G but B-flat.
So what’s it like to use? Well there’s a fair bit of torque in the motor so you have to keep a pretty strong grip on it. It’s also quick, apparently a lot quicker than it’s predecessor (so I’m told) and a lot quicker than other powered winders I’ve used. You do also have to keep plucking the string you’re tuning. It won’t do anything unless you do that. It doesn’t ‘listen’ to the note using a mic but instead relies on the vibrations from the string. useful in noisy environments, and essential for tuning an electric guitar. Yes, they actually don’t need to be plugged in to anything, you just tune them like an acoustic.
It can be a bit awkward if you’ve got the guitar resting on your knee. it’s better if you can place the guitar on a rest or something that allows you access to the headstock. Otherwise you’re likely to brush the control button and maybe stop the tuning process. That means starting again. You can just pick one string, useful if you’re replacing a string on stage, but if you’ve just got to the G string it’s quicker to start again rather than select three strings manually.
When you’ve tuned all the strings, start again anyway. Changing ther tension in any string can change the torsion in the neck and affect the tuning of strings you’ve already tuned. It’s not the device’s fault, you just can’t beat Physics. There’s also a setting called Accuracy: you can set it to Fast or High Accuracy. In a quiet room it didn’t seem to make much difference.
It tuned the mandolin in under two minutes and each string was exactly the same as its twin. Three guitars were tuned in under five minutes. The classical guitar had just been restrung and the strings were slack. it took just a few seconds to go from slack to tuned. The electric guitar was tuned to perfection in under 20 seconds, the Yamaha in 30 seconds. It struggled a little with the resonator though but just on the top E string. That took close to a minute., but this may be because I hadn’t selected the “correct” option for the type of guitar. My three options were Lap Steel, Dobro round neck or Custom. I chose the last, maybe I should have chosen one of the others. After all this device is all about good vibrations and a resonator has a lot of those.
If all else fails there’s a manual tuning option, just like the various tuning apps you can get for your phone.
You can use this device to take a string off your instrument, and restring it using the WInder mode, which has 3 paces. You can unwind fas, put the new string on select the string note that you’re changing, press and hold the button and that 120RPM motor will whizz it up for you you and stop at the right note. In theory. It can be a little precious in doing that.
The battery is supposed to be able to handle 150 strings being tuned before it needs a recharge (USB-C cable supplied).
The claim is made that if your instrument has geared pegs then this device can tune it, so if you play the violin or viola you’re out of luck. Maybe. You probably have a violin which relies on friction to keep it in tune, you know, pull, tune, push, check. Swear. Start again. For. Each. String! Or you could buy a set of geared pegs. These will set you back anything from just under a tenner to £200 for a set. Now this gadget will work for you as well.
This is an impressive little device (it’s smaller than the palm of my hand, but I have reasonably large hands (stretching to 10 white notes on the piano – not up there with Liszt or Poulenc but not baby paws). First contact, it feels like it’s worth the £129 RRP (£107.50 at the time of writing). If you’re playing regularly on stage and under lights it might well be worth having one to give your axe a quick sharpening when you feel it’s needed. Get one for your roadie. For me, i do most of my playing these days on the beach, in the hot sun where sometimes you can hear the tuning drift during the course of a single song. It’s going to get a work out over the summer, so I’ll come back and give an update after I’ve used it in anger.
I also think I kept my promise and avoided obvious puns. Don’t expect that to happen again.
3 Month Update
It’s not totally happy down at the beach. for some reason it doesn’t seem to like the wind and ends up winding up and down past the note several times before deciding it’s OK, then you play a chord and find 2 or 3 notes are out. Or it decides that what you really, really wanted to do was unwind that string, not tune it up. Nothing you can do will stop it except to turn it off, manually retune the string a bit and try again. Is it the noise? Because if it is I’d have difficulty recommending one for gigging. It’s not every time but it’s happened to me three times so far, once at home twice by the sea. Could just be a glitch. If you’ve got one and have anything to add please leave a review
This a renowned music notation software that has been widely used by composers, musicians, and educators. It’s now a subscription service so you may wish to think about that before buying because this could turn out to be quite expensive. There are several variants. Sibelius First (free to get) gives you just 4 staves to work with. Sibelius Artist (£89 p.a.) gives you 16 and Sibelius Ultimate (£169 p.a.) gives you unlimited staves. In addition you can only work with 16 instruments on the 1st two offerings. Monthly subscriptions are available. You pay more for them.
Installation was a bit odd. Several times in quick succession what I think would be the terminal command box flickered on and off. This usually happens with much older installation routines (say more than 20 years old) and occurs when device drivers are being installed. Its not harmful to your PC but can be disconcerting. The age of the installation routine can also be seen in that it offers you the option to view the Windows Install Log. MacOS versions are available.
Sibelius appears to be designed to work with Pro Tools. You can cut and past MIDI between the two. Avid owns both Sibelius and Pro-Tools so this shouldn’t be a surprise. If you want to use other DAWs you’re going to have to import and export MusicXML files. For now. Some software houses are working on ways of duplicating the cut and paste functionality.
Creating a new score enables you to choose from a number of templates which includes Piano Quintets and Marching Bands. Or Just start from a blank page. Choosing Piano Solo brought up a number of options which included a ‘House Style’ with selections such as Handwritten or Jazz Reprise. You can also change instruments here and select Harpsichord or Great Organ. There are other options but they’re pretty intuitive such as time signature, tempo etc.
Just fill in the blanks ?
Which you do by going to the Score Info. Don’t worry, click on something like the word Composer and you’ll get an option to take you there.
There’s a floating ‘Keypad’ where you can select items for copying to your score, or you can create a scale just by typing the letters CDEFG etc. Sibelius will put them on the stave for you. In addition hover your mouse over where you would want to put a not and a grey version will appear. Click to insert it.
Of course this isn’t the only way of composing. Sibelius can take a MIDI file and convert it to a score. You can also export the score you’ve created to a variety of formats. You don’t have to wait to hear just how amazing your composition is. There are many MIDI instruments available so you can listen immediately from the Play menu option. If you just happen to have a MIDI keyboard (or MIDI Guitar) you can use that to help compose your masterpiece as well.
Caveat Emptor! If you don’t know much about musical notation then this product probably is not for you. It’s definitely aimed at trained musicians and even then some may struggle with this product. But like anything else experience counts and you’ll find it easier as you go on.
On the plus side this will help you polish to your score prior to publication and since you can export to a PDF
If composing, editing or arranging is what you do for a living then this will do well for you. If you’re a music student there are education editions on offer.
AnthemScore is specialized software designed for automatic music transcription. It’s developed by Lunaverus and has been recognized for its ability to convert audio files into sheet music or guitar tabs with impressive accuracy. It does make some mistakes though, which is why you will probably also need to get hold of score editing software. Depending on which version you buy, 2 of the 3 have a built in editor.
It’s not a subscription model of purchase, you simply buy it. AnthemScore Lite costs £25.59 and the Professional version retails at £34.32. Both of these come with one year of updates. Then there’s the Studio version which costs £87.36 and comes with a lifetime of free updates. That can be very cost effective. The Lite version has no editor.
So what does it actually do? You can feed a WAV or MP3 file into it which will turned into, for example, a piano reduction of the track you’ve loaded. First it will do the AI analysis and you’ll get a screen that looks like the featured image. Very quickly though, it will be followed by this:-
There’s a MIDI play back available. and you can have it transcribed into a range of instruments such as Guitar, Violin, Cello, Harp, Bassoon, Sax or Concert Ukulele. Yes, really!
In the Edit > Sheet Music settings you can set the guitar output to be in tabs and even select what type of instrument does the MIDI playback.
This particular version, by the Wiener Philharmoniker, has a choral part added, hence that odd high note which you might want to edit out. You can either use the built in editor (beyond the scope of this review) or export the project as a MusicXML file. Actually you can export it in a number of formats, such as PDF or MIDI or a CSV containing Beat and Note data or the Spectrogram Amplitudes.
It does have some weaknesses. In trying to transcribe a pieces of music that had a mandolin playing, the output score doubled up many of the notes. You can understand why that might happen (it would probably do the same for a bazouki or twelve string guitar) so if you want to transcribe music from those twin stringed instruments you’ll definitely need to either buy a copy with a built in editor or get hold of some music editing software like Sibelius or MuseScore.
Some have criticised the license management module but we found no real issues with it. There are, after all, quite a few bits of software that open up new functionality after entering a license key, especially in WordPress website plug-ins.
Why would you buy this? Well if you have a pressing need to create piano reductions of orchestral music, perhaps because you’ve got a dance school and you want the music for the pianist, you’d certainly want this pieces of software. Other options are for instrumentalists wanting to get hold of some sheet music, or guitar tabs, for a piece that might be hard to get hold of, well, look into this software. if you do a lot of that then even the most expensive purchase option will be cost effective. This is a very powerful tool indeed.
Well, what a surprise, although I suppose it shouldn’t really be one. This is a radically different animal to the Mk-1. The most noticeable difference (apart from the black colour) is that instead of a series of LED telling you a port is active you’ve got a display that shows you the output level on the ports you’re using. With respect to those, you’ve got the same number and configuration (though in a different layout) to the earlier model and that’s 4 analogue and 2 digital inputs, the last two you can switch to output. 2 of the analogue ports have their own gain control. Those are the ones that can also accept XLR connections. There are also 4 analogue output ports, 2 headphone ports (with vol. controls) and MIDI in and out. Two of the analogue in ports can either be standard 4.5mm mono jacks from your instrument, or XLR from microphones, and a 45v phantom power switch if your microphone needs it.
There’s a big master volume control on the top.
The whole thing connects to your PC with a USB-2 which is a bit disappointing. USB 2.0 is a little slow in data connection terms and since USB-C has been around for some time now and with both Windows and Mac support for that I would have thought this would have that connectivity. It does support recording up to 192 kHz at 24 bits but I suspect that if you’ve got 6 instruments plugged in to, as suggested by some of their ‘scenarios’ it might just struggle a bit.
The build quality is very good, like it’s predecessor, and like that it won’t go sliding around on a desk. Despite being USB powered the audio quality is excellent, the preamps are very good and the sound is clean and clear.
There’s a comprehensive bundle of 9 software items and a voucher to use in the Native Instrument shop. I’ve always got mixed feelings about bundles, regardless of what you’re buying. This one includes Abletron Live Lite so if you don’t already have a DAW you can still start recording immediately. Otherwise much of what this software bundle supplies will probably be found in a plugin in your DAW and you’ll be much better off using that.
I’ve tested this with Logic Pro, Pro Tools and Studio One and it works well with those. It should work with most others as well, but you may need to install drivers for WIndows.
At the time of writing the list price was £189 but you could get this on Amazon for £133.
For this price it’s a very good acquisition, and several manufacturers are selling devices with only 2 inputs for more than Amazons sale price. but do ask yourself first if you need to be able to input from 6 sources simultaneously. Maybe a two or 4 port device would suit you better and the Komplete Audio 1 goes for around £50. Nonetheless this is a solid buy for your recording setup.
As soon as I saw this device it got filed in the category of “I want One of Those”. Ok, I had been looking for something like this but one specific requirement always seemed to be missing. I mean is it too much to ask that a mixing desk should behave like the ones you see on TV, so the sliders and things change on playback in accordance to the way you changed them when you made the recording, or have set the dynamics since recording? I can think of nothing more frustrating than seeing the representation of the slider on your DAW sitting around the zero point while your physical slider is down the bottom at -60. Enter Stage Right, the PF-8.
As the name (and pic) suggest, this has 8 sliders (there is a 16 slider version if you want) and guess what, these are motorised! That means they move up and down all on their own. There are also two knobs and loads of buttons as well as 8 scribble strips – lcd displays so you know what instrument is playing or whether some of those sliders are showing your output channels.
So what will it work with? At the top are 8 buttons marked Select. Hold the first two down and power on the device. Six of the strips will light up and show you Studio One, MCU, HUI, Midi Mode, Setup and Exit/Restart. Studio One Artist, Abletron Live Lite and Studio Magic software is included and it will also work with the grown up versions of those. The MCU and HUI support means it will work with Logic Pro, CuBase, Pro Tools and any other DAW that use those protocols. Indeed, if you go setup and select the MCU option a second list appears with buttons for Logic Pro, Cubase, Sonar and Abletron. OK, I know, you’ve got way more than 8 channels. There’s a knob for that. Lets look at what Presonus say it can do.
Complete recording-transport controls: Play, Stop, Fast Forward, Rewind, Record, Loop, Drop Marker Next / Prev Marker Next / Prev Event
General session controls: Undo / Redo, All Arm, Solo / Mute Clear, Track Management, Click On / Off with tap tempo
Session Navigator provides quick control over track scrolling, channel banking, timeline scrolling, and much more
Channel controls: Level, Pan, Solo, Mute, Rec Arm
Automation controls: Touch, Latch, Trim, Write, Read, Off Optional Fader functionality: plug-in edit, bus sends, pan
Footswitch input for hands-free start / stop
USB 2.0 connectivity
There’s a lot in there to get to grips with but the Session Navigator knob is the one that will allow you to scroll left ot right channel by channel, or the Prev/Next buttons either side can move you 8 channels at a time. Underneath the select are the Mute and Solo buttons, transport and automation controls on the right. Depending on your software panning information will be shown slightly differently. Studio One shows <L><C><R> while Logic Pro shows plus or minus with a number to show how far in that direction. I haven’t tried it with other DAWS sow can’t say. Panning is really my only beef with this device. To use the knob you have to select a channel and then use the panning knob (top left) to set or change that. Or perhaps you’d prefer to push the button marked Panthat allows you to use the slider to change the panning on several channels at once rather than one at a time. One other thing, if you’ve got plugins set up on your channels like Compression, Reverb etc, there’s a button right beside the F on the Faderport logo that, if you press it, allows you to control the plugin settings from the sliders. Using that knob and the sliders. As cool as a penguin in a tuxedo playing jazz piano in a cocktail bar in the Antarctic. So why did I want one? Why do you want one? Go have another look at your DAW. How many of those sliders can you change the volume on at the same time just using your mouse. One, right? Now, when I record an electric guitar playing I set a mike in front of the speaker, then split the signal from the guitar, DI to the DAW, and take the other line to the amp and take the output from the amp to the DAW, so I have 3 channels for that one instrument. On mixing I might want to take the volumes down all at the same time, or vary the mix between the 3. You can’t do that with a mouse. If you’re good (and I’ve worked with some very good sound engineers) you can use all eight of your fingers (thumbs don’t count) simultaneously to craft your production. OK, you can stack your tracks but that just kicks the can down the road. With the Faderport you can mix percussion, vocals, guitars, keyboards ALL at the same time and without having to change your pointers focus. At the time of writing you can get this from the Presonus store on Amazon for £396.
What happens when you load a project that has they dynamics already set up?
OK, here’s the scene. You’re playing in an orchestra, you’re at rehearsals and the conductor wants to make some changes to your score. You had a pencil on your music stand but the vibrations from the kettle drums has jiggled it off the stand, heading at speed towards the 1st violins and off the edge of the dais stair you’re sat on. You’ve got another one in your bag, but that’s under your chair and not easy to get to. Happened all the time to me. I’ve played with some very noisy outfits.
Well the good folks at Konig and Meyer have got yet another great idea up their sleeve. So long as your stand is made with iron, steel or cobalt (yes really, but I’ve yet to see one made of that material) they’ve got a great little magnetic pencil holder that will save your face from going red either from embarrassment or the effort in trying to retrieve your bag from under your chair where, somehow, its straps have become completely entangled with the legs, looking like some sort of manic, musical Gordian Knot. And you weren’t allowed to bring your sword in because of some arcane Health and Safety rule.
One thing that a lot of people make a mistake about are music stands. There are two types: cheap ones and more expensive ones. The main difference is you’ll buy a lot more cheap ones than dear ones because the cheap ones will fail quickly, often when it’s least convenient, while the dear ones will give you 4 or 5 years of reliable service. Why is this reliability important? Well, you don’t want to be giving a performance somewhere and watch your music sink to the level of your ankles. It’s not just embarrassing, it makes the music hard to play as well.
These Konig and Meyers are some of the best stands you can get and, not surprisingly are also best sellers. Your Reviewer has worked in music retail for decades and can count the number of returns for this product, the K&M 101, on one hand. The actual number of sales exceeds the number of fingers on your Reviewers hands by quite a large margin. Polydactyly is not involved. The 3-piece design folds down into a neat, portable box and at around 1kg in weight, it isn’t too heavy. Think of a litre of milk. Doesn’t come with a bag, but you can’t have everything! However, for a price….. Available in black or nickel , or you can have the stand and a matching bag. At the time of writing the stands cost under £25, the bags 7 or 8 quid.
Aimed at introducing young children to classical music with information about the composers and their works as well as instruments of the orchestra. Shame it only comes with a CD rather than audio access. Nonetheless with music ranging from Mozarts’ Magic Flute to Williams’ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone there’s a range of music worth listening to even if you’re a kid of 40. Learn about the different instrument groups and how the play together – nicely for the most part.
A great way of introducing your children to classical music. A range of well known favourites that we at The Music Realm listened to ourselves when we were young…which was, admittedly many years ago, but they are timeless classics for a reason!
In this series you’ll find Prokofievs’ Peter and the Wolf, Holsts’ Planets Suite, Tchaikovskys’ The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, Vivaldis’ Four Seasons, The Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg, Mozarts’ The Magic Flute, A Mid-Summers Night Dream by Mendelssohn and you can even learn to play some of the music yourself.
We also listened to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Jimi Hendrix, but that’s for another post.
These are some of the most popular pieces of classical music ever written. Listen to them and you’ll understand why. Add to that an interactive book where you press (it apparently requires some pressure) on the page to hear excerpts from the music.
Naturally this doesn’t require an Internet connection, but I’d be wary of using it on public transport. There are some strange people out there who just don’t appreciate good music.
