Saturday, June 9, 2018

How to incorporate your Bluetooth boom boxes with Fuzzes distortion

I have been sharing some tips and tricks on here for a few years now,if u missed out stay tuned for reposts.here goes tip #14 how to incorporate your Bluetooth boom boxes with Fuzzes distortion and other cheaper multi effex boxes into your practice setup-if you have a little spare cash you can pick up the wonderful Joyo ja 03 guitar headphone amp or the more expensive Palmer pdi 09 DI box.what these do is take ur fizzy pedals and add a speaker emulation circuit to it.then when u plug ur junk gadgets into these gizmos ur tone comes out fat and juicy and sound great on the output of the speaker emulation gizmo.

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I use the Hopestar Bluetooth speaker unit with a mini jack aux cable and connect it to my Joyo stomp boxes and wail away whole day.its convenient as it lasts six hours and requires no adapter/power supply and it doubles as a usb pen drive music player when required.its been such a great investment,I really dig my practice sessions nowadays with this small portable rig.

Joyo makes a clone of the Palmer too will post the model number in a tad.if you are like me and have a stash of old stomp boxes laying around this sure adds a new lease of life to ur pedals that u gave up for dead.
The other route is to plug ur junk pedals into your computer soundcard and with a good asio driver enable low latency on ur card settings and fire up ur favourite daw select ik multimedia amplitude as ur plugin or the two notes free speaker app and make sure only speaker simulation is enabled no amp models.now you have a virtual rig that gives you great sound in spite of the junk pedals you are using to send sound....



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Inexpensive to amplify an acoustic guitar

A fan on here posted a nice and valid question to me,he wanted to know what inexpensive amps are available to amplify an acoustic guitar.my answer was that there was the Roland KC series and laney along with all other leading amp manufacturers all make an acoustic model,but the problem is all of these are pretty expensive and mostly in the 20 k bracket so- i suggested Another thing you can go for is a good high power home stereo system,the concept is that you need a woofer and a tweeter which guitar amps dont have hence a nice stereo by Sonodyne or Sony or Akai etc will sound great with acoustic guitar,i use a Sonodyne SC 2060 stereo for my home acoustic rig sometimes ,it sounds killer, and nowadays the M Audio studio monitors are going pretty cheap too so with a simple Y cable you could plug in to a pair of powered studio monitors and get gorgeous tone.the concept is i repeat you need a two way speaker system that has a high frequency tweeter and a low frequency woofer unlike the full range speakers in your conventional guitar amps coz acoustic guitars have a very broad freq response requiring the highest highs and lowest lows.....so go and put those boom boxes and junky stereos to good use people 


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Question from Anirban Khastagir about noise in electric guitars and pickups

Question from Anirban Khastagir - Am playing fender jazz bass but am facing a earthing noise whenever am sharpen up ma tone...can't get rid of it..A friend is suggesting me to use NS2 ..but am confused if that reduce the quality of the tone...my model is highway one usa..and i kno that you r the only person in this city who can provide me the ri8 dcsn 2 make..am helpless...plz guide me sir....dwiyt sir is not there ne more...plz sir help me out to reach the finest tone....love you a lot sir....

Answer- Thank you Anirban for ur question,earthing noise is a very common issue with single coil pickups and can be handled in a couple of ways.Firstly i would recommend you try to sheild the pickup cavity with tin foil,you can get this foil at www.stewmac.com another option is to check if the inner circuit is properly soldered and check for dry solders if any,an experienced electrician will be able to check for this,lastly try active electronics or the Lace sensor noiseless pickups,lots of brands are making noiseless pickups nowadays including fender,try all options and get back to me.never settle for a noise gate as it kills your tone.
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Some of my synth patches and sample banks

Some of you might know of my work as a sound designer and sound engineer,for those interested some of my synth patches and sample banks can be purchased at the following link- its a set of multi-sampled EMU soundfont format software instruments for inspirational ideas, some of these 40 instruments are made from multi-samples of hardware synths that I own like the Yamaha YS200, the ubiquitous Korg Trinity, Kurzweil - K2500R and Yamaha PSS380.Also includes soundscapes I made from real world sounds such as my guitars, basses, ethnic strings and room full of effects racks and stomp boxes, enjoy...Software Samplers like Kontakt and Logic EXS can open these files and the free SFZ and Phenome Vsti can import this format too.

Link to buy the patches from Sampleism

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A quick #tip for those of you running the AmpliTube iRig

A quick #tip for those of you running the AmpliTube iRig setup on their iOS devices-to turn your iPad/iPhone into a loudspeaker/portable amp that is as loud as a medium sized radio,the trick is to add a booster via the post amp FX,here I have used a compressor to beef up the patch volume,it's really loud and my ipad speakers are screaming for mercy.... try this if you are lazy like me and don't feel like plugging into an actual amplifier /headphones.
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How to refurbish and recycle an acoustic to have a new life as a jazz guitar

Tip #102 presumably ;) if you have an old unused acoustic guitar lying around it can be refurbished and recycled to have a new life as a jazz guitar for you to bust out some Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery licks...

All you have to do is shove a bucket load of glass wool or packing foam/thermocol into the body via the soundhole so it becomes dead sounding making it less prone to feedback and then take a wooden slab and cover up the sound hole to give it an electric guitar kinda look also the wooden slab works great for the pickup cavity.

i had a spare mighty mite pickup laying around that I promptly screwed onto my specimen which is a Signature (gogo) acoustic guitar from Kalighat.i then made two holes for the volume and tone controls,there was already a side output jack which gogo had installed from the word go for the cheap on-board transducer,it was recommissioned for the electric guitar pickup output socket,next I sanded off the black paint job revealing a classy jazz box wooden look.now all I got to do is brush up my Joe Pass and Benson licks and I'll be on my way to jazz stardom ;)  Youtube Channel


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A nice interview by the folks at Shout-out Kolkata-

A nice interview by the folks at Shout-out Kolkata-



1. When did you pick up the first guitar and who was your first teacher?
I started playing guitar when i was four,my dad got me to take lessons from a Goan gentleman whose name i unfortunately cannot recall, he who would come home every Saturday to teach me the basics,this was when we were based in Chennai in the early seventies.

2. How will you define your music?
i would define my music as World Rock- let me break it down for you,we Krosswindz are a World music band but also have roots in Rock music so looking at it more closely we are a Rock band that plays World Music with a Rock edge.We also tap on other genres like Jazz,Funk,Bossa Nova,Country and Latin,so its a tapestry of sounds that touch the soul but with feet firmly planted in the soil of the earth.

3. Your favourite guitar maker and your favourite guitar ,both in acoustic and electric section.
My favourite guitar maker is Schecter Guitars,they are based in California USA and produce some of the highest quality guitars with cutting edge technology embracing newer advances in science and technology to improve tone and playability.I am currently using the Schecter Damien Elite FR as my main electric axe and it has served me well over the last 7 years.For acoustics i like several-the Ovation brand is very close to my heart as it has a pronounced mid boost quality tone that make it ideal to play single note lines akin to the great AL DI MEOLA and BIRELLI LAGRENE.I also like the work that Music Kafe Tollygunge is doing in the budget acoustic guitars range they have manufactured the ALEX brand of guitars and the slightly expensive MK Kustom which i personally use-excellent tones all around.

4. Few project of yours, beside Krosswindz.
A few side projects i dabble in are Chlorophyll Dreams which is a contemporary jazz band which has been around since 1990 but is on a hiatus since our bassist and drummer now live overseas.Another side project that i am very excited about is Tuki and The Dreamcatchers-its a purely singer-songwriter driven project featuring Chandrani and me that has only done studio sessions till now but i plan to take this act live soon.Another side project i loved was the ironically named band-THE PROJECT featuring the late KOCHU Da,it was a latin jazz and funk outfit that did a few live shows and some recording projects too,i hope to release the recordings of this band someday.

5. Your all time favourite guitarists from world music and your favourite musicians from Kolkata.
My all time favourite musicians are THE BEATLES,JAMES TAYLOR,PAT METHENY,BILL FRISSEL,ERIC JOHNSON,AL DI MEOLA,JONI MITCHELL,SUZANNE VEGA
From Kolkata i really liked the short lived duo of IFS and BUTS. i wonder what happened to them.

6. A musician with whom you always enjoy to play and a musician with whom you dream to collaborate with.
A musician i always enjoyed playing was the late KOCHU Da ,unfortunately i cannot jam with him anymore as he passed away very tragically a few months ago.I dream to collaborate with Eric Johnson,Lyle Mays(Pianist),Airto Moreira(Percussionist),Stewart Copeland(Drummer) and Roscoe Beck(Bassist)

7. Your favourite street food, favourite restaurant and favourite venue/club/pub for a gig from Kolkata.

My favourite street food is Jhaal muri albeit without the jhaal added in it as i am not much of a jhaal freek.
If there ever was a music venue that elevated a musicians performance to staratospheric levels it's Someplace Else.there is a magic fairy dust that seems to propel musicians to churn out the best possible music there can be.i have been coming to Someplace Else from the year 2000 and have noticed how they have kept their standards really high with live music on all 7 days of the week along with a delectable assortment of food and drink.There is a happy hour till 8.30 pm and on Tuesday it's lady's night so the ladies get free booze.I have been to venues like The House of Blues in Dallas,The Groove New York city and Copa bar in Austin Texas amongst countless other live music bars around the world but this venue stands in a league of its own- quoting the Eagles "it's protected by amazing grace".a must visit if you want a live music experience and fine dining experience of international standards.

8.your hobbies when you are not doing music.
My favourite hobbies are Luthiery(Guitar making and repairs)and electronics,i have recently gotten into actually soldering stuff together with a soldering iron and it feels so liberating and empowering that i don't need to visit the nearest guitar service centre whenever some electronic stuff in my rig malfunctions now.I love collaborating with local guitar building company JOYBANI based in KUDGHAT Tollygunge,they have built several custom made guitars for me over the years and it has been a very fulfilling and joyous experience to see these guitars come to life as per my designs.

9.any message for the young people who wants to take up guitar, as a profession.
My message is WORK WORK and more freakin WORK,there are no shortcuts and if you are in it for the long haul be prepared for a rocky and dry ride as its a long way to the top if you wanna rock n roll hahahahaha,try to learn as much as you can,there are no excuses any more now with youtube and edx online free training platforms,in fact i am teaching myself classical piano,i just started and am learning everyday,never stop learning-the day you stop thats the day you plateu out and then decline.

10. A line for shoutoutkolkatahere.
You guys are doing great work i salute this new initiative of yours and always try and raise the bar,push out new and invigorating content to readers so they can push the boundaries of their minds and stay inspired.

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