Garage Band on The iPhone

In Episode 5 we discuss using Garage Band on the iPhone, The Boss TR-2 Tremelo pedal, and we hear from Hank III about his gear.

Apple just updated the Garage Band App for the iPad this past week, and the biggest

Smart Drums interface in Garage Band

part of the update was making the app available to the iPhone and iPod touch. This makes Garage Band one of the best portable composition tools on the market. Other Updates include being able to do 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures as well as being able to make custom chords for the smart instruments.

I am a big fan of Boss Pedals because they are reliable, consistent and virtually indestructible, in this episode I sit down with the TR-2 Tremelo pedal and expolore some of the tones you can create with it.

A special treat for this show was Hank III taking a moment out of his day to talk gear with us real quick. Hank is continuing the family tradition of putting out great Country music and causing a ruckus. Join the ruckus at Hank3.com

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I have been trying to pinpoint the exact moment I heard Anthraxfor the first time. My earliest recollection is back in 1987 standing on my neighbor’s deck. We were getting ready to play a party at his house. He was the guitarist and vocalist of the band. We were setting up and he popped in a cassette of the “I’m The Man” ep. I remember

Anthrax Hologram Sticker that was included with "State Of Euphoria"

thinking that “I’m The Man” was a cool track, but what really struck me was their cover of “Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath”. I had never heard anything like it before. It was the heaviest thing I had ever heard. The guitars were like a wall of chainsaws coming at you, so thick and so precise. Was it really being played by a person or was this some new guitar machine? I soon discovered that sound was the sound of an obsessive Scott Ian who double his rhythm guitar tracks up to 13 times. It was just so heavy, and from that point forward I was an Anthrax fan.

I have followed everything Anthrax has done since 1987 and hands down my favorite album was always “Persistence Of Time”, and while the other records(I know most people will buy this on CD, but all releases will always be a “record” to me) after that were good, they just did not seem to have that same sound and energy that I fell in love with back in 1987, until now. “Worship Music” is the best Anthrax record in years! It has recaptured the drive, energy and sound of classic Anthrax records, without sounding like a lame attempt to recapture a lost sound. These guys are legit and have the fire back in their belly! They have recaptured the signature tight, machine precise Anthrax sound complete with catchy singable melodies and great vocal harmonies.

What I like best about this record is that from start to finish I want to listen to all the songs, not once did my hand reach for the skip button on my iPod. A great example of the energy i was talking about can be found in the opening riff of “The Giant”. There is such a sense of urgency to the song, it makes you want to move. It’s hard to find a favorite song on this album because they are all so good, but one thing that stands out to me are the shorter pieces, like “Worship” and the “Hymns”. Those little pieces show how the band has grown musically and serve as great lead ins to the other songs. I love the way “Hymn 1″ leads into the bells on “In The End” and how the bells give way to the rhythmic guitar lines. Another highlight is the extended silence in “Revolution Screams” and the way it build back up. The re-entry riff is not what I am used to from Anthrax and it again shows how they have grown as musicians in the 27 years since their first release.

The only thing I do not like about the record, and this is just me showing my stage in life, is the new pentagram style logo. When I was a teen I was constantly drawing pentagrams on my book covers (much to the dismay of my teachers) and would have loved this back then. But now that i am a parent and have a few more years under my belt, I don’t really care for it. But that certainly did not stop me from buying the record. The bottom line for me is that “Worship Music” is a fantastic record that is sure to please new and old Anthrax fans alike while also picking up some new fans along the way.

In a recent a post I wrote about my buddy Sean’s Ibanez RG 550 and how it seemed to change him as a guitar player. As I picked up my Washburn Dime 333 tonight, I thought about that statement again. The neck on the Dime has a very distinct feel, you can almost feel a “fold” down the middle of the neck. As I play it, I play better. Better than I ever have. It’s if my hands were just waiting for that guitar to set them free.

And that got me to thinking, guitars are like the wands in Harry Potter, they choose the player. Think about the most iconic players. What would Eddie be like without his home made strat. Can you even picture Ace Frehley with out a Les Paul? I have met a lot of players that will change guitars constantly over the years, searching for the right look or tone, but I think they overlook feel. And I believe that the feel is why those iconic players with their iconic guitars stick to those guitars over the years.

There is a guitar shop in Pittsburgh called “Pittsburgh Guitars” and for years they have sold a t-shirt that on the back in HUGE letters says “Go For The Neck!”. I think that phrase for me sums up the feel of the guitar. A guitar can look absolutely beautiful, but if the neck is junk, the guitar is junk. You can upgrade pretty much every part on a guitar from pick-ups and tuning keys right down to the individual bridge saddles. You can do so many things to a guitar to affect the tone of it, but if the feel is not right it will never quite sound right. Case in point, I have played a lot of basses over the years. Basses made from graphite, basses with active electronics, basses that are made from very exotic woods, but when it comes down to it they cannot touch my 1985 completely stock Fender P-Bass. I can glide over the neck and create whatever bass line my mind desires. In my freshman year of college I was playing bass for the jazz band spitting the bass duties with another Bass Major, and when it was his turn to play, the director stopped the band and asked the other bassist with his very expensive, tricked out bass, if he could make it sound more like mine.

Now some may argue that since I have been playing that bass since I was 13, my attachment to that bass is one that is more familiarity and nostalgia than anything else. And being that a 13 year old really does not know any better, that would be a fair statement. However, while I have been loyal to the Fender P-Bass for many years, I have not had the same experience with guitars. I have owned several guitars over the years, because none of them seemed just right to me. At least not until I played my son’s Strat. That guitar had feel I was looking for. And I hope when he is old enough to play it he feels the same way. And then there is the guitar that led me to write this post. My Washburn Dime 333 in Dimebolt finish.

I took a huge chance on this guitar as I don’t like to purchase a guitar without playing it. The purchase started out as a nostalgia quest. I was looking to capture a little piece of Dimebag’s history. I found the guitar on eBay and was willing to take a chance for the price. As soon as I got it I knew it was a keeper. I tuned it up and plugged it in, went to walk away, and it started feeding back like mad. I hadn’t even strummed it yet. Then I felt the neck, it had the feel. There was a lot of work to be done, but through all the grime and the overly dry fretboard, that feel was still there. The guitar is built for speed and just mean sounding. The neck reminds of a Les Paul combined withe the old “hard v” shaped necks on the old strats. It feels nimble and quick, there is very little drag. It just feels fast. The body shape is taking some getting used to. Sitting down is no problem, but standing up is weird because of the size of the body.

I never thought that I would develop an attachment to the guitar so quickly, but it is now my go to guitar when I sit down to write. Even though it is a metal guitar it does have a lot of tone options, which has also led it to be my main guitar. I guess the moral of the story is to think more about the feel of your guitar and less about the looks. If you find a guitar with the right feel you can always customize it with a paint job, or change the tone with a new set of pickups, and then you will have your dream guitar.

A Screen shot of the Tracks section of Garage Band on the iPad

I first started doing home recording in 1992. I had a Fostex X-28h, a Boss DR-550, a guitar and my P-Bass. It was a cassette recorder and was one of the best home units at the time. The recordings were rudimentary at best and rarely had more than 4 tracks. Still, I did a ton of writing and even recorded some other people. 8 years later I upgraded to the boss BR-8. Now I had 8 tracks, built-in drum patterns for roughing out ideas, COSM amp and mic modeling and it was all digital. In just 8 years home recording had changed DRASTICALLY. A year after that I started using my computer to do my recording, and in 2011…I can now record on an iPad.

Garage band on the iPad blows me away. It boggles my mind to think that this self

Screen shot of the Amplifier in Gargage Band for the iPad

contained flat piece of glass and metal has more recording power in it than the Beatles had to record “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”. And yet here it is. I started my recording endeavor on a cassette tape, and there are no moving parts to be seen and it is a much more graphical interface than I ever had.

What I like best about Garage Band for the iPad is that not only is it a great platform for sketching out ideas. It is also an empowering platform. With “Smart Instruments” it gives the beginner a solid starting point. It is nearly impossible to play a wrong note and it teaches chord theory in a round about way. Recently,  I had the opportunity to watch this empowerment first hand.

I work with guy named Mike. He does not play any instruments, but he loves music

Screen shot of Smart Drums in Garage Band for iPad

and can sing. I thought Mike would enjoy a program like Garage Band, so I sat down with him, showed him the basics and let him go. In three weeks I watched him go from music enthusiast to music creator. The best part is with each song he writes he learns something and uses the smart instruments less and uses what he has learned from the start instruments and applies it to the other instruments in Garage Band.

And that leads me to this episode. In episode 4 we talk with Mike about his transformation into music creator and how the iPad can be a viable tool for all musicians. All the Music in this episode was created by either Mike or Myself and done entirely on the iPad. So sit back and enjoy!

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