Recording guitar used to be such a simple affair – either use a 4-track at home or head to your local studio to crank up some amps. Fast forward 30 years and you have the power to record a pro-sounding album in your shed! There’s just one problem though –…
Issue four of PowerOn, Roland’s music magazine for the iPad and iPhone is now on the App Store. This issue includes interviews with Alt-J, Whitesnake’s Bernie Marsden, Paul Kodish from DJ Fresh Live and Charlie Prince who has played keys for Rhianna and John Meyer. We also examine recent trends…
Enter before 30th May for a chance to win an ST-2 Power Stack! Recently we’ve been thrilled to spend time with Gallows’ guitarist and principle songwriter, Lags. Apart from filming some great videos with him, we also got Lags to kindly sign one of his favourite Boss pedals, a new…
The Roland GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer provides guitarists with an innovative fusion of guitar synthesis and powerful COSM guitar modelling. Using newly developed pitch-detection technology, the GR-55 has unparalleled tracking speed and accuracy making it able to capture even the fastest fret-board acrobatics. On board the pedal you will find hundreds of world-class virtual instruments…
Paul White, editor-in-chief of the esteemed Sound on Sound magazine looks at some practical applications of guitar synthesis (hint: it’s not about playing drums on your guitar) The GR-55 combines two of my favourite Roland guitar technologies in a pedal format specifically designed not to intimidate the musician and I…
It’s always great to see bands cross over when they really deserve it. And when Alt J won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize last year it catapulted them into the hearts of the public and made their dreamy synth-studded album, Awesome Wave, one of the essential records of 2012. Since then…
Perfect distortion across your guitar’s entire range What is it? The Boss DA-2 Adaptive Distortion compact pedal gives you consistent, punchy distortion right across your guitar’s range. It does this with a new technology called MDP (or Multi-Dimensional Processing). How does it work? The MDP technology in the DA-2 works…
As he gears up for a summer of festivals, we hooked up with Justin Young from The Vaccines With a refreshingly raw garage punk sound, The Vaccines tore up the charts when their debut album, What Else Did You Expect From The Vaccines, was released in 2011. It was the…
Powerful tabletop Looper for beatboxers, singers, performers, and instrumentalists Although floor-based Boss Loop Stations are perfect for street performing or on stage, not everyone wants to use their feet to keep the show rolling. The Boss RC-505 is a table-top Loop Station that fits right into a busy DJ booth…
When choosing a new amplifier, you’ll quickly realise that the choice is staggering. Hitting the forums often confuses the matter when impassioned guitar-heads debate which amp Jimi Hendrix would’ve played. Firstly, money does not guarantee you good tone and having countless features that you don’t use won’t substitute having an amp with…
New Boss Pedals In January at the 2013 NAMM Show three innovative Boss pedals were launched, the TE-2 Tera Echo, MO-2 Multi Overtone and DA-2 Adaptive Distortion. Three pedals for truly creative musicians who aspire to take their sound in new directions. They’re difficult to leave once you’ve tried them…
Due to constantly advancing digital technology, even the most die-hard tone masters are enjoying the benefits of the latest amp modelling products. Even famous artists now rely on the convenience and range of tones available from amp modelling whether they are performing or practising or writing on the road or…