Recording - December 2011 - 16

they’ve been doing a fabulous job holding the data for our instructional videos that you’ll soon be able to watch (at www.recordingmag.com). The typical Glyph chassis has a shiny metallic finish, with five ventilation holes and a power switch on the front panel. The internal fans, visible through a port from the rear, are very quiet, drawing cool air in through the front and pushing warm air out the back. Our units never run hot—to call them warm is almost exaggeration. Capacity of the 050Q is 500GB, 1TB, or 2TB. Rotational speed is 7200 RPM. The drive is compatible with Apple OS 8.6, 9.X, 10.X, Microsoft Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, Modern Unix-based, Linux, or BSD operating systems. It comes pre-formatted for Mac, and rackmounting is easily possible, with separately available rackmount kits, either two units side-by-side or a single unit in a standard 1U rack. A clamshell-style carrying case is available as an option. The rear has the IEC 3-prong AC connector for a detachable power cord, two FireWire 800, one FireWire 400, one USB 2.0, and one eSATA port. The power supply is ready for universal voltage from 100–240V (50/60 Hz). Glyph offers a 3-year warranty, 2-year Free Basic Data Recovery Policy, and 1-Year Advance Replacement (U.S. Continental 48 States only). The extent of the free data recovery is explained at www.glyphtech.com/ support/datarecovery.php. In essence it is a “first-level” attempt at data recovery with software tools that Glyph has been using for years. If that fails, Glyph can refer users to specialized companies where more work can be performed, at that point at the customer’s expense. All in all, a reliable and elegant tool for saving your hard work in the studio, and highly recommended.—LzR A row of four knobs on the top of the unit controls the two inputs’ gain, headphone volume, and line output volume. A rear-panel switch offers global phantom power switching, and buttons on the front panel let you choose front or rear panel signal routing for each input and activate zerolatency direct monitoring (there’s no mix knob). LEDs offer indication of USB power, phantom power, signal present and clipping for each output. The unit is bus-powered. Operating at 16 or 24 bits of resolution and 44.1 or 48 kHz sample rate, the MobilePre offers good-quality audio input and output and plenty of volume and clarity in the headphones; I found listening to music mixes I knew well to be an enjoyable and overall very honest experience, and instruments and vocals recorded through the inputs were captured with detail and neutral clarity. Along with its audio quality, the MobilePre’s appeal to many end users will be its integration with entry-level Pro Tools software from M-Audio (both the SE version bundled with the unit and the more feature-rich Pro Tools M-Powered). If you’re interested in getting into Pro Tools, the MobilePre makes a great starter package for vocal/guitar or stereo submix recording, and even if you’re not a Pro Tools user, you’ll find its audio quality quite suitable for your computer recording needs. Check it out.

You Rock Guitar
$249.99; www.yourockguitar.com We guitar players ache for the conveniences of keyboard systems. We want the note-by-note access to performance editing, the vast sonic variety of softsynths and the flexibility of packaging our playing in lowbandwidth MIDI files. Unfortunately, many of the MIDI guitar systems out there are expensive, require significant modification to our instruments, and aren’t quite as responsive as we’d like them to be. The You Rock Guitar is a completely different take on the concept of the MIDI-fied guitar. It is a purpose-built device, with switches rather than strings between the frets to make note selection more “positive”, and six actual strings in the right-hand playing position for string activation. While it has built-in sounds, it also has a MIDI port and USB-to-host connection that makes it a natural for use with a DAW or stand-alone softsynth. The You Rock Guitar’s USB-to-host connection worked without any setup whatsoever, and immediately lit up as a MIDI device within all my DAW packages. The first thing I did was select an acoustic guitar sample set and get to strumming. It was love-at-first-rank, since the right-hand string activators allowed me to get a beautiful, realistic rhythm right out of a sampling softsynth. The response to my playing was very satisfying, since the combination of string activators and fretboard switches meant that no audio-to-MIDI conversion (and resultant latency) got in the way. Next I chose some lead sounds, an area that is lacking in my own keyboard playing. While I’m comfortable with keyboards for composition and background pads, I find my lead playing somewhat contrived; it doesn’t have the phrasing or note selection choices that are natural to me on guitar. The You Rock Guitar opened some interesting doors for lead work. First off, you do have to pay attention to your playing style; hammer-ons work well, but pull-offs are a little iffy. And you simply can’t help trying to bend the string, even though nothing will happen. But after about an hour, I

Glyph Technologies GT 050Q
$169–$409 depending on capacity; www.glyphtech.com I’ve had Glyph hard drives for some time, including the GT 062E RAID array (reviewed August 2010), and it’s easy to start taking them for granted—they just work, quietly and reliably. Now we’ve received two units of the GT 050Q model, and
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RECORDING DECEMBER 2011

http://www.recordingmag.com http://www.glyphtech.com/support/datarecovery.php http://www.glyphtech.com/support/datarecovery.php http://www.yourockguitar.com http://www.glyphtech.com

Recording - December 2011

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