Recording - December 2011 - 60

Griffin Technology StompBox
$99.95; www.griffintechnology.com A lot of guitarists are exploring ways to take their iPads out on the road with them and make use of them in a live or studio context, and there are a lot of hardware and software products available to make performance easier. Griffin Technology’s StompBox is a straightforward solution to a simple problem: if you’re using your iOS device to modify your guitar’s sound, how do you turn your effects on and off while playing? The StompBox is a rugged 4-button footswitch unit that connects to your iOS device via the dock connector. It also offers a 1/4" jack for an expression pedal. With its solid metal case, rubberized kick plate and nonslip pads, it’s built for real abuse. It’s packaged with Griffin’s GuitarConnect Cable, a roughly 6' cable that splits the iOS device’s TRRS mic/headphone connection into a 1/4" TS guitar plug and a 1/8" TRS headphone jack for playing and monitoring.

Setup couldn’t be simpler: plug in both cables, fire up your app, and go! While there’s no reason why the StompBox couldn’t be set up to work with other apps eventually, for right now it’s optimized for use with iShred LIVE (see above), which is designed to let you assign all four buttons and the pedal input to pretty much any parameter of any stompbox in your effects chain. For musicians who are looking for a more seamless experience when playing guitar through an iOS device, the StompBox could be just what the doctor ordered.

Korg iELECTRIBE and iELECTRIBE Gorillaz Edition
$19.99 each; www.korg.com I am an old fan of Korg’s ELECTRIBE beat boxes, having owned two and worked in groups that had several others; they represent a unique and very musical approach to building beats on a platform that’s interactive and tons of fun. Some of the ELECTRIBEs have been analog modeled drum synths, and others have used samples in creative ways, but both approaches have been a blast for me... and now I have them on my iPad!

The iELECTRIBE looks like a simplified version of the ELECTRIBE•SXSD, Korg’s hardware sample playback beatbox. It offers eight simultaneous sounds (four analog modeled synth tones and four samples), a choice of eight effects with two adjustable parameters each (Short Delay, BPM Sync Delay, Grain Shifter, Reverb, Chorus/Flanger, Filter, Talking Mod, and Decimator), and automation of almost any parameter on the front panel—what Korg calls Motion Sequencing. There’s an excellent illustrated manual available from within the app—it requires a live Internet connection, as it’s actually web-based. But you can get started in a jiffy, just by playing around: select a sound, tap the steps where you want to hear it in your Pattern, hit Play, and there it is! You can build loops of up to 64 beats in length, and set where the effects processor kicks in for each sound on a step-by-step basis. All the amenities of a real ELECTRIBE are here, minus the arpeggiator (which I admit I missed) and the ability to chain Patterns into Songs, but there are some other features the app can do that are impossible in hardware. One of the simplest and silliest, yet most useful: if you’re working on a later part of a long loop, the beat numbers on the step pads change! You don’t have to keep an eye on the LED to see what section of your pattern you’re working on, because the steps renumber themselves 1–16, 17–32, 33–48, or 4964. This greatly simplifies programming of long sequences because you don’t get lost. Other app-specific amenities include SoundCloud sharing, export of patterns or live recordings to WAV files, AudioCopy and AudioPaste for file sharing between apps, and WIST (Wireless Sync-Start Technology), which lets two properly-equipped apps play in sync via Bluetooth hookup. You’ll be creating beats in minutes, and the results sound incredible. The sound tweaks for individual instrument parts are pretty basic, but the raw materials are good... and if you’re looking for something with similar musicality and ease of use but an entirely different sound and vibe, check out the iELECTRIBE Gorillaz Edition. Created in conjunction with Gorillaz, this app sports a user interface with all the familiar controls in the right places (in a funky “homebuilt” design), a collection of 128 sounds from the latest Gorillaz album The Fall, and a variety of preset Patterns contributed to by the Gorillaz folks. The only slightly different control in this edition is the Gorillaz Wave button, which lets you select a sample for each sound part; there are the usual drum box sounds, but also voices, sound effects, Mellotron and piano chords, riffs from the album, and much more. It’s interesting how changing the sounds gives the app a completely different feel; you’ll want to compare audio demo samples on Korg’s website to determine which of the iELECTRIBES best suits what you want to do... assuming you don’t grab both! These apps are excellent examples of combining a well-liked sound creation idea with a control surface that can change instantly to suit your needs. Well done!

RECORDING DECEMBER 2011

http://www.griffintechnology.com http://www.korg.com

Recording - December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2011