QnA: Advice Pasal Equipment Untuk Beginners

(Part 4 of 4)


The most basic setup yg diperlukan ialah gitar sambung terus ke amp. If
you like the sound of your amp, tak yah letak effect in between pon
takpe. But aku nak depart from that conventional wisdom sket.

Effects
Most players usually letak something between amp dengan gitar untuk
kasi lagi sedap tone dia. There are many kind of effects you can use, in
many different shapes.

Jenis Effects
Jenis effect terbahagi kepada beberapa group. Kalo tengok website Boss,
ade Distortion/Overdrive, Reverb/Delay, Modulation, EQ/Tonality,
Pitch Shift, etc.
Im not gonna go too deep into that, Im not an expert in it anyway. But
basically, Distortion/Overdrive ni effect yg kasi bunyi tu ganas sket,
heavy, berbanding clean tone.
Reverb pulak effect yg kasi dengar macam kat dalam dewan ke,
cathedral ke, room ke. Delay pon is closely related to that. Delay ni
macam echo la.
Modulation pulak, well, this is modulation sound effect. Bukan key
modulation yg aku discuss sebelum ni. Chorus (or ensamble) contohnya
effect yang buat macam stereo sket, macam dua orang main the same
thing. Flanger buat kasi bunyi macam jet pejuang sket.
Equalization is tone shaping. So ko boleh kuatkan certain frequency,
and rendahkan frequency yg lain. Wah ni buat sound macam goreng
lagu Enter Sandman tu.
Pitch shifter boleh ubah pitch note yg ko main tu. Harmonist boleh buat
sound macam dua orang main benda yg sama, but the other sound is in
harmony. Maknanya katakanlah ko main satu lick, the other sound
main the same lick, at lower or higher pitch, and stay within the key.
Compressor pulak is like an automatic volume control. Compressor
boleh ubah dynamic range sound ko.

Package Effects
Memacam rupa bentuk effect ade dipasaran.

Yg jenis ni dipanggil stompbox punya pedal. This is a very common
form of effects. The good thing pasal effect camni ialah nak mix and
match senang sket. Katakan la ko suka distortion brand Boss, delay
Behringer, whammy Digitech etc, just connect them to each other.
Pretty easy. Nak ubah susunan effect tu pon senang. Lagi satu pedal
camni memang kebal gak la. They last forever. Sebejik pedal camni tak
berapa mahal sangat. But kalau nak macam-macam effect, this may not
be very cost effective lah. Especially kalau ko belum tau banyak pasal
effects, buying these may not be the best idea kot. Im speaking from
experience. Dulu aku pakai gak effect camni. Kalau mase aku start dulu
aku ade choice macam skrg, aku takkan beli effect camni.
And aku tak sure la kat kedai gitar kat Malaysia ade benda cam gambar
kat bawah ni. Kat US ni, kalau aku gi Guitar Center, dia ade station yg
letak memacam effect Boss yg dah siap disambung to each other and an
amp. Just pick any guitar you like, cucuk cable, and you can learn what
each effect does sebelum beli.





Effect camni pulak dipanggil multi-effects. Ade yg kecik, ade yang besar,
ade yg murah, ade yg mahal. And you can always check the list of
available effects for each unit. GT-10 for example ada memacam effect.
You can just google for a list of effects it has. And some units, macam
GT-10 ni aku rasa boleh cucuk terus kat USB computer, boleh jadi
macam sound card. Boleh pakai headphone jek, boleh cucuk kat amp,
atau PA system. Siap ade amplifier modeling skali. Effect camni kalo
nak combine dengan pedal lain boleh gak, although its not too
straightforward. And the bad thing about this thing is that you may not
like all effects dia. Although harga dia nampak macam mahal, this is
actually more cost effective daripada individual stompboxes. Oh, nak
pakai benda ni kena baca manual la.



Ha, kalau loaded, buat camni. Those are rackmount punya effects. Aku
memang takde experience pakai rack punya effects. But Im guessing
that each one of those are high quality stuff, stok orang pakai dalam
studio or touring rock stars. And setau aku dorang sambung semua
effect ke programmable pedal. So if youre a beginner, this is something
to dream of, but dont get them.
Hmm, actually, aku bercadang nak angkut satu rackmount unit. Camni.

Heh heh, just a Behringer tuner. Just about $60 jek. Actually I wanna
have a tuner on my desk, but I dont wanna spend $200 on this
Peterson.

Amps
Pada aku its more important to have a good amp daripada effects.
Effect best-best tapi last last bunyi kuar kat amp cabok tak guna gak.
Amp pon ade memacam jenis. Lets see how theyre packaged.


Amp camni dipanggil Combo Amp. Combo sebab amplification unit
dengan speaker dia combine skali. This particular model ade footswitch,
untuk turn on or off some effects. Most amps memang ade overdrive
effect, reverb etc.


Yang ni half stack (left), and full stack (right) amps. Thats your ultimate
kind of amp. But theyre not cheap. Besar and berat plak tu. Amp camni
amplifier unit dia (amp head) yg belah atas tu, and yg bawah tu
speakers cabinet dia. If youre a rock star doing a live show, consider
something like this. If you have a studio and you wanna do recording,
this isnt a bad idea too. Kalau beginner main kat rumah jek, toksah la.

Tu common amp configuration. Amplification dia pon ade macam-
macam gak. Ade yang tube, ade yang solid state, ade yg modelling. I
wont go into that. Google jek. Read stuff like this or something.



Recommendation Untuk Beginners
Kalau ko masih beginners main sesorang kat dalam bilik, aku tak
recommend satu pon produk yg tunjuk kat atas. Because its 2010, and
pada aku korang ade better option for your money.


Line 6 TonePort UX1 (~RM580)

Kalau ade computer, ni yg aku akan recommend untuk beginners. Yup,
just a sound card. Why? Its relatively cheap, and youll get access to a
lot of kinds of effects. Aku discover product camni like 2 years ago. At
that time aku ade Boss GT-6, and a small Marshall combo. Since aku
beli Line6 TonePort UX2 aku, jarang gile aku pakai GT-6 ngan amp tu.
And Ive learned a lot about effects.
Audio Interface ni ade banyak manufacturer dia. Look for something
with low latency. Latency ni delay dari time ko petik tali sampai dengar
bunyi dia. Masa aku angkut UX2 aku, I was so impressed by the
extremely low latency it has. Well, time has changed. Computers are
much faster. Gambar kat atas ni UX1. Its good enough for most
applications. Aku pakai UX2 ade dua mic input, ade phantom power
kalau nak pakai dengan condenser mic etc. I really have to admit that I
absolutely love it. It is by far the best thing about guitars that Ive
purchased. Ive learned so much since I own it.
Lagi satu kelebihan benda ni nak record pon senang. Ye la, bukan
semua orang ade studio, ade amp yg best, ade mic yg mahal utk record
sound yg dahsyat. This allows you to connect directly to the computer,
and amp modeling ngan effect sume dalam computer.
And since aku tinggal kat apartment, this makes a lot of sense, since aku
boleh main sambil dengar pakai headphone. Tak kacau neighbor. And if
youre a beginner, nobody really wanna hear you play anyway. So keep it
to yourself for the time being until you get better. :P
Pakai audio interface camni boleh pakai dengan beberapa jenis program
untuk model effect ngan amp.

Ni Line6 GearBox. Boleh pakai dengan Line6 punya product jek. It
comes free with Line 6 TonePort. Video aku mostly pakai software ni
untuk effects.


Yang ni Line 6 Pod Farm. Yg ni aku tak sure kalau sound card lain boleh
pakai ke tak. But it comes with TonePort.


Amplitube. Soundcard brand ape-ape pon boleh pakai.




Ni pulak Guitar Rig.

Those are among the most popular la. Benda camni la yg I wish I had
mase memula main gitar dulu. You can learn so much, get good sounds
without spending a fortune. Zaman skrg ni almost everybody has a
computer. Ada electric gutiar, ade good audio interface, pakai pro audio
punya headphone ke, youre good to go.

Audio Interface + Computer ni Id say its good untuk practice sesorang.
Well, thats what I do anyway. But kalau nak main dengan kengkawan,
thats not gonna be enough. Youll need an actual amp for that.
Dont be thinking about a full stack amp yet. Remember, as a beginner,
you wont be performing in a big arena yet.
Untuk jamming dengan kengkawan, atau kalau ko tak minat pakai
computer punya effects and nak practice dengan actual amp, Id suggest
a combo modeling amp.
Modeling amp ni bukan macam traditional amps. Modeling amp ni kat
dalam dia ade digital circuitry yg boleh imititate other amps. See, kalau
ko beli satu traditional Marshall amp for instance, you get Marshall
sound. But if you buy a modeling amp, you can get Marshall sound,
MesaBoogie sound etc. Of course lah, modeling amp ni takde la sehebat
orginal amp yg dia tiru. But its pretty good. And modeling amp ni
biasanya ade banyak effects. So, macam ade multi effects plus multiple
amps in one package.



If youre in the market for a small modeling amp, Id suggest a Roland
Micro Cube. This little amp, is very little. But looks can be deceiving.
This little thing is impressive. Aku try kat kedai, I was like, how the hell
did they do that? Aku rasa harga dia kalau kat Malaysia kurang dari
RM400 kot. This thing is pretty loud for the size, and it sounds good. If
you have the chance, try it. Nak practice sesorang pon ok. Nak practice
dengan kawan pon maybe loud enough kot. Its small enough bole run
pakai battery jek. Boleh letak strap gitar gak. That way kalau nak pegi
camping, you can play an electric guitar in front of the campfire. Tak
yah pakai gitar kapok. :D
And Roland is not the only one yg buat modeling amp kecik camni.
There are other brands too.



Kalau nak yang besar sket and more features, there are a lot to choose
from. Yang aku familiar sket Line 6 dengan Fender la. But Im sure
there are a lot more out there.
Macam gambar yg kat atas ni, it comes with LCD display. Ade
memacam effects, ade metronome, ade backing tracks lagi. I heard this
one siap boleh connect kat computer lagi, jadi audio interface. Boleh
cucuk MP3 player, SD card. Kalau tanak buat bising, cucuk jek
headphone. I dont have one yet, I dont really need it, but I think I
wanna have one.
In any case, aku advise korang toksah tamak nak amp besar sangat. Im
not just talking about half and full stacks. Combo amps get big too.
Toksah la angkut amp yg besar, yg high wattage. I think amp yg besar
ni, kalau tak main cukup kuat, it wont sound very good. So if your
venue is a small room or a garage, get something of appropriate size.
Bile aku gi kedai gitar, I saw those big Marshall stack or MesaBoogie
Rectifier stack, they look nice. Tapi aku tak teringin pon. I know Ill
never need them.
And recommendation aku ni is mostly for practice. Its not for live
performance. Kalau live performance, youll probably need some sort of
pedal nak tukar-tukar effects. Good luck.