Cortado MkIII Contact Mic Review

Unlike a magnetic pickup, which translates the vibrations of the guitar strings into electronic sound, a contact microphone senses audio vibrations through direct contact with an object. The contact mic can be a boon for the modern guitarist, as a way of allowing direct translation of body vibrations, or amplifying the sound of picking behind the bridge or nut in a more direct way.

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Cool Pedal Alert: Phor Phaser Phreeks

From the Greek geniuses who brought you the classic fuzz emulations of the Constellation pedal, comes the Crazy Tube Circuits Cylclone. As this video demonstrates they have managed to conjure scary simulacra of some classic phase shifters, including MXR’s Pase 45 and 90 pedals, the Electro-Harmonix Small Stone, and others.

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Cool Pedal Alert: Neural DSP Quad Cortex Digital Effects and Amp Modeler

Mulit-effects/amp sim floor pedals are not new. What makes the Neural DSP Quad Cortex Quad-Core Digital Effects Modeler/Profiling Floorboard (say that three times fast) newsworthy is its incorporation of an iPad type touch screen and its capture technology. From Mitch Gallagher’s concise, comprehensive demo, the device seems well thought out and elegantly simple. Unfortunately there seems to be no info on the onboard effects, but the board does allow you to capture the sound of both amps and effects. From the Anderton’s video, the effect capture seems pretty impressive. What do you think?

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Cool Pedal Alert: EarthQuaker Devices Astral Destiny

The pedal world is rife with cryptic stompbox names that give no clue to what the pedal is or does. While the name on EarthQuaker’s new pedal, Astral Destiny, doesn’t specifically mention that it is a reverb, it’s description “An Octal Octave Reverberation Odyssey” does accurately represent the feelings this device will evoke: a literally awe inspiring trip through the cosmos. There are plenty of pedals with “shimmer” functions out there, but with its octave up and down options, and its stretch feature, which doubles the reverb length while adding an adjustable pitch bending effect, Astral Destiny carves out its own place in the firmament. A must for ambience lovers, it is also just a great sounding reverb. Thankfully it allows presets, as you are quite likely to find at least eight sounds you won’t want to lose. (See “more” for specs).


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Dan Phelps On Desktop Looping

If you are like me, you could stare covetously at the beautiful Island Instruments 12-string he is playing for the whole 20 minutes. But while doing so, Phelps gives great insight into his process when making loops with his desktop system.

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