Bobbo's review of the Digitech JamMan pedal...it does more than you think!
So, I bought the Digitech JamMan. I've never been much of a fan of Digitech .. it always sounded like fake pedals to me but this one intrigued me .. it was a sampler and I had been having fun with my Line 6 delay modeler and thought this might expand what my band could do as a trio (me being the only guitar).
One of the first things I did with it was record the Fender Rhodes (keyboard) intro to one of our songs. Which was pretty cool .. I brought the pedal out live, had it plugged into my amp and I started the song with the keyboard part playing. It was fun to watch the people's faces in the crowd staring at us trying to figure out where the keyboard was coming out of!
One of the next things I did was record a whole rhythm track to another one of our songs that had a very cool part to it that I couldn't do at the same time as the rhythm track .. because I only have two hands! And now I was playing lead along with myself. I thought this was pretty cool and that it couldn't get much better than that.
Then we got another guitar player in our band and the pedal got put away. We were rehearsing and wishing we had a way to record something .. just so we could hear it and learn from our rehearsal. You know, like a work tape. I tried to figure some other stuff out and then I remembered the JamMan.
This pedal probably wasn't invented for this but let me tell you how much it's helped us. It has an XLR input for a microphone and a USB drive out .. We plug a SM57 into it, set it up in our rehearsal space (Bomb Shelter) and when we want to record, I'd just turn it on with the footswitch, start and stop. Click the 'store' button. Move on. Later on, I get home, plug it into my laptop, bring up iTunes, rename the file, save and burn to a disc. Hell, if I brought the laptop with me to rehearsal (which I have) I could burn copies right there for everyone!
Now don't go thinking that you're going to get broadcast quality recordings from a SM57 in the middle of a rehearsal space but if you are looking for cheap, dirty, but highly usable recording in 24 bit digital .. it's perfect. Oh, and the other thing that it's great for .. if you want to bootleg your own show, it's perfect for just getting a perspective for what you sound like from the audience .. no better way.
Something else .. now, we have an M-box, pro-tools home studio, but sometimes you don't feel like getting all that stuff out just to do something quick. Sometimes you just need something to practice along to .. work out the harmonies in a chorus .. what-have-you, so you take out the JamMan, plug your trusty SM57 into it, play your acoustic into it, dump it into iTunes, burn to a cd and viola! There you are driving in your car rehearsing to an acoustic version of your new song working out the chorus .. in perfect 24 bit digital clarity!
This pedal does a lot more .. this is just what I've learned how to do on it. I'm sure if I read the manual I'd figure out more! Drop me a line if you have any questions.
bobbo@thefallenstars.com
So, I bought the Digitech JamMan. I've never been much of a fan of Digitech .. it always sounded like fake pedals to me but this one intrigued me .. it was a sampler and I had been having fun with my Line 6 delay modeler and thought this might expand what my band could do as a trio (me being the only guitar).
One of the first things I did with it was record the Fender Rhodes (keyboard) intro to one of our songs. Which was pretty cool .. I brought the pedal out live, had it plugged into my amp and I started the song with the keyboard part playing. It was fun to watch the people's faces in the crowd staring at us trying to figure out where the keyboard was coming out of!
One of the next things I did was record a whole rhythm track to another one of our songs that had a very cool part to it that I couldn't do at the same time as the rhythm track .. because I only have two hands! And now I was playing lead along with myself. I thought this was pretty cool and that it couldn't get much better than that.
Then we got another guitar player in our band and the pedal got put away. We were rehearsing and wishing we had a way to record something .. just so we could hear it and learn from our rehearsal. You know, like a work tape. I tried to figure some other stuff out and then I remembered the JamMan.
This pedal probably wasn't invented for this but let me tell you how much it's helped us. It has an XLR input for a microphone and a USB drive out .. We plug a SM57 into it, set it up in our rehearsal space (Bomb Shelter) and when we want to record, I'd just turn it on with the footswitch, start and stop. Click the 'store' button. Move on. Later on, I get home, plug it into my laptop, bring up iTunes, rename the file, save and burn to a disc. Hell, if I brought the laptop with me to rehearsal (which I have) I could burn copies right there for everyone!
Now don't go thinking that you're going to get broadcast quality recordings from a SM57 in the middle of a rehearsal space but if you are looking for cheap, dirty, but highly usable recording in 24 bit digital .. it's perfect. Oh, and the other thing that it's great for .. if you want to bootleg your own show, it's perfect for just getting a perspective for what you sound like from the audience .. no better way.
Something else .. now, we have an M-box, pro-tools home studio, but sometimes you don't feel like getting all that stuff out just to do something quick. Sometimes you just need something to practice along to .. work out the harmonies in a chorus .. what-have-you, so you take out the JamMan, plug your trusty SM57 into it, play your acoustic into it, dump it into iTunes, burn to a cd and viola! There you are driving in your car rehearsing to an acoustic version of your new song working out the chorus .. in perfect 24 bit digital clarity!
This pedal does a lot more .. this is just what I've learned how to do on it. I'm sure if I read the manual I'd figure out more! Drop me a line if you have any questions.
bobbo@thefallenstars.com