Tascam Guitar Trainer

[Black Mask]

I've seen ads for this product in guitar magazines and to be honest, I think it sounds like it would be worth a purchase. The basic idea is that it's a CD player that functions specifically for the practicing musician. You can choose to loop a certain song or any given piece of a song, slow it down to whatever speed you like WITHOUT altering pitch and it even has a built-in metronome. Does anyone have any experience with this or a similar device? Is it worth a buy?

Tascam CD-GT1 Guitar Trainer

[LesPaulCustom]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

I use the Akai Riff-O-Matic for transcribing stuff and have a Rhythm Bandit to help isolate/filter stuff out to really hear it.

They work, but you can't get frustrated. It is a long process to transcribe a song note-for-note.

Digital is the way to go....I used to burn up reel-to-reel's like it was cool slowing them down. That sucked cause it did slow them down 1/2 speed, but the vocals sounded like horny bengal tigers [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

I burned out my dads Revox reel-to-reel...not a good day in my history, lemme tell ya [img]graemlins/refuse.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

If you are serious about transcribing other peoples stuff....grab one [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[Chasbo]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

I have the Tascam. I got it to help my technique and it really works. You can slow songs down to half speed, although at that setting its muddy sounding. The best part is that pitch doesn't change at all. I have managed to pick up songs that I never would have with a normal speed player. The bundled effects work ok, but are nothing to write home about. The pandora is better at straight headphone paying, more useable sounds. As a trainer, its a slam dunk. Very useful and easy to use item.

Chuck

[Black Mask]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

Cool. Thanks for the recommendations, guys. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[guitarsjb]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

As a trainer? BUY IT!!! I love this thing. It does just what it says it does. The 50% slower does get muddy, but still very usable. With this and the tab it helps clear up all the areas of a song you were "unsure" of cause it's just too fast.
I love mine.

[Chasbo]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

Yeah, when you have the tab and CD, you pick the song up at unreal speed. I have to use the 50 percent mspeed on alot of solo's, I find it to be too muddy to use for rythme parts, but works ok for riffs and solos.

Chuck

[maddog]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

My friend has some software for his computer which performs this function. I was wondering if anyone else has got this and where it can be purchased or downloaded?

[JDA]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

Kit,

You may want to check out the Amazing Slow Downer software at:

http://www.ronimusic.com/

You can download the trial version for free, but I think it only allows you to play the first couple of tracks on the CD until you pay for the registration.

I found it to be pretty good using it on my Mac OSX and plan to buy it for myself in the future.

Regards, JD...

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

Dudes, sorry to burst your bubbles, but the always-free Windows Media Player has an option to speed up or slow down MP3s from a range of 0.5 to 2.0. And yes, it's an inherent quality that slowing down seems to make it sound muddy and almost "reverbious" (sp?). Several slowing programs I've tried (like "Amazing Slow Downer") all have the same effect.

To slow down your MP3s in Windows Media Player, open up the file in Windows Media Player, go to "View", then "Enhancements", then "Play Speed Settings". Then you can drag the little slider to the speed you want!

[Venomboy]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

I got the Tascam thingee 2 weeks ago off a dealer on ebay. It's great. The built in effects aren't great but it gets the job done. Slowing down stuff is cool. I recommend it. I don't want to play guitar in front of the computer. My son goes to bed at 8pm so I want something I can put on the couch and rock out with.

I got mine for $153, FedEx shipped with AC adapter, brand new. It was a BIN item.

http://stores.ebay.com/audioMidiGear

Sometimes he has 9 available.

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

Originally posted by Number Of The Priest:
To slow down your MP3s in Windows Media Player, open up the file in Windows Media Player, go to "View", then "Enhancements", then "Play Speed Settings".

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmmm, my version (9.00) doesn't have a "Play Speed Settings" selection. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

That's odd... I'm using the exact same version as you, and it's there. [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] I'm stumped! [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] Perhaps there is an update patch for Windows Media Player on the web somewhere for you to download. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[JDA]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

Originally posted by Venomboy:
I got the Tascam thingee 2 weeks ago off a dealer on ebay. It's great. The built in effects aren't great but it gets the job done. Slowing down stuff is cool. I recommend it. I don't want to play guitar in front of the computer. My son goes to bed at 8pm so I want something I can put on the couch and rock out with.

I got mine for $153, FedEx shipped with AC adapter, brand new. It was a BIN item.

http://stores.ebay.com/audioMidiGear

Sometimes he has 9 available.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm not much for playing the guitar by the computer either and if you need to be quite sounds like a cool tool to have.

That sounds like a good deal on eBay too.

JD...

[Guest]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

Transkriber rocks (www.reedkotler.com). It's a software program for Windows. You can slow things down to 1/5 speed without pitch changes. The other cool thing is that if the guitar on the record is tuned down, the software will let you tune it up without change the tempo! So you don't have to tune down your guitar.

You have to rip the song from the CD into a WAV format, however.

[Guest]

Re: Tascam Guitar Trainer

Originally posted by YetAnotherOne:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Number Of The Priest:
To slow down your MP3s in Windows Media Player, open up the file in Windows Media Player, go to "View", then "Enhancements", then "Play Speed Settings".

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hmmm, my version (9.00) doesn't have a "Play Speed Settings" selection. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's under the top level menu Play, then Play Speed.