Flare Audio ISOLATE Ear Plugs review

Flare Audio ISOLATE

I recently was made aware of a crowd funding campaign for these little ear plugs and I have to say it got me hooked. As some of you know I have a background in academic acoustics and psychoacoustic and thus the ear are something very important to me. I also an a huge advocate of protecting one's hearing from hearing loss in musician circle (as they can be the most immune and the least caring....until it's gone!).

Testing one...two

I have also been very fortunate over the years working in the Acoustic department at the University of Salford to have taken part as a subject in numerous hearing defender tests which are conducted in the department for a variety of companies. I have lost count of how many times I have had gunk squeezed into my ears to make moulds! So, as I am sure you can guess this is an area close to my heart.....and something which I am very 'preachy' about to other musicians and engineers when I know they are in danger.So, I have tried out my fair share of ear plugs over the years and currently favour either the ACS 15 Pro Custom molds, or in low level situations something as simple as the Pro Plugs which work well. The problem is (and I totally get this!!!) that as soon as you put something into the ear canal, you are having a direct impact on the frequency response of the ear and for some instrumentalists this can be fine, say drummers or bass players where the low end isn't attenuated as much and they aren't totally reliant on the mid's to get a feel of what they are playing.

The guitarist

As you might have guessed (or know) as a guitarist, your instrument sits slap bang in this frequency zone, as such any attenuation can make you feel disconnected from the actual sound coming out of your amp. I am sad to say that currently no ear plug I have tried can bypass this issue, but some are better than others and over time you get 'used' to the sound.FlareAudio's ISOLATE are no exception and I have put together two video reviews for you to watch to get a feeling for the issues and plus points encountered using these new plugs in a live environment.First ImpressionsFollow up reviewSo, in summary.....

Pros

• They are amazing and offer a fantastic level of attenuation.
• They are very reasonably priced.
• They come with a great range of earbuds (and the packaging is awesome!)
• They offer a greater level of bass attenuation than most plugs and thus the resulting sounds is less muddy.

Cons (And these are probably just for me!)

• The amount of attenuation can not be adjusted (i.e. like changing filters in the ACS)
• They still attenuate and affect the frequency range of my instrument, but that will be a problem with anything inserted into the ear canal.

In short, they are pretty awesome for the money and have SO many uses, I will always have a pair with me and will be the backup for my ACS's at gigs.Enjoy.Peace,Neil

Brucie's Extreme Guitar | Opinionated lessons and thoughts on guitar playing

Along with my Guitar Creativity videos on Youtube, I have now started a new series of videos. These videos are entitled 'Brucie's extreme guitar' and I am offering opinionated lessons and thoughts on guitar playing.The idea of these videos is to think through and play devil's advocate on some ideas and opinions relating to guitar playing and the whole guitar world. I really want to suggest some things which might get you thinking or maybe even get you all fired up.Here is the play list of the videos so far and the first is any introduction to the series.I hope you enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts!EnjoyPeaceNeil

Atomic Amplifire 12 Review

Amplifire 12 Release Thoughts

How very exciting that news of this product has just been released at the LA Amp Show. I guess this is as a result of so many users requesting more footswitches rather than wanting to pair it up with an external midi controller. I have to be honest as say that since the implementation of multiple options per footswitch which came along in version 3 of the firmware, I have ditched the midi controller and found that all I really need are 3....but obviously the potential with 12 is pretty cool if you can do the same kind of assignments as you can with the 3 switch one.

That is yet to be seen, but I can't believe that you wouldn't be able to!

On the surface it looks pretty much exactly the same as the lovely red Amplifire in terms of functionality, amps etc. and I think this makes total sense, I am not sure it would be good to potential alienate buyers of the original Amplifire in creating a 'better' version, so soon after the launch. To be honest, not that there could be much more which would make it better. Well maybe an autowah effect, pitch effect and well maybe a few more amps :)

So what do we get...

• Two external expression pedal sockets, this is a pretty big one, as you can now use your expression pedal without needing a bodged up cable and loosing your effects loop....so that is a win!

• An on/off switch, as simple as it seems...that is a big one for me, I am not sure why, but I do actually like to turn something of from a designated switch, rather than letting if loose power randomly when you unplug it. I know you might think me strange, but hey it is another win for me.

• A bigger display...well I used the editor mostly, so to be honest that is a Meh from me.

• 1/4 Jack socket for phones, that is pretty cool, but I don't tend to use it with headphones, so not fussed really but 1/4" is more inline with the headphones I own.

Atomic Amplifire 12 Review

     So on the whole this is basically an extended foot switch version of the original and that is a really good thing for some. I am SO happy with my Amplifire (see review below) that I can't see myself upgrading (although I do like the Expression pedal option!), I think these are very exciting times for Atomic. I guess that given that the firmware is the same for the two units we can hope to see some additions coming along in the future which is pretty awesome too.

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I hope that you found this article useful and enjoy my blog, podcast and YouTube channel. I’m always happy to share my thoughts and to help others as much as I can and I will never charge for my blog content. Having said that, I truly appreciate when someone supports me in return for the time it takes to write articles, produce podcasts and videos, where I share my years of work and experience with you.

Here are some ways you can show your appreciation:

• sharing my content online.

• buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SpencerBruce

• subscribing, liking and commenting on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NeilSpencerBruce

• Listening to my music on streaming services like Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3llyDSr

• buying my music and sounds on Bandcamp: https://lightb4sound.bandcamp.com/

• Visiting my online store: SpencerBruceStore

Enjoy

Peace

Neil

My Time Keeper - All hail the humble metronome!

In praise of 'My Time Keeper'

Anyone out there who has ever tried learning a musical instrument will at sometime made friends with the ever ticking humble metronome! The one device which is ever present in learning rooms, recording studios, bedrooms, schools across the globe.This little device is the unsung hero keeping us in time, helping measure our performance and progressing on the instrument.Metronomes come in all shapes and sizes, all colours and styles, but their fundamental existence is to simply tick tick tick tick, for ever and ever or until you can't take it any more!!

We salute you

So, I thought it was time we took these unsung heroes and gave them their time to bask in the glory, show them that we care, that they are not something which we stick in draw, never really love and begrudge buying as they aren't sexy or cool!Imagine where we would be without them!! Imagine!!

My practice hero

So, here is my timepiece the metronome which I have had for probably 18 years, it still ticks and tocks and ticks and tocks and........it still have the SAME batteries it came with!!! I am actually in shock about that!!I can't believe the hours and hours I have heard you ticking over the decades!What about yours?Go on, give your metronome its fifteen minutes of fame :EnjoyPeaceNeil

New Testimonial

Really love getting testimonials from clients. This was an awesome project to work on and was great fun for me also!!

We worked with Neil on a recent project to formulate and record a song I had written. We had the words and a general idea of the tune but Neil helped us to form the structure and rhythm which came together to form the complete song.  He was really helpful in giving us different options in terms of sounds, rhytym etc and he edited the song to a professional standard.  We were really pleased with the finished piece, which went viral really quickly. If we ever decide to do anything similar again we will definitely be contacting Neil!

Thanks a million Alison and Sandra and hope your song goes everywhere!!PeaceNeil

Steve Vai's Guitar Intervals Ear Training

Training the Ear

So, I thought today I would share an ear training method that I have borrowed from a lesson that I had with Steve Vai. I will put this out there first that there are so many good ways of practicing ear training and.....there are SO many good apps out there are well.

Personally, I recommend having a look at EarBeater (you can use it for free on the website) or download the app.

Visualisation : Auralisation

The best way to start with ear training is to start listening out for intervals, the relationship of one note to another and with each of these relationships for an octave (12 intervals) try and assign a aural ‘clue’ or a visualisation of something you can recognise as the interval from an existing song or theme.For example, a descending 5th is the interval of the first two notes of the Flintstones, an ascending b2 (and descending) is the theme from Jaws.

The link below is a list of intervals that I use to make these associations, you may not know some of these tunes or songs, and I would encourage to use your own if you ‘hear’ something more obvious to you.

Interval list.

Now you have an idea of what intervals sound like and hopefully have some strong associations with existing themes, you should be able to start naming intervals when you hear them.

Steve Vai ?

So where does Steve come in?

Well, Steve suggested a number of great methods for working on your ear, including singing the note before you play it, and singing harmonies to the lines you are playing. The one I am going to expand on here is using an existing recording of lots of intervals with them names after they are played, this should enable you to hear the interval, guess the interval and then get the confirmation of the interval.

He suggests recording a whole series of intervals, both ascending and descending and listening to them when you can.For those of us with busy lives, we could then listen to these recordings on the way to work or on the train or at the gym.

And as a BONUS for my loyal readers, I have recorded a series of ear training intervals for you to download for FREE here.

I hope you find them useful and enjoy this exercise and that it helps you with your ear training. Remember it is a continual learning experience!

Enjoy!

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I hope that you found this article useful and enjoy my blog, podcast and YouTube channel. I’m always happy to share my thoughts and to help others as much as I can and I will never charge for my blog content. Having said that, I truly appreciate when someone supports me in return for the time it takes to write articles, produce podcasts and videos, where I share my years of work and experience with you.

Here are some ways you can show your appreciation:

• sharing my content online.

• buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SpencerBruce

• subscribing, liking and commenting on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NeilSpencerBruce

• Listening to my music on streaming services like Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3llyDSr

• buying my music and sounds on Bandcamp: https://lightb4sound.bandcamp.com/

• Visiting my online store: SpencerBruceStore

Peace

Neil

Guitar Creativity - Finger independence? Chords are your friends!!

Finger indepence is one of the most important techniques to master when playing the guitar, of course you want your fingers to go where you want them to, when you want them to and work independently. Usually when starting off (or even when you reach performing level), you learn a whole series or finger independence exercises and the continue to practise and work on these for years to come. Not only do they help with stamina, coordination and strength but also provide a great warm up too.

So what's the problem?

Well there is no problem!! Except that these exercises can be a bit dull and boring and your mind can wander when doing them (in front of the TV perhaps??) and crucially as they are chromatic, well you can't really use them in playing and well they just aren't very musical are they!! SO, step forward the humble chord. Chord shapes actually require a great deal of independence of your fingers especially when switching between them! So this Guitar Creative Video, suggests that you try using chord shapes are you finger exercise as well. This lesson is using complex chord shapes and switching between them as a 'musical' method to improve finger independence over the more traditional spider exercises.

 Chords are your friends!!

You can download a PDF of the chord shapes used in this video here.The amazing chord swap finger exercises PDFFor more in-depth information on maximising your practice time and finding your own voice on the instrument, check out my book Guitar Creativity - A new way of thinking Enjoy!PeaceNeil

Top Ten Gigging Tips to avoid gigging disaster! FREE PDF Download

We have all had those gigs where everything goes wrong, where the unexpected becomes expected, where you think you are in Spinal Tap. So after years gigging I thought I would put together my my top ten list of tips to help you all be prepared for when gigging, hopefully so you can avoid some of the pitfalls!!! I decided to put all of these tips in a helpful PDF so you can download it an take it with you to gigs! In fact here is a bonus tip for you.

Bonus Tip

So the bonus tip is about using some of the amazing free apps that are out there such as Evernote or Dropbox to store your equipment manuals as PDFs, you can of course also store setlist, chords, charts, PL insurance documents, PAT testing documents, everything in one handy place which you can access on your Smart phone. Of course you can now add the top ten gigging tips as well.

Top Ten Gigging Tips

The gigging tips were to be a bonus chapter in my book, Guitar Creativity | A new way of thinking, but I thought it was slight of topic from the focus of the book, so I have decided to give it to you here as a FREE download, you don't have to sign up for anything, just download it and use it to your hearts content.FREE PDF Download Top ten gigging tips - Spencer Bruce MusicLove to hear your feedback!EnjoyPeaceNeil

Brucie's Extreme Guitar : Opinionated a New Lesson Series Introduction

So I have started a new guitar series of videos. The video below is an introduction to a new creativity and guitar lesson series I am going to be doing. The idea is that I will play devil's advocate on a number of issues that we all may hear about or know about. This is my opinion on the topic and I will also try and question that opinion as well.The main thing is asking the question, and seeing how I would answer and how you would answer, There is no right or wrong, and we all may learn something. Some of the topics might be controversial, some might wind you up a little bit, but please be part of the conversation and let's see where this goes.This lesson is about how to improve your phrasing by stealing rhythms from other melodic ideas. It is a great way to get our of a rut and find new meFor more in-depth information on maximising your practice time and finding your own voice on the instrument, check out my book Guitar Creativity - A new way of thinking https://gumroad.com/l/zCAXyFollow me onTwitter http://twitter.com/lightb4soundFacebook https://www.facebook.com/SpencerBruce...Instragram https://instagram.com/lightb4sound/LinkedIn http://uk.linkedin.com/in/neilbruceEnjoy!PeaceNeil