Today's Top Stories:
 • Gibson V-Factor
• Sweetwater Custom Computing Rackmount 3.0 GhzEdirol Drivers For Apple Panther (OS 10.3)!
Gibson V-Factor
During a brief six-year period from 1958 to 1963, Gibson shed its image as a conservative, traditional company with a barrage of bold new guitar designs. These angular, modernistic solidbody models were far ahead of their time - too far ahead in some cases, for many of them went unappreciated until they were rediscovered and embraced by later generations of guitarists. Gibson's original Flying V of 1958 was so far ahead of its time that even the first reissues, almost 10 years later, were only moderately successful. Finally, in the late '60s and early '70s, progressive rockers embraced the V, and the 1967 version lives on today as the V-Factor.
Sweetwater Custom Computing Rackmount 3.0 Ghz
Sweetwater's Custom Computing line just added a POWERHOUSE PC to the family! The Rackmount 3.0Ghz 800FSB is super-fast, houses an 80 GB native drive and a 120 GB record drive, 1 GB of RAM, 6 USB ports, FireWire and more! Sweetwater is highly experienced in the specialized demands of audio and MIDI production - something a "regular" computer dealer just isn't going to understand. Sweetwater delivers turn-key systems, configured specifically for your application. Assembled, tested and gone over with a fine-toothed comb, these systems arrive at your door ready to plug in and use! Whether your art is MIDI production or heavy-duty post production and mastering, we can build you a system that will work - right out of the box - based on your specific needs! Check it out today!Edirol Drivers For Apple Panther (OS 10.3)
Edirol has released new Panther-ready drivers for all current OS X compatible products. In doing so, Edirol adds Panther support for 26 products including a number of earlier devices no longer in production, such as the PC-300, the world's first USB MIDI Keyboard controller & the UM-4 (aka S/MPU-64) the world's first USB MIDI interface. For a complete list of Edirol updated drivers for Panther GO HERE.
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| Out of Phase |
A phrase used to characterize two or more signals whose phase relationship with each other is such that when one is at its positive peak the other is at (or near) its negative peak. This is also commonly referred to as being 180 degrees out of phase.
Phase is a relative value that is measured in degrees (like angles). 90 degrees out of phase is more out of phase than 80 degrees, but less than 100 degrees. 180 degrees out of phase is completely backwards, which is characterized by one signal's highest peak correlating with another's most negative peak. Most signals are not entirely in phase with each other, and it's just as rare for them to be perfectly (180 degrees) out of phase. But people generally say "out of phase" to mean approximately 180 degrees out of phase. People also frequently say "out of phase" when the more technically correct term to use would be "polarity reversed." Phase implies a time delay, where one signal lags behind another one to some degree. Polarity refers to one signal being "backwards" from another. An example of this would be the "phase" switch on many mic preamps and mixing boards. Generally all this switch does is reverse pins two and three on the XLR connector entering the preamp, thereby reversing the "polarity" of the signal. There is no time delay of the signal. Nevertheless this is often referred to as "out of phase." A similar thing happens when you reverse the polarity of the speaker leads to one speaker in a two-speaker setup. That speaker is now operating with the opposite polarity of the other. No time delay was introduced, yet we often refer to this as "out of phase." This confusion occurs because when viewed on a display like an oscilloscope waveforms that are 180 degrees out of phase with each other will not look any different than two that are polarity reversed. Sonically the difference is generally pretty minute as well. So for all practical purposes the two terms can be used interchangeably.
While it is technically true that any two signals not 100% in phase with each other could be referred to by the somewhat generic phrase, "out of phase," we generally don't use that terminology until the signals approach a 180 degree phase relationship with each other. |
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| Jim Miller's Guitar Question of the Month: Guitar Pickups |
Welcome to Jim Miller's Guitar Question of the Month. Jim Miller also authors Tech Notes Online, a weekly Sweetwater column covering all aspects of today's music, from stage to studio.
Q: "How does a guitar pickup work?"
A: Hmm, well you can get the quick and easy explanation (for all you "normal people" out there) or the complex explanation that involves acoustics, electronics and the laws of physics (which would be great for all us "techies"), but I'll try to give an answer that is fairly complete without getting into the minute details.
Obviously, any electric guitar is fitted with some type of pickup so that the instrument can be amplified. From the earliest ceramic pickups to today's most sophisticated units, they are all positioned under the metal strings of the guitar (or bass guitar) where they generate a magnetic field.
When the strings are plucked, the magnetic field is disturbed, causing pulses of electrical energy within the coils (the fine copper wire that is wound hundreds of times around a bar magnet). These are typically very low voltage, so an amplifier is required to "magnify" the sound and then send it out via a speaker (or set of speakers).
These days, most pickup designs are either single coil or twin coil (dubbed the "humbucker" by Gibson). The stronger the magnet and the more windings you have of the copper wire, the louder the signal becomes. When the signal becomes too "hot" - that is, when it generates a very high output - distortion can result. Early on, guitar manufacturers worked hard to eliminate this, but by the 1960s, guitar players realized that some amount of distortion could be quite pleasing.
Most Fender guitars were originally designed with single coil pickups, which resulted in the crisp, bright sound we first heard in the classic "surf music" of the early 1960s. Both the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster were equipped with these single coil pickups, though modern versions of both are available with humbuckers. Many other manufacturers now offer either or both types of pickups in their various models.
The first Gibson humbucker was engineered in the mid-1950s, mainly to overcome the problems of electrical interference or hum. So this new pickup "bucked the hum" (see WFTD Humbucking) - get it? This was accomplished by using two coils instead of one, and these were wired in series so that the electrical current flows from one coil to the next, but the second coil was wound in reverse (also known as "out of phase") so that the annoying noise could be (in theory, at least) cancelled out.
Humbuckers generally produce a fatter, warmer sound, but by the late 1970s, manufacturers realized that musicians wanted both kinds of sound - crisp and bright along with fat and warm - and so they developed ways to split the coils, also known as "coil tapping."
To balance the relative volumes of the individual strings, most pickups have pole-piece that are either fixed in position a certain distance from the string, while others can be raised or lowered to keep the volume consistent. Some modern pickups designs are sophisticated enough to balance the level of each string without requiring pole-pieces (for example, the popular Fender Lace Sensor pickups which were fitted into certain Strat models starting in the 1980s).
For amplifying acoustic guitars, standard pickups were often installed in the soundhole, though today, acoustics are most often fitted with a piezoelectric pickup in the bridge, which use special crystals (that were originally discovered in the 1880s) that generate an electrical current when mechanically stimulated. Such stimulation occurs when the strings are plucked, thereby causing the top of the guitar to physically vibrate or resonate. We will discuss piezos in depth in a future column. |
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