Toys, toys, toys...

Man, I am really dragging my feet on this one.  Sorry for any yearning fans waiting to hear me play (if there are any).

I've learned (even before starting) that busking can be a daunting task for the ideas I have in mind. So, remember I wanted to busk?  I find the whole "playing on the street sans accompaniment" gets kinda lame after awhile, especially for a wind instrument.  So here we go,  piece by piece....

The idea starts with an amplifier (though I really bought it last, as I have one that's been sitting around for years unused).  The criteria for a good portable amp had to be:

-lightweight
-inexpensive
-loud enough
-battery powered

Some ideas work well in theory, but not exactly in practice.  And plus, my gimmicky-loving nature gets the best of me.  Thank you "return policy".  I had tried these  Altec Lansing inMotion SoundBlade Bluetooth Speakers.  It looked like a cool idea, but in the end not so good for what I had in mind.  The thinly designed speakers, though meeting the big hopes of being light, cheap, and battery powered it wasn't gonna cut it.
I ended up returning this rather quickly and get something with some loudness to it.  I assumed I needed to go with something that was more of an "amplifier" rather than a "speaker".

By it's name, the Roland Cube Street amp was going to be a cool option.  It's outer casing is designed where it angles up.  It's an attractively structured with lots of knob settings with a tuner (mainly used for guitars).  Ultimately this was a no go too, as it was too pricey and didn't include rechargeable batteries.   I would've had to pay for SIX rechargeable AA batteries with the time consuming act of taking the batteries out to charge over night, then putting them back in.  Sure, I could but in the long haul that gets to the point that you'd rather try and avoid doing it.

And verdict was finally settled on the Crate TX15 Taxi Amplifier.  Kind of an unassuming look to it.  But it's completely effective, practical and reasonably priced!  The rechargeable battery is installed within the amp, and can be charged with a power adapter which is detachable.  It's suppose to supply hours and hours of charge.  I've hardly had to crank the amp for volume, so I should be able to use the amp for many an hour without worries.

The amp is more used as an accompaniment device.  The main idea is to play along with "Aebersolds".  To all the jazz aficionados out there who completely oppose, I agree to a point.  Some of the recordings sound really bad, some of the songs have rushing tempos, and are cheesy.  But,  shifting through the catalog, I found a handful of tracks that work just fine.  I have a lot of tunes memorized, so that makes it easier not to carry a music stand and make it look like I'm reading.


The coolest thing that I have in mind to put a little twist on the busking is a guitar "looper".  I dunno why they call it a GUITAR looper, since I'm pretty sure any instrument can use this.   I had seen many instrumentalists use this tool as part of their music.  The first person I thought that was pretty effective was Robin Eubanks.  It took me a while til I figured out how people actually did it, but apparently there's this entire loop-subculture, lots of people out there looping to make music.

After the originally skepticism over price and best option, I picked the Boss RC-2 Loop Station. It just seemed like Boss was a tried and true product that was very practical, with a huge assortment of pedal options.  I got a gift certificate for Christmas that helped out with the purchase on Amazon.

It actually sat on my table for a few days after getting it in the mail.  I was literally afraid to use it.

The basis of looping is relatively simple: create a musical groove of set number of bars of choice, once recorded, this phrase can be looped over and over again.  The pedal allows you to overdub music over top of the phrase and record it, adding to the loop.  Rinse and repeat!

Luckily, I've had a microphone in my collection of stuff, so I didn't have to worry about this for now.  But getting the cables set up to get this to work was the problem.  Looping guys have told me that you need a special pre-amp to power the microphone, that the looper handles signals from a high-guitar-signal so, and since the mic is low-freq it would need some electronic help.

 I wasn't quite gettin' much help from Guitar Center people (chick at the counter said "it's not gonna sound good" right off the bat), so I went to Sam Ash, where the guy figured out what cables to supply me with.

Funny thing is, I figured out that one of the cables I bought was faulty!  When you know absolutely nothing about electronics, it sucks when you buy a bad cable.  I managed to exchange it for a good one, and low and behold it works pretty well.

It took awhile to figure out how the looper works, but I figured out the tricks of the trade after awhile.

So, after awhile of toying with the RC-2, something was missing. I was missing the depth of sound.  I can sort of play in the high register, trombone was made for mid register, and as you get lower, you rely on the limitations of the instrument.  And yet I need LOWER. Anyway, thanks to a friend, I got the Boss OC-2 Super Octave Pedal.  Remember how Boss has a lot of stuff to offer?!

There's the setup right now. Pressed down, it turns down anything going through the microphone down an octave.  It's pretty cool.  It's not a bass trombone sound, it's not a bass guitar sound, but a lower sound nonetheless.  It fills the sound out pretty well.  You press the pedal down to turn it off.

I ended up buying the Boss BCB-30 as a nice protective case for the pedals.  They are fixed into the case, so I don't constantly have to plug and unplug stuff. 

So, to carry all this stuff, I bought this expanding rolling crate from Staples.  I like this better than the travel carts with the bungee cords (stuff is more likely to fall out, and that bungee cord has a death wish if you're not careful). 

This was a perfect fit for the Crate Amp, looping case, cables and anything else I might have to carry to the park. 




So for at least a month now, I've just been toying with loops with this entire set up in it's completion (well, close to it).  I've taken a few mock travels to friends' places to test out it's durability and passed pretty well.  But when to take it to the park?!  We shall see...

lx.