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Pocketstudio the power of an 8-track
recorder, since the rhythm section
is handled internally via these MIDI
“virtual tracks,” leaving the four digi-
tal audio tracks open to record live
vocals, guitars, or anything you want.
For example, the Pocketstudio
lets you select a background style
(like “hard rock,” “jazz,” or “country”)
that’s not a specifi c song. This ac-
companiment isn’t a recording...it’s
actually playing the drums, bass,
keyboards and other instruments in
real time through its internal syn-
thesizer. It’s not quite a “sequencer”
(where you’d have to program every
single drum and every note of every
chord), but it’s much more than just
a sequence playback device.
Growing into songwriting.
Most people get interested in
multitrack recording equipment to
help them with songwriting and
arranging. Songwriters have a lot
of things to struggle with, and just
having a drum beat to play with can
be a big help. Add a bass part and a
keyboard part playing open, general
arrangements, and it’s easier to start
improvising a melody to those words
you jotted down on a napkin last
night. The Pocketstudio
5
even pro-
vides a headset mic and can run on
batteries so you can work on lyrics
and melodies while you’re walking
down a country road.
New songs don’t always fi t into
pre-established beats, keys and
arrangements. This is where the
Pocketstudio goes beyond a
“beat box” or “auto-arrang-
er.” You can change the key,
harmonies and structure
of any arrangement
after its initial built-
in style has inspired
you. As long as you
understand the dif-
ference between a C
major chord and an
E minor chord, you can program the
Pocketstudio to play different chords
than what came in the “standard”
arrangement at any point.
Digital recording with no
moving parts.
The Pocketstudio records its au-
dio tracks onto Compact Flash cards
instead of tape. A 32 MB card is sup-
plied, which gives you about 10 min-
utes of 4-track recording plus 10 min-
utes of 2-track mixdown time, and
you can double or quadruple that
time with larger cards available at
electronics and offi ce supply stores.
The sound quality is very good,
competitive with the best cassette
recorders and similar to commercial
MP3 units. Recording onto solid-
state memory cards is trouble-free
and allows nonlinear editing with
simple copy and paste commands.
There are built-in effects (like reverb,
distortion, chorus) and even a guitar
tuner!
Basic Pocketstudio
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connections.