Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
We Tell Stories
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Penguin have launched an experimental storytelling site using a combination of Google Earth and digital Storytelling. Six authors have written work especially for this medium. The 21 Steps is told by following the story as it unfolds across a map of the world. You follow the trail by clicking on the link at the bottom of each bubble.You then click on any green markers you see for extra features. Once you have read all the pages in the current location you can continue the story by clicking ‘Next’.
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Mobile Phones UK Enables To Communicate At Nominal Rate
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Bygone are the days, when mobile phones were used just for text messaging, making or receiving calls. These days, mobile phones have turned in to high end gadgets, which are capable of performing more than one task. With the present day technological marvel, the mobile phone users can enjoy imaging capabilities, music features, several messaging services like
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You Are Only As Good As The Wood of Your Acoustic Guitar
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Believe it or not, your sound is only as good as your wood. Each wood has a very distinct sound that is individual to every acoustic guitar. Like a finger print, it cannot be recreated, even if another piece of wood is taken from the same source.
This is due to the wood’s unique characteristics. Perhaps there are knots in the wood, or a slightly different grain pattern. Maybe there are some other subtle differences but in the end, it all affects how the wood resonates. Resonate is a fancy word for vibration, which is what wood does when you attach strings to it.
How freely the wood resonates will affect your volume (how loud you are) and your tone as a result of that. This explains why that plywood (laminate) guitar sitting in the pawnshop or music store doesn’t sound that great: The wood is too stiff to vibrate freely.
That’s why you may frequently hear the saying “Solid top”. While that may sound great in a sales pitch, the reason it’s actually important is that it’s real wood, not plywood. This transforms your tone to give you a much nicer sounding guitar.
Before the wood actually gets to your guitar, it undergoes quite a few steps. First off, most tone woods are either industrially logged. This is common for many production model guitars. Still sounds great in most cases, but there are some imperfections.
Higher end guitars have their wood hand selected. It is usually cut by hand and the select chunks are chosen for quality and then shipped back to home base for further processing.
Most manufactures of decent acoustic guitars season their woods for a period of time. This removes excess moisture and hardens the fats, oils, murr (gum), and other sticky googy things that are naturally found in wood. This seasoning protects the wood from warping and prepares it structurally for the building stage.
From that point, a piece of wood is then book matched. This is the process where one single cut of wood is sliced into two pieces. This forms two identical pieces of wood, which can then be used for the front or back of the guitar. That explains why you have that line running down the back of your guitar (it’s usually white). That line just covers up the seam.
Now, onto the woods. Here are some of the neatest and powerful woods out there:
Spruce - Spruce is an extremely strong wood, which is important for building a guitar. It offers some very nice crisp highs and a much more powerful volume. Great wood choice. Used on the majority of guitars.
Cedar - Slightly more mellow than Spruce and has a very warm feel to it. It has a beautiful glow and is aesthetically pleasing.
Maple - A great all round wood that offers a good balance of highs, mids and lows. This is something that many guitarists desire for an all round good projection and clean sound. However, because of this equal balance, it can also sound quite flat for the acoustic world so it’s often used on electrics. It is highly desired for it’s beautiful grain and lusture.
Koa - Known for it’s high range, Koa is known for it’s solid tone. It doesn’t have a good bass response but makes up for it in the high end of the dynamic sound spectrum.
Mahogany - Great projection and nice treble. The flatpickers dream when combined with the dreadnaught body type because it offers such a great response and tone. (more…)
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How To Get A Great Guitar Tone During Live Gigs
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Join us as we take a look into several different methods of how to improve your guitar tone during a live performance. You can also learn the benefits of using guitar backing tracks to help perfect your skills in practice and for help developing tone live.
One of the key aspects of putting on a great live performance is having a great sounding guitar tone that cuts through the mix. There are a lot of different ways that you can improve your guitar tone during a live performance to help you achieve a professional sounding tone that will leave your audience’s ears pleased.
One of the ways you can improve your tone during a live performance is to cut back on distortion or overdrive. Distortion is great but you have to ensure that your setup does not cause the tone to become too muddy. I have been to performances when everything sounds too thrashy and noisy due to a wrong setup. There is simply no tone at all! Too much distortion can make your notes sound thinner and cause a lot of buzzing that will take away from the rest of your performance. It’s recommended that if you need a little extra crunch on your guitar that you use an effects pedal rather than the amp settings.
Another great tip for improving guitar tone in your live performances is to use a tube amplifier. These provide a warm sounding tone and can really help to bring out the sweetness of your guitar sound. You will also need a great deal of wattage on the speakers too if you have playing in a large hall. Those small amps will not cut it.
The best way to improve your guitar tone when playing live is to remember that great tone lies in your fingertips. Developing good tone means you have to develop your techniques and skills. The best guitarist in the world could play through the worst equipment around and still make it sound good, because of his playing abilities. If you gave an amateur the best equipment and guitars money could buy, they would still sound like an amateur. (more…)
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Watch Live TV On Your Computer And See More While Paying Less
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Imagine that you were given a chance to watch live TV on your computer - all your regular channels plus much more, including a bunch of live sports channels and the hottest news from all over the world. If the idea seems good enough, read on and you may discover amazing facts and details you haven’t heard of before.
More and more people are choosing internet satellite TV over conventional cable TV. They have found that this is an efficient way of solving all the problems you inevitably face with regular cable TV and satellite services. Many have not made the switch because they believe that that is the best they can get.
Some attempt do-it-yourself dish installation and spend hundreds of dollars on the expensive equipment for the sake of a few dozens of free channels. Some prefer to get it installed (now for free in many cases), but have to pay a monthly subscription fee, which builds up a heavy sum in the long run.
Have you ever found yourself working on your computer when your favorite show or a big game was on? At other times, the weather will let you down and interrupt satellite signals. You must have wished at some point that you could watch live TV on your computer.
With the Internet having so many opportunities at your disposal, you can watch live TV on your computer from anywhere in the world. You can watch it being on a business trip, or even from your own office! As long as the Internet connection is on, thousands of live channels are waiting for you 24/7.
One way is by accessing the direct streaming that a few satellite providers or official channels provide online. There are channels that offer this for free, but with some, you may have to pay a small monthly or per-view fee. This is a good choice if you are a fairly light viewer. But this gives you access to a limited number of channels. (more…)
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