When Native Instruments first announced Guitar Rig in June 2004, I more or less dismissed it straight away as yet another failed attempt towards the holy grail of software amp/fx modelling. I took the animated NI executive’s enthousiastic presentation at Apple’s WWDC as the archetypal marketing talk, and I obviously didn’t get a feel for the quality of the software through the poor audio of the webcast.

It was only about 6 months later that I decided to download the demo of Guitar Rig and play around with it. I had a M-Audio preamp for use with my mac, and my trusty Ibanez was right there waiting for me to play. Several months later, late in the summer of 2005, I took the plunge and bought Guitar Rig. A short while later, I received a complimentary version of Guitar Rig 2 — I was very lucky — as I had purchased the first version right before the second one had been announced.

I never expected to be so pleasantly surprised by a modelling application and I can now safely say that Guitar Rig has really improved my playing and studying experience with my electric guitar. Ever since 1994, when I first started playing the electric guitar, I always found myself dissatisfied with the tone I was getting from my gear. I stood there dreaming of the gear that I would ideally like to have at my disposal. Gear that would allow me to reproduce the tone and practise on techniques used by the best guitarists around. Unfortunately, being able to reproduce that kind of tone usually requires powerful, expensive head tube amps with large 4×12s, and a rack of effects, good mics, and the appropriate soundproof real estate to put all that stuff in. Yep, back in 1994 it was just an intangible dream. Even today, while I could buy most of that stuff, I’d have nowhere to store them, let alone use them in.
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Νωρίτερα φέτος, έγραψα (και εδώ δείτε τη πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα διάλεξη του Vinod Khosla) για την πρώτη άμεση αλλαγή που θα βιώσουμε τα επόμενα χρόνια στις ζωές μας, στα πλαίσια μιας κοινής Ευρωπαϊκής πολιτικής για το περιβάλλον. Στα άρθρα αυτά, καθώς και στην ομιλία του Vinod Khosla, αναφέρεται η τεράστια επένδυση που έχουν κάνει κάποιες από τις μεγαλύτερες εταιρίες καυσίμων, και ιδιαίτερα η BP στην έρευνα ανανεώσιμων πηγών ενέργειας. Και παρ’ότι θα ήταν ιδιαίτερα ευχάριστο εαν οι έλληνες εκμεταλλεύονταν, τόσο από πλευράς δημόσιας επένδυσης όσο και ατομικά, τις ανανεώσιμες πηγές ενέργειας που είναι διαθέσιμες στη χώρα μας (ήλιος, άνεμος, κλπ), θα ήταν αφελές το να πιστέψουμε πως σύντομα όλα ή πολλά από τα σπίτια στη χώρα μας θα έχουν φωτοβολταϊκά στις σκεπές τους που θα καλύπτουν μεγάλο μέρος των αναγκών τους αλλά και θα ‘επιστρέφουν’ στο δίκτυο ηλεκτρισμό, όπως συμβαίνει σε κάποιες πόλεις της Β.Ευρώπης και των ΗΠΑ, ή ότι σπίτια σε νησία ή στις ορεινές περιοχές της χώρας μας θα έχουν ανεμογεννήτριες.
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About a year ago, a good friend of mine showed me a copy of the < ?php echo geoHTML('The Classical Guitar Book, A Complete History‘,’The Classical Guitar Book, A Complete History‘); ?>, by John Morrish, an illustrated historical account of the classical guitar. I was immediately drawn to the book’s visual wealth and layout, with large pictures of numerous guitars from the past, but also contending designs of today. I was very impressed by the book, not only because of the apparent quality of the work, but also because of significant value for any (aspiring) classical guitarist: knowing the differences in the design of guitars, the challenges faced by luthiers and players all over the world, whether they are playing flamenco or baroque, is exceptionally useful, both technically, as you get to appreciate design decisions and adjust your playing to the instrument at hand, but also æsthetically and artistically, as you delve deeper into what it means to create a beautiful sounding instrument. Besides the immediate value of learning about the various Spanish and International luthiers, some of them of legendary stature, the book presents several scientific and practical techniques and design decisions taken by the luthiers and players of the years to improve the guitar and their performances.
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Yesterday, Microsoft launched Zune, it’s latest attempt at dethroning Apple’s iPod as the portable übergadget of the future. While it looks like a decent attempt, compared to the previous ones by Creative et al., it is probably a bit too late unless Microsoft manages to lure both studios and consumers to its media platform very zune (pun intended).

These past few days there’s been a torrent of announcements. First the anti-climatic iPod updates, with brighter screens and marginally larger hard drives, the return of the iPod Mini Nano in yet a thinner form and the opening of Apple’s long-awaited iTunes Movie Store (I guess iTunes is the only mistake Apple has made, as far as naming is concerned. Contrary to the iPod that has no immediate relation to music, iTunes is clearly becoming a misnomer, as more and more services are bundled into the online store). At the same time, the french magazine ‘20 minutes’, has published a cover showing what it claims to be the new Apple iPhone, also a much-speculated product for the past few years. While many have dismissed the image as an earlier mockup design, 20 minutes stood by its claim that it is the real thing.
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