JamMan solo Mario

O solo Mario

First of all, only four posts in and I’ve already missed my goal of posting something everyday. I thought I would have at least kept up with it for 5 days. In the end however, the need for sleep trumped the desire to post, so sleep I did.

Received two hotly anticipated (by me!) items in the post today. Just in time for the weekend. The “Super Mario Series Super Best” music for guitar and a nice little DigiTech JamMan Solo looper pedal. Must say that I’m excited about the possibilities of this combination.

Recently, when I was bleary-eyed trying to wind down at 3:00 a.m., I made a little journey down the Amazon (.jp). I came across the Super Mario Series for Guitar and immediately decided that I had to have it. Especially when I saw that it was “Super Best”. I mean I can’t imagine what could possibly be better than that! About 20 years ago or so, when I was in my Mario Period, many of the tunes from the Mario series burned significant imprints in my hippocampus. Some of these tunes are found, quite tastefully arranged, in this edition. This book is also available in the U.S. from Alfred Publishing however it does not include the CD which is actually a must (this must be why it’s “Super Best”!). It is beautifully played by Aikawa Satoshi on acoustic guitar doing a nice smooth Jazz. For myself, I plan on fiddling with the arrangements a bit and try and make some power pop punk version with the help of my Amazon purchase number 2. The DigiTech JamMan Solo.

The Solo is a pretty cool looking little unit. I opened it up and played around on it for 15 minutes (just before starting this post). Took me about a minute to figure out the basic functions. Nice, easy to understand interface/controls. Sounds ok too (44.1kHz, 16-bit mono) although I had no more than three loop layers going at once so far. Comes with (I think) 9 pre-set rhythms which are pretty cheesy but make for a good metronome. You can also import your own rhythms into the unit through either SD,  USB or MP3 player (using the aux input). There seems to be more to it as well so I’ll read the little manual tonight before sleep, which incidentally, I plan to do again tonight.

Perhaps I can do a more thorough review of the JamMan soon along with some sound and/or video with me knocking out some Mario tunes. If anyone out there has a JamMan or looper of any kind, please feel free to share your experiences. They’re fairly new to me but they seem like a great tool for exploring ideas, practice and general dicking around. Looking forward to playing around with it more.