The future once looked like a high tech playground for computer engineers and quick-witted space travelers. Spock and Chekov commanded spaceships with obscure, touch-sensitive control panels and NASA scientists navigated the surface of Mars via remote control. Maybe that’s why futuristic guitar technology like MIDI, wireless transmitting, and computer interfacing has seemed a couple steps too complicated for many customers for so long.
But a funny thing has happened on the way to 2014: Everything has gotten simpler. Teenage indie bands have recorded honest-to-goodness hits on Apple’s GarageBand. Fans upload cell phone videos of concert footage to YouTube with the touch of a button. And moms everywhere play endless hours of Candy Crush on Facebook with friends on the other side of the country.
Technology is not the thorny realm of pocket protectors and phone book-sized instruction manuals anymore. It’s plug-and-play, compatible across as many platforms as possible, and highly adaptable.
For the guitar market, that could be a lifesaver. “The line between computer and music retailers is blurring,” says Orange Amplifiers product developer Charlie Cooper. “You find more music retailers selling more recording equipment including computers, audio interfaces, and software.”
While the grit and romance of old-school tubes and customized effects chains will never lose their luster for many, there’s no denying that the times have changed. Retailers would be wise to take note. “Now there’s a whole new generation of consumers that’s come up over the past 10 to 15 years,” says Pierre Abboud, chief operating and technology officer at Wi Digital Systems. “ They want to plug in the guitar, plug in the app, play the songs, and be happy. It takes them two seconds to do that, whereas it took the other guys a lifetime to perfect their sound.”
Abboud warns that holding onto the old guitar paradigm (and its aging practitioners) could be business suicide for MI retailers.
The New Frontier of Tech
Before you go scrambling for your reps’ phone numbers, though, maybe it would be best to simply sit back and enjoy the current state of achievement in six-string circuitry. As anyone who’s browsed the booths at recent NAMM Shows knows, the power and diversity that designers have managed to squeeze out of everyday devices like iPads and pedestrian-looking stompboxes would have been unimaginable a few years ago.
For those who’ve been hiding at the vintage shop for the last several years, there’s a lot to catch up on. Leading effects makers are operating straight off of tablets and even using cell phone apps, offering instant upgradability. Hardware like traditional stompboxes and pedals (like the Zoom MS and G series, TC Electronics TonePrint pedals, and the Boss ME-80) are offering the same connectivity via USB ports and cell phone apps in more traditional units floor units. Line 6 even offers a similar feature set in their brand new AMPLIFi amp, with an ever-expanding selection of amp models available online, beamed directly from both iOS and Android digital devices via Bluetooth (songs can be downloaded to the amp for play-a-long as well, while a remote app also allows amp controls to be toggled from your iPad).
Larry Fishman, longtime guitar scene vet with Fishman, has lately been turning expectations upside down with that company’s TriplePlay wireless MIDI controller. The device enables seamless signal processing, so that guitar signals can transform into organ sounds or even percussion sections, an ability that’s seemed like a pipe dream for decades (though many have tried). It can also become a trigger for samples and loops (pioneering guitarist Kaki King even uses it to manipulate video clips live). Fishman notes that the pace of improvement has quickened.
“Seven years ago, the fastest and best MIDI controller made was the Axon,” he says. “It had parallel processing transputer processing technology, which was the best of its time. Now, working off of a rechargeable battery, we have a processor that is 5,000 times faster.”
The TriplePlay is a notable step forward in MIDI processing, allowing musicians with little desire for complicated setup to get moving on guitar MIDI sounds in an easy, professional way. The high processing speeds ensure accurate sound processing and can even track pitch bends and notes played on specific strings. Fishman was also able to develop a simple program for users to run standalone or as a VST plugin to parse the multi-channel signal, “without having to spend hours of programming to take care of all those things.”
Tech is king at the trade shows nowadays, as countless companies offer digital effects by way of plugins, effects pedal emulators, amp emulators, digital pedals, and more. But often the basic act of getting the analog guitar signal into the digital realm is the tricky part. Many companies (Line 6, IK Multimedia, Apogee, Peavey, SoundTech, Alesis, ESI, Behringer, and of course Fishman, for starters) offer methods to convert the signal with maybe the simplest method — direct USB jacks. Some guitar companies like Ibanez, Squier, Luna, and Godin offer guitars with the USB jack already installed, as natural as bridge saddles and tuning pegs.
Wi Digital’s flagship connectivity product (the new AudioLink Pro) even goes a step further, offering any instrument multiple two-way channels of connectivity over a digital wireless signal, meaning musicians can use the transceivers and receivers to send signals to a live mixer or recording device, or receive monitor signals for specially designed earbuds. The signals it produces are then 99 percent compatible with digital platforms, from pro DAW systems to tablets, cell phones, and mixing boards. It’s a long way from trailing long, coiled lines of cables into overheating amps.
Meanwhile, at the Orange Amplifiers booth at this year’s NAMM Show, a snaking line of visitors gawked at not only the company’s vintage-style amps but also a newer product that literally combines the amp and a personal computer into one package — the OPC (Orange Personal Computer).
Charlie Cooper, who is lead developer on the product, says the OPC is designed to take the awkward steps of interfacing analog signals to digital platforms out of the equation altogether.
“Rather than being forced to use a standard desktop computer and then modify that for a musicians needs, we sat down and created our dream machine from the ground up,” he says. While guitarists plug straight into the same 1/4” jack they’re used to, the OPC includes a 24-bit interface with just one ms of latency. The cabinet holds two six-inch JBL studio reference speakers. It runs on an Intel Core i7 processor. “We’ve optimized the system with help of the supplied software and hardware manufacturers and we ship it, so it just works from boot.”
The Maturity of Digital Interfacing
Needless to say, the industry has come a long way. But the question for retailers should really lie in how far the consumers have come. Is the market finally ready to take on this type of full-blown digital integration with their guitars?
Most insiders believe it is. The key factors: convenience and affordability.
Erich Barto, director of marketing for Zoom North America, is betting on the public’s newfound comfort with tech. “I think it’s reaching a point of viability, meaning that technology for awhile was sort of mystifying to a lot of people who weren’t completely in tune with it,” he says.
Cooper remembers that Orange was originally content to let early adopters do the heavy lifting. “We dismissed [computer modeled amps] because they couldn’t get close to our valve amplifiers at all,” he says. “Some people here were worried that if we ever entered the modelling market that customers would think that’s close to how the real ones sounded and then dismiss our valve amplifiers. However, companies started modelling our sound anyway and some were getting closer as technology developed and matured.” He says the company decided it was too risky to play catch-up, so they partnered with IK Multimedia to build the Amplitube 3 Orange, which is included on the OPC.
TC Electronics are relative veterans on the scene, having released the first of their TonePrint pedals in 2010. Managing director Anders Fauerskov is in the position to draw from that experience in the online market. “At the end of the day, it is not about apps as a technology,” he says. “It is about giving the musician a better or easier way to work. We can see that most buyers of these pedals also go on to download TonePrints and use them, so from that perspective, I would say that the technology usage chasm has been crossed – it is no longer only the experimental guitarists who use apps. It has become widespread quite quickly.”
When Orange first attempted a programmable amp in 1975 (what came to be known as the OMEC Digital), they instructed their R&D department to “construct a computerized amplifier.” Cooper says the product wasn’t a success because the day’s technology for affordable features wasn’t up to par. It’s a different story now.
“Guitarists are now carrying smartphones and devices that can be easily adapted to help out with music creation,” Cooper says. “Now, more than ever, guitarists are experimenting with digital products and our view is that they are not out of phase with this technology. I would like to think we’re using newer technologies to simplify tasks that used to be very complicated or otherwise expensive.”
Gary Lenaire, who is group strategy manager for Boss and guitar products at Roland Corporation U.S., says the trend has fully entered the mainstream since Roland itself introduced guitar modeling in 1995 with its VG-8 V-Guitar System. “I think guitarists are experimenting with digital instruments more than ever,” he says. “At the same time, many digital instruments are mainstream and those kinds of products are becoming more popular.”
In turn, Boss’s new ME-80 pedal uses a traditional multi-effects hardware scheme and beefs up its feature set with web connectivity. A USB port on the unit allows users to connect to BossToneCentral.com, a web resource with free “signature tones” from artists like Gus G. and Marty Friedman.The collection will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
Generation Gap
Broad shifts in technology are nothing really new to an industry built around the electric guitar, one of the most significant technological leaps in music history. Take transistors. We uncovered a 1974 Orange ad that mocked companies making transistor amps. “No!” beams a proud representative. “And we won’t until transistors have reaches a peak of perfection, sold at a reasonable price and are accepted by top guitarists.” (The company was eventually impressed — they now run a large range of transistor amps in the Crush Pro series). “Leaps in research and development have made what seemed unlikely, become very real today.”
That said, while one might expect a generation gap to unfold among buyers as guitar products become more and more digital, the trends don’t seem to support that. Zoom’s MS-100, a unit designed for multi-effects power and online connectivity that still retains the form factor of a classic stompbox, did perform best with younger customers immediately following its launch. But since then, Barto says the product has steadily won over older customers.
“I’ve talked to guitar players who have been playing for 40 years,” he says. “Once you explain what the technology is and what you can do with it, they seem to take to it very quickly.”
Some see different factions of the market being tougher than others. Abboud likes to target the eager-to-adapt “pro-sumer” market when it comes to Wi Digital. “The professional market – guitar players, keyboards – they’re pros, but they don’t move fast enough into consumer electronics to integrate easily,” he says. “They’re very traditional, very conservative in terms of adopting music technology. We’re still using cables! I don’t know how long since that was the first thing we used to connect instruments to speakers, but it’s still being used. So we are trying to fill in the gap. We say, ‘You do what you do best and we will link you.’ They can concentrate on making new, better products while receiving the best sound they’ve ever received through our product wirelessly.”
Lenaire is in a similar mindset. “Change isn’t easy for many people,” he says. “Guitarists tend to be very opinionated [laughs]. If you look at the history of electric guitar, change was brought about due to a practical problem — namely, guitars needed to be louder. In order to amplify the sound, innovators in the early 20th century found that electricity was the answer. But when musicians began to perform with instruments like the Rickenbacker Frying Pan, oh boy, the acoustic guitar traditional ‘purists’ mocked them. That kind of criticism is alive and well today.”
Adapt or Die
In any case, the future of music seems unavoidably tied to digital devices. For a market that’s long searched for a bulletproof new merchandising angle, that’s not a bad thing. Fishman doesn’t hold back: “If you look at the sales numbers in the electric guitar market, it’s pretty damn flat,” he says. “It’s not going anywhere.” It’s no surprise a wide range of manufacturers from Ibanez guitars to Lanikai ukes are equipping themselves with Fishman products.Fender even presented their 60th anniversary “Stratocaster of the Future” this year complete with onboard Fishman TriplePlay.
That’s not to say there aren’t potential hurdles for retailers adapting to the digital market.
“Let’s say a customer purchases an amplifier,” says Cooper. “There is not much that can go wrong with it, but lets just say something does. Most guitar shops will know what the problem is (valve failure, blown fuse, and so on) and be able to suggest a solution. It is all straightforward stuff.
“With digital and computer equipment it is different. Customers may discover the software or hardware they have bought is not compatible with the equipment they have at home and then they expect the store to be able to resolve this. In order to be able to deal with these scenarios, retailers need to stock products from reliable manufacturers with solid support systems in place.” Many companies establishing products in this market, in turn, aim for full compatibility. Orange’s OPC, for instance, keeps as many of the technologies together in its cabinet as possible. Effects pedal apps tend to lean toward Apple’s iOS, which is far more standardized across products than that of Android products.
For some, it could be disturbing to ponder the idea that a customer can just purchase a piece of hardware once and then spend years upgrading online rather than coming back into the shop to browse the stompbox inventory. But the retailer who focuses on quality and innovation will continue to be first in customers’ minds.
“The retailers probably need to think carefully about this trend, but I don’t think there is any reason to be overly concerned,” says Fauerskov. “The ‘apps only’ are not going to take away any significant hardware sales and the apps enabling hardware are making products easier to use, which drives further sales by the retailers.”
If anything, generations of technological development around the world have taught us that moving forward is often the only way to go — the only business choice being to either lead the way or follow behind. “The emergence of the digital age promises us that change is not only possible but insistent,” says Lenaire. “Cars and guitars are similar. There are many ways to drive to a market and many cars to choose from. Old cars, new cars, gas cars, electric cars… and we choose our path in the vehicle that suits us. The daring, inquisitive, and innovative driver tends to get there in the latest model, even if it is a classic reissue.”
Abboud is more fatalistic about the trend. “So many of the great guitarists of the past have created their identity by having their own incredible sound and making the path so obscure that not many people can replicate that,” he says. “The issue is this: that generation is dying off. For retailers to continue to focus on products at that old pro level, the amount of sales is going to dwindle. These have been repeat customers for a long time, but they’re disappearing.”
