The TASCAM CD-GT1 thread...

[Dan Desy]

I bought one this weekend. Seems like a great tool for woodshedding without disturbing the wife & kids television watching ;)

So far, all I've done is plug my guitar in for about a whole minute to make sure I can play through it, but I haven't screwed around with a CD or anything. Looking at the "manual", it doesn't seem real intuitive and I'm guessing I'll need to spend a few more minutes with it to figure it all out.

So who's got one? Love it? Hate it? Any tips & tricks to share?

[daddycam]

i bought one a few weeks ago, but haven't spent extensive time with it yet. i started to read the manual, but didn't get very far. i plugged my guitar in and couldn't get any good sounds out of it on short notice, so i just turned all the effects off and plugged my POD into it. that was much easier. i did figure out how to change pitch and slow down the songs without too much problem although the controls aren't always very intuitive. looping a phrase is also easy and quite useful. anyway, i guess i don't have any tips or tricks yet except to just plug a POD into it. ;)

[Dan Desy]

Man, that sure took a while... :)

I know what you mean about the tones. However, I don't really care, as long as I get something usable while woodshedding. But if I had a POD-like-device, I'd probably use it as well.

So the slow down/pitch shift capabilites are pretty good?

[daddycam]

So the slow down/pitch shift capabilites are pretty good?
well, they are definitely functional. the more you slow it down or change the pitch the worse it sounds. it gets really choppy sounding. actually, i've only used the pitch change function once. i had to learn a song off cd, but we were going to be playing it in a different key. so i just changed the pitch to where i wanted it to be, so i wouldn't have to learn then transpose. it worked fine for that, but the vocals sounded hilarious! if you slow down the full 50% it gets real choppy, but you can still pick the notes out pretty well.

[aleclee]

So the slow down/pitch shift capabilites are pretty good?IMHO, they're far from perfect but very usable. I get artifacts when using the time/pitch features on mine but it's nothing so severe that I can't get by. It's mostly on the 50% speed setting where things get funky. I love being able to tweak the pitch of a CD to play along to get the song structure down.

I've never plugged my guitar into it (I run it through my PA) so I have nothing to say about its guitar processing capabilities.

[Dan Desy]

IMHO, they're far from perfect but very usable. I get artifacts when using the time/pitch features on mine but it's nothing so severe that I can't get by. It's mostly on the 50% speed setting where things get funky. I love being able to tweak the pitch of a CD to play along to get the song structure down.

I've never plugged my guitar into it (I run it through my PA) so I have nothing to say about its guitar processing capabilities.
Thanks. But I certainly didn't get it for its processing capabilities. It's a learning tool, not a performing tool!

[Graham Sloan]

I had been using the Akai U400 before buying the Tascam unit. The Tascam is a great learning tool and the sound quality after slowing stuff down remains good. But imho, the guitar processor sounds are mediocre. But I didn't buy it for that. ;)

[TRandy16]

I bought one and I'm not sorry. Like some others here the processed guitar sounds are only fair ( at best...) sort of early Zoom-ish sounding...but I also did not buy it for that. It's a very useful tool in helping to learn those quick licks that evade all of us from time to time.

[Scott Peterson]

I have owned and used one for a while now; it works very well. You can still hear things once you slow them down; choppy or not it is indeed usable. Better than most programs on the computer.

It replaced the Guitarport for me. The tones are mediocre as noted; but it is a learning tool.

[Old Fuzzface]

While the internal sounds aren't great, I've found a few things that made them usable.

1) Turn the input level down to get a less over-distorted sound.

2) The tone control isn't a continously variable control, it's a selection of presets. Try them all, one will work for you.

3) The FX modules all have a mix control, so it's easy to reduce/remove them from the chain.

Happy warbling,