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Rick
11-02-2009, 06:51 PM
I keep saying i'm going to do one of these so here it is.
so what is a jamvox and is it any good?
A jamvox is a small usb amp emulator, its about the size of a small car battery and weighs maybe 2.5 kg (6lbs).
When i first got mine, i bought it from guitarzone whilst back in the uk last november and couldn't try it until i got home, to be honest i think i would have taken it back at the time if i had messed with it.
So it sat on top of my desk forever with me looking at it and thinking waste of money.
When i first got it it popped and squeeked and clicked and although you could see the potential was there it just didn't do it for me.
I think the biggest problem was the tinny thin sounding speakers, Then just about xmas time i said to kaz i'm going to get some decent headphones for that jamvox thingy.
When i got home i plugged it in and lo and behold it said there was an update to dowload, 116mb later i was in business.
Headphones in and i started of with a patch called big lead, i thought whoa this is awesome, the main thing i had noticed was the clicks and pops had gone due to the software update no doubt, but this tone was just so lush: its the tone i've used on the last 4 recordings i've made and i've hammered it to death in the jamroom.
but there is more, the jamvox has a feature called gxt its written by korg and it removes certain parts of tracks, if you are willing to fiddle about with it you can get some really good results.
for example kaz singing on an extracted song (http://www.6stringheaven.com/showthread.php?t=6692) the jamvox itself like most things these days can connect to an online server where good folks have uploaded tones and gxt patches for you to download.
i'll post a short clip at the end of one i just downloaded.
it also has a library of music so you can import tracks and have a play about with them.
One of best features for me is the pitch and tempo part being instantly able to slow something down then say for example its van halen and is usually tuned eb, I'm playing a standard tuned guitar, i can pop the track to concert pitch, slow it down then remove most of the track leaving pretty much all i want to hear, it really is that good.

a couple of other things i should mention, i only found them a couple of days ago (because i lost the manual) it has about 100 drum loops to play over and it also has a built in metronome.

to sum up my views..
currently i wouldn't use anything else to record with now, its really that good and easy to use.
Now the software is fixed up it really doesn't have any issues.
its main use is purely bedroom, it only works in conjunction with your pc.
if it broke down out of warranty would i buy another, oh yes without question danny said to me in the jamroom, rick that is the best tone i've heard in the jamroom chorus cuts it and everything.

for recording its just so simple plug it in and get on it.
go and try one out somewhere, but if you do remember to take a set of decent headphones along.

bigdoug
11-02-2009, 06:58 PM
great review :thumb:

Rob
11-02-2009, 07:19 PM
nice review, I would have bought one on the strength of it but my pod sort of gives me all of the above except the vox extraction.

Sounds like it does what it says on the tin :thumb:

Rick
11-02-2009, 07:21 PM
pod has been put away!
for recording and ease of creating tones etc its light years infront of the pod.

Rob
11-02-2009, 07:27 PM
pod has been put away!
for recording and ease of creating tones etc its light years infront of the pod.

Thats not what I wanted to hear Rick, my powers to resist the force are weak!!

Rick
11-02-2009, 07:46 PM
check this.

you can just drag pedals in and out

Guitarpima
11-02-2009, 08:04 PM
Nice sound Rick. Good review. You may have me converted.

Rick
17-02-2009, 07:29 PM
another tone demo, this is a van halen tone.

not really playing anything, just kinda noodling in the style of.
Its a bit messy but sounds cool turned right up..

zombo
17-02-2009, 11:52 PM
Sounds brilliant I wondered what a clean chorus sounds like?

Great review Rick!

Rick
18-02-2009, 07:02 AM
up next.

ZappaFan
18-02-2009, 07:42 AM
check this.

you can just drag pedals in and out

Isnt that similar to the way Pod Farm works ?

Rick
18-02-2009, 07:45 AM
pod farm?

ZappaFan
18-02-2009, 07:48 AM
pod farm?

Use Line8 Monkey, and it's a download thats recently been made available, it's a free download too I think

Rick
18-02-2009, 07:52 AM
on it..

ZappaFan
18-02-2009, 08:03 AM
on it..

Just checked it's also available from the downloads section of the Line6 site.

Anyways, loving some of the jamvox stuff sounds great. Will the jamvox software only work with the jamvox hardware or can it be used with another USB or Firewire input ?

Rick
18-02-2009, 08:09 AM
jamvox is jamvox only, if you unplug it, it switches the software off.

tell you what though i think this is going to be really good fun, its downloading right now...

Gd1ynDWk51M

bloodandtears
18-02-2009, 01:27 PM
you bought it??

Rick
18-02-2009, 01:31 PM
nooooo.

Six
18-02-2009, 02:39 PM
Great review Rick :thumb:

Rick
06-12-2010, 07:51 PM
I've erm sold this now!

macman
08-12-2010, 11:39 AM
I've erm sold this now!

Why did you sell it Rick from your review looks like you were digging it?

just curious

Highway Star
08-12-2010, 11:50 AM
You know, I have one and it really is very good but... I just don't use it so mine also will go onto ebay. I think the thing is that if you only had a jamvox then you would use it all the time, I also have a UX2 toneport, a pod xt live, a roland micro cube a marshall stack etc plus access to hundreds of BT's so I really do not need the facility ro reduce (nearly remove) the lead guitar from a track.

Farl

Rick
08-12-2010, 12:00 PM
well when i say sold, it lives in the uk.
My brother in law has it, so technically it's still mine but i won't ask for it back.

What farl said to the other stuff.