joesjamblog

New Line6 FAQ page

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:01:00 +0000

Line6Andy has posted a new set of FAQs to the Documents tab of the Spider Jam forum. These answer a lot of the basic questions that crop up time and time again and were badly needed. Well done Andy!

Faking multitracking on a Spider Jam

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:27:00 +0000

If you use SAVE REC MIX AS WAV TO CARD on a Spider Jam or JM4 Looper, all your tracks are mixed down into a single, mono track. If you subsequently want to edit individual tracks, you are stuck - unless...

There is another way that works very well with Mac GarageBand (but should work with any digital audio editor) and gives the Spider Jam, a multi-tracking facility too.

If you make a recording on the Spider Jam - say Guitar, backing track, Mic or lead, bass, drums, you can save the three tracks as individual WAV files by doing the SAVE REC MIX AS WAV TO CARD thing THREE times with the appropriate PLAYBACK levels turned full up and off eg

Track 1
Song/Drums 100%
Guitar 0%
Mic/Aux/Wav 0%

Track 2
Song/Drums 0%
Guitar 100%
Mic/Aux/Wav 0%

Track 3
Song/Drums 0%
Guitar 0%
Mic/Aux/Wav 100%

Then if you drag these three WAV tracks into separate tracks in GarageBand (or import them as individual tracks), you will have a three track recording in (near) perfect sync. I say 'near' because there might be a miniscule difference in phase, but it's not audible.

You can then edit each track for level, eg, add effects and you can add further tracks by the direct injection method (instrument into USB box). You could do a fade out at the end or, in GarageBand, add one of drum endings on another track and cross fade from the SJ drums to the GB drums.

Learning curve

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:26:00 +0000

When the box arrives in the post, I can never wait to get something open, hooked up and going within minutes. For guitars, effects and most amps there is rarely anything that can go wrong and as for manuals - meh, who needs them!

If you do this with a Spider Jam or JM4 Looper, you could be disappointed at the first switch on. Both devices are complicated and have fairly steep learning curves, if you want to get the best out of them. Unfortunately, the manuals shipped with these products are only helpful up to a point. Both have additional Advanced User Guides and FAQs which are only available as downloads from http://line6.com/support/manuals/ - even there, it is not obvious where to get them. Spider Jam is under the Spider lll heading and the JM4 under Stompbox Modelers.

Take the trouble to read BOTH these manuals and you will be rewarded many times over!

TC-HELICON Voicetone Harmony-G

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:09:00 +0000

I've done a review of this fantastic little vocal harmony pedal over at mymojo.us. It works very well with a Spider Jam going into the mic and guitar channels simultaneously.

Spider Jam and JM4 Looper review

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:02:00 +0000

I've just done a comparative review of the Spider Jam and JM4 Looper for mymojo.us. This is a great new site for guitarists!

Spider Jam/JM4 Looper Tone Sharing

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:08:00 +0000

There is no provision to saves tones to SD card in a Spider Jam or JM4 Looper however, tones are saved with .JAM files if you have RECORDINGS SET TONE switched to ON in the SETTINGS/TONE menu. If you make a short recording (5 seconds seems to be the shortest possible) and save that to SD card, the tone settings for that loop will be reinstated when reloaded and can be saved as a custom preset tone. A neat way to get round the shortcoming.

I am hosting a repository of shared tones on this site at http://www.joesjamblog.com/tones.html where you will also find full instructions for saving tones and sharing them.

Firmware updating steps

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:22:00 +0000

The firmware updating process still seems to confuse a lot of people so I've expanded the firmware updating section to a full, step by step tutorial highlighting some of the problems that crop up from time to time and suggesting some resolutions.

Recording MP3s

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:17:00 +0000

A new tutorial explains how to record backing tracks from your MP3 player or computer straight into a Spider Jam or JM4 Looper without the hassle of file conversions.

Jam2Wav installer

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:59:00 +0000

The Windows version of my Jam2Wav utility now includes a Setup progam to put everything in the right place and a short Readme file.

Troubleshooting

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:10:00 +0000

Hiss, hum and all that jazz. A new troubleshooting section covers most of the problems you are likely to encounter with a Spider Jam or JM4 Looper and offers some fixes.

The amp that Fender never made!

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Here is a little article about an amp I made myself from old Fender schematics.

Tones from clean to insane

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:44:00 +0000

This is a very useful PDF file, compiled by Bob Farmer, that you can download and print. It lists all the built-in tones going from the cleanest to the most distorted and provides spaces for you to add your own settings and notes.

Tips for Mac users

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:41:00 +0000

For the most part, using a Spider Jam or JM4 Looper with a Mac is simple and straightforward. Here are a few tips and a rather important bug warning.

Search Engine

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:11:00 +0000

I've added a Custom Google Search at the bottom of the Home page that will find any word or term on the joesjamblog site. You can also search the rest of the Web by clicking on 'Web Search' on the results page but you will have to be more specific about your search criteria. Remember: to search for phrases, you should enclose them in double quotes e.g. "Spider Jam" "custom tones"

New Line 6 Forums

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:06:00 +0000

New forums were launched today for all Line6 products. The old forums are archived in read only format for a limited time. Links to new and old forums are now on the links page - http://www.joesjamblog.com/input.html

Spider Jam buzzing faceplates

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 13:20:00 +0000

By all accounts, quite a common problem. The chassis vibrates agains the cabinet, especially on low notes. There is already some dampening foam along the edge of the chassis but it might not be making tight enough contact so the solution is to add an extra strip of foam or even cardboard. If you are happy to open up your amplifier, the instructions are here - http://www.joesjamblog.com/tech.html

How much memory?

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:51:00 +0000

A one minute long mono WAV uses approximately 5 Mb of memory or disk space. WAV files are uncompressed so they are quite large. A stereo WAV file would be twice that size!

The Spider Jam/JM4 Looper have about 150 Mb of usuable internal memory (30 minutes if you delete the Demo songs).

A 2 Gb SD card, can hold about 400 minutes worth of music in mono WAV format.

Jam2Wav utility

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:50:00 +0000

I've written a little utility that converts Spider Jam and JM4 Looper .JAM files to .WAV format. It's called Jam2Wav and works by simple drag and drop. You can do one JAM file at a time or drag a whole bunch of them at once and it saves them wherever you like - onto your computer or back to an SD card

It is available for Windows and Mac OS X here.

Comments welcome.

Site LCD screen

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:25:00 +0000

I've made the items in the LCD screen (in the interface) into clickable links for easier navigation.

Mod - Adding an internal power strip

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:58:00 +0000

Adding an internal power strip to your Spider Jam can help tidy-up all those effects pedal power supplies.

Spider Jam Tips and Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:22:00 +0000

I've added a new section that has tips on managing SD cards and on using external effects pedals with the Spider Jam.

GuitarPort

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:04:00 +0000

Got a Line 6 GuitarPort today. The plan is to marry it up with the Spider Jam and I've already tried it briefly in the CD/MP3 input and it sounds really good. I'm having problems with the GearBox software though. It won't recognise tracks that I've downloaded from the GuitarPort site.

Making reliable mono WAV files for the Spider Jam

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:21:00 +0000

I've done a tutorial on 'Making reliable mono WAV files for the Spider Jam' using iTunes here...

Recording tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:18:00 +0000

Today I added a tutorial on multi-track recording to the HELP/TUTORIALS section.

Everyday Blues 2

noreply@blogger.com (Joe) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:08:00 +0000

Okay, sussed it. There is a Bb13th in there at the end of the first 4 bars. The rest of the chords are fairly standard. - Here they are.