Literature Review
A review of the literature and customer reviews on the Internet yields an abundance of comments. After reviewing a number of these a pattern of problems begins to revealed. This is summarized below:
- The sound quality is not great, but certainly good enough for practice. There is a rapid deterioration when music is slowed. The sound is described as jerky, garbled, and underwater.
- The trainer units must be connected to a computer; they are supposed to be plug and play, but they can have problems booting up, they freeze up, and the on/off button is difficult to use. On a scale of 1 to 10 the average reliability factor given my customers seems to be around 5.
- They do not allow the saving of loop points. So if want to practice a song again tomorrow, you must relocated and re-set the loop points.
- There is a problem with them cutting off the last few notes of a song
- The MP models play ONLY mp3 files. The CD models play only CD's. Moreover, the CD models will only play original disc's not disc's that you might burn yourself.
Song Surgeon Comparison
Song Surgeon is a software product price at around $69. Song Surgeon changes the tempo, pitch, allows you to create (and save) practice loops, has EQ adjustment, a vocal reduction function, and allows the use of either CD's or ANY of he major file formats, including .wav, .mp3, .mp4, .wma.
Song Surgeon has a simple graphical interface, with no drop-down menus. It also has a wav form window which enables you to easily and precisely set the beginning and ending loop points. Sound quality is markedly improved when compared to a Tascam, though sound quality will deteriorate as the tempo change increases.
Song Surgeon can take the place of one or all five of the Tascam units listed at the top of this article because Song Surgeon does not limit use to a CD or particular file format or to a specific instrument. In fact, Song Surgeon is used by musicians of all stripes. While guitarists are the largest group of users, drummers, keyboard players, violinists, fiddle players, harmonica players, etc all are using Song Surgeon. Similarly the genre of music makes no difference.
The comparison table below highlights the difference between Song Surgeon and the Tascam Trainer products.
| Feature |
Tascam |
Song Surgeon |
| Sound Quality |
Fair |
Good |
| Tempo Change Range |
+16 to –50 % |
+400 to - 95% |
| Pitch Change |
+/- 6 semi-tones |
+/- 24 semi-tones |
| Vocal Cancellation |
Yes |
Yes |
| File formats Either |
Mp3 or Cd's |
CD's, mp3,mp4, wav, wma |
| Loops Continuously |
No |
Yes |
| Allows Saving of Loops |
Yes |
Yes |
| Retail Price |
$119-299 |
$69-$79 |
| Guarantee |
Vendor specific 30-60 days |
90 day, 100% Money Back |
| Customer Service |
Yes |
Yes |
The slow down the music approach is an extremely valuable tool for musicians. By slowing a song, riff or solo the individual notes that are being played can be heard. Not only can they be heard but the subtle nuances of HOW a note is being played can also be determined. Practice loops can be created for segments of songs that have been slowed down that allow musicians to play along at the reduced speed helping them to master a song or a solo more quickly than they otherwise would be able.
Learn More About Song Surgeon
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Mike Says:
November 23, 2008 (Sunday) at 6:24 PM
Here's my two cents. I love Song Surgeon period. When I first downloaded your program I was in desperate need of a easy looping device. My Tascam CD-GT1 Mkll was not getting the job done. Whenever I slowed the guitar part down the recorder made an underwater warble sound that got in the way of learning the piece of music. Also, what I really wanted and needed was a small loop of the intro, middle and end sections of the song.
Trying to make a loop on the tascam was a real pain let alone create and save three seperate parts. Forget it. I'd rather go back to my tape recorder.
Then one night in pure desperation I went searching for a software product that my do what I needed. I thank my lucky stars that your program was at the top of my internet search. After reading all about the Song Surgeon I decided to take the plunge and I pulled the trigger on your product. Was I ever amazed. Within minutes I figured out how to loop the song I was working on. I created and saved the intro, middle solo and the outro all on seperate retriveable loops that I created. And the sound quality was much better than the Tascam. No under water warble sounds.
Oh yeah, I sold my Tascam on eBay the next day. Now I tell everyone I know about your product even my friend who purchased the new Tascam digital mp3 player. His sounded just as poor as my Tascam CD-GT1 Mk ll.
Andrew Says:
January 16, 2009 (Friday) 10:08 am
I own and have used the Tascam Guitar Trainer. Personally I much prefer Song Surgeon, for at least two reasons. First I get most of my tunes through i Tunes which means I download them and can then load them directly into SS. With Guitar Trainer I have to burn a disc and even then it doesn't work because Guitar Trainer will only read original discs not burned CD's. Secondly SS is so easy to use compared to GT.
brandon Says:
October 2nd, 2008 (Thu) at 09:23 am
Actually, i'm a beginning guitar player, an ok bass player, and a pretty good drummer- but i know i could use some work on all three. song surgeon sounds like the perfect learning tool. i've read about it for months, and it sounds like a great product- sure beats paying close to $300 for a tascam unit that does the same thing. Being able to slow music down without changing the pitch is great, and would help me learn a lot, i'm sure!
Carol Brooks Says:
October 2nd, 2008 (Thu) at 11:40 pm
I am sooooooooo excited to register to win this amazing software. I have played with a Tascam 50% speed reduction guitar trainer, and with Windows Media Player features for quite awhile. Neither of these will allow music to be slowed down enough and manipulated, so that the notes can actually be heard, and so that techniques on the guitar can be properly reproduced. I look forward to the release of this version of Song Surgeon. I believe it will do what I need. Yours truly, cab
Robert Hearn Says:
November 15th, 2008 (Sat) at 12:06 am
This looks like a useful tool and much better than the Tascam Guitar Trainer. I hope to be able to afford one after the Christmas season.
Bob McGrath
May 21st, 2008 (Wed) at 06:56 am
I was thinking about buying the Tascam unit for about $150-$200 to do this same job. This will fill the bill nicely and for less $$$.
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