Tascam CD-GT1MKII Portable CD Trainer
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reviewed by Todd Stuart Phillips 
I am having so much fun with my new
TASCAM Portable Practice CD Trainer, the CD-GT1MKII. I just can't get over how many worthwhile, easy to use features are crammed into this little box. It can be an entertaining companion at home or on the road that keeps practice regiments from getting boring. It is a convenient accompanist that one can jam with or an efficient taskmaster helping to instill good, disciplined technique and that is all in addition to its most impressive features, which allow someone to learn new music off of recordings in a fraction of the time it used to take. This unit may prove to be the most valuable piece of gear I have acquired in a long time. I would recommend it for anyone old enough to take guitar playing seriously. It would be particularly good for younger players who still have the aptitude and flexibility to learn the music of their favorite musicians.
Wish they had this when I was a kid.
As a teenager I would listen to my guitar heroes and wish I could learn to play just like them. But trying to learn guitar parts from records beyond basic chord progressions was practically impossible for beginning players. Slowing down LPs or tape was worthless because it dropped the pitch until it sounded like that episode where the mad scientist chases Bugs Bunny in super slow motion - ". Bwun eee wroa bii-t!" Even during my rock band days in the New York City club scene I spent frustrating nights with cassettes or CDs trying to nail solos and lead guitar parts when we decided to cover gymnastic rock exhibitions like Bohemian Rhapsody the Sultans of Swing. It was no fun at all.
Now TASCAM has employed modern, digital technology to come up with their
CD-GT1MKII. One simply has to drop in a CD of their choice and at the press of a few buttons viola! The music slows down to a snails pace and can be reviewed over and over until learned precisely as it is played on the recording, all without changing the its pitch or key. Once learned, the speed can be increased incrementally until the student can duplicate the master on the CD. Had
TASCAM's CD Guitar Trainer been around 30 years ago I might be in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame by now. I feel it is that helpful.
To be honest, at first I was skeptical of the claims about this machine. So I decided I would put it through its paces in a number of ways. But before I get into the testing I should cover the basic set up and operation of the Portable Practice CD Trainer.
Features and Effects
The molded plastic chassis measures 9-1/4" x 5-1/2" x 1-1/2" deep, about twice the size of a typical CD Walkman. It weighs next to nothing and could easily fit in any kind luggage or gig bag, even substituting for a portable CD player. The CD door opens on the top with the pull of a tab. Because it is made of plastic, the door to the CD compartment could break off its hinges if someone opens it too far and the clasp that locks it closed also seems rather flimsy. So I would not recommend this for smaller children. Otherwise, it should be fine for anyone capable of handling it in a sensible manner.
The front panel offers, in order, a 1/4" headphone jack, mini-plug jack for Line Out, ten-point dials for CD output volume and guitar/mic input volume, a mini-plug Line In jack, a 1/4" plug for a guitar or microphone and even a 1/4" input jack for an optional foot pedal to activate certain options without having to stop playing the guitar. The right side panel has the on/off power switch, a CD Effects button (which I will get into later) and the switch to move between a guitar input and a microphone. The 9 volt plug is in the back, but the power supply must be purchased separately. However, it only takes four AA batteries and mine has been running for ten days without a problem.
It is the top panel to the right of the CD door where one finds the most interesting features. In addition to basic CD controls there are buttons to set up the various parameters and effects. There is a guitar tuner built into the unit and an astonishing array of effects models that can be applied to the input signal. A user gets two banks with five slots in which to load numerous effects presets. Each of the 45 guitar presets has 4 "components" and the 12 vocal presets have one component each. The components include Distortion, Tone, Overdrive, Compressor, Flange, Reverb, Delay, Phase Shifter, Exciter, Pitch Shifter, Chorus, Tremolo, Vibrato and Auto-wah. I was not expecting such extravagant special effects. They are easy to set up and apply and provide considerable entertainment value even when they are not being used for more serious activities.
The controls for manipulating the tempo of the music and fine tune the key and pitch are simple to learn and can be micro-adjusted so the guitar being played matches that of the music as much as possible. There is likewise the complete run down of time display options found on better CD players, so one can see the time remaining or the time elapsed of the entire CD or the individual track. If that weren't enough, there is even a metronome that comes in handy when figuring out the timing of complicated passages.
But the feature that I find most helpful when it gets down to the real value of this unit is the Loop. This allowed me to play the same short segment of music over and over until I got it right. Using the Loop in conjunction with tempo adjustments leads to the most bang for the buck; namely time efficient education and improvement of skills. It allows continual, hands-free playback as long as it takes to learn a lick and nail it down. A Cue button may be programmed to "flash back" so the looping segment starts over the moment you hit the button.
The Tempo settings are used to slow the speed of the CD down by increments of 4%, until you get to 32% slower and then it jumps from there to a final 50% slower. When one gets down to 16% the sound of the CD changes a good deal. There is a noticeable flutter to any sustained notes. When you get down to 32% or 50% the signal flutter becomes extreme, sort of like hearing music through a cheap, digital answering machine. And even in the upper levels, nearer to actual speed, there can be a faint echo as the CD is being fed into a time delay buffer to allow for the changes in tempo.
I was a bit under-whelmed when I first encountered this unexpected result; that is, until I realized that the pitch did not change! I was able to play right along with the CD when it was slowed way down and my guitar fit right in with the one on the record. A little bit of echo and disjointed flutter is a small price to pay for being able to tell what note on what string is being played when and then played back at a speed slow enough to play along. I do not care if the CD playback doesn't sound pretty, so long as it is accurate.
Learning New Music
The obvious application for such technology is learning guitar solos note for note. But how would it do when it came to learning complex fingerstyle passages or even whole compositions? I decided to leap right in by attempting to learn a piece I have only recently heard and never tried to play, Laurence Juber's fingerstyle arrangement of
If I Only Had a Brain.
It did not take long to realize the it was DADGAD tuning. As such, chords were rather difficult to figure out and I know I am not exactly right on some of them. But when it came to melody lines I was pleased with how I could figure out what Juber was doing. More importantly, I was able to work out the alternate thumb timing and how it related to that melody, even if it took some work. I would slow down to 32% until I learned the exact arrangement and then bring up the speed a bit. Even with a brain, there were places where it was surprisingly difficult to land the thumb notes while playing trills or hammer-ons. At such times I would drop it down to 50% (barely a crawl) until I got it, then played it faster until I would reach a breakthrough and move on to the next segment.
I did try some basic lead guitar parts with a flat pick and found that much easier, since it was primarily one note at a time. Some Steely Dan and a little Stevie Ray Vaughn. In fact, it was fun but would take a long time to be able to play it near their real speed. When it came to the fingerstyle playing, with two or three fingers on different strings and a thumb that was at times out of synch with what the fingers are doing, it was a bit more of a brain teaser. But it became immediately apparent how one could slow things down and figure out a piece of music just as it is played by the original artist. That is nothing short of a dream come true for many, many guitar players. If I had the nimble hands of a 15 year old there is no limit to what I might be able to learn with this thing.
The Trainer makes it possible to learn, but the learning still rests with the guitar player and how motivated they are. Players who pick things up quickly will benefit greatly from it. Those who do not have a longer row to hoe. Figuring out licks and basic patterns is made much easier, but learning extended passages or full, complicated songs will still require considerable concentration, patience and determination before reaching such goals. It took me a good hour to figure out the basic verse and chorus to
If I Only Had a Brain. It took me considerably longer to get it up to anywhere near actual speed.
It struck me that this is similar to learning from tablature. And that is when the light bulb really went on over my head. I do not read music, but I can read tab. Tab typically has the traditional sheet music on the page and directly under it are six lines representing the guitar strings with numbers showing what fret you play on each string. If someone has basic knowledge of the melody they can figure out how to play the song. So I went and got the tab for some music I also had on CD. I put the CD in the trainer and was amazed at the results. I had stumbled upon a powerful new learning method.
The tune I chose for this experiment was Laurence Juber's composition entitled
Along the Way, which recently appeared in tab form in a guitar magazine. It is a jaunty fingerstyle excursion in standard tuning, key of C, which has traditional, folky sections while others are of a much higher degree of difficulty. I would refer to the music to get some idea of where I should be fretting, then start the CD and slowed it down with the loop set to repeat a certain number of measures. It worked wonderfully. I was no longer groping to guess where he was fretting and slowing down the CD allowed me to pick up the basics quickly and then focus in on even shorter segments to see exactly where Mr. Juber puts in little finger rolls and arpeggios that make his playing so expressive and interesting. Not only did I quickly discern how to play the piece as written in the music, I learned how to play it exactly as he did, with all the intangible dynamics and panache. It still took considerable effort and repetition, but the Portable Practice CD Trainer never got bored and was happy to take it from the top once again, until I got it right.
There are still sections in that particular composition which are beyond my physical limitations. But in one session I was able to learn how he is playing some of the most difficult passages, even if I can only play them at 32% the speed. I will eventually increase the tempo as I become more proficient. If I never play it at his speed, I can use the metronome to learn to play it close enough to suit my tastes and ability.
The CD Effects button allows the user to set things like mono/stereo playback; which ear they hear the CD, the guitar or both; and even allows one to mute the lead guitar in commercial CDs (by identifying and lowering the center channel) so one may learn the guitar part and then practice it with the "back up band" of the original artist. I had mixed results with this feature, depending on how the CD was produced, but it is still nice to have in there.
When it comes to my main goal for this product I give it very high marks. The TASCAM Portable CD Trainer empowers a player with the ability to slow down music and make it easier to learn. When used in conjunction with sheet music or tablature it further decreases the amount of time necessary while increasing the over all educational benefits. The sense of accomplishment at learning to play complicated music in a much shorter time frame is quite satisfying. But that is only part of the overall picture.
Other Uses
Instead of learning from someone's commercial CD, one may record their own and then practice lead guitar accompaniment to their own music. They can even change the tempo and key of their CD to see which would best suit their vocal range before they lay down serious tracks and master their album. And if they play in a band, they could record together and burn a practice disk without the guitar parts, allowing the guitarist to practice even when the band cannot.
It is not necessary to even play a CD to get hours of worthwhile use from this product. The metronome can be employed for practicing scales. With all the special effects a player can plug in an electric guitar and practice or jam for the fun of it anywhere in the world. All they need is headphones and the Portable Practice CD Trainer acts as a practice amp with 45 different effects pedal; but it won't make the neighbors call the police. Since it runs on batteries all that is needed are headphones and an electric guitar to rock out in the heart of mother nature. With an acoustic guitar one can plug in the pickup and turn on some effects to become an instant heavy medal god or a cool jazz cat.
Conclusions
In this new world of digital modeling there are many lower priced guitar effects arrays. Switching from metal to plastic housing helps keep the cost down but it also increases the chance of breaking bits and pieces off. So I do wish it might have been built a bit sturdier. Also, low cost modeling effects well never sound like pro quality. But since this is not meant as a stage or studio worthy effects processor they are more than sufficient and a great deal of fun to use. They could have left them out of the unit entirely, but I am happy they chose to include them. It really is like having a practice amp and pedal setup that won't scare the cat. There are so many little things included with the CD-GT1MKII, like the tuner and metronome, which make me feel it is worth the money even without the CD player. And when it comes to the ability to slow down music so one can learn and ultimately replicate it; well, it would be hard to place a price on its value. If the will is there in the player the way is there in the TASCAM CD-GT1MKII to greatly increase their chops while learning to play some of their favorite music. Oh, and my flatmate now uses this technology to slow down and learn music her guitar students bring to her, hoping she will teach it to them. I am tempted to tell them to buy the CD-GT1MKII, but then my flatmate might not be able to make rent.
Out of 8 Notes on the T Spoon Scale of Guitaracity I give the TASCAM CD-GT1MKII CD Guitar Trainer an educational and entertaining 7 Notes.
TSP, NYC
