Author Topic: Tascam CD-BT1 "Bass Trainer" CD player device (Read 470 times)

effclef · « **on:** July 22, 2004, 10:04:00 AM »

Has anyone in the Club got one? How do you
like it?

http://www.tascam.com/Products/CD-BT1.html

(PDF manual there also)

The idea is you can plug in your bass and play
along with a CD, and at the same time have the
ability to change the CD's tempo WITHOUT changing
pitch (up to half speed slower) or change the
key if you like.

I'd love to hear opinions or if someone can point
me to a review, that would be nice. There are lots
of songs I'd love to learn basslines for and this
might be a way for me to do it.

Street price is $150 so I don't want to buy one
unless it really does work well.

EffClef

bracheen · « **Reply #1 on:** July 22, 2004, 10:59:22 AM »

The product reviews by users on Musician's Friend are not very encouraging.

Sam

senmen · « **Reply #2 on:** July 22, 2004, 02:36:37 PM »

Eff,
I have this particular Tascam and it is ok for doing your private rehearsal while playing along with a CD. I usually use the device flat, without any of the buildt-in effects.
As said, the sound is not like through a big rack, but it is ok for the rehearsal. Great feature is that you can slower the running of the DVD to have learn complicated licks while having the same pitch. It really helped me a lot after having not played bass for a longer time to go especially very deep into the John Entwistle stuff.

Many greetings
Oliver (Spyderman)

thg_knobs · « **Reply #3 on:** July 22, 2004, 03:02:47 PM »

I just bought one for use with my guitar and find it very helpful in stealing, err, uh, learning licks and solos and such. When tuned down to full 50%, the sound is a bit choppy, but it is still useable. I really only take it to 32% reduction of original speed. One thing you should know about it is that you only have 5 options for speed. 0, -8, -16, -32 and -50%.You do not have variable control of the speed. The tuning function is pretty cool. You can tune the CD to your instrument and play along, which is nice. The lame thing about it is that it touts all these great features: detune, 1/2 speed, effects, but only one thing can be used at a time. Also, the menu system on it kinda sucks. Once you figure out how it works, it is still pretty lame but at least you can manage your way around.

Hope this helps a bit. For the price, I think it is worth it. The same thing can be done with ProTools Free but is much more involved and is far less portable.

Enjoy!

jalevinemd · « **Reply #4 on:** July 22, 2004, 03:49:27 PM »

Andy,

I bought the GT-1, for my guitar as well. It's got its pros and cons, like everything in life. Overall, I would recommend it. As Roger said, it is great for learning more complicated licks. Built in effects are nice and I can use them while changing the CD speed. The menu system is completely counter-intuitive. Mine chewed batteries, so buy the AC adapter.

It's invaluable for late night jamming when the rest of the house and neighborhood are sleeping. For the price and convenience, there's nothing else like it. I say go ahead!

Jonathan

effclef · « **Reply #5 on:** July 22, 2004, 04:06:12 PM »

OK, here are the reviews:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=040722122528192148197011643412/g=home/product/reviews/base_pid=241110/rpp=10/

Some bad ones, as you say - but these are around
the following:

- AC adapter not included (9VDC @500mA) $20
- slowing down the song can sound choppy
- eats batteries

I find it hard to believe you must buy Tascam's
adapter (voltage/current/jack size matters, that
is all) and I doubt I would ever use batteries
anyway. Choppiness worries me, but I
wonder how bad it really is. I'd only be USING it
on tough rapid lines and most of the stuff I'd
like to transcribe may work out fine with just
the loop (at full speed) function.

Oliver, thanks for the comments here. I can
imagine it would help slowing down John's licks!

Roger, I downloaded the manual PDF and the first
thing I noticed was the speed variation was in
steps, and not very fine ones. However, five
choices should be good enough. Heck, half the
stuff I want to comp is reggae and that usually
doesn't need slowing down at all. ;-) Hey, glad
to see you are on the board...you have a great
knob business going and people are really taking
to them for their Alembics.

OK on the user interface being less than great.
Not a big deal to me, since as you say, you get
used to it. I'll primarily be using it to loop
and learn. I worried for a long time about
studying and sight-reading, which I still want to
accomplish, but I think what I would enjoy most
in the practicing time that I have would be to
learn and enjoy playing whole _songs_, which I
currently have not done.

This might be the tool to help. And yeah, I know
I can do this on a PC/soundcard, but a small
portable unit is much more appealing for this
purpose.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Keep 'em coming.

EffClef

thg_knobs · « **Reply #6 on:** July 22, 2004, 07:35:26 PM »

Thanks for the ice comments, Eff. If you ever need knobs for the Tascam... LOL

For what you need to do, the Tascam unit will work wonders. Like I said earlier, you will probably never need to slow anything down the full 50% and the step above that sounds good enough to learn just about anything. I have been using it to learn Steely Dan tracks and it has been great.

Let us all know when you get yours and what you think of it. Then we can start a What I Transcribed Using the Tascam Thing thread.

Later!

Roger

(Message edited by thg_knobs on July 22, 2004)

eastcoastepic · « **Reply #7 on:** July 22, 2004, 08:15:23 PM »

Andy,
I've had mine about 9 months, and will give it a thumbs-up. You wouldn't need it for basic 1-4-5 progressions, but it was a great help for me in learning, for example, the solo parts of My Generation. I only use it at home with headphones and the AC adapter, getting my parts 'right' before rehearsal. Slowing the tempo and not losing the pitch was a big selling point for me, and I have found it very helpful so far.
I bought mine on Ebay new, with AC adapter, for $150. I don't use it every day, but when you need to learn a new or difficult song for rehearsal or gig on short notice, it is a great time saver. Go for it........
Chris

bob · « **Reply #8 on:** July 22, 2004, 10:22:25 PM »

Sounds like this thing might work for you, effclef, especially given your interest in a self-contained, portable unit.

For those of you interested in working stuff out and willing to use a computer, I've been really impressed with a program called Amazing Slow Downer, which you can find here, for both windows and mac. I happen to have a pretty fast Mac, but have been very impressed with how the sound holds up at low speeds. Very flexible, easy to set up loops, etc. Don't use it very much, but it's a very nice piece of software.

harald_rost · « **Reply #9 on:** July 23, 2004, 12:34:55 AM »

IMHO it's not a bad toy. I only use it like Oliver for rehearsing at home and working out fast riffs while slowing the speed down. I find the manual not very good and the edit tool could probably be better for easier handling. But all in all I find it o.k. for that price.

Harald

David Houck · « **Reply #10 on:** July 23, 2004, 05:12:22 AM »

Bob; thanks for the link. This looks like a nice tool at a very reasonable price.

effclef · « **Reply #11 on:** July 23, 2004, 08:18:03 AM »

Thanks for the comments, everybody. Maybe this weekend I'll try to find a local shop and test drive one.

(Of course, if someone wants to tab out King's X's album DOGMAN for me, that would save me a lot of work, heh.)

EffClef

xlrogue6 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 23, 2004, 08:41:12 AM »

I find the BT1 to be a most useful tool. Yes, things can get a bit choppy if you slow a track down too much, but you're gonna get that with digital audio. Personally, I find the loop function more useful when learning particular licks. The bass enhancement EQ for the CD audio also comes in handy on bass-light tracks.

The onboard tuner is as good as any I own--if I was going to use any of my many tuners besides my Peterson digital strobe to set intonation, this would probably be the one.

The manual could be better, but after an hour or two(with occasional minor swearing) I had the unit pretty much figured out. Navigating the somewhat Byzantine menus was the hardest part for me, but I could pretty much say that about all of the menu-based editing I've encountered, much of it on way more expensive gear than the BT1.

The $20 wall wart didn't seem like a big deal, and shouldn't to anyone who's bought a stomp box, most of which also don't include an adaptor, which, strangely enough, will set you back about $20 if you buy one from the pedal manufacturer. Go figure.... (If you've got a lot of time on your hands, you could probably find a compatible adaptor for $5 or $10. For me, kicking down the $20 was way easier than finding an alternative with the right voltage/current/polarity/plug combination.)

The onboard FX seem like they were added just because there was enough processor available to do it. I don't think the design intent was for them to be used for anything beyond personal headphone wanking.

For my money, it's unbeatable--wish it played MP3s, but hey, you can't have everything!

gare · « **Reply #13 on:** July 23, 2004, 12:54:01 PM »

I'd have to go along with the consensus, its a handy tool. I picked one up last spring to cram/relearn a bunch of material for a cover band I filled in for. The sound is adequate, I find the efx a bit limp. The speed control is handy for liberating the occassional line or two. The manual is sparse, the menus arcane (I hate menus). But it is a good learning/practicng tool. Spring for the power adapter, batteries have a very short life in continual use.

Gare

bigredbass · « **Reply #14 on:** July 23, 2004, 11:40:28 PM »

I tried the TASCAM at a local store and was horrified how they've chosen to cheapen their quality, they'd have been better off to market it as a TEAC product.

I use one of the Raven headphone amps, and while it's built really well, I've yet to find the tone I'm looking for. I really would like to have a small mixer for this kind of thing, but I've yet to run across the right one for me.

I really have no use for efx in a headphone mix, and I would really hate to let myself get spoiled by being able to slow fast stuff down to hear it: What would I do live, where it's ALWAYS real time?

J o e y