Product Review: Soundbrenner Pulse

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As seen in Guitar Girl Magazine Issue 7

The Soundbrenner Pulse, a vibrating metronome. I’ve never been a fan of the metronome as the click can be annoying even when you change the sounds. It can be hard to distinguish when playing at loud volumes unless you have it super loud. But, obviously, it is a vital part of practicing, and I encourage my students on all instruments to practice with one.

One of my problems with listening for the metronome is that it can get lost in the sound, and then sometimes you find yourself more focused on listening for the sound rather than feeling the beat. I find that when I feel the beat rather than thinking about it is when I am best in time, and I find that works best for most people.

This is where the genius of the vibrating metronome comes in; you actually feel the beat rather than thinking about it, and it is not going to get lost in the volume of the mix. With Soundbrenner Pulse, you can vary the intensity of the vibrations and change the time signatures and where the accents are. If you like to have a visual, you can also program it so that the lights flash with the beat too. This can all be programmed and controlled by the Soundbrenner app.

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This metronome would be great for use in the studio, rehearsals, and in live shows. On the app, it has a great feature where you can store and customize your setlists and store the length of each song. You can also sync it up to other Soundbrenners so that you are all feeling the same beat. I would like all my band members to have one of these! Sometimes live, the beat ends up becoming too fast or slow and this is a great way to get everyone in sync with each other.

It comes as a wristwatch or you can also buy a body strap where you can then strap it to your chest, shoulder or leg. It is a little bulky in size and an improvement I would like to see is a smaller more inconspicuous version, especially on my small wrists it looks huge. It would also be good to be able to see and control what beat you are doing more from the device itself and not just from the app as that could prove troublesome if you have to whip out your phone to change something whilst playing live.

All in all, a great device and if I can get my band members to get one too that would be really great for getting us super tight for recordings and live shows!

$99.00
Soundbrenner.com

Sasha Vallely

Sasha Vallely has been performing across the globe for over a decade with bands such as Sash The Bash, Midnight Larks, Spindrift and The Warlocks, she has guested with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, members of QOTSA, The Hives, Portishead, Massive Attack, Cat Power, Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, The Seeds, The Blacks Angels and Jello Biafra along with many others. She has composed independent film scores and feature films such as El Gringo starring Christian Slater, directed music videos and produced and starred in the documentary Spindrift, Ghost of The West. www.sashthebash.com

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