HardWire News

HARMAN’s HardWire™ HT6 FastTuneTuner App Turns an iPod®, iPhone® or iPad® Into a Polyphonic Tuner

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:10:15 -0700

ANAHEIM, California – HARMAN’s HardWire today announced the introduction of its HT6 FastTune Tuner app for iPod, iPhone and iPad. The HT6 FastTune app enables those devices to function as a polyphonic tuner, letting guitar and bass players tune all their strings at once.

The HT6 FastTune Tuner app is based on the popular HardWire HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner floor pedal, which makes tuning instruments faster and easier by allowing the musician to simply strum all the strings at once, and view the display to see which strings are in or out of tune. The app works using the iPod, iPhone or iPad mic input, and it can also operate by plugging an instrument into the device’s headphone input or 30-pin connection. The FastTune app can be used with a guitar or four, five or six string bass.

The HT6 FastTune Tuner app provides an immediate visual indication of which strings are in tune, sharp or flat, and its display can be set to either polyphonic mode, or chromatic tuning mode if desired. The app offers automatic capo detection – it senses if a guitarist has a capo on the neck and adjusts the display to tune to the correct chord. Adding to its appeal, the app offers a Drop-D tuning mode for users of this popular alternate setting.

“The HardWire HT6 FastTune Tuner app is the most advanced guitar and bass tuning app available for any mobile device,” noted Rob Urry, vice president and GM, Harman Signal Processing. “It makes the same industry-leading chord recognition technology found in our HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner pedal available to any iOS device, for super-fast, accurate, on-the-go tuning.”

The HardWire HT6 FastTune app for iOS will be available in February 2012 from the iTunes Store^® at a suggested retail price of $4.99.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 12,500 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.0 billion for twelve months ending September 30, 2011.

HARMAN’s HardWire™ Expands Its Product Line With New Gold-Plated Pedal Couplers and Five-Pedal Adapter Cable

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:14:17 -0700

ANAHEIM, California – HARMAN’s HardWire today announced that it is expanding its footprint by introducing a new line of accessories built to complement the HardWire pedal line and provide the same high-quality construction for durability and performance. The accessories can be used to power HardWire and other compatible effects pedals for use on guitarist pedalboards and gear racks. This new accessory line is launching with two new products: the HardWire Gold-Plated Pedal Couplers and HV-5 Power Adapter Cable.

The HardWire Gold-Plated Pedal Couplers are 1/4-inch-to-1/4-inch adapters that connect from the output of one effects pedal to the input of another. The premium-quality adapters are gold-plated to ensure maximum signal transfer and performance, and their shorter length enables more pedals to fit in a smaller space, reducing the size of a pedalboard.

The HardWire HV-5 Five-Pedal Power Adapter Cable can power up to five effects pedals. One end of the HV-5 plugs into a 9 volt DC output of an effects pedal, such as the HardWire HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner, and the five additional connectors plug in to the 9-volt power adapter inputs of other HardWire effects pedals, or other brands of pedals with a compatible 9V center-negative power adapter input.

“Our HardWire Gold-Plated Pedal Couplers and HV-5 Five-Pedal Power Adapter Cable help ensure that there are no weak links in your pedalboard,” said Rob Urry, HARMAN Professional Vice President and GM, of Signal Processing and Amplifier Business Units. “Lesser-quality couplers or cables can degrade your signal and tone, which is why using high-quality connectors like our Gold-Plated Pedal Couplers is important. In addition, our HV-5 Power Adapter Cable can save guitarists from spending their money on batteries or additional power supplies.”

The HardWire Gold Plated Pedal Couplers are sold in pairs at an MSRP of $19.95 per pair and are currently available. The HardWire HV-5 Power Adapter Cable carries a suggested retail price of $24.95 and will be available in February 2012.

The DigiTech® Vocalist Live5 and HardWire HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner Are Essential Live Sound Tools for Hawthorne Heights' JT Woodruff

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:22:00 -0700

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Hawthorne Heights is a band that's hard to pin down. While most bands stick to a tried and true formula, Hawthorne Heights has achieved worldwide popularity by mixing elements of rock, pop, emo, alternative, post-hardcore and more into a sound all their own. The band tours constantly, and lead vocalist and guitarist JT Woodruff uses the DigiTech Vocalist Live5 and Hardwire HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner as essential live performance tools during those long months on the road.

"We don't usually travel with a sound engineer - we like to do everything ourselves," notes Woodruff. "We are happy knowing how to get our own sounds, and knowing what we want. For that reason the Vocalist Live5 is one of my favorite on-stage pedals right now because I can control my onstage vocal monitor volume independently of everything else in the PA. If the vocals coming out of the monitors aren't the best, I can always crank up the gain on the Live5 and get a great sound. It's almost too easy."

In the past 36 days, Woodruff has had a total of three days off from touring. "The Live5 helps if I'm feeling a bit weak one night. It gives me more volume in the monitor to hear over the drums or the guitar. It also warms up my voice with its reverbs and delays, and sometimes even experimenting with distortion a little. It has plenty of control over the effects without being overly complicated, and on a bad PA night it's a godsend."

The HardWire HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner also makes Woodruff's life easier onstage. "I don't use a lot of different guitars for alternate tunings. I'd rather re-tune the guitar I'm playing. When I want to drop a note, the HT-6 locks in fast and lets me make adjustments very quickly."

"As the lead singer you don't have any down time during a set." Woodruff points out. "Anyone can tune a guitar between songs, but the HT-6 lets me make adjustments while I'm playing! When I'm singing and I notice my guitar is flat, it can throw my singing off, but now that I have the HT-6, it changes everything and lets me keep playing in tune all through the show."

Dependable performance is something Woodruff relies on from DigiTech. "I like the playability, durability and reliability of DigiTech pedals. Knowing that your gear won't fail onstage helps reduce your stress. I'm supposed to be having fun and I don't even want to think about the possibility of a pedal breaking."

As a creative artist, Woodruff is always looking for new gear to inspire new sounds and musical ideas. "DigiTech always keeps us updated about new products we might be interested in, and they're very supportive of us and other bands. In fact, I can't wait to get my hands on the new iPB-10 programmable pedalboard with the iPad^® dock. I take my iPad with me wherever I go. It has my lyrics, my e-mail and basically my life on it! Being able to have all my onstage sounds on my iPad and the iPB-10 and integrate them into my onstage guitar rig is something I'm really looking forward to."

JT Woodruff and Hawthorne Heights pride themselves on being able to reproduce the sound of their studio albums in live performance. "It is one thing to use a bunch of guitar tones in the studio, but if you can't replicate your sounds live, you will lose your audience. The DigiTech Live5, HT-6 and other pedals help us re-create the sound of our records when playing live - and on top of that we always push ourselves to be even better live than on our studio recordings."

"One of the best things about DigiTech for any performer is that they are constantly pushing the limits and advancing their products. I always look forward to experimenting and seeing what I can do with a new DigiTech pedal, to see if it can help me create a new song or make an old song better."

HardWire Pedals Deliver the Sonic Goods for Versatile Guitarist Phil X

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:56:34 -0600

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- Phil X is one busy guitar player. Equally at home live, in the studio or on YouTube, he has played with scores of top-name artists like Kelly Clarkson, Tommy Lee, Avril Lavigne, Daughtry, Chris Cornell, Tommy Lee, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper and more. Phil X plays in the band The Drills (www.thedrills.com), and his wry humor and no-holds-barred playing style have made him one of the world's most viewed guitarists via his YouTube demos for guitar dealer Fretted Americana.

Phil X can use any overdrive pedal he pleases -- and his mainstay is the DigiTech Bad Monkey. "Whenever I need overdrive, my go to is the Bad Monkey," Phil notes. "It simply does everything I want an overdrive to do."

"I have also been recently using the HardWire pedals. The CR-7 Stereo Chorus is amazing, the TR-7 Tremolo/Rotary killer and the RV-7 Reverb is astounding -- couldn't be better."

"I like DigiTech gear because of the quality, how rugged it is and its affordability," Phil continued. "It's valuable to me to be able to tell young guitar players what gear I use, and know they can actually afford it. I constantly get e-mails from kids around the world telling me how much they love the Bad Monkey, and asking me what settings I use."

Underneath Phil Xs affable demeanor is a musician who takes the tools of his trade very seriously. "I have a pretty crazy ear when it comes to effects. I know exactly what I like and don't like. The HardWire pedals blew me away when I first heard them. Sometimes I am looking for a piece of gear to be simple and sometimes I want crazy options. The HardWire gear does both. The pedals are simple, yet give me a ton of variety."

"I've also been able to simplify my setup," Phil continued. "With HardWire, I know I can get everything I need with one chorus pedal, one delay pedal and one reverb pedal along with my Bad Monkey, which reduces the amount of gear that I need to have at all times. In the studio, having access to a lot of sounds is like painting with a bunch of colors and textures to make the mood feel right. It's the time to experiment and find unique sounds."

"On stage, it's a different story," notes Phil. "There's no time to experiment with effects settings. Everything has to be ready to go. Live, I know I can just hook my DigiTech pedals up and rely on them, freeing me to devote myself fully to my performance. Ultimately, I want my two hands to be what entertains people."

For more information on Phil X, please visit: www.philx.tv

Photo credit: Suzy Q Williams

HardWire® HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner Now Shipping

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:44:41 -0600

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- HardWire, a leading manufacturer of guitar pedals, is now shipping its HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner. The new HT-6 is a tuner for guitarists and bassists that can be used to tune all six strings of an instrument simultaneously. Based on technology from recently acquired 3dB Research, a music technology company with extensive expertise in music and voice processing, the HT-6 makes tuning instruments faster and easier easy by letting the musician simply strum all the strings at once, and view the string display readout to see which strings are in or out of tune.

The HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner is a floor pedal that features six rows of LED indicators, one for each string. The LED display matrix represents the six strings of a guitar or the strings of a bass. Two buttons on the HT-6 Tuner's top display panel are used for selecting display modes (Mode) and tuning references (Tuning). The multicolored LEDs provide an easy to see indication of which strings are sharp or flat (red), almost in tune (green) or in tune (blue).

The HT-6 also features individual guitar and bass LEDs that indicate whether the Guitar or Bass display mode is being used. The Custom LED will light when the Drop D tuning reference is selected. In addition, the HT-6 displays the name of the individual note as an individual string is tuned.

The HT-6 can also be used as a standard single string tuner. The HT-6 is powered by a 9-volt DC battery, or an optional external Harman PS200R DC power adapter. The HT-6 can also power up to six other 9VDC powered pedals on a pedal board when used with an optional DC power adapter and a power chain cable.

"The already impressive lineup of HardWire pedals is now even better with the availability of the HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner. We designed the HT-6 with the goal to make tuning easier and faster than ever and users can now take advantage of this great addition to the HardWire family," stated Rob Urry, Vice President and General Manager, Harman Signal Processing.

Each HardWire pedal also features an assortment of tour-worthy accessories, including the green gaffer's tape common to pro pedalboards, and a precut hook and loop pad to mount the pedal to a pedalboard.

The HT-6 is currently available at an MSRP of $139.95.

Hardwire® SP-7 Stereo Phaser Effects Pedal for Guitarists Now Shipping

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:31:05 -0600

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- HardWire, a leading manufacturer of guitar pedals, is now shipping its SP-7 Stereo Phaser effects pedal. The SP-7 is a versatile effects pedal that offers seven phaser types based on popular new and vintage designs, including two-stage, four-stage, modern, boutique, 10-stage, envelope, and dynamic phaser pedals.

The new SP-7 features controls for speed, depth, modify, and phaser type, as well as an indicator LED and taptempo switch for setting the phaser's effects modulation speed during a live performance.

The SP-7 also includes HardWire's trademark extreme-performance features like true bypass and high-voltage power supply rails. It also offers true stereo inputs and outputs, allowing for stereo or mono connectivity and dramatic spatial phasing effects.

"With the introduction of the SP-7 we are continuing to expand the HardWire line of pedals to provide guitarists with the most comprehensive set of effects available anywhere. The SP-7 Stereo Phaser offers the ultimate combination of new and vintage phaser effects at an attractive price," stated Rob Urry, Vice President and General Manager, Harman Signal Processing.

Each HardWire pedal also features an assortment of tour-worthy accessories, including the green gaffer's tape common to pro pedal boards, Stomplock™ knob guards to maintain pedal settings and a hook and loop pad to securely fasten the pedal to a pedalboard.

The SP-7 is currently available at an MSRP of $189.95