When I first started making music digitally, I put everything into Fruity Loops. This is a digital audio workstation (DAW) manufactured by Image-Line, which was later renamed. florida studio To avoid being sued into oblivion by Kellogg. It wasn’t the most sophisticated music software of my generation (it wasn’t), but I still loved it.

my favorite The tool in FL Studio was a sampler called . edison. As a dumb kid trying to make hip-hop beats, everything I did started with Edison. Edison had the ability to apply low-pass and high-pass filters to old songs, turning them into bite-sized samples. I could spend hours just tweaking them out of passion and necessity. The Edison was a good filter, but not the best. It also required delicacy and patience to isolate bass lines and drum tracks.

Being a kid making music back then meant you took whatever you could get your hands on, and all I could get was a pirated DAW on the internet. What you get nowHowever, gadgets like JBL band box soloAnd, folks, let me tell you what happened: Things have changed..

I think it was successful

I don’t often review music equipment, but when I saw the $250 Bandbox Solo, I knew I had to give it a try. JBL’s latest audio hardware is versatile. Bandbox Solo is a smaller, personal version of Bandbox Trio for groups. bluetooth speaker It also functions as a practice amp, allowing you to connect your guitar or microphone via the quarter-inch jack.

Bandbox Solo’s standout feature is an AI tool that creates audio speaking “stems” for individual tracks within a song. This means you can play a song (any song) via Bluetooth and choose some elements to filter. There are currently three options. You can filter out vocals and guitars, or select “Other” to remove almost everything except vocals.

When I wrote about Bandbox Solo back in January, my biggest question was, “Does it actually work?” What I’m trying to say here is, without a doubt, that’s true. I must say that I am truly impressed with its functionality.

Once you connect Bandbox Solo to your phone or other device and start playing music, simply press the “AI Stem” button at the top to start filtering. Once you enable AI Stem, you will see three different options. “G”, “V”, and “O” stand for guitar, vocal, and other, respectively. To navigate these options, which appear in a super cool dot matrix display at the top of Bandbox Solo, simply use the speaker’s wheel to rotate and press to select. You can also choose to extract the entire frequency or only half.

To start filtering these options, press the wheel/button on the right side of your device, wait a moment, and Bandbox Solo will remove the selected aspects. It’s not instantaneous, but it’s fast. You’ll only have to wait a few seconds, maybe 3 seconds at most, for your songs to be filtered. Trust me, it’s worth the 3 second wait.

Bandbox Solo filters most of the selected frequency range and processes it appropriately. The results are usually imperfect, so if you select vocals, they’ll pop out here and there, but most songs will handle wide strokes. It mostly depends on the type of music you’re listening to and whether the AI ​​can effectively filter the frequency range that JBL is targeting, but it’s clear that Bandbox Solo is aimed at more traditional “band” genres like rock and jazz.

After all, this is a guitar/vocal practice amp/speaker, so that makes sense. Ultimately, not all songs will be filtered with the same level of precision, but Stem AI can be applied to Any Different from similar songs Features of karaoke in Apple Musicwork with largely You can filter only the song to remove only the vocals. For its versatility and insight, I have to give serious props to BandBox Solo.

Using AI to create stems becomes even more useful when you think of the Bandbox Solo from the perspective of its intended use as a home/practice amp. By removing the guitar or vocals from a song, you can play more effectively with the part you want to learn. As a practice, I subtracted the guitar parts from some songs I know on guitar and tried playing them, and it was a lot of fun. It’s not impossible to play along with existing tracks. That’s exactly right. But actually hearing what you’re playing and seeing if you’re playing it well is exponentially easier when you don’t drown it out.

You can actually export the stems you create to another device, but I couldn’t figure out how to make that feature work at all. I consulted the manual and told it to connect Bandbox Solo to my laptop or other DAW-powered device (and I did), but I couldn’t get GarageBand to recognize the speakers, even after tweaking the app’s input settings. To be fair, I’m probably missing something here, so exporting the stems might work better. Or maybe JBL will come up with another method. In any case, the ability do Unlike me, it exists if you can figure out how to use it.

Either way, the Bandbox Solo with its Stem AI capabilities is different in a good way from other practice amps and Bluetooth speakers I’ve used, and it’s even more impressive considering it doesn’t create musical slops like generative music apps. Companies like Suno. For me, Bandbox Solo is proof that AI can actually do useful and fun things when used well. Especially when the AI ​​sits back and lets you do whatever you want, like actually making music. Just imagine!

Is it better? Bandbox Solo goes beyond AI.

I’m a bar and in a box (Alice in Chains voice)

Like any modern amplifier, Bandbox Solo also comes with preset effects that can be applied to vocals and guitars, including clean, overdrive, and distortion effects. There are only six in total at any given time, but there are actually many more. With the free JBL One app, you can actually choose from dozens of effects tailored to different genres such as rock, pop, and jazz. Just choose what you want, download it to Bandbox Solo, and you’re ready to go.

Additionally, you can also use the JBL One app to fine-tune the preset sounds to your liking by adding some digital “pedals” to the sound. These virtual pedals include gates, drives, phasers, echoes, reverbs, and even compressors. You can also fine-tune amp simulations such as “vintage drive” and bass amps. This is far more than I expected JBL’s app to do, and what’s more, the simulations and effects are solid. For serious musicians, specialized pedals (or at least good ones) are preferable; garage band For recording, there’s no reason you wouldn’t be happy using this instead. And if you just want to play around with it and try different sounds or match it to the sound of a guitar you’re trying to emulate for practice, it’s going to be very difficult. do not Find something here that brings you closer.

There are many other features as well. You can also adjust the EQ, pitch, use the tuner, and add drum tracks to play along with. I love the ending. It’s great to simulate playing riffs with a rhythm section, even if the drum beats aren’t the most diverse in the world. Of course, these can be done in any DAW, but putting them on a portable device or in an app on your phone (the devices most of us carry with us at all times) opens up possibilities and makes it incredibly easy to play and create anywhere.

It’s a speaker after all!

Remember, this is still a speaker. If you’re not practicing with Bandbox Solo, you can also use it as a portable way to listen to Bluetooth audio. JBL is known for its Bluetooth speakers. Consistently good quality for the priceBandbox Solo is no exception. Don’t hesitate to use Bandbox Solo to listen to music on the go. Vocals are present, distortion-free, and there’s plenty of bass, and even though there’s only one speaker, there’s still plenty of room in the mids, highs, and lows.

Battery life isn’t great (6 hours total when playing or using it as an amplifier), but it’s not bad when you’re in a pinch. One thing that impressed me was the volume. Exactly, JBL gripBandbox Solo, the company’s beer-can-sized Bluetooth speaker, is small (1.2 pounds) but powerful at 30W. It’s intended to be used as a practice amp (one you play alone), but honestly, it might hold up well in a small practice room if everyone is at a reasonable volume.

When it comes to ports, the Bandbox Solo has everything you need, including the quarter-inch jack we mentioned earlier, a 3.5mm jack that comes in handy if you want to monitor your amp with headphones, and USB-C for charging and data transfer. If you just want to listen to music, there’s still a Bluetooth speaker I’d rather have than the Bandbox Solo (which I still love). bose sound link plus), but that doesn’t mean I’m slacking off.

It’s easy

For me, the JBL Bandbox Solo easily speaks for itself. This is not a practice amp/speaker needed for a band setting (JBL sells larger and louder versions) band box trio This makes it the ideal amp for practicing, relaxing, and creating at home. Bandbox Solo is perfect for people living in small spaces, has fun and useful AI features, and the companion app provides a much richer experience than you might expect. To be honest, if I wanted a practice amp like this, I would have bought one in high school and college when I was trying to figure out MIDI and 90’s Pete Rock.

At $250, we think the JBL Bandbox Solo is a great value, especially for musicians who need something that works in tight spaces, or who want to start exploring DAWs and making music digitally. If you’re like me, you probably don’t really think of JBL when you think of music gear, but if the Bandbox Solo is any indication, you might too.