Why convenience is so important (and guitar amp head switching again)

As home and project studio owners, we often yearn for a new piece of gear, or to learn a new technique or skill. But having an ergonomic setup is equally if not more important. After all, why do we have home studios if not to allow us to try out creative ideas whenever we want? No travel, no waiting.

We setup our studios so there are few or no barriers between having an idea and trying it out. All our gear is hooked up exactly how we like it. We have a blank DAW template song file ready to go. Favourite mic's are already plugged in, and we have our favourite chair. Hell, we don't even need to get dressed! How many tracks have your recorded in your pyjamas?

Our studio layout can be tailored exactly to our needs. Once we have our monitors located in the best position for monitoring everything else can be slotted in. Don't like bending down to setup a piece of outboard, no problem, it's your studio so you can locate it at eye level. Want to perform a vocal at the monitoring position,  just buy an adjustable broadcast mic holder and swing it into position.

As regular readers of this blog will know, we love the idea of having several amp heads and one speaker cab. It saves space and there are lots of affordable and brilliant sounding low wattage tube heads available. The only problem is switching between them. Each amp must be powered down when disconnected from the cab, and we must wait for an amp to warm up when we reconnect it. And of course there is no way to complete a quick comparison between heads when choosing a tone for a track.

The Kahayan 8x4 amp and cab switcher does not produce new tones. You cannot process sound through it, and whilst looking professional it's hardly a striking visual addition to the studio. But what it does do is so much more useful.

Plug all your amps into it, plus a single cab, then connect your guitar, and you can power up all the amps and switch between them at will. This is the ultimate in convenience! We can compare heads instantaneously.

No other 'dumb' device we have tried has proved so creatively empowering. Sometimes convenience is more important than new gear or skills.

Thanks for reading and watching
FairFax