In the realm of my Griffin ear buds headphones, I was just on stage with the Scorpions, rocking out with massive, wall-shaking reverberations that shook the massive arena we were "in."
Actually, what I was doing was test-driving the new iGTR from Waves. It's a hand-held guitar effects unit that clips on to your belt, etc. Called the "personal guitar processor," it's like a small practice device that sends a nice and loud signal into two sets of headphones (so you can share your guitar hero skills with another). The major effects processed ever so mightily by this iPod-sized unit are "ambience," "effects" and "amplification." Under ambience, you can adjust delay, chorus and reverb. The effects variations are "wah," "tremolo" and "phaser." Under amplification, you can adjust for "warmth," "normal" or "brightness." All of these options can be adjust from zero (bypass entirely) to full on. You're "tweaking" the ambience; adjusting "speed" for the effects, and "driving" the amplifier.
I'm a totaly guitar novice. I know about three chords, but can only really play two of them. But when I first hooked this unit up (which involved installing four "AAA" batteries and plugging in the guitar chord and headphones), I was very happy to discover that the effects were so rich and drenched in delay that strumming the open E string sounded full-on massive. The sustain held on forever, so just plucking around the six strings and covering various frets on the neck made it sound like I was a master at the distorted guitar. I was reminded of an old Scorpions song as I hit various notes of the dark and ominous side. The song is a mesmerizing piece called "Animal Magnetism," which would go great for some epic movie about the slaves in Egypt being dominated by powerful tyrants that ruled by intimidation. Imagine a "GWAH ... thud, thud, thud, BOOM!" It's just awesome. Very little singing and lots of sustained notes of destruction.
So, the next thing I did after tweaking various effects and seeing how easy it was to sound purposeful, was to hook up my trusty old iPod to the auxilery jack, which allowed me to mix and "play along with" the Scorpions as that song rocked. My memory served me fairly right about the ominous and delay-drenched tones. Wow! That was fun! If I could really play, this would allow me to see how close I could mimic my guitar heroes and master actual songs.
I dig this toy and would rate it high for the pleasure effect. I look almost as happy as that guy snarling on the packaging. The only thing I'd like to see them add on would be a tuner. At $79 it's not too out of range for even the curious.