in depth review of the Soundbrenner Core, watch for musicians. With tuner, metronome & more

[@BenIdoine]

I wish I'd watched a few more reviews before buying the Core Steel. I was super enthusiastic for this, being a guitarist. But, I've found so many flaws with it from both a conceptual and practical angle. Firstly, I went for the Steel so that I'd have a watch I could just wear. In reality, it doesn't feel like a watch I'd use all day. It's not particularly comfortable, and it's not especially well featured beyond basic notifications, time, and the metronome feature. The additional cost for the Steel is really not worth it. Now, the metronome - a pianist might have a different experience, but as a guitarist, I put it on my left arm. I then found that my wrist points down while fretting. This meant that the watch hangs down beneath your arm while playing. If it is then not on really tight you cannot feel the pulse as it is not in contact with you. Of course, having it tight on your wrist then starts to restrict your tendon movement - not great when you are trying to play quickly. So, I tried it on my right arm. Better, but still not great as it needs to be on tight. Maybe fine for pick players, but again not great for finger style if you need that dexterity. So, next I tried upper arm. After a length of time it either slipped down or if I tightened it up became uncomfortable quite quickly. Next I tried it on my upper leg. Same problem, it needs to be on tight to transmit a pulse strong enough to feel over your instrument. Lastly, I tried the body strap. The only place that felt 'useful' to me was to have it right on my collar bone. There it could be slightly looser, but I'm guessing it works because it was largely cooperating with gravity. Next - practically problems. The contact tuner is not great. I bought the extra magnets and made the mistake of sticking one to a beloved guitar. Don't do it - regardless of what they claim it is not easy to remove and can damage the finish of your instrument. On top of that the tuner response is below par. I have used other contact tuners, and all have performed better than the Core. I am quite technical, but still had massive trouble synching with Logic Pro on the Mac. Had to run through the setup a few times before I could see the Core in the Midi devices. After some teething problems I managed to get the pulse synching with my project tempo. BUT - I found a flaw. The temp sync ONLY works correctly if you run your track from the very start. Not great if you want to over record parts later in your project. I also found that if you have repeat cycle turned on, the pulse is suddenly one beat out of sync with your project. The delay might actually be an arbitrary amount, but I found between 80 and 120 bpm it seemed to be one beat out after each repeat. I've not tried it with tempo changes in the project yet. Another issue - the double tap to start is fine, but having triple tap do a tap-tempo is REALLY annoying. The number of times I have tapped once to wake the watch, then twice to start the tempo and it has read it as a tap-tempo and set my tempo to some random number. I really would like the option to turn off tap-tempo. I pretty much always want to pick a specific tempo. This is a really irritating and time wasting feature. Finally - Soundbrenner told me that they endeavour to ship from stock in your own country. I ordered in the UK. They have stock showing on their Amazon UK account. I emailed them before ordering and they said if they don't ship from UK they would repay and duties and taxes incurred as a result of shipping from outside the UK. I placed the order and saw that they had shipped from the USA. I emailed them again and was promised that I just need to email them the fees invoice and they would repay the costs. They acknowledged receipt of my email for costs, but to date have not refunded my additional fees as promised. This means that I paid a lot more than $300 - more like $460. This watch is worth nothing like that amount! So - if you are outside of the USA, I'd recommend not buying - they lured me in with a promise that they reneged on. In short, I'll probably be using the 30 day money back guarantee - but I'll be out of pocked for shipping costs. I think they should be paying that, since their product really doesn't live up to their claims, so this is a clear case of mis-selling. Luckily I bought on my Visa Credit, so I have some additional buyer protection - so Visa can chase them for the money back on my behalf.

[@kellz713]

In the same boat. EXTREMELY limited for what it's priced at. Also returning mine and losing out on shipping plus duty/tax fees.

[@Jerry_Frazee]

I checked the website to see the price. I imagined $300+ but surprised at less than $200. I downloaded the app to check it out. It can be used as a standalone metronome app but there is a subscription of $60/year. Is there a subscription associated with the watch. Oh, and does it actually tell time?

[@guitar-academy]

There's wasn't even a mention of a subscription with the watch. That is a surprise and a rip off, there's lots of free metronomes out there that do the job nicely . . . 🤔 The watch works perfectly . . 😃

[@alexander_engelke]

Is it possible to customize the frequencies in the tuning app? To 415 hz?

[@guitar-academy]

Sorry no, I don't think it is. 🤔

[@alexander_engelke]

@@guitar-academy too bad for the early music players :)

[@guitar-academy]

@@alexander_engelkeagreed

[@officialchristbahadurrai7576]

Wow nice

[@guitar-academy]

Thank you! Cheers! 😃

[@officialchristbahadurrai7576]

Wellcome

[@Twentykixx]

Interesting concept, with the vibrator it basically eliminates any dB problems during practice or on-stage. Wonder if it would be strong enough in the pocket and the battery life over a couple hours in highest setting during a gig/practice. Agree that the display is a little less than desirable. I’ll check it out. Thank you! Cheers and Happy Holidays! Blessings.

[@guitar-academy]

@@Twentykixx Thanks and happy holidays to you too . . The battery will do a couple of hours at full power, but it's hard to say whether it can be felt in your pocket, it depends on how thick the fabric is and how tight the trousers are . . 😊

[@tollmart]

Great review, theirs is no way I'm going to pay a sub for the metronome such a shame.

[@guitar-academy]

fare comment . . there's lots of cheap and free options out there.😊 kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqHWeXaIjZWHo8k

[@JoJoNewGamePlus]

There's also a problem that if you don't use or charge the watch for a month it just dies

[@guitar-academy]

that's a new one on me . . that's not good

[@JoJoNewGamePlus]

@@guitar-academy Yea when I say died I mean the battery is depleted and won't recharge.

[@guitar-academy]

@@JoJoNewGamePlusI think issues are starting to popup now. Half of the screen on mine has died so you can only see the bottom part. The time and all the important stuff can't be seen anymore. 😒

[@JoJoNewGamePlus]

@@guitar-academy that's awful oh there's also this problem I've had where the plastic mount is so fragile that if you move your wrist in a weird way. The plastic bar holding the silicon straps would break in the time I used the core I went through at least 3 mounts in the span of 2 months

[@guitar-academy]

@@JoJoNewGamePlusOh . . I didn't have that problem, but I used the strap to hold mine onto a music stand, so I never wore it on my wrist. 🤔