Review: Magic Rosin® X

Recently, between being swamped by end of the year school stuff (juries, exams, etc.), I needed to take a small break from the site in order to make sure that I was not overwhelmed with work. However, over the next couple of days I am going to upload a series of reviews that I have taken way too long to perform. Some are because of testing reasons, and others are from simply having too much work and not being able to write them. I am planning on bringing this website into its own thing in the semi-near future but first comes school and my jobs/internships. Now that I have a small staff of writers, editors and a web manager I hope to start making content more consistent but I will need everyone's help. If you have not subscribed to my newsletter then we are starting our own next month. Feedburner has completely dropped the ball on us, so we have decided to start anew. Email "Newsletter" to Sulliadm2@gmail.com and we will add you to our new custom made newsletter. It will be once the month and will be easier to read than spamming every post to you after being posted. I will be updating the site soon so anyone who wants to pass by and join can. Anyways, on to the review!

Today is the first day of my review mayhem. As stated above, I've had a lot on my plate the past few months and over the next couple of days, I will be releasing reviews of products that should have been reviewed before now. On this review, we have Magic Rosin® X! Those whom have been following me for a few years now know that Sarah West (creator of Magic Rosin®) and I have gotten to become great friends as I have continuously reviewed her rosins. Just before she released her newest rosin, she asked if I would review it for her. How could I refuse? Free sample of the next step in her company and being one of the first to test it… I was ecstatic and I still am. However, there is a reason to why this review took as long as it did. I felt obligated to test, and retest and retest this rosin over the past 3 months so I could make sure I was saying something that could be considered an accurate review. I think I finally found a way to express my opinion effectively and clearly.

Just as a heads up, I know this review will sound very negative but it should not be taken that way. A large part of this review went into testing the major difference between this rosin and Magic Rosin®'s 3G and 3G Ultra formulas. If you have never used any other Magic Rosin® rosin, then click to check out my 3G review or the 3G Ultra review but the basic premise is the brand is made for all instruments. This rosin has kept the same quality and distinctive feel that many have learned to grow attached to but with some changes. They all are very smooth and crisp rosins and work fairly well on all instruments. 3G formula has more than enough bite for the higher strings while not making it sound crunchy but tends to be a weaker rosin for cello let alone bass. 3G Ultra has a better amount of bite for cello while not overdoing it for violins and violas. The problem that some have seen is it is not strong enough, and that is what the majority of this review will be centered around.

The first thing that was noticeable about this rosin was the claims on the site and from Miss West herself. As stated on the website, “At long last,after much research and development, we are very pleased to introduce MagicRosin® X, the grippiest Magic Rosin® formula.” When they say it is the grippiest, they really mean it! This is probably the strongest rosin I have ever used on my bow. This leads me to the first, and only serious complaint I have against the rosin: It might be too strong for anything outside bass. Personally, I use either Magic Rosin® 3G Ultra or Jade, depending on what I have near me. Jade is something that I see as being a too weak, while Magic Rosin® 3G Ultra is exactly what I like. The new X formula is roughly twice as sticky as the Ultra. There’s nothing wrong with that if you want more bite but personally I want a rosin that is a mix between sticking to the strings and fluidity. A strong opinion to hold but this is the reason I had to tested it so much.

In my initial test, I used my student Brazilwood bow. On this bow, it was simply too thick. I could not move the bow without crunching everything and anything I attempted. There was a flaw in this test: I was using a balding bow. It was roughly ¼” of hair, and some were black hairs. Following the basic principle of physics, the more surface area an object has to contact another then the pressure and energy from that one area would be dispersed more and thus grabs the string. However the less hair, then the same amount of energy would have to be disperse over a smaller area, causing less stability and more energy to be released over a smaller area. This means that I could not effectively test the rosin on that bow without rehairing or purchase a new bow. This lead me onto my next test: Testing on new bows. I had been planning on upgrading bows for some time so ordering them was not out of my way. Using fresh bows from World of Bow (review of the company will be available by clicking here when online), I rosined them with the Magic Rosin® X and tested them. I cleaned the strings with some bow tonic, rosined the bow and played for a bit. It felt really thick to me, sticking to the strings about the same as before. The only error I can come up with in this test was the rosin being to “fresh” on the bow and not really in the bow hairs, but I believe the coating of rosin on the strings would theoretically counter this but I will note it for later research. The biggest evidence came to me whenever I did my final test.

I decided after the first test that I should see how the target market would react to the rosin. This lead back to the high school I used in my previous tests on. I borrowed 4 bass players and 6 cellist in order to test if my theory was correct to an interesting surprise. The cellist loved the new rosin as much or more than the 3G ultra, which is what the teacher uses in his classroom. They applauded the stronger grip on the string but for them wasn’t sacrificing in terms of quality sound. From my point of view (that being the listener of this test) it came off as a stronger bite but not really any clearer quality sound. To me it sounded like it was a grittier but not enough to be noticed by the students. Plus in their minds, at least from what I’ve gathered from coaching most of them for 2-3 years now, louder equals better as long as it does not cause a distorted effect. This is not always the case but if you are into that sound then this is the rosin for you. There is one more thing I need to touch on however.

Something that I also tested was how this new rosin would compare to other bass rosins. Something that was explained to me from various teachers in South Carolina String Educators Association was they felt like the 3G Ultra was great for Violin, Viola and Cello but was simply too weak for bass. The initial testing I did of the rosin (which you can see by clicking here) shows that the students I used then felt the same way. They feel like the quality is there, but the grip was not enough to cause the strings to vibrate effectively. After noticing there was a lot more grip to this rosin, I compared it to two other bass rosins that are standards in their field: Pops and Carlson. They are on two opposite sides of the world in terms of rosin. Pops is a strong rosin that can become gritty at times but is more stable and can really pull the lower end out of the bass when needed. Carlson, on the other hand, is an equally strong rosin but can achieve a similar strength sound without the gritty sound. The cost is the lack of stability from the rosin’s formula. It can be very temperamental in higher humidity and that causes the rosin to not stick very well or in some rare cases stick too much.

The reason I bring all this out is the results from this test. The Magic Rosin® X came out literally in the middle for all the bass players. They all called it the happy medium between the two rosins. It was sticky enough to cause the clear and concise sound that Magic Rosin® is known for but without the cost of being temperamental or being too strong. Whenever I fiddled around with the rosin samples on one of the basses, I noticed the same thing. It was clear and worked well but fit as a natural middle ground between the two other rosins. As far as I’ve noticed, the rosin seems to be very stable and if it is like the other Magic Rosin® types then it should be very stable.

With everything else said, there is one more thing I need to get out of the way before I give my final verdict. This sample of the rosin is very flaky. I do not know if it is from the sample or the recipe but it chips a lot easier than the others have. Not enough to cause it to shatter from bumping it with the frog but if you have used the other rosins then it will be noticeable.

Other than that complaint and the bulk of this review, it is a great rosin. Magic Rosin® has kept their quality up high when creating this product. It has all the signature qualities: the clear rosin with the beautiful images inside, the lack of dust that makes it very friendly to those with asthma or allergies and the longevity of the rosin for the amount. The only thing that should be considered before trying it yourself is if you like strong rosin. For those who have used the 3G Ultra and would like something stronger then this would be worth trying. If you are a bass player looking for a good middle rosin between the previously mentioned then this would be a great place to start. I give Magic Rosin® X a 3 chunks of rosin out of 5 for cello and a 4 chunks of rosin out of 5 for bass. 

How to Practice Episode 8 : Don't freak out over a mistakes!

Hey guys! Sorry the page has been a little dry lately but final exams are just around the corner and I've been busy studying for them! I sense my older viewers are laughing right now but the younger ones don't get this at all but that's fine with me! Anyways today I am here to talk about one of the bigger hindrances to performing in front of a crowd or simply playing for your family around the holidays; the fear of making a mistake! This doesn't seem like that big a deal but it really does mess with your performance if you don't know the proper way to deal with this situation. Before I start talking about this topic, I wanted to announce a contest! I'll be giving away some Magic Rosin (3G and 3G Ultra) and some advertising space on here if you want to recommend your page to my viewers! I will post an official announcement after I talk out all the details and such. Also, for those who aren't aware, I do a vlogging series on Youtube and I am about to start a full video series on Finale! If you aren't aware of Finale, it's a program which you can write music in and I was thinking about doing a series on teaching the basics to it. If you are interested in the series or have ideas for me, then let me know by tweeting me on Twitter (@sulliadm), or join the Facebook Fan Page!

Now, have you ever felt very ill about playing to family or friends because you were afraid of messing up. Or have you ever been on stage to preform and felt stage freight from being afraid of messing up? I will admit that I had the exact same feel with my recital last Thursday and I got a good taste of what it's like to go through a mini panic attack from actually messing up... But there is a way around that. You have to learn how to continue playing after messing up. This might sound harder than it actually is because for the most part, it's all a mental state of thinking. You have to learn that messing up is just the way we are! We will make mistakes, but they shouldn't stop you in the middle of a performance. The big secret of music is, if you're playing to people who don't know the music as well as you do or are playing to people who aren't very "music savvy" then if you mess up then they probably won't notice. I'm not saying that you should mess up a song nor am I saying you shouldn't practice a piece and go on and mess it up! I'm saying if you mess up while playing a piece, then don't over react to it and either stop what you're doing or freak out on stage.

Here's an example from my personal life. For those who are new to the series, I am a freshman cellist @ Winthrop University. I've been studying with the cello professor there for a few years now  and she's been teaching me how to play the Saint Saens cello concerto #1 for around a year now. When one of the other cellist had to give a recital for the graduation requirements, she asked me if I would be interested in playing the first movement of the song for a "half recital" (a recital that doesn't count towards your graduation, but is more for fun and experience). Being the kind of person that I am (a little crazy but will take almost any opportunity to learn and grow), I decided it would be awesome to do it. I went through the usual feeling about the first time on stage "alone" would be good for my personality of being a little antisocial (which it did help). During the performance however, there was a disconnection in tempo in the middle of the song and we got off. When I noticed, I started to freeze up but I noticed I was near a break in my part so I kept going until the break and waited for my next entrance. After all was said and done, I talked to some friends outside who listened and said they only noticed my stopping because I was showing it.

It can be a difficult thing to learn, and there's not really a way to learn this skill besides experiencing it.

Review: Magic Rosin 3G Ultra

Before I start this review, I want to thank Sarah West for her sample of Magic Rosin's 3G Ultra (click here). This was unexpected but I am so thankful you sent them to me try test out! Now I have another review for you guys out there and thanks to a few anonymous viewers, I have a few changes to my post I want to see if it helps you guys out. For those who aren't regulars and would like to see more from the blog I will have a new post out over the weekend with a contest! So don't forget to checking in!!

Now, let's break down how I conducted my test. Like I said before with Magic Rosin's 3G rosin, I started out with the rosin the testers used regularly by playing a scale and something that they knew off the top of their heads and after running my absorbent microfiber cloth over their strings and bow I applied a generous amount of the Magic Rosin to their bow and they played the same thing. This time however, when it came to the bass players, we had a little debate over which was the best so we had to have a blind audition and I'll explain how that works later.

Since I was unable to get in touch with one of my violinist I used to test the 3G ultra I decided to not to test them for the time being but I feel that it might be too strong a rosin for them. Whenever I get a hold of them I will update the post with the results.

I got a hold of one of the violist I used to test the 3G and after we went through it I feel that it might have been border line between strong rosin and too much bite for them, but it all depends on the player's style and taste. The player and I both liked it a lot like that but I do know how one of the others is with their rosin and that probably wouldn't suit those style of players well. I would recommend this for an electric violist or someone who likes to play electric viola. I give it a 4/5 for viola.

Now, going into my personal range of specialty I spent almost a week testing the rosin with my cello and I think this IS the best rosin for cellos I've tried, which ranges from student quality to $35-40 professional rosin. I found this to give me the clarity I need while also projecting well and sticking to the strings. I ran this by a couple of other cellos and I was hearing the same results from them as I was from myself. This rosin is made for cellos except for students or cellist who use very sensitive strings. I give it a 5/5 for cello.

Finally, we have our tests from the bass players! I found this series of test (yes, it took multiple trials to get through all of the tests and make a well rounded decision!). We started out with the usual method of testing rosin and discovered the huge differences between other commercial rosins and Magic Rosin. The first is the clarity of rosin, which most are either gritty, muddy or don't give the projection that is desired. Magic Rosin went and not only made it clear but it also gave us a lot of projection that the other rosin's gave us. After a few tests like this we got to the point that we thought we were hearing things so we had a blind study between Magic Rosin 3G Ultra, Magic Rosin 3G, and two competitors rosin and acquired four identical bows. We went and rosined all of them up with some rosin and had a random person write down the bows rosin to when they handed it to us and hands down we felt the Rosin 3G Ultra had everything else beat. I give it a 5/5 for bass.

It is hard to believe that there is rosin that can be used for all four instruments but it really exists! And for the price of a few cakes of Magic Rosin, you are making a wise investment into not only yourself but your students if you teach privately or in public schools. For more about the rosin click on the link above. If you would like to follow the blog, follow me on Twitter (click here), Facebook (click here) or email me directly! I want everyone to message me by any (or all) of those methods above and tell me one thing you want to see changed or one thing you like about the blog and share this with a friend!

Review: Magic Rosin 3G

Hello everyone, here is the long awaited review on "Magic Rosin 3G" by Magic Rosin. I have spent a few weeks working on giving you guys the best review I can by testing everything on all 4 instruments. I was very skeptical at first, but just a heads up I was happily mistaken in that prejudgment.

Here is my method of how I tested the rosin. First I started by taking my Microfiber cloth and cleaned off the strings of the instruments, rubbed it over the bows to knock off any rosin that would lead to a cross contamination. Then the person testing applied the rosin they use normally and played me a scale and a run threw of whatever they wanted to play for me. Afterwards, I ran the rag over the bow and strings and then gave them the Magic Rosin and they played the same thing as before.

First let's start with the violins. I started testing with 5 violins, 2 who have been playing for 3 years and 3 who have been taking private lessons. We started with a simple scale of their pick with the rosin they normally used (mostly Super Sensitive's basic rosin, but one was using a special rosin that we referred to as "star dust" rosin). They played their music and then we cleaned the instruments off and used the Magic Rosin and the first big thing that I noticed was the clarity of the instruments. It sounded so much clearer than the first time! They said they had to use a little more arm to get a louder sound, but just off of my random sampling of the students, if all of the violins used this rosin the clarity would come out. The higher registers weren't over played, and it held it's ground with the everything I could ask of them. The only drawback that they didn't have any for themselves. I rate it a 5/5 for violin.

Now, onward to violas which I will admit now wasn't my best test sample. The people that was ready for the instruments didn't show up, however I had some others to help test this rosin. I had two people test this out on their violas, both of which didn't have too much experience playing. They both used Super Sensitive's basic rosin and they both had the same result as the violins; the clarity and the overall tone came out for the viola. I will need to do an update to this post in the near future when I can get my "expert" to test this stuff for me and give you a better and more detailed review, but I give it a 4.5/5 for viola.

I have personally spent a good couple of weeks tearing into this rosin on my cello and I can tell you, I have never used anything like it! It is in fact some of the best rosin I have used for my cello; it sticks to the strings well but it doesn't make the sound grainy. The only problems I have with it is I had a few moments where it might have been not sticking enough but I tend to play more along the lines of Apocalyptica so I like bite to my playing but that was during my initial testing. Since then I haven't had any problems with it and the same went when I was testing at the school. The students who used it on cello loved it and had the same argument; it wasn't sticking well at first but the issue cleared up after a little bit of use. Overall I think this is a great rosin for cellos, but I will need to test the 3G Ultra to see if it has the problem cleared up for cellos. I give it a 4.5/5 for cello. *UPDATE* I have completed a Magic Rosin 3G Ultra review (click here)

When I first read the rosin online and saw it was for all four instruments I was very skeptical; like most people online reading the same description, so I sat down with some of the more advanced bass players at the school and said, "let's run this rosin down on the basses and see if it really works well on the instruments". So with the bass players we got the rosin they used (Pops and Carlsson) and we spent a good half hour running blind test after blind test and seeing which we liked better. Here is our overall impression with each rosin: Pops gave us the greatest bite between all of them but it tended to sound very grainy at times. Carlsson had some bite but no where as much as Pops but the tone was great. Magic Rosin was the best middle ground for bass in our opinion; more bite than the Carlsson with just as much clarity but not as much bite as the Pops. Something else one of the bass players brought up to me during testing was they had a better coverage of rosin than they did with either brand. The way the Pops worked for me was it gave a lot of slick spots and places on the string that it wouldn't cover very well and would have to fight to get the bow to work. The same thing with the Carlssons; it gave us a lot more coverage but we still kept hitting slick spots on the strings. The Magic Rosin fixed that problem very well and didn't have that problem when testing. I felt like it was good for bass but if you like a lot of bass sounds from your group or yourself try the 3G Ultra. I give it a 4/5 for bass. *UPDATE* I have completed a Magic Rosin 3G Ultra review (click here)

Overall, for the money you get a great grip from the rosin and that does kind of trip me out that it makes the bass sound great without over gripping the violins and viola bows! It really did astonish me while testing, I never thought about this being a possibility and especially for the price! I think this rosin should be in EVERY starting up orchestra classroom if not every classroom. There isn't anything else out there like it on the market that I can find. I give the rosin a 4.5/5. To view my Magic Rosin 3G Ultra review click here.

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