Lava Studio is a sleek studio-in-a-box for guitarists seeking the ultimate portable tool

Guitarists love gear. Great swathes of the music tech industry are predicated on the relentless consumption of new tone-shifting gadgets by players of all abilities and ages. This is the premise that underpins Lava Studio, a new product from Lava Music.

Previously known for its high-tech but rather gimmicky guitar, the Lava Me, and an even more gimmicky guitar-shaped object, the Genie, Lava Music is now venturing into amplification. The forthcoming Lava Studio promises a lot, but can it lure guitarists of all stripes and abilities away from their beloved big brands and vintage gear?

The Studio promises to be exactly that – an all-in-one home studio, in addition to a practice and learning tool, all wrapped up in an elegant aesthetic that wouldn’t look out of place in a contemporary interior. The Studio consists of a robust speaker case containing one woofer and two tweeters hidden behind a precisely machined grille. On the front panel are the input, output and volume knob, above which is mounted a folding 13.3-inch touchscreen control panel.

The whole ensemble can either sit on a desktop or be mounted on an adjustable stand, ensuring the touchscreen interface is close at hand when playing. The Studio will live and die based on the quality of this interface, and here Lava has taken inspiration from traditional floor-based effects units like the Line 6 Helix and Fender Tone Master Pro, with an array of skeuomorphic amplifiers and effects pedals to arrange, combine and tweak on screen.

Out of the box, Lava promises over 30 digitally modelled amplifiers and 40-plus effects, based on real-world equivalents with an array of tweakable parameters. This is a hard-fought sector and customer loyalty depends on thorough product support, so expect updates and additions to be released further down the line.

It’s the additional functionality that’ll make or break the Studio. The 300 backing tracks and drum loops might be of more interest to beginners and dabblers than professional musicians, but the Studio also contains an eight-track looper and the ability to do basic multi-track recording, something along the lines of the early days of GarageBand.

On top of this, there’s also a subscription service that provides AI-powered song splitting, which can reduce any audio track down to its constituent stems (vocals, bass, drums, guitar, etc). Lava Music is also planning a set of educational video courses across a wide range of genres as another subscription offer.

Finally, the Studio doubles up as a Bluetooth speaker when a guitar isn’t plugged in, with support for a full array of streaming services. The Lava Studio is set to be launched via crowdfunding, with early sign-ups getting a substantial discount on the $999 final price.

Do-it-all devices are often a compendium of compromises, so it remains to be seen if the Studio has the usability and sonic scope to succeeed. We'll be plugging in to find out more.

Lava Studio, coming soon, sign up at LavaMusic.com for more information, @LavaMusicOfficial