#How to Achieve the Perfect Guitar Amp Tone | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aaryan-mwa-blogs · 2 months

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Understanding the Different Types of Guitar Pedals and Their Uses

Guitar pedals are essential tools for shaping and enhancing your sound, whether you’re jamming in your bedroom or performing on stage. With a plethora of options available, understanding the different types of guitar pedals and their uses can help you create the perfect rig for your musical style. Let’s dive into the world of guitar pedals and explore how they can transform your sound.

1. Distortion and Overdrive Pedals

Distortion and overdrive pedals are the backbone of rock and metal tones. They add grit and sustain to your sound, creating a powerful, crunchy tone. Distortion pedals, like the Boss DS-1, provide a more aggressive sound, ideal for heavy riffs and solos. Overdrive pedals, such as the Ibanez Tube Screamer, offer a warmer, more subtle breakup, emulating the sound of an overdriven tube amp. These pedals are perfect for blues, rock, and country music.

2. Delay and Reverb Pedals

Delay and reverb pedals add space and dimension to your playing. Delay pedals, like the Boss DD-7, create echo effects by repeating your notes at set intervals. They can produce anything from a subtle slap-back to long, atmospheric repeats. Reverb pedals, such as the TC Electronic Hall of Fame, simulate the natural reverberation of different spaces, from small rooms to vast cathedrals. These pedals are essential for adding depth and ambiance to your sound.

3. Modulation Pedals

Modulation pedals offer a variety of effects that can drastically change your tone. Common types include chorus, flanger, and phaser pedals. Chorus pedals, like the MXR M234 Analog Chorus, add a shimmering, doubling effect to your sound, making it richer and more vibrant. Flanger pedals, such as the Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress, create a sweeping, jet-like sound by mixing delayed signals with the original. Phaser pedals, like the MXR Phase 90, produce a swirling, spacey effect by altering the phase of your signal. These pedals are great for adding movement and texture to your playing.

4. Wah and Filter Pedals

Wah and filter pedals shape the tonal qualities of your sound by emphasizing certain frequencies. Wah pedals, like the Dunlop Cry Baby, create a sweeping, vocal-like effect by rocking a foot pedal back and forth. They are perfect for funk, rock, and expressive solos. Filter pedals, such as envelope filters, automatically respond to your playing dynamics, creating funky, auto-wah effects. These pedals are excellent for adding rhythmic and dynamic interest to your performance.

5. Compression Pedals

Compression pedals, like the MXR Dyna Comp, even out the dynamic range of your playing by boosting quieter signals and taming louder ones. This results in a more consistent and polished sound. Compression is especially useful for clean tones, fingerpicking, and adding sustain to solos. It can help your guitar sit better in a mix, whether you’re recording or playing live.

Incorporating Pedals into Your Rig

When building your pedalboard, consider the order of your pedals, as it can affect your overall sound. A common signal chain might look like this: tuner > wah > compression > overdrive/distortion > modulation > delay > reverb. However, there are no strict rules — experiment with different setups to find what works best for you.

Start with the essentials that match your musical style, then gradually expand your collection. Don’t forget to invest in a good power supply and quality cables to ensure your pedals perform reliably. Guitar pedals are powerful tools for shaping your sound and expressing your musical creativity. By understanding the different types and their uses, you can build a rig that enhances your playing and helps you achieve your desired tone. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, exploring the world of guitar pedals by visiting well known shops like VIP PRO AUDIO in Brooklyn can open up new sonic possibilities and elevate your performances. Happy playing!

#brooklyn audio shop #music #audiogears #guitar

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charlesmwa · 2 months

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How to Select the Best Microphone for Your Voice or Instrument

Choosing the right microphone is crucial for capturing the best sound quality, whether you're recording vocals, amplifying an instrument, or performing live. Here’s a guide to help you understand the different types of microphones and how to select the best one for your needs.

Understanding Microphone Types

1. Dynamic Microphones: These are durable and can handle high sound pressure levels (SPL), making them ideal for live performances and loud instruments like drums and electric guitars. They are less sensitive to subtle sounds, which helps in noisy environments.

2. Condenser Microphones: These are more sensitive and provide a wider frequency response, making them perfect for studio recordings, vocals, and acoustic instruments. They require a power source, such as phantom power, to operate.

3. Ribbon Microphones: Known for their vintage sound quality, ribbon mics are delicate and mostly used in studio settings. They capture high-frequency details and are great for vocals and strings.

Choosing Based on Use Case

• Vocals: For live vocals, a dynamic microphone is a classic choice due to its durability and ability to handle loud volumes. For studio vocals, a large-diaphragm condenser mic offers detailed sound and clarity.

• Acoustic Instruments: Condenser microphones are generally preferred. For example, small-diaphragm condensers work well for guitars and pianos due to their accurate transient response.

• Drums: Use dynamic mics for close miking individual drums and condenser mics as overheads to capture the cymbals and overall kit ambiance.

• Electric Guitars and Basses: Dynamic mics are ideal for amplifiers, as they can handle high SPLs and capture the amp’s tone accurately. Important Features to Consider

• Polar Patterns: This describes how a microphone picks up sound from different directions. Cardioid mics are unidirectional and pick up sound from the front, making them great for isolating the desired source. Omnidirectional mics pick up sound equally from all directions, which is useful for capturing ambient sound.

• Frequency Response: Different mics emphasize different parts of the frequency spectrum. For instance, a mic with a pronounced high-frequency response might be better for cymbals, while one with a solid low-end response might be better for bass instruments.

• Impedance: Low-impedance microphones are better for professional audio as they can maintain signal quality over longer cable runs.

Selecting the right microphone involves understanding your specific needs and the characteristics of the microphones available. It is always advisable to check the correct mic from a professional shop such as VIP PRO AUDIO as by matching the right mic to your voice or instrument, you can achieve the best possible sound quality for your recordings and performances.

#audio #audio shop in brooklyn #wireless microphone #ii microphone

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jasonbeblog · 1 year

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Developing Your Guitar Tone: Tips and Tricks for Achieving the Perfect Sound

Every guitarist dreams of finding their unique tone—a sound that resonates with their musical style and personality. Developing your guitar tone is an exciting and ongoing journey that involves experimenting, refining, and understanding the components that contribute to your sound. In this blog, we will explore various tips and tricks to help you achieve the perfect guitar tone that reflects your musical vision.

Start with a Solid Foundation: Before diving into the world of effects and gear, ensure that your guitar is properly set up and in good condition. Consider getting a professional setup to optimize the playability and intonation. Experiment with different types of strings to find the ones that suit your style and sound preferences. A well-maintained guitar forms the foundation of a great tone.

Experiment with Pickups and Amps: Pickups and amplifiers are key factors in shaping your guitar tone. Different pickup configurations, such as single-coils, humbuckers, or P90s, offer distinct characteristics. Experiment with different pickup combinations and models to find the ones that enhance your desired sound. Similarly, explore various amplifier types and brands to discover the one that complements your playing style.

Understand the EQ Controls: Mastering the EQ controls on your guitar, amplifier, or effects pedals can significantly impact your tone. Take the time to understand the basics of equalization, including bass, mid, and treble frequencies. Experiment with adjusting these controls to shape your sound, emphasizing or reducing specific frequencies to achieve the desired tonal balance.

Explore Effects Pedals: Effects pedals open up a world of sonic possibilities. Start with essential pedals like overdrive, distortion, and delay to add texture and character to your sound. Experiment with different pedal combinations to create unique tones. Remember to use effects tastefully, ensuring they enhance your playing rather than overshadow it. Quality over quantity is key when building your pedalboard.

Consider Your Playing Technique: Your playing technique greatly influences your tone. Experiment with varying pick attack, palm muting, and fingerpicking techniques to achieve different sounds. Adjusting your picking location on the strings, playing dynamics, and using different strumming patterns can also add depth and expression to your tone.

Experiment with Guitar Settings: Don't overlook the importance of exploring your guitar's settings. Adjust the volume and tone controls on your guitar to find the sweet spot that enhances your tone. Rolling off the guitar's volume knob can create cleaner tones, while increasing it can add more bite and overdrive. Use the tone knob to adjust the brightness or warmth of your sound.

Explore Different Playing Styles and Genres: Expand your tonal repertoire by exploring various playing styles and genres. Experiment with different genres, such as blues, rock, jazz, or funk, and observe how different guitarists achieve their signature sounds. Analyze their techniques, gear choices, and settings to gain inspiration and adapt them to your own playing style.

Trust Your Ears and Personal Preferences: While it's valuable to learn from others, ultimately, developing your guitar tone is a subjective process. Trust your ears and follow your instincts. Experimentation is key, so don't be afraid to try new techniques, gear, or settings. Your personal preferences and musical identity should guide you in creating a tone that resonates with your artistic vision.

#guitar #guitarlearning #music #electric guitar #guitar tuner

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sugar-petals · 4 years

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Bts voice analysis anon here! I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to respond ❤ it made complete sense why yoongi is the deepest I kinda feel bad for him everytime he wants to sounds cheerful or speak in a way so people can hear him he strains his voice

lot to talk about, i’d like to expand on this. especially what his voice being the deepest means for bts’ songs. plus, where his undiscovered vocal talents are, and in what manner his voice will not strain.

that he’s very introverted contributes to what you say, but yoongi is certainly the odd one out voice-wise, such low baritones hardly sound upbeat. similar to how taehyung being the odd one out in the vocal line whose head voices are literal superpowers. i really respect him for singing with jin and jimin who can climb one octave higher than him, up to C#5! and with jk who has the best technique and breaks into the 6th octave if he goes on like that.

it’s very much like yoongi who probably has to mix their tracks back and forth to fit his parts with hobi (who is a tenor as a rapper! — very uncommon) and namjoon who raps in several modes. very low, very high, very impactfully. he’s the most full-bodied baritone in the group even if he’s only the third-deepest. the tone is just so rich. both hoseok and RM are extreme vocal chameleons on top of that. in speaking and in their music you can hear the difference to yoongi all the time. they don’t suddenly drop in pitch and they’re vocal acrobats.

hobi in particular, this guy can do anything. the sheer agility my god, he connects his registers. he can go up and down, impersonate and do a million effects, adlibs, you know the drill. it’s him who actually owns the “cheerful/loud and clear” brand you mention. which is good if not fantastic for yoongi’s production endeavours, the group mood, and how bts cannot be ignored — but tough for yoongi’s voice and comparison thinking, and when he tries to make a point in interviews. maybe it’s not bad that bts have to slow down sometimes to let yoongi speak, but his tone is drowned out (not intentionally of course) in other occasions and he wakes up hoarse often as we saw. which might sound hot, but it’s not good for him as you say.

to be clear. i wouldn’t chalk down his more monotonous and silent tone as a weakness, it’s just outside of bts’ other vocal variety. he makes up for it with speed and good lungs anyway. we just have to listen more closely to him in talks/episodes/conferences but i think he shouldn’t worry about it either or try to sound more enthusiastic, the fans love his soothing speech for its pure sake. he does change it regardless to be more poignant and blend in. it has pros and cons but it wears him out.

yoongi’s voice is under that strain not just in conversation but also in the studio if he wants to bring connection to the rap line parts instead of having 3 songs in 1. which usually ends up happening anyway. that’s also why the cyphers (!) switch genres mid-song so often: their voices are all strong in different registers! yoongi the lowest, joon midrange, and hoseok up high.

that’s why cypher pt2 is a HUGE stunt and production masterpiece: hoseok’s part is tuned differently, then other instrumentals start with namjoon. and you can literally hear, okay alright a deep voice is coming! from there it just gets deeper and deeper until yoongi is just rapping over a bass guitar (every baritone’s best friend lmao!). god, please give yoongi a big bassline for his every part. “ugh” is the exact opposite: yoongi has to start too high and namjoon also has problems with the key, only hoseok can fully take off after 1:50 with perfect vocal stability. guess which song is autotuned: it’s not cypher pt2! a 3 in 1 song fuels the rapline in a way where they are most comfortable. it’s crazy how far apart they are among each other vocally and it has to be considered.

it’s a dilemma but also why bts’ rap line can tackle any song with at least one member suiting it. they complement each other, every register (except the rare whistle register, aka what mariah/ariana do) is covered. i think that contributed to bts’ fame, it’s so important. however usually, the song caters to hoseok since tenors are preferred in kpop music, or it caters to RM as he’s the central songwriting entity even if mind you, he always thinks about all the members and works closely with yoongi.

but even with joon’s support, it doesn’t work if yoongi is caught in his wish to be a tenor. we’ve seen how much the guy talks about wanting his range to become wider and how he even tried singing quite high for his standards on d-2. he goes as far as collabing only with sopranos to help him achieve that pitch. yoongi is invested to pretty much change his entire vocal type 🙁because the environment simps for high notes so bad (which is fair, falsetto is related to releasing certain happy hormones and highlights parts in songs, but still).

... he actually can’t, unless he wants to damage his throat. that’s the last thing we want. a listener can get the serotonin from a very deep voice equally if they got good taste.

thing is. you cannot morph yourself into a different vocal type and shift your range to the opposite of your comfort zone unless you’re whitney houston. even one in a million tenors like baekhyun can’t make themselves a baritone. his lowest notes are less clear no matter how hard he practices, even if his chest voice is almost operatic and his technique excels. meanwhile, chanyeol (who’s a lyric baritone and exo’s deepest voice) effortlessly hits them without (!!) that kind of decade-long training. have baekhyun or jimin been called bad singers for not being able to cover the other end of the spectrum? nope. so: why would yoongi be a bad vocalist who needs autotune. with lessons, oh man, he could do a lot and many things he dreams of. he has a very unique timbre and enough musical knowledge to do so.

so, we see the magic of your natural supported range. it’s simply given to you. imagine that: if you know you’re not a tenor, you could sort of outsing jungkook — obviously not by technique, but projection— as long as the song is tailored to you and the notes are low enough. yep, jk’s lower register is not extremely forward. each note is perfectly sung because he’s jk, but his power vocals are settled much higher. joon/tae/yoongi would sound much fuller with huge oomph in those lines. that’s where yoongi would be much more clear-sounding to us. a lot of baritone rappers in kpop would be damn good singers.

that’s why it’s good how a lot of rappers produce solos on their own so they can try it out.

you just have to respect that your range usually (not always) goes in one direction. once yoongi rightfully decides to abandon his high note fantasy and goes lower just for fun, we are not safe anymore lmao! exception for range: female singers have an advantage there. trained mezzo-sopranos have great access to the head voice and lower registers since they’re in the perfect middle of the scale. but the guys, forget it, even the baritenors. yoongi’s fullest voice will always be coming from a chesty depth and we love him for it. guy just needs to realize.

that’s why his real challenge is rather somehow tweaking the rap parts so his voice finds good resonance like in “혼술” or even “ddaeng”. where his voice is strong, relaxed, and full and flowing. ddaeng — “boy with luv”, too— is ironically in a very high pitch and again caters to hobi’s tone the most, but: yoongi just scales down to his own octave and it still fits, so — great key choice and musicality! and adaptation. it’s not easy to do. you can tell he plays piano.

he either becomes less easy on the ear or has to autotune himself entirely if he works against his voice. or: goes on a track way outside his supported range (dynamite, WOW). it’s a shame. “daechwita” and “agust d” are such a case: both go into the head voice where your resonance should show the most aka the chorus. there are aggressive belts/snarls/shouts that make more sense for higher, trained voices. yoongi is most famous for raps that are literally designed to fuck up his vocal cords 😷that he’s so skilled as a rapper prevents him from that to a degree, but it’s still not healthy. he adapts a lot to bts’ overall delivery but he doesn’t have to, in fact: he could go in the other direction and it would work even better.

the reason for the title track issue: they are the most energetic. in k-pop, energetic means amping up the pitch. and that’s probably a logical choice and a natural human association. if you make a baritone kpop track with a lot of energy, it probably becomes pretty creepy, uneasy, film noir. but i think that’s exactly yoongi’s thing: to unsettle and critique and rage. i think it could work out. lil nas x is a baritone pulling it off. he achieves energetic title tracks, he honors his vocal type well imo. his live singing is cool af, i need this so hard in the rap landscape. so, it’s not impossible to do.

the trick is probably setting everything to minor key. surprise... yoongi’s challenging title tracks are all in major key. boy with luv: minor key, interesting. the former are extremely difficult for him to do so hats off. “shadow” is more suitable for his baritone as is “burn it”. it needs a very heavy, dark track. which is why it’s good that yoongi has that kind of public image. a baritone’s best genre is not super light and whimsical. that’s why all of our baritone faves are not main vocalists but main rappers. kai, taehyung, jaehyun: low voices in vocal lines are soldiers.

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now a note on yoongi’s best method of singing since it reflects his voice type and brings out the fullness of it. as in, how does it crack and strain less? guess why “사람” is yoongi’s favorite d-2 song to sing. it’s ALL his comfortable range and the singing — very beautifully done — is in mixed register (= head + chest)! which imo might be his secret weapon. it allows him to do what he longs to do successfuly without going extremely high. bingo.

because: even with baritones, the golden middle is still important. they’re not as deep as a bass, after all. that’s why their voices are so honey-laced in the mixed range and it sounds amazing. heaven, their timbre sounds so seductive. so, it’s wonderful when they find their middle and dare to sing.

i wish yoongi gets/makes more tracks aimed at just that. in “outro tear” he has to go both too low and too high so it takes a lot of production effort to patch it together. the rapline is doing god’s work to make all their voices sound cohesive without being trained singers. it’s always a trade-off and risk, an immense balance act. “paldogangsan” is hard on yoongi’s voice but works as a whole plus it caters to namjoon to carry the song’s message. the cyphers are chopped up and not chart-friendly but each member is in their comfort zone.

PS: i said bts’ rap line covers all registers except one. i think that jin is the one to complete bts’ entire spectrum coming from the vocal line. i’m no whistle note expert but dionysus went pretty high up there, i think he might be able to do it. it’s very impressive, even jungkook and jimin probably don’t have access to that register. so, another point for bts being a very ‘complete’ group.

#anon #ask #cub mail 🐆#vocal analysis #yoongi #suga #bts #baritones #tenors #mixed register #long post

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jessconrad · 4 years

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Fine Line by Harry Styles: The Sunshine We Needed Through A Very Dreary Year

Or An Album Review (One Year Later)

On December 13, 2019, Harry Styles graced the world with his second studio album, Fine Line, and I don’t think it has ever left my Recently Played section on my Spotify account since its release.

I honestly don’t know how I would have survived 2020 without this album. As I reflect on everything this year had to offer, I realized this record will always shine through as it is tied to my best memories of the year.

I listened to this album a lot, with three of my five top songs from my Spotify Wrapped coming from Fine Line. (They were “Sunflower, Vol. 6″, “Golden”, and “To Be So Lonely”, respectively, if you were curious!)

I spent dull afternoons in January walking around the freshly snow covered ground on my college campus blasting “Lights Up” in my headphones. This single was released in October 2019, two months prior to the release of Fine Line, and had been a top favorite of mine with its 70s soulful style. Not to mention, the small choir of backup singers and layering synth gave me an almost nostalgic as the Christmas season started to come to an end. This song was all about finding who you are- and I was starting to figure out who I am with it.

The next month I visited Denver for a conference and I began noticing how this record was starting to become the soundtrack to my year. February’s track was “Sunflower, Vol. 6″ where I started to feel my attachment to this song. I am not sure if it was the mesmerizing lyrics, the drums, or even the Indian instrument known as a sitar that made me really hooked to this song... But as I walked through the streets of rainy Denver (which would normally make me feel very gloomy), I couldn’t help grinning from ear-to-ear as I listened to this song. It’s the feel-good musical track you listen to, in whatever mood you’re in.

Sometimes I can’t fathom how apocalyptic March felt. The beginning of March was completely normal, and I was at my peak. Looking back now, I can’t wrap my head around that I attended five live shows within one week during that month. But all good things come to an end, right? And of course suddenly, it all came crashing down. I was sent packing up my college freshman dorm and moved back home with my parents while juggling all my courses remotely. There was a song that I was always replaying though, and that was “Golden.” Arguably one of the most upbeat tracks on Fine Line, next to “Sunflower, Vol. 6,″ but the lyrics say otherwise. As the opening track, it has a very chill pop vibe, but listen closely to the lyrics. The contrast pulls at my heartstrings every. single. time.

“Cherry” and April go hand-in-hand for me. As I continued to navigate my thoughts and feelings with the pandemic, struggling with the course load of online courses, and overall the anxiousness of all the unknowns- “Cherry” was the comfort I needed. With its soft acoustic guitar, it is the perfect song for any in-your-feels playlist. And trust me when I say that the fragility of “Cherry” really helped me when I was in my feels.

Arguably the biggest summer hit of this year was “Watermelon Sugar,” and my go-to anthem of wanting to feel any normalcy of a summer that I stayed mostly indoors for. I remember when the music video dropped in May, I was grabbing coffee with a friend and begged her to watch the video with me. We sat in her car in the middle of a park, watching the YouTube video count down to the premiere of “Watermelon Sugar”. That “this video is dedicated to touching” opening message made me laugh and realized how truly brilliant Harry’s mind is. The warm, very enjoyable tune made this the perfect summer anthem with its really good electric guitar and slide guitar mixed with the horn. It’s the one song that will stay in your head for weeks.

Another song that feels like summer to me is “Canyon Moon.” In the end of June, I went ‘glamping’ (otherwise known as glamorous camping, we stayed in a very nice tiny house in the middle of the most wooded area that Nebraska could get) with my family. It’s a very upbeat song with a nostalgic feel, and the fun instrument rhythms can’t help but make you beam. The song also experiments with a dulcimer; a musical instrument with a long rounded body and a fretted fingerboard played by bowing, plucking, and strumming. I think this is what makes the song more upbeat and happy, especially the beginning as well as the slide guitar giving it unique sounds throughout. It personally is one of my least favorites on the album, but it does make me think of warm summer days and spending time with family every time I do listen to it.

July was starting to feel a little rough for me again. I was really getting tired of staying indoors and barely seeing any of my friends. I was really longing to go back to school and being around my people again. “To Be So Lonely” was a song that felt like it really understood me. Harry revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that the song was composed on a guitalele, which resembles the sound of guitar, for that light and upbeat tone that the chords give off, backing the lyrics. It’s the perfect song you listen to when you’re sad, and you’re ready to push past it. And I knew that I was ready to push past my sadness because I had one more month until I was surrounded in community.

“Adore You” was the second single of Fine Line that was released. This song is filled with so much love and passion- and it was the same immense feelings I had in August when I got ready to move back to my college town and see all my friends again. As I packed my bags and moved into my sorority house, I constantly played this song. What can I say? This was a really great song to vibe with, especially with the opening keyboard and the consistent bass that you cannot help but groove to!

Out of all the months of this year, surprisingly September was one of my darkest. With only two weeks living into my sorority house, I made the decision to move out for the safety of mine and my family’s health. I moved back in with my parents again during this month, and I felt completely lost. “Falling” had the same underlying message of being lost. This love ballad displays a theme of brokenness and creates a tone of unhappiness- the perfect song for a post-breakup or an in-your-feels playlist. I had this song on repeat more times than I can count- the soft piano setting a broken and lonely tone.

The beginning of October began to really turn around for me. I moved into an apartment with one of my best friends and I was back in my college town. I was starting to find community again and “Treat People With Kindness” became this month’s anthem. Coined after Harry’s Treat People With Kindness (TPWK) campaign, this song has a 1970s sound and makes you want to dance along with the catchy choir lyrics such as “Maybe we can/Find a place to feel good/And we can treat people with kindness”. The lyrics were very prevalent in my life, especially with the amping news of the presidential election and the continuation of the pandemic. This song was the best reminder to be kind to myself, and those around me. And let’s not forget the conga sound throughout! I believe Queen would have been very proud of this underrated track.

The timeless mature sound of “She” could have not fit November anymore. I celebrated my twentieth birthday this month (which of course included a Harry Styles themed birthday party with my roommate and some close friends). The guitar kicking in at the chorus giving so much emotion to Harry’s voice, and that’s exactly how I felt around my birthday. Lots of emotions. Not to mention, the guitar solo played by Mitch Rowland sounds like it could have been something that was released years ago, with a little modern touch. It’s growing to be one of my personal favorites on the album.

Lastly, we get to December and I felt as if this year was the longest year of my life (but also flown by way too quick). The song that resonated with me most this month was “Fine Line,” the last track of the album (and the longest at 6 minutes and 16 seconds). My favorite memories in December consist of driving around with my friend, looking at all the Christmas lights as we drink hot cocoa and blast “Fine Line”- singing our hearts out to the repetitive lyrics of “we’ll be fine line” and “we’ll be alright.” Harry discussed in an interview with Capital FM that this song would always be the last on the album, and how fitting that I resonated with this song most in the last month of the year. “Fine Line” represents the ups and downs of life, and the thin line that separates the two. This song that includes an orchestra, drums, horn, acoustic guitar, and melodies building in the background, it could not be the most perfect finale to the album- and to the year 2020.

Today is December 13, 2020- exactly one year after Fine Line has been released. Since then, Harry Styles has made headlines from petty to political. He has shown up for Black Lives Matter, cared for our sleeping habits by releasing an audio bedtime story, made us feel confident in wearing whatever we want as he appeared as the first solo male on American Vogue- all while accomplishing some of his greatest achievements with this album: releasing five music videos, being nominated for three Grammys, and climbing the music charts and catching the hearts of critics.

But Harry accomplished something even greater- he made an album that made us feel good when it was nearly impossible to. To put it frankly- Fine Line was my comfort album, and I know that it was a lot of other people’s too. And as we step into the new year, with the help of this album, it does in fact feel like... we’ll be alright.

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themusicview · 3 years

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We woke up one morning and fell a little further down - a Godspeed You! Black Emperor retrospective - Pt. 1: Introductions and F#A#∞

*”In his book Poetics, Aristotle identifed five defining characteristics of Greek tragedy: imitating an action; arousing pity and fear; displaying the human image as such; ending in wonder; and being inherently beautiful - all characteristics that fit Godspeed You! Black Emperor's music. And like all good tragedies, GY!BE lament how both beautiful and pitiable the human condition is, played out in the spectacle of the modern world. Combining post-rock's tension-and-release with a classical ear for grandeur and structure, GY!BE offers catharsis in a world that can't get no satisfaction.” Eher1 - RateYourMusic*

If there’s one thing that you can say about the Canadian post rock group Godspeed You! Black Emperor, it’s that they are fascinated by death. Throughout their 26 year history as a group, death has been the one constant in their work, from the death of the world to the death of governments to the death of civility itself. Which, considering the year we’ve just had and the reality we continue to inhabit, is an incredibly relevant thing to be about.

One of the founding bands of the second wave of post rock, they seemingly had more in common with their first wave contemporaries, bands like Swans, Slint, and Bark Psychosis. The members of the band constantly rotated in and out for most of their history, making them more like a musical collective than a formal band. Besides leader and guitarist Efrim Menuck, every member has had stints away from the band over the course of its history. As a result of this rotating cast of characters, the band’s sound can vary wildly from release to release.

The GY!BE story is, ultimately, about the development of a style. From the high concept beginnings to the most recent of meditative conclusions, the GY!BE style is undeniably well known and respected by all who hear it.

For those who want a primer on this legendary band, I hope I can provide a bit of clarity to one of the most fascinatingly opaque bands of the past twenty years.

Buckle up, this is a long one.

Author’s Note: Godspeed You! Black Emperor has a long history of making changes between formats of their albums. I will be treating these as separate projects and will delineate between the two in my reviews.

#F#A#∞ (vinyl)

For all intents and purposes, F#A#∞ is Godspeed’s debut record. However, much like the other aspects of the band, this is a functional half truth. There is one other album, the self released _All Lights Fucked On The Hairy Amp Drooling_, but it was an extremely limited release of 33 copies, none of which have surfaced in the intervening years. It is known that Constellation records has a copy, but as one fan found out, their official stance on the matter is, “You’ll never hear that tape.”

The band founded a studio, the mighty Hotel2Tango, and got to work. The ultimate result of the sessions was two tracks, over twenty minutes each, which would be constellation’s third release as a label.

This album is the soundtrack for the apocalypse. What kind? I don’t know but it makes The Road look like a Care Bears movie. f#a# isn’t the typical apocalypse where there is hope for humanity or memories of what came before like Fallout; this is the oppressive crushing sadness of being completely drained of hope.

Samples of street preachers lead into the stings of the damned, ghost trains wail in the distance, women in robes ask you where are you going, echoing into nothingness. And behind it all, the drones, they are constant. Mike Moya and Efrim Menuck are both incredibly well versed in the use of screwdriver guitar, and it shows on this album. The guitar lines sound as though they are falling apart under their own weight. It is an album full of ghosts, some benevolent some baneful, and you have to get through them if you want to survive.

The first track, “…nervous, sad, poor…” according to the etching into the record’s surface, begins with a drone and a reading from an unfinished screenplay that Efrim Menuck wrote. It is the perfect tone setter for the world this album creates. A train whistle dumps us into the second half of this track. A slow suspended drone is heard, complimented with the falling sliding sounds of screwdriver guitar, which eventually develops into a western melody. This transitions abruptly into another drone, this one sounding as though it is constructed out of wet fiberboard, drowning in reverb. A glockenspiel and happy plucked bass caps off the most obviously post rock section of the track. A brief, almost drunkenly played, folk rock interlude takes us to the end of side one.

Bagpipes and a street preacher introduce us into the second track, “…bleak, uncertain, beautiful…”. The most notable piece of this track, identified by the band as “The Sad Mafioso,” was featured in the film 28 days later. It is easy to see why. This track builds slowly to a climax, a dreary melody plucked on guitar and played on strings. It is the kind of thing that can truly only be felt, as all of the best post rock is. The second section is another build which leads to the repeated sample of “Where are you going?” A sample from Godspell, a cry for openness. The final section is a drone that almost seems to crumble against your ears. The album ends, interestingly enough, in a locked groove. Repeating one section of drone over and over into infinity. A moment, frozen in time. I can’t help but find something poetic in this locked groove ending. You put this world into motion, and you ultimately decide when to destroy it.

In this album, GY!BE put forward their ultimate thesis statement for the human race. We are ultimately going to destroy ourselves, but there’s something beautiful in the destruction.

#F#A#∞(CD)

Interestingly enough, in their early years Godspeed released on two different labels, with Constellation handling the vinyl releases and Kranky handling the CD releases. This was to allow them to make headway in the United States in their early years. Due to this, sometimes there are differences between the albums that cause a significant deviation in how the album is perceived and structured.

In comparison to the Vinyl version, the CD version is longer by an order of magnitude, almost doubling the former’s run time. There are three new movements here. A coda on the second track called Black Helicopters, a piercing little bit of noise that seems to spit acid into your ears and fill it with flies and static, Divorce & Fever, an introduction to the third track on the album, with a sample of an interview, and a beautiful little string drone, and Dead Metheny, another large building track that foreshadows what the band would do on Slow Riot. Personally, I prefer the tightness of the vinyl version to the comparative heft of the CD, but both albums are definitely worth a listen. Both releases include different tracks and orderings, but both ultimately achieve the same atmosphere

#godspeed you! black emperor #review #themusicview #post rock #indie rock #fsharpasharp

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sinceileftyoublog · 3 years

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Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio Interview: Fo Sho

Photo by Francis A Willey

BY JORDAN MAINZER

No album from 2021 so far has me anticipating the return of live music more than Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio’s (DLO3, for the insiders) I Told You So (Colemine Records). The band’s second full-length expands upon their first LP Close But No Cigar in all the best ways: propulsive grooves, soulful moods, and an active imagination. Opener “Hole In One” introduces all the elements--funky, prickly guitar lines, confident drumming, and soulful organ--before first single and second track “Call Your Mom” and third track “Girly Face” reveal a gentler kind of sway without losing any of the sharpness. After “From The Streets” slows things down even more with a lurching rhythm and trailing reverb, the album turns it up a notch again with “Fo Sho” and “Aces”, upbeat struts with guitar and drum solos. In between that and the Stax-inspired closer “I Don’t Know” are perhaps the album’s two best tracks: a remarkably faithful, emotive cover of George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” and “Right Place, Right Time”, a solo-laden jam that begins with spontaneous studio chatter embracing the chaos of live recording. Moreover, the album contains all the elements of and is almost structured like a terrific live set, with ample virtuosic dynamism and ideal pacing.

The band on I Told You So is founding members Lamarr, on organ, and Jimmy James, on guitar, with drummer Grant Schroff (The Polyrhythmics) filling in for what was at the time a permanent drummer to be named later. (Schroff went on a European tour with DLO3 right before the recording of this album, so they decided to go with him.) Since then, drummer Dan Weiss has entered the fold; he joined as a permanent drummer last year and even toured a little bit in Canada and Montana before COVID-19 abruptly ended the tour. But while the drummers have rotated, it’s James’ guitar and especially Lamarr’s organ that have remained the foundation of DLO3, one that gives me confidence they could switch drummers every time and still one-up themselves.

I spoke with Lamarr earlier this year from his home in Spokane, WA about the various releases under the DLO3 belt (two albums and singles/live releases) as well as working virtually with a new drummer, Colemine Records, and Chick Corea (who passed away right before our conversation). Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What about I Told You So is unique as compared to anything else you’ve ever released under this trio?

Delvon Lamarr: We have more musical influences in I Told You So. The reason why Close But No Cigar felt kind of reserved--we weren’t getting too deep into it--was because it was unplanned. We didn’t even have music to record at the time. But this one features more diverse musical influences of ours. “From The Streets” has that hip hop, Ohio Players feel. “Careless Whisper”--you never hear an an organ trio play that. It digs deeper into our musical knowledge.

SILY: What was the process for composing and arranging these tracks? How much improvisation was there?

DL: It’s like 90% improvisational. Pre-pandemic, we toured a lot, so we hardly ever had a chance to get in a room and write music. Plus, we all live pretty far away from each other. We basically write music during soundchecks, and when we’re on the road, we come up with these ideas and put them together. Usually, we write these melodies, and things like that, but outside of the melody, the solo areas are pretty much gloves off. Whatever happens happens. One of the things we’re known for is intertwining music with other music, different genres of music within the one song. It keeps the music fresh and keeps people engaged. It’s a free for all for most of it. [laughs]

SILY: There’s a good balance on here of songs where everyone has equal weight versus songs really led by one person or instrument. Was it important for you to achieve that balance across the whole album, or did it just end up naturally like that?

DL: It’s just how it ended up. When we write music, we pretty much write grooves. Take “Call Your Mom”: That whole song was built around Jimmy’s guitar riff, so that is the melody. When we wrote that, we actually wrote it on the road during soundcheck. I think it just naturally happens. Whatever instrument we think sounds good, we’ll play that melody.

SILY: Has Dan been learning the tracks?

DL: Oh yeah. We’ve been writing music together. Right now, we multi-track our ideas or sing it into a phone and try to build it that way. A lot of these new tunes we haven’t actually played, because we can’t get in the same room, so we just go for it, man.

SILY: What about “Call Your Mom” and “Careless Whisper” made you want to release them as singles?

DL: That was a decision between my wife [and manager Amy Novo] and Colemine Records. I probably would’ve chosen “Call Your Mom”, too. It has a certain feel and groove to it, man. [laughs] “Careless Whisper” is funny, too, because I wasn’t even gonna record that tune. My wife really likes when we play it--she requests it at the end of shows. She convinced us to record that. I was like, “Nobody wants to hear ‘Careless Whisper’ by an organ trio.” She said, “Dude, just do it, it’s gonna be really good.” We did it, and I was wrong. The reception from that tune has been pretty amazing, actually. I thank her. She’s the reason we recorded it.

SILY: You play a lot of covers live--on the KEXP release, you did “Move On Up”, and last year, you released a cover of “Inner City Blues”. What’s your general approach to covers: Be faithful, or put your own spin on it?

DL: The spin of playing a cover tune just happens naturally. Take “Careless Whisper”: We try to play it like the recording, like the original. I work on phrasing the melodies like George Michael sings it. The way we end up doing that automatically puts a certain feel to it that naturally happens. I feel that way about all of them, even when we do “Move On Up”. I play the melody like Curtis Mayfield sang it. I try to get all of his nuances.

SILY: “Fo Sho” was released on the same single as “Inner City Blues”. Why didn’t you include “Inner City Blues” on the record? Is two covers too many?

DL: Not at all. Close But No Cigar had 4 covers on it.

SILY: That’s true.

DL: We just had a lot of original music we wanted to get out. I Told You So is part of a session that had 27-28 songs recorded. We have another album or two, or an album and a couple 45s worth of music just in that recording alone. We’ve done more recording since then, so we have more music in the can right now. We just wanted to get original tunes out. We did record some more covers that will be out later on, either as 45s or something else.

SILY: The record’s really crisp, but on “From The Streets”, the trailing reverb of the guitar is a hazy contrast to the rest of the album. Can you talk about that track?

DL: The history of that track--basically, I grew up in the streets. I was a rough child. [laughs] I had that music in my head that reminded me of my childhood of running the streets. When we recorded that, you never really hear an organist in an organ trio play a bass line. I don’t play chords in that tune at all. A lot of that magic is Jimmy James. He doesn’t use guitar effects. I actually recently got him to use a wah in a show, and it took him five years to do that. He’s straight guitar and amp. He’s always been that guitar player. That tone, that sound, that reverb is just him and his amp.

SILY: Was that actual studio chatter at the beginning of “Right Place Right Time”?

DL: [laughs] I was wondering when somebody was gonna ask me about that. The song we recorded before, we played the whole thing start to finish, absolutely perfect, without a single flaw. Grant, maybe the last four or five seconds, completely bites it. We were playing, and he forgot to do a break right at the end and kept playing, so it was an unusable take, so he screamed, “Fuuuuuuuuck! Fuuuuuuck!” That’s what we were referencing at the front of it. Jimmy James was like, “Remember that time you were like, ‘Fuuuuuuuuck,’ and then I started copying Jimmy.” It was pretty funny. We listened back to it, and my wife was like, “We gotta leave that in there.”

SILY: Is there an extra guitar on that track?

DL: There is. The guitar player from the Polyrhythmics, Ben Bloom. It’s funny how that worked, because he came to see Jason [Gray], our studio engineer, and I asked him whether he had his guitar with him, and he did, so I said, “Grab it, let’s record something!” He said, “I got about 20 minutes, I gotta be somewhere.” I just started messing around with this bass line, and everything started falling into place. We did two takes of that song. Over about 15 minutes, we wrote that entire song and recorded it. At first, it was just one quick bass line, like a short bass line that I had the idea for, and we started building on it. Ben came in, put his magic on it, and it was a wrap, man. I love that solo, too. It’s dope.

SILY: What’s the story behind the record title?

DL: When our original drummer left the band, people were worried about the sound of Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, because he had such a distinct style of playing. People assumed we’d sound different. I kept telling people, “As long as the music is good, people are gonna like it. It might feel different, but it’s gonna feel good and sound good.” That’s why I called the album I Told You So. Because it sounds good!

SILY: What about the album art?

DL: People are always wondering what I’m doing on the front of that album. I was shadowboxing--I used to be a boxer in my youth. We were taking photos in Cincinnati, and it was one of the photos everybody liked.

SILY: What does it mean to you to be on a label like Colemine Records, diverse in terms of genres but a wholly old school vibe.

DL: Our relationship is really good. They’re cool cats, man. It’s truly an honor to be a part of what they do. Since we’ve been with that label, I’ve met a lot of the artists on that label. It’s a gift to be a part of what they do. One of the big reasons I really like them is that it’s managed by two brothers that run it who are just normal dudes. They ain’t corporate. I talk to them like we talk to each other. It’s like family. I really respect these guys and what they do. It’s amazing being a part of what they do.

SILY: For sure.

DL: That’s “Fo Sho”. Just kidding.

SILY: Are you planning on doing any live streams or socially distant shows down the line, or are you waiting for things to calm down more?

DL: We’ve done a few live streams so far. We have more coming up. We’re working on some stuff. A lot of the tours we had scheduled last year got rescheduled to this year, so we’re seeing what happens, but right now, we’re still trying to book shows and see if it can be done safely. If it ain’t gonna be safe, we’re not gonna do it. We’re just hanging in there still, trying to keep things on the books.

SILY: What else is next for the Trio?

DL: We’re working on a new project that we’re gonna call DLO3 and Friends. Basically, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio is gonna be the basis for the band but we’re gonna incorporate musicians we’ve met on the road all over the world that we’ve liked and start collaborating with people. We just went in the studio a couple weeks ago and laid the foundation. It’s comin!

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

DL: I’ve been back in my old school traditional swinging jazz, Kenny Dorham, Johnny Griffin, Coltrane, Miles, all those guys. I was originally a straight up swinging bebop player and haven’t been able to do that in a while.

SILY: Speaking of Miles, did you hear that Chick Corea passed away?

DL: I did. That was a pretty sad moment. We have the same booking agent. I never got to meet him. I was hoping to.

SILY: Do you have a favorite piece or recording of his?

DL: Yes. The Blue Mitchell album The Thing To Do. I remember listening to it; Chick was burning on it. One of the other things I realized on that album was how high pitched Al Foster’s toms are. But yeah: huge loss for the scene.

SILY: Anything else I didn’t ask about you want to say?

DL: Support your local record stores. There may or may not still be our limited pink vinyl at your local store, since those were only sold at record stores. Support your local record stores and local music.

I Told You So by Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio

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bestreverbpedal · 4 years

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5 Best Reverb Pedals

When looking for the best reverb pedal to add to your setup, you need to keep a few things in mind. Price, Quality and Budget can all play a big factor in your decision. Check out below for a table that we’ve constructed which lists some of the best reviewed and proven reverb pedals available on the market.

Best Reverb Guitar Pedals: http://reverbguitaramps.com/best-reverb-pedal-for-the-money/

1) TC Electronic Hall Of Fame

The TC Electronics TonePrint Hall of Fame packs all the reverb options you could possibly want into one small, sturdy pedal. From slightly sweetened tone to huge, stadium-like echoes, you can find the setting you want in its myriad of in-pedal options or the TonePrints available online. With the plethora of options available at its price, this is one of the best reverb pedals on the market.

2) Boss FRV-1 ’63 Fender Reverb

The Boss FRV–1 ’63 Fender Reverb pedal (that’s a mouthful, so we’ll call it the FRV-1 from here on) is a solidly constructed digital model of the spring reverb found in old Fender amps. To get one of the actual spring reverb tanks from those amps, you’d have to pay a lot of money. The FRV-1 lets you recreate that sound at a fraction of the cost

3) EHX Cathedral Stereo Reverb

The Electro-Harmonix Cathedral Stereo Reverb pedal gives you all the options you could want to find that perfect reverberated sound. With eight different reverb settings, customizations for each setting, and even a preset-loading function, you can bet that you’ll be able to dial in the reverb that fits your guitar playing to a tee.

4) Wampler Faux Spring Reverb Pedal

The Wampler Faux Spring Reverb Pedal is a straightforward effects pedal that does exactly what it says in the name: it emulates a spring reverb effect. Many older amps (and some newer ones) had spring reverb tanks built into them to help soften and sweeten the incoming signal from the guitar. These days, though, you’d be hard-pressed to find an amp with a true spring reverb tank; most of the amps with “reverb” settings on them are emulations, not true reverb. If your amp doesn’t have a reverb setting on it, then the Wampler Faux Spring Reverb is worth a look.

5) Digitech Reverb Guitar Effects pedal

The Digitech RV-7 Hardwire Stereo Reverb pedal is a pretty decent digital reverb pedal. For its compact size, it has a good selection of effects that work well in conjunction with other effects so as not to muddy your tone.

What is a Reverb Pedal?

Reverb (short for “reverberation”) is, at its essence, a multiple-variation short-term delay effect. It comes from the natural echoes experienced from sound reflecting off surfaces; you hear the original signal first, then all the little echoes of that signal that bounced off various surfaces in a given area. Think of how your voice sounds outside, then imagine what it sounds like inside an auditorium or a castle. That change in your ears’ perception of your voice is the cause of a natural reverberation effect.

Reverb is more than just a simple, straightforward echo. The surface a sound reflects off has an effect on the bounced sound wave, too. Many reverb effects in studios use different surfaces, rooms, and boxes to achieve different types of reverb. Reverb pedals like “hall” and “echo” are designed to emulate large rooms. That’s why you’ll see pedals with names like “Cathedral” and “Holy Grail” – large church buildings and ancient structures make for very distinct reverb effects. “Plate” and “spring” pedals, however, are modeled after a type of effect which utilizes metal pieces inside a box to create a distinct metallic reverberation. You can even find spring reverb tanks built into many tube amps.

Digital and Analog

Most reverb pedals are digital models of the real thing; it’s hard to find enough space on a pedalboard to fit an entire reverb tank, and they aren’t exactly the most portable equipment to handle. For true analog reverb, a studio or an amp with a built-in tank is the easiest route. That being said, it isn’t impossible to find a good analog reverb pedal. The technology today also makes most digital reverb pedals nearly identical to their analog counterparts. Digital reverbs also have the added bonus of combining multiple effects in a smaller box, allowing guitarists (and vocalists) to achieve some beautiful sweetness without locking themselves in a tiled room.

#guitarpedal #guitarpedals #guitar #effects #music #reverb

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edgelarks · 6 years

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About Recording

‘We’re rolling…”

Mark’s voice comes from the corner. Phil catches my gaze; I say, “1, 2”, and silently mouth the “3”, so the word doesn’t make it onto the recording. And we’re away.

We’re enveloped in the warmth of Mark Tucker's studio, The Green Room, deep in the Blackdown Hills on the Devon / Somerset border. Phil and I sit facing one another, from either side of a thrumming wood burner, each surrounded by microphones. Phil has his family of guitars ranged around him; I alternate for these first songs between banjo and tenor guitar. The violins and harmonicas are waiting in the wings. Everything has been restrung, we have spent an intense week preparing, and it feels a relief to finally be here, getting on with it.

This morning we drove the 40-ish minutes from our home in Exmouth, the road sweeping up across the winter common, estuary and sea falling away to the sides; then racing along the a30 and delving deep into lanes to the studio. I watched a buzzard tumble upward towards us as we negotiated the treacherous driveway, a steep ramble down from the nearest road. Mark’s place feels satisfyingly far from the world. An ever evolving project that has grown from a single small space, to a large and beautiful live room - and forthcoming building work will add further recording space, control rooms, and accommodation. Yet, despite these variations in the layout, the atmosphere remains the same. A space away from distractions, where you can find the thread of your song, and follow the singing of it to where it needs to go.

The room we are in is large, and full of music. Mark’s wife Michelle has an unerring eye for design, and so both the house and studio are immediately inspiring places. Embraced by deep red walls, the studio matches rich velvets to Indian throws, patterned rugs rest under vintage amps. Books on tube amps and Bob Dylan vie for space with the shelves of records that have been made here. Fairy lights gently illuminate the instruments hung across the back wall. Animals come and go. Ned, the dog, is far too naughty for admittance; and Cookie the black and white cat is sometimes so enthusiastic about pursuing a career in music production (aka joining in) that he has to be ejected; but Mushka is a constant and mysterious presence, napping somewhere warm, dreaming of his adventures as Macavity the Mystery Cat.

There are as many approaches to recording as there are songs to record. Between our own albums, various sessions and other projects, we have tried many different things, and worked in many wonderful studios. Layering, multitracking, infinitely dissecting. The old ways, of recording everything mostly live to wonderful warm tape, have generally ceded to a million variations of digital. Usually this means multi tracking - each part recorded separately, achieving maximum control and editing possibilities. Individual notes can be tuned, moulded, cut out entirely. Takes can be spliced together to get the best version. Rhythmic cohesion is ensured by playing along to a click track.

Of course, this level of detail makes perfection not only achievable, but expected. However, we have found that the best producers know when to draw a line during editing. Perfection is not a human characteristic, and while you may nudge and autotune and shape a piece infinitely, you may in the process remove that indefinable something, the music itself. The warmth and life of band recordings from the 1960s and 70s are testament to this. Sadly, with few major label funded album sessions, it is an impossibility for most bands to take time in a studio to experiment, write, and record live (let alone to tape, which is now very expensive). This, plus the modern ease of home recording, has evolved the common approach to album making. For me and Phil, on previous projects, we have meticulously planned and drafted at home. We have imagined whole landscapes of sound, making the most of our (ever growing!) instrument collection, layering dobros and harmonicas, fiddles and banjos.

But for Feather, we began to talk of a different approach. Something that would capture the energy of our live show; a directness that people instinctively respond to. Arrangements that would reflect what we do live - plenty of multitasking, but still achievable between two people. Harking back to those classic records from the 60s and 70s.

We are lucky to know Mark. He has accumulated a deep, deep well of knowledge through recording and producing many varied musicians and working widely across the industry. He hears sound in a truly remarkable way, considering elements of tone and range that to most people belong in the realm of bats. He doesn’t just have an extensive collection of gear - common to many audiophiles - he really knows how to use it! The exact spot to place a mic, the exact right mic to use, how to process the sound in exactly the right way. He is a precision craftsman of sound, but also brings the artists ear, knowing the aesthetic importance of his choices, as well as the technical value.

And he was excited about our project. The atmosphere his studio would generate around the music was just right. He had ideas for reverbs, for how to approach recording the core of each track ‘live’. We would decide what lay at the heart of each piece - what was playing the chords, the backbone - and record those instruments simultaneously. Keeping lines of sight clear, just as we would at a show, to signal to each other, and retain the improvised element. Some vocals would be live, some would be overdubbed, to get the sound just so. Minimal editing - and no click tracks.

We were nervous as our studio time approached. Never had we felt so unprepared to go and record. Yes, the songs were there, they had grown strong and we were happy with them - but. It was a big risk. We had chosen to risk in order to experiment, to go in while the songs still felt wild under our fingers, rather than over rehearsed and tired. One of the most important things I have learnt about recording is that you should not embark on an impossible quest for the perfect take - it will very swiftly descend into red light fever and endless frustration. Instead, you must accept that, as with a live show, this is simply the record of a moment, of one (good, admittedly!) instance of your playing. There will be other records, other moments. Letting go in this way allows freedom and humanity back into your playing.

And the first week of recording has been magic. It feels like the perfect place, the perfect time, to hunker down and make. We sit opposite each other, finding the right chords, taking our time. We eat vegetable soup, pasties; occasionally someone puts another log on the burner. Cookie takes part as much as he is allowed to. Mainly we listen, and listen again, feel our way through the maze of the song.

Crows wheel aimlessly in a dirty white sky. The trees look cold without their leaves. It is Midwinter, and we are here, mining for warmth, holding out for hope.

Support Edgelarks' crowdfunder to make Feather at www.indiegogo.com/projects/feather-a-new-album-by-edgelarks

Mark Tucker's studio is The Green Room - https://www.facebook.com/themarktucker/

#studio #edgelarks #crowdfunding #indiegogo #album #newmusic #independentartist #recording #feather

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jasonbeblog · 1 year

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Developing Your Guitar Tone: Tips and Tricks for Achieving the Perfect Sound

#guitar #guitarlearning #music #electric guitar #guitar tuner

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thetapelessworld · 6 years

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Audified is proud to announce availability of MultiDrive Pedal Pro

Audified is proud to announce availability of MultiDrive Pedal Pro — pushing further forward with its virtual stomp box breakthroughs by bringing the legacy of erstwhile brand DSound’s first guitar software (released as Stomp’n FX Vol. 1 and Stomp’n FX Vol. 2 way back in 2000) and later featured, for example, in Audiffex’s inTone2 (multifaceted multichannel effects processor, software mixing console, virtual instruments host, and flexible multitrack zonal player) back to the future as 12 legendary effect pedal plug-ins, professionally primed to provide the perfect bundled blend of overdrive, distortion, fuzz, and boost for today’s DAW-driven studio setups — as of November 27…

You can never have enough effect pedals. Just ask any guitarist worth their sonic salt! Since there are literally thousands of stomp boxes on the market, maybe this is hardly surprising — all the more so since they each offer something different in terms of sound, purpose, or quality. Quantifying this time-honoured trend in today’s DAW-driven workflow with its all-new MultiDrive Pedal Pro plug-in bundle sits naturally with the future-facing nature of Audified. As such, it is professionally primed to provide the perfect bundled blend of overdrive (for power), distortion (for complexity), fuzz (for fuzziness), and boost (for allowing every detail to shine through). The talented team of Audified engineers expertly draw upon the company’s rich history of creating quality guitar software to simulate 12 legendary effect pedals that every musician should have in their studio setup. Since this effectively represents the company’s third generation of stomp box models — made with totally new modelling technology — they simply sound perfect!

Put it this way: with MultiDrive Pedal Pro, Audified removed every last screw from every effect pedal modelled, meticulously measuring all components within, so users cannot tell the difference between the real-world stomp boxes and the following software simulations so readily accessible in the resultant bundle. 808-Scream is based on the TS-808 Tube Screamer, a guitar overdrive pedal made famous by Ibanez. It was originally released in the late Seventies, and its characteristic mid-boosted tone soon proved popular with blues and rock guitarists. It has since been used by countless guitarists to create their signature sound, remaining one of the most successful, widely copied, and ‘modded’ overdrive pedals in the history of the electric guitar! 9-Scream is based on another overdrive guitar pedal from Ibanez — the TS-9 Tube Screamer. Indeed, Ibanez produced the so-called ‘9-series’ between 1982 and 1985, with the TS-9 Tube Screamer being almost identical, internally, to the TS-808 Tube Screamer, but boasting a different output, resulting in a brighter, less smooth sound.

B-Drive is based on the BOSS BD-2 Blues Driver, delivering the creamy, yet crunchy sound associated with great blues guitar. This popular pedal provides instant access to the kind of warm overdrive and emotive distortion usually reserved for 30-year-old tube amps.

O-Drive is based on the now-legendary BOSS OD-1 OverDrive. Seventies-vintage artists mostly made use of a fuzz distortion sound, so the overdrive produced by the OD-1 OverDrive was not exactly typical for the time. It was, however, soon accepted as a new standard of guitar sound. Speaking of sound, the OD-1 OverDrive features an asymmetric circuit where the positive and negative halves of the waveform are not distorted equally.

S-Drive is based on the BOSS SD-1 Super OverDrive. This sonic stalwart has been around for a very long time and has gone almost unchanged from its inception back in 1981. Again, an asymmetric overdrive circuit is at its core. This responds very well to the force of a player’s picking, producing a dynamic and smooth overdrive effect well suited to any type of rock music. Many guitarists also use the SD-1 Super OverDrive as a booster pedal for valve amplifiers.

One-Distortion is based on the BOSS DS-1 Distortion, a true icon in the wonderful world of guitar effects. Introduced in 1978, BOSS’ first distortion pedal defined a bold new sound, delivering hard-edged attack and smooth sustain that has been a staple of players for generations. Get this, though: the DS-1 Distortion is the top-selling BOSS compact pedal of all time, and its original, unchanged design continues to inspire the creation of great music worldwide.

BAT-Distortion is based on Pro Co Sound’s RAT Distortion. ‘The Rat’ became very popular in the early Eighties, thanks, in part, to being used by several famous artists. As a primary distortion device, it excels at arena rock rhythm tones and soaring leads, but its true beauty lies in its versatility.

XXL-Distortion is based on the Distortion+ pedal originally designed in the Seventies by MXR Innovations. Its name implies distortion, and indeed it does distortion (parallel clipping) well, but boasts a rather mild sound. It is perhaps best known for its crunchy heavy metal sound that was featured by Randy Rhoads in his work with Ozzy Osbourne. The Distortion+ delivers everything from cool overdriven blues tones to huge Eighties hard rock distortion.

M-Distortion is based on the MT-2 Metal Zone, one of BOSS’ most popular pedals. Duly delivering a wide range of distortion sounds with three-band EQ and strong sustain, it is capable of some of the most over-the-top, insane distortion tones in the world — with huge mids and lows, alongside an ultra-saturated sound!

F-Fuzz is based on Jim Dunlop’s Fuzz Face, an effect pedal mainly used by electric guitarists and also some bass players. Designed to produce a distorted sound from an electric guitar, a sound often referred to as ‘fuzz’ — which was sometimes achieved by accident earlier through broken electrical components or damaged speakers, this particular Fuzz Face distortion is constructed to vintage specs, featuring the original Germanium PNP transistor design for a rich, creamy fuzz sound.

M-Fuzz is based on the Big Muff Pi (π). Produced in New York City by Electro-Harmonix, along with Russian sister company Sovtek, this fuzz box is primarily for use with electric guitar, but also used by bassists due to its squeaky frequency response. Hendrix and Santana were among the first to get a piece of the Pi, so-to-speak, and the Big Muff — as it has become simply known — has been defining the sound of rock guitar for over 40 years!

T-Booster is based on the Brian May Treble Booster, an effect unit used by guitarists to boost volume and especially the high end of their tonal spectrum, which was particularly popular during the Sixties. Beloved by guitarists such as Ritchie Blackmore, Marc Bolan, Rory Gallagher, Tony Iommi, and, of course, Brian May, treble boosters were used to overdrive amplifiers in order to create a more distorted yet focused sound.

So that’s Audified’s all-new MultiDrive Pedal Pro... providing a perfect bundled blend of true tone pedal plug-ins, professionally primed for today’s DAW-driven workflow — fresh from the company with over 20 years’ worth of exemplary effects development to its notable name. No need to buy dozens of stomp boxes separately or download imperfect simulations; simply download MultiDrive Pedal Pro for perfect simulations of 12 legendary effect pedals at a pocket-friendly price! MultiDrive Pedal Pro is available to purchase for $69.00 USD from Audified’s online shop here: https://shop.audified.com/products/multidrive-pedal-pro (Note MultiDrive Pedal Pro requires iLok License Manager 3.1.6 or newer as it is protected by PACE Anti-Piracy Inc.’s software machine licensor USB smart key device, details of which are highlighted here: https://shop.audified.com/pages/how-to-activate-ilok-license) MultiDrive Pedal Pro can be directly downloaded as a bundle of multi-format (AAX, AU, VST2, VST3), 32- and 64-bit native plug-ins for MacOS (10.9 and above) and Windows (7, 8, and 10) — alongside a fully-functional, 30-day trial version — from Audified here: https://services.audified.com/download For more in-depth info, please visit the dedicated MultiDrive Pedal Pro webpage here: https://shop.audified.com/products/multidrive-pedal-pro Watch Audified’s official MultiDrive Pedal Pro video here: https://youtu.be/sWdoJgIxMsc

MultiDrive Pedal LE, a limited-edition version of MultiDrive Pedal Pro featuring O-Drive only, is available to purchase for only $5.00 USD from Audified’s online shop here: https://shop.audified.com/products/multidrive-pedal-le

MultiDrive Pedal LE can be directly downloaded as a 32- and 64-bit native plug-in for MacOS (10.9 and above) and Windows (7, 8, and 10) — alongside a fully-functional, 30-day trial version — from Audified here: https://services.audified.com/download

For more in-depth info, please visit the dedicated MultiDrive Pedal LE webpage here: https://shop.audified.com/products/multidrive-pedal-le

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#news #audified #guitar #musicproduction #musicproducer #guitarplayer #guitarpedals #fx #vst #au

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sargenthouse · 6 years

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Dylan Carlson’s Theme for an Imaginary Western // Interview

Feature by Kate Koenig via Premier Guitar After nearly 30 years as the only constant member of drone-doom-metal cult heroes Earth, guitarist Dylan Carlson has released his first album, Conquistador. As the title suggests, the work espouses a fantasy world that’s rooted in history, not unlike the one explored on Earth’s 2005 Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method—a belated imaginary soundtrack to novelist Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Carlson has also done soundtrack work, under his solo moniker drcarlsonalbion, for the film Gold. But this time, the music speaks exclusively to his personal vision.

Carlson has always been known for wading against common trends—an approach that’s helped him define his voice in the sparse, expansive sound of Earth. Like most artists, he’s proud of not fitting into a mold. “I make records for people. I don’t make records for guitar players,” he says. But it’s not an exclusionary statement, just one that acknowledges the detachment he takes from the technical and cultural associations with the instrument while songwriting. Drawing heavily from his tastes in film and American history, he gradually and steadily builds a world on the all-instrumental Conquistador in which he becomes more of a visual architect than a guitarist, exploring the negative space between rich, textural tones.

The minimalist, ambient compositions on Conquistador rely on the subtle personalities of Carlson’s guitar tones, which he achieves with a lot of patience, trial and error, and the perfect combinations of gear. Though, he admits, gear is not as important to him as it used to be. “There’s no magic box or magic amp. It’s all you, for better or for worse,” he laughs. Even so, he keeps a particular family of pedals—“discovering compression was a godsend”—and has refined, over the course of his career, the routes to creating the precise hues of distortion to furnish his sonic world. On the album, he worked with producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, and is accompanied by his wife, Holly Carlson (who’s also the model on the cover), on percussion, and Emma Ruth Rundle on baritone and slide guitars.

What inspired you to write your first solo album? We had finished a lot of touring with Earth, for our last record for [L.A.-based label] Southern Lord, and we had just changed management. I had some ideas for some songs, so it seemed like a good opportunity to get into a studio and get some music done. The idea originally was in the vein of Hex, which was sort of a soundtrack to an imaginary film, and the other soundtrack I did for the movie Gold. Conquistador is also sort of Western-themed, and a soundtrack to an imaginary film. Since soundtrack work is something I’m really interested in, I hope to get to do another one at some point, but until then, I guess I’ll keep doing imaginary film work. [Laughs.]

So if Conquistador is a soundtrack to an imaginary film, is that film a Western? The era that Conquistador envisions is during the initial collision between Europe and the New World. When I was in junior high, I lived in Texas, and we had a Texas history class where I read about a conquistador. He had a Moorish squire named Esteban, and they went to what was then Northern Mexico, now the American Southwest, and got lost for 20 years. They had a bunch of, I guess you could say … “adventures” where they were sold into slavery by one tribe and escaped, and worked with another tribe—basically, things didn’t go as planned. The album was more based on this memory of the story rather than the specific text. I’ve also been influenced by a number of my favorite films, like The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky. So it was a bunch of little things all bubbling around. Is your guitar playing usually guided by that kind of visual experience? I’ve always been visually oriented when it comes to guitar playing. When I first started, I’d find patterns on the guitar and see how they sounded, as opposed to being an ear player. And as I’ve progressed, I’ve become much more of an ear player. Also, since the title is the only verbal cue to describe the narrative arc of the song, I’m very conscious of the way the title looks or sounds. I’m always trying to look for something evocative, ’cause I’ve always believed there still needs to be narrative arcs to the songs—even songs that I do with a lot of repetition. I believe that there should be a narrative arc to the record as well, which I feel is something that’s a bit lost with the advent of the CD, and now digital media. It’s the order of the songs that makes a great album, as well as the songs themselves.

How do you give your music a narrative arc? Usually it’s through textural cues. I’ve always been interested in subtle dynamics in music. The thing that always bugged me about grunge is it reduced musical dynamics to “here’s the quiet part and here’s the loud part,” and I’ve always preferred music where the textures and the interplay of instruments build small crescendos and dynamics in that way. The intensity in the playing, you know? And then I was lucky in that Emma Rundle joined me to add her music to mine. I’ve definitely always been a believer in that approach—where if you limit the options in certain things, it forces you to become more creative with what you have. I’m also a strong proponent of what I like to call “happy accidents.” What is the ratio of improvised versus composed music on the album? I don’t know … 80/20? [Laughs.] The riffs were there, but the structures were done in motion. And then a lot of it had to do with the fun of looking for guitar tones. Some songs are more composed than others, but even with the ones where there’s a strong compositional presence, I’ve always believed in leaving room for improvisation. The most composed song is the last song of the album, “Reaching the Gulf.” There’s the basic riffs, but then the arrangements sort of happened naturally as I played them in the studio, so they have much looser organization. Which, again, I think helps with the narrative arc of the record, because it’s about leaving, heading into the unknown, and then stuff happening that you don’t foresee, and then the return at the end to a controlled environment—or at least a more controlled environment. What is it that draws you to repetitive patterns? I’d always hear stuff in other songs and be like, “that’s a great riff, why don’t you just keep going with that rather than immediately jumping to another one?” I always liked Indian music and psychedelic stuff and, obviously, blues. Maybe it’s this atavistic thing from my Scotch heritage, like the bagpipe or something. [Laughs.]

How was it working with Emma and Holly on the album? I played a show with Red Sparowes and Marriages, bands Emma was playing with, and I borrowed some of her gear that night. And then she’s on [our label] Sargent House, and my wife, Holly, and Emma got along quite well. I think she’s a fabulous musician and she really added a lot to the proceedings. Holly was travelling with me at the time, and we needed extra percussion. She played piano when she was younger and sang in choir. She was also a dancer, a belly dancer, so she has good rhythm [laughs], so that’s sort of how that happened. It was also my first time working with Kurt Ballou, which was really enjoyable. He has a cool studio and a really good ear and a lot of helpful ideas. At the same time, he doesn’t force them on you. He’s really open to your ideas. And then he has a lot of interesting equipment. But it was a very easy record, in a lot of ways, because it flowed quite well and everything that needed to get done got done. I enjoyed it. I hope other people do, too.

Let’s talk about gear. How important is your gear to the songwriting process? I’m much less gear-centric than I used to be. I realized over the last few years that no matter what I use, I’m going to get my sound and be me. And obviously, there’s slight variations based on gear choice, but I realized I could have saved myself a lot of time and money in the early days.

What guides your preferences? I don’t like a lot of pedals. I think there’s almost too many to choose from nowadays. [Laughs.] I see some people’s pedalboards and I’m, like, confused. I think some of the prices on gear lately are ridiculous. You don’t need to spend $10,000 to sound good. I’ve always been a big MXR fan. I use a Custom Comp, which is the sort of nicer version of the Dyna Comp. I love the regular Dyna Comp, too, but I find that the Custom Comp has a lower noise floor. And then I like the Shin-Juku Drive for distortion. Then, I just got this HBE Dos Mos, which is a dual MOSFET preamp. I really like it because it allows me much more textural options, where the distortion becomes a texture, too, so I can also do a loud cool sound. In the studio, I’ll end up using more modulation to separate the tracks and to color them. Live, I reduce the number of effects I use.

What about amps? I’ve actually gone solid-state. [Laughs.] I have a bunch of tube amps lying around and they all need servicing and are annoying to carry around. Right now I’m using a DV Mark 50-watt solid-state head, and I have a Crate Power Block solid-state head. I think a 50 watt is the largest head you’d ever really need. You’re never gonna get to the sweet spot on a 100-watt head, you know? We all grew up with pictures of Hendrix with these huge amp stacks, and that was because they were playing without PAs. Nowadays, you don’t need to do that.

One of the best shows I think we ever did was opening for Neurosis in London, and I was playing an old WEM Dominator, which is basically a 15-watt amp. People were saying how great we sounded that night, and no one thought we were too quiet or not loud enough. Because a 15- or 30-watt amp will scream. People seem to forget that you double the wattage of the amp and you’re only increasing the actual volume by 3 dB. All you’re increasing is your headroom. If you want the harmonic enrichment, you have to drop the headroom.

How did you first get into guitar? I guess my favorite guitar would be the Tele. Right now I’m on a bit of a Strat jag. I’ve played other guitars, but I always seem to come back to the Fender style. I find them the best for touring, ’cause they have the straight neck instead of the angled headstock, and they’re not finicky. They get the job done and they take the road really well—whereas set necks and headstocks that are angled are accidents waiting to happen.

How did you first get into guitar? My parents were into music, so I grew up with a lot of music around me. But no one really played an instrument. And then when I got into music, as in buying my own, AC/DC was the first band I got into, and that’s what made me want to play rock ’n’ roll, I guess. For a long time, I wanted to play guitar, but never really got around to it. Then one day my dad suggested it, so I bought one finally on my 15th or 16th birthday. A good friend of mine at high school who was a big prog-head showed me a few chords, and that was sort of my beginning. I immediately started trying to write songs rather than learning other peoples’ songs. I taught myself the rudiments of theory. Although, the thing I’ve always tried to remember is, the music comes first—the theory grew out of that, not the other way around.

What influences your guitar playing? I’d have to say the guitarists I really gravitate to serve the music or serve the song—people like Steve Cropper or Cornell Dupree. I’ve always felt like the thing that really motivates me is, “Is the riff something that’s worth repeating, and does it convey my conception of the song?” I always find it very interesting when people talk about a song I’ve done, and they’ll say it’s similar to something I may have thought about the song, and the landscape I may have envisioned for it.

Earlier you mentioned how the music industry on the whole has somewhat lost sight of the album. Do you think this would ever shift your approach to your own music? When I was young, Buzz from the Melvins was talking to me and he said, “There’s two ways to do things.” He was speaking specifically of music, but I guess it could apply to other things. “You can try to jump on the trend, or what’s happening at the moment, and you might succeed famously, but you might not. Whereas, if you do what you do and you just keep doing what you do, eventually people are going to pay attention to it, hopefully.”

I’ve always tried to follow that advice. I just do what I do, and just try to keep doing what I do, and it’s obviously not the quick route, but it’s seemed to work up to this point. I haven’t had to take advice from record labels, or play songs by hit songwriters I don’t know or don’t like, or dress up in clothes I don’t want to wear. You may not have a mansion on MTV Cribs, but you can go to sleep at night and look at yourself in the mirror, hopefully.

#Dylan Carlson #Earth #Conquistador #Premier Guitar

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pigsonthewingpdx · 6 years

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We could become slaves to our equipment...volume 2

WARNING: GUITAR GEEK LANGUAGE FOLLOWS

David Lindenbaum is the second half of the Pigs on the Wing guitar team and an accomplished solo artist in his own right ( check out his solo album Ether Day if you have done so yet). While Dave is an old hand at performing Pink Floyd’s music, he actually came into the band a bit later - as Pigs on the Wing began life as a single-guitar band in the spirit of the original Pink Floyd. A seasoned and infinitely adaptable musician, Dave played his first gig with Pigs on the Wing as sub bassist - before convincing the band ( rightly so) that they really needed a 2nd guitarist. Today we’re going to take a look at Dave’s guitar setup for Pigs on the Wing - and the equipment he uses to achieve the classic Pink Floyd guitar tones.

Dave onstage with Pigs on the Wing in 2015

POTW: What is your approach in general terms to getting the David Gilmour sound ? Do you ever improvise or do you tend to play the parts note for note?

DAVE: As for as his sound, I shoot for something in the right ballpark. I’ve never tried to replicate his exact gear or anything, but have rather tried to stick to the spirit of it. For the parts I go mostly note-for-note, leaving windows here and there to be spontaneous. Here again, when I improvise I tend to stick with my perception of the spirit of the music. Once in a while I just cut loose and play off the top of my head, usually during sections where we’ve added jams that aren’t in the original arrangements.

For iconic stuff like the Brick Pt. 2 or Time solos, I play those note-for-note, figuring that fans expect to hear them that way, and also that I can’t improve on perfection. On lesser known stuff I’m more open to interpreting or improvising.

Pigs on the Wing in 2012

POTW: You came into this project after it was established, originally as a 1 guitar band - what was the process like for finding a place for both guitarists ?

DAVE: For me it was mostly a process of playing as little as possible at first and waiting to be invited to add more. I’ve always been a collaborative player, and think of my self as primarily a colorist, so that process happened naturally for me. Over time we had conversations about me taking on some of those iconic note-for-note parts since I knew many of them already. Jason likes to be a little looser and keep things a little more spontaneous, so we evolved organically into roles that suit our strengths as players. We sometimes have guitar practices where we go through each song and fine-tune our parts and how they work together. Generally we try to err on the side of leaving more space and playing less.

I’ve also become the de facto utility player, handling acoustic, lap steel, and other miscellaneous parts. Again this plays to our respective strengths because Jason mostly likes to play electric, whereas I grew up playing 12-string, nylon-string, and things like that. I learned to play songs like Fearless, Is There Anybody Out There?, and Wish You Were Here as part of learning guitar when I was a teenager, so it was natural for me take on that role in the band, to fill that need, if you like.

POTW guitars - onstage - 2018 Finding the Dark Side of the Moon tour

POTW: Let's talk about your guitars. Tell us about your main instrument(s) and why they work for this project.

DAVE: I’m pretty much a maple-neck Strat guy generally, probably because my first decent guitar as a kid was a Japanese Squier Bullet, a 3/4-size Strat body with a maple Tele neck. I played that guitar for 11 years before finally getting a Strat, so by then nothing else felt right in my hands but a Fender with a maple neck! Plus I think they’re more versatile than most other guitars. With the right pickups you can play any style of music with a Strat. I also like that Strats are a bit harder to play than other electrics. They make you work a little harder, so when I dig in things don’t get chaotic, unless I want them to. Over the years I’ve had four different Gibsons - a Les Paul, SG, Firebird, and ES330TD, in that order - and ended up selling all of them eventually.

Dave’s Stratocasters

I just got a new Strat that is quickly becoming my main electric - an Ed O’Brien (from Radiohead) signature Strat. It comes stock with pretty much all of the stuff I would want to mod a Strat with, like a Sustainer pickup and a mini-humbucker in the bridge, a Little JB. I had locking tuners put in and had it set up for 10s. I also ended up swapping necks with my now-former main Strat because the stock 21-fret V neck felt weird after 33 years playing C necks, most of which had 22 frets.

I love my Ebow, so the idea of the Sustainer was very appealing to me. I use it on Echoes and plan to use it extensively on Shine On when we bring that back into the set later this year. My now-backup guitar is a heavily modified 2011 sunburst American Standard Strat. I put a Duncan STK6 in the bridge, wired in a coil-tap switch, and put in a switch to add the neck pickup to the bridge out-of-phase. It also has a bone nut and locking tuners. As noted above, it now has the 21-fret V neck from the Ed O’Brien.

I use a Guild 12-string for all steel-string acoustic parts, except for Dogs, for which I play an old Yamaha 6-string tuned to D standard. I play a Yamaha nylon-string acoustic-electric for three songs on The Wall. I also play a Supro 6-string lap steel guitar in drop-D tuning for slide parts.

Dave’s pedalboard setup as of Sept 2018

POTW: How do you generate the distortion and overdrive effects ? Do you use a Big Muff ? How about the Leslie effects? What is the most irreplaceable pedal on your pedalboard ?

DAVE: I mostly use a Fulltone GT500 for distortion. I really prefer amp gain, but somehow ended up going this route a few years ago.

I recently incorporated a backwards-plugged wah to my setup for the creepy whale sounds on Echoes and Is There Anybody Out There? It works great unless you happen to use wireless, so I ended up adding an A/B switch so I can use a cable with the wah and wireless for everything else. I recently got a 5 channel looper pedal with an A/B so the current A/B will go away. It’s like Medusa’s head of snakes - every time I get rid of something, 2 more things take its place!

I have a Boss RT20 rotary speaker pedal that I like a lot. It’s versatile and indestructible. I also have three Analogman-modded pedals that I love - a Small Stone phase shifter, a VPJr volume pedal and a Boss TR2 tremolo. The most indispensable pedal on my board is definitely the Boss DD20 delay. Many Floyd songs are dependent on delay for tempo, so a good-sounding, reliable and programmable delay is crucial, and the Boss is all of those things; and like the RT20, really all Boss stuff, it’s indestructible. Our stuff takes a fair amount of abuse so roadworthiness counts for a lot.

POTW: Gilmour was known for playing through 100 watt Hiwatts at very high volume - what's your amp setup these days, and how is it similar or different from Gilmour's?

DAVE: I’m using a 1967 Fender BandMaster Head with two identical Avatar 2x12 8-ohm cabs. They are of the now-discontinued Vintage Diagonal series, which means the speaker board is mounted on a slight upwards tilt to facilitate being easier to hear on stage. They each have one Vintage 30 and one G12H30 speaker. I have to give a big shout-out to Avatar for making me a second cab to my specs despite discontinuing both the model in particular and custom orders in general.

My setup is different from Gilmour’s in that it is significantly lower wattage - 50 compared to a couple hundred or more, depending on how many heads he uses nowadays - and I play at a comparatively low volume. Similar to Gilmour, my rig is set up for clean headroom as opposed to high gain.

Dave’s amp rig - Sept 2018

POTW: On that note - how is your rig similar or different from Jason's rig ? Is it ever chaos having 2 guitars on stage at the same time ? How do you guys create space for both instruments ?

DAVE: My rig is very different from Jason’s in a couple of ways. He uses an Orange head into a Marshall 4x12, and uses the effects loop for his pedals. His amp has a high gain channel that he uses for most of his leads. My rig doesn’t have an effects loop so my pedalboard runs straight into the amp. Jason uses cables, whereas I am wireless.

On the other hand, we both have pretty similar pedal layouts, including 2 or 3 of the same pedals, and we both use tube amps. I started using Gilmour-style short trem arms after seeing how much Jason liked his, and Jason turned me on to Analogman pedal mods.

It can be a little chaotic with the two of us, especially on really loud and jammy songs like Interstellar Overdrive or the middle part of Echoes. As mentioned earlier, we put a lot of time into arrangements so we don’t step all over each other. It helps that neither of us are showboats or egotists. We’re pretty mellow and considerate. And sometimes a little chaos is a good thing! Mostly we try to avoid having our combined stage volumes blow out the eardrums of our band mates, our audiences, or ourselves, and/or irritate Shira, our FOH sound engineer.

Pigs on the Wing live 2018

POTW: Last question: Boss or EHX pedals ?

DAVE: Yes, please. I am an equal-opportunity pedal nerd.

#pigs on the wing #pink floyd #analogman #fender #stratocaster #david gilmour #guitargeek #pink floyd tribute

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yellowatlas738 · 3 years

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Impulse Response Utility Mac Download

Analyzer, Denoiser, Utility Plugins VST, AU, AAX DAW music production utility AudioUnit, AAX, and VST audio plugins, including plugins for audio analysis and de-noising. Also includes utility software: sample rate converters and impulse response deconvolver. Turns out LP has impulse response utility (I'll tell you, this Logic Pros got EVERYTHING, it amazes me!) So after reading about this utility from downloaded on line pdf, I've gone into logic but can't locate that utility. Mac downloads: impulse response utility mac. Freeware Only. Author: Elemental Audio Systems Date: 14 January, 2009 Downloads: 34 Size: 1.1 MB License: Demo. VST plug-in for impulse response spectrum analysis. Firium builds a complex FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filter to your specifications. See the results of your EQ. Apple Logic Studio 9 Full Version 12 DVD 50 Gb The pack contains: 1. Logic Pro 9, MainStage 2, Soundtrack Pro 3, Studio Instruments, Studio Effects, WaveBurner 1.6, Compressor 3.5, Impulse Response Utility, Apple Loops Utility, QuickTime 7 Pro - Logic Studio Install. Get TL EveryPhase alternative downloads. DOWNLOAD; TL-PA101 Powerline Utility TL-PA101 Powerline Utility is a tool. TL Space Impulse Response.

Impulse Response Utility Mac Download Windows 10

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Impulse Responses are the number one thing that can help you find the perfect guitar tone when using amp simulator plugins to record and play guitar through a computer.

Digital amp sims have come a long way in recent years, but with some styles of music, such as heavy metal, it can be hard to find the right tone. That’s where impulse responses come in handy.

It’s absolutely amazing how good of a sound you can get out of an amp sim with the right impulse. You can achieve the same tone from your favorite song or guitarist with little effort.

Most amp sims worth using allow you to import IR’s, or you can use a free program like LeCab 2 or NadIR. There are tens of thousands of impulse responses available online. Some cost money to buy, like Rosen Digital and RedWirez Impulses, but there are tons of free ones online that are really good if you know where to look.

(Separate updates exist for Mac OS 9 and X versions - visit Apple's Web site at the link above for further details.)Devine noted that Quake III Arena is best played by Mac OS X users with the new version 10.1 operating system. 'Those with a Powerbook and desktop machines with PCI Rage 128 cards will need at least 10.0.4 to play due to a bug in OpenGL on earlier versions,' said Devine. Quake iii arena mac download free. While the package itself indicates it's a hybrid CD, the Quake III Team Arena CD-ROM inside the box is labeled as a Windows-only CD. James confirmed that the Quake III Gold pack works on Macs and PCs alike, but noted some contradictory information. James said that regardless of the disparity, the Quake III Team Arena CD-ROM is indeed mountable as a Mac CD and contains a Mac installer application.In related news, Id Software Mac maven Graeme Devine recentlywith news about the latest build of Quake III for Mac OS X - the installer for the latest version, 1.30, is now ready for download.

What is an Impulse Response?

Impulse Response Utility Mac Download Windows 10

Super mario mac download free. Impulse Responses are basically designed to capture the unique sounds of various cabinet and microphone combinations.

They also capture the frequency of the entire signal chain from the mic, the power amp, preamp, and even the specific sound of the room, among other things.

How to Use Impulse Responses

Most amp sims support importing Impulse Response files. I use Recabinet 4 and TSE X50. Those are both paid amp simulators, but offer free demos. Both are really good at simulating the Peavey 6505/5150.

There are free options as well. Along with the LePou Free Amp Sim Plugins, there’s the LeCab 2 that can load up to six impulse responses at once, and it’s free.

Another free standalone IR loader is NadIR by Ignite Amps. It can load two IRs at once and the plugin includes other controls like panning, filters, stereo control, and delay.

Free Impulse Response Downloads

After downloading a few IR packs here and there, I came across the 7deadlysins Impulse Pack over at Osiris Guitar.com that contains thousands of impulses, with many of the best and most popular IR’s included all in one place.

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Some of the better ones to start with include the Guitar Hacks Impulses, the Engl Pro 4×12 V30 pack, the Mesa Boogie 4×12 700+ Gods Cab IR’s (or you can download it separately below), and there are a bunch for specific bands and songs.

7deadlysins Impulse Pack (230 MB)

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Additional Free Impulse Response Downloads

Speaker Impulse Response Download

Free Redwirez IR Library – Redwirez offers a free pack of Marshall 1960A IRs, with Celestion G12M-25s, and it includes 17 different mics to choose from, each in dozens of variations.

OwnHammer – An impulse response library based on “V3 Mix” sampling methodology with neutral tube power amps.

Impulse Response Utility Mac Download Mac

Catharsis Impulses – The 7deadlysins pack contains thousands of IR’s, but somehow Catharsis isn’t among them.

God’s Cab 1.4 – This is included in the 7deadlysins pack but it is an older version. This includes over 700 Mesa OS IRs and Axe-FX ready files at 44.1, 48, and 96 khz sample rates.

LiquidSonics’ Seventh Heaven is dedicated to the reproduction of thirty of the best reverbs from the legendary Bricasti M7. AAX, AU, VST. Download Update (from v1.3.x) Installer: Download. DAW host saves using Seventh Heaven on Windows would not load on Mac versions of the DAW; Version 1.0.0 (Released 22 April 2017). Liquidsonics seventh heaven download mac.

Acid pro 7 download mac. Dec 12, 2018.

Impulse Response Function

ToneVampIRe HD – Another popular IR pack, ToneVampIRe HD includes 44 impulses for 37 songs, from artists like Deftones, Metallica, Mudvayne, Rammstein, and Slipknot.

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nethanpaul · 4 years

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7 Steps to Setting Up Your Guitar

In this tutorial I will explain step-by-step how to set up your guitar to get perfect intonation. Having your guitar "in tune" is a perfect goal for any luthier or the guitarist himself. Poor intonation can be heard whenever we play a chord or play solo on high frets. But you can tune your guitar to achieve a more powerful sound than ever.

If the neck is dead straight, and you have no buzzing, and you like the way it feels, it's pretty safe to assume that your truss rod is adjusted just right. Even if you have a little buzzing, if you don't hear it when it's plugged in - assuming that it's an electric, of course - then you can leave it. Not all buzzes will be heard through the amp.

If it does buzz when plugged in, it doesn't necessarily mean that the truss rod requires adjustment. You might find your problem is solved by raising the bridge or bridge saddles.

The truss rod is essentially a long metal rod that is inserted into the neck of the guitar and fixed. Tightening or loosening it flexes the neck and allows curvature to be applied to the neck, altering its characteristics and, hence, its playability.

You may adjust the truss rod using Allen keys. If your guitar neck looks back-bowed then slowly tighten your truss rod by turning the truss rod clockwise with Allen keys. If it looks relief bowed, then adjust your truss rod by turning the Allen keys counterclockwise.

Remove of your old strings and use new strings in order to maximize your guitar intonation. For the standard EADGBE tuning you can use string gauge from 0.9 - 0.11. Remember, "the lighter the string, the weaker the tone".

Warning: Do not use string gauge 0.13 if your guitar used standard tuning (EADGBE ). This will damage your guitar neck, and isn't comfortable to play.

How do you know your guitar's intonation is good? Pluck one of your strings (e.g. the sixth string, low E) unfretted, then press the twelfth fret and pluck it again. If the note shows E on your chromatic tuner display, then your guitar's intonation is OK.

But if the note is sharp, the bridge saddle needs to be moved back towards the tailpiece. If it is flat, the bridge saddle needs to be moved the opposite way - forward toward the pickups.

It's best to just make small turns, as a little turn can make a lot of difference. After every adjustment to the position of the bridge saddle, retune the string to pitch and compare the twelfth fret note with the harmonic. Repeat for all the strings until the intonation its correct.

Read More: https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-steps-to-setting-up-your-guitar--audio-5284#comment-4630924724

#guitar intonation #intonation guitar bridge #guitar bridge

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