Compressor Jones
Posted: August 19, 2009 Filed under: Concerts, Videos | Tags: Built to Spill, Compressor Pedal, Effects, Joe Meek, Wampler Pedals 2 Comments »More bits and pieces this evening.
- As a follow up to last night’s post, it turns out Built to Spill is playing at 930 in mid October. Hmmmm.
- I’ve got a hankering to buy a compressor pedal. Two makes have come to my attention: Wampler and Joe Meek. Here’s a video of the Wampler in action:
Abacab Reminds me of Atari
Posted: August 12, 2009 Filed under: Cinema, Listening | Tags: Abacab, Aragorn, Arwen, Atari 2600, Compressor Pedal, Effects, Genesis, The Return of the King Leave a comment »Couple of bits and pieces this evening.
- Abacab. On the Metro shuffle this evening, the title track off “Abacab” popped up. Great tune. I listened to the whole thing. Interestingly, right as I walked on to the train, I thought of playing video games, old school video games. This association makes perfect sense to me. “Abacab” was released in 1981, when I was nine year old. In 1982, Atari renamed its video console the “2600.” I owned an Atari 2600 around that time, and I was also recording Genesis songs off the radio.
- Cheese. Last night, after walking the dogs, I fired up the DVD player and watched the end of the “Return of the King.” I hate to be harsh, but it occurred to me, I think for the first time, that the “closing ceremonies” bit of that film is powerfully cheesy. Like the surprise wedding moment for Aragorn and Arwen? Ooof. Maybe I thought that part was cheesy in previous viewings of the movie, which I like overall, but last night it hit me pretty hard.
- Compression. I think I’m ready to invest in a compressor pedal. More on this topic in later posts.
Can’t Stay Away From the Delay
Posted: August 5, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Digital Delay, Effects, Jamming, neighbors, noodling Leave a comment »I could probably noodle like this until the neighbors showed up with pitchforks.
World Premiere: FBdN’s 072709
Posted: July 30, 2009 Filed under: Recording | Tags: Boss ME-50, Effects, GarageBand, Matt Holford, musical microblogging, Yamaha 4 Comments »This one could probably use more work, but sometimes you have to just let it rip.
The novelty for me here was hooking up my Boss ME-50 multi-effects pedal to the Yamaha keyboard. That made for some fun, I-wish-I-was-Matt-Holford style noodling. The Yamaha comes out pretty faint in this project, but it’s there. Oh yes, it’s there.
Google Docs, A Brief History of Martin Guitars, Chorus Freak
Posted: July 29, 2009 Filed under: Site maintenance | Tags: C.F. Martin & Co., chorus, Effects, GarageBand, Guitars 2 Comments »Couple of bits and pieces this evening.
- To draft these blog posts, I use Google Docs.
- Here, via I Heart Guitar, is a brief history of Martin guitars. Maxwellkeeler, I understand your Martin may or may not have had a run in with an indelible marker? Whatever the case, it evidently didn’t affect the guitar’s sweet sound.
- I made some progress this evening on 072709. Let’s just say I’m having trouble staying away from GarageBand’s effects rack, particularly the chorus. I’m a freaking sucker for chorus. Tune is getting weird, and I hope it gets weirder.
Underwater Moon (2003)
Posted: July 25, 2009 Filed under: Recording | Tags: Effects, Pro Tools, reverb, the internet is really amazing Leave a comment »With not a whole lot in the blogging hopper this evening, I’ll turn to the vast FBdN archives for a tune I recorded six years ago: Underwater Moon.
I did this one in Pro Tools LE, which I haven’t used much at all in the last few years. One thing I liked about the software was the reverb effect. I can’t remember the details here, but I think you could set reverb to “infinite” or something. That made for some sonic weirdness, which shows up a bit in the track.
UPDATE: I tweeted this blog post and got the funniest response nearly immediately: “@fretbuzzdotnet That’s no moon. It’s a space station.” A perfect reply, when you listen to this spaced-out track. But then I checked out who sent the response. The Internet is really amazing.
Hey, Apple! Stop torturing us already!
Posted: July 23, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple Logic Studio, Effects, Guitar Rig, Guitars, stompboxes 2 Comments »
The new pro-level DAW from Apple has premiered today, and while the general appearance and feel of Logic 8 appears to be retained (it is not, after all, being billed as Logic 8.x or Logic 9), there are a gaggle of fancy new features, including the lovely stompbox interface featured above. It seems that the goal is to use strong brand identification to get the low-level pro user and, more importantly, the upper level amateur to forgo GarageBand in favor of this comprehensive, all-inclusive, software suite. I think the real pros are content with the multitude of aftermarket plug-ins that have been in use for years. The difference is that modeling tech just keeps getting better and better and better. My GuitarRig software is already getting a bit old, and it still sounds pretty good.
And let me just say this. While the above interface may be easy on the eyes, the $500 price tag for Logic Studio does not include a foot controller. For those of us who have been accumulating real stompboxes over the past umpteen years, the best solution is still what Delarus suggested to me some time ago – you want great sound? Stick a mic in front of your amp and (with all due respect to Bill O’Reilly) do it live!
SourceAudio Tri-Mod Wah – probably voided the warranty
Posted: July 21, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: auto wah, Effects, effects pedal, Guitars, screwing around with things I don't understand, Soundblox, Source Audio, Tri-Mod Wah 1 Comment »
I’ve never been too good with the wah-wah rocker pedal. Volume pedal is a different story, that I can handle. but the wah has never been my friend. So, several months ago, I picked up this sucker on a whim and it’s a nice sounding unit with lots of versatility. It can do envelope or LFO and the multi-peaks can get real crazy – that’s always a good thing.
Unfortunately, the switch stopped working several months ago and I foolishly never did anything about it. The unit still got power and all the settings seemed to work, but I couldn’t work the pedal. Well, last night, I decided to take a quick look inside and noticed that a spring in the switch had been overly compressed. I gently stretched out the spring and put it back in place, put all the screws back in and ta-dah! The thing is working like a charm. I’ll try to get some recording done so you can hear this beauty. It’s not earth shattering, but it’s a nice little auto-wah/filter unit.
Cross-posted from mpomy.com
Super-tiny amp head
Posted: July 1, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Effects 2 Comments »Man, I love myself some electro-harmonix! This is like the NYC guitarists dream amp… the size of a guitar pedal?!! Say Whaaa?! Just take a look at EHX.com and check out the Caliber-22. It’s a 22 watt guitar amp the size of a little MXR phaser… just grab any speaker cab at the show and your in-bidness. I really have to get my homestudio set up, so I can catch up with frettbuzz and mpomy on the online composing, but for now I’m gonna get my gearhead on per usual.
DIY Big Muff Pi
Posted: June 29, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Effects 5 Comments »Just did my second build of a buildyourownclone.com pedal kit. It’s a BigMuffPi this time to the original specs! I’ll send some pics along the way and some recording too. Here’s the online shootout of the clone vs. the real deal. I sold my vinty along time ago… sorta kicked myself afterwards, of course, but it was a late seventies model, not the true mike matthews special… man this thing rips, and it’s true bypass… mean and clean. My soldering skills are getting better, but I screwed up the led light… oh well, now it’s the real deal. My first byoc kit I built was a clone of the tonebender mkII… a little too heavy for my taste, but I had to check it out…
There we go… doesn’t have that 70s mojo… who really cares… and who’s lookin?! I kinda like the idea of someone taking a look at your pedal rig and having absolutely no idea whats going on. just a bunch of unfinished boxes.
