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Sunday 21 August 2016

Happy Trudging (sound demo)


Today I made the effort to set up 3 microphones on my speaker cabinet once again, which can take a little bit of time to get right with the placements... except, I just had them set by eye, and when I checked their sound, it was all perfect, with no adjustments needing to be made. That's a first, for me.

I checked their sound with this short bit of music that I made up on the spot. It has double-tracked rhythm guitar, and then I added some accompaniment layers to it, and then did some editing (which took far longer than recording all the parts), and here is the music that afternoon's effort produced.






By the way, all the distortion on this track is produced by my JMP-1 preamp being boosted by the El Distorto Segundo (which is an MXR Distortion II clone) pedal that I put together and posted about here:

As paint dries...
And now, with shiny new knobs.... a presentation of pedals

The MXR Distortion II pedal is the fuzz / distortion that gives a lot of the earlier Smashing Pumpkins music its characteristic sound, and for this demo I partly aimed to make something that sounds as though it would fit in with the various clips played within the Pastichio Medley compilation from the Smashing Pumpkin's Zero single, both to show off the pedal's ability to get the sound, and also because I just really like it.


There are two overdrive circuits in the MXR DII, as well as its clone, the El Segundo Distorto. One is more trebly and sizzling, and the other really bassy, muffled, and rippling. And dialing-in the two circuits to different degrees causes their characteristics to blend in ways that produce a wide range of tones.

The El Distorto Segundo clone of the Distortion II has even more sonic potential, with an added 2-way switch that changes the clipping type, effectively changing the distortion shape between being more organic, rippling, and broad, to more focused, flat-headed, and consistent.



C~ Soundscapes
 

Friday 12 August 2016

Checking in with two acoustic pieces of music: The Thoughts of Clouds & Snowfall's Interlude


I haven't really been recording anything for a while, other than with my phone to capture many miscellaneous bits of music that I've been coming up with. Partly, probably, because I needed to temporarily dismantle my recording setup while visitors were staying here. But also just because I just haven't and that's just how it's been. Oh well.

But, anyway, here I now have to present a couple of melodic acoustic + effects tracks.



The Thoughts of Clouds






Snowfall's Interlude





C~ Soundscapes