Here's a track I recently finished recording and uploaded to YouTube, but without posting about it on this blog. Actually, this is a slightly tweaked version of what I previously uploaded, as I changed the EQ and mixing some for this version, and not in a made-it-worse way, but, the opposite. So, this is like a remaster of something you might not have heard before to have known its preremaster sound.
And, here are some pictures of Autumn. If you'd like to download larger copies of some of these photos, you can from this link.
And, some animated gifs that my phone nicely auto-made for me from photos I took (just as I'd planned). Click em for the larger versions and be immersed.
I had wanted to make a long record of leaves falling, but this video is only 21 seconds long. Maybe that's enough.
This is a video I took of many salmon trying to swim upstream to wherever. By the way, it stunk very badly anywhere within like 20 feet of the riverside / streamside, which would be because of all the dead salmon that I could see lying against large rocks and tree roots in the water. Eugh.
Unbeknownst to the world before now, while working on For the Continuum, my had-been-crapping-out-for-years subwoofer / sound system base crapped-out a bit more and stopped feeding audio from one speaker channel, so that while finishing editing and mixing of the track I could only hear one side of the stereo mix. I just ran with it, put everything in mono, and then moved things to wherever I felt they should be.
So, since sometime after June 22 and until today, I'd been utilizing a little trick that worked to give me pseudo stereo sound: By pulling the power connector jack half-way out of the jack, sound would return to both speakers. However, it wouldn't be the full sound. It was missing some layers of playing audio completely, seemingly arbitrarily. So, I don't know what it was doing, but if Mono is a 1-point audio setup, and Stereo is a 2-point audio setup, then I guess what I was getting was like a 1.5-point audio setup.
Today I listened to the For the Continuum mix from a full stereo setup for the first time, and I think it sounds OK. I was able to do that because, also today, I finally felt like taking a go at fixing the audio system, and had an idea of what I might be able to do to do so. Basically, I took things apart, desoldered some parts, swapped some parts, soldered things back in place, and put it all back together. The result was success, and now this thing is performing as it hasn't been for years.
I didn't really take pictures of the fixing process, but the problematic connectors were under that metal shield, which itself was difficult to get out. But, cutting and melting the glue holding that PCB in place, and finding the secret hidden nut and removing it, and then yanking hard with some pliers all contributed to eventual success in opening that mystery box of malfunction up to being repaired.
In celebration of my fixing this old piece of now-working audio-enabler, I set up my SM57 and MD 421 microphones and checked out Cubase, which I hadn't loaded up since finishing For the Continuum. And see how aligned I had those mics positioned from the speaker cones on first try:
Phase status: perfection.
Testing the phase and sound, I recorded while I briefly strummed some chords, notes, melody pieces, and switched various pedals on and off. If you want to hear some of the sounds I had on tap for this process, you can, because I uploaded them.
Let's see if I can recall which pedals are used where. In addition to whatever is written below, each segment is EQ'd with MXR 10-band EQ, using some BOSS CS-3 and PS-5 pedal touches.
(0:00) 1. clean guitar
(0:45) 2. Electro Harmonix Cock Fight
(1:23) 3. Tubescreamer clone, RAT clone, OD-1 setting on JMP-1
(2:00) 4. Tubescreamer clone, BOSS MT-2... not sure what else.
(3:05) 5. NYC Big Muff, op-amp Big Muff
Well, I'm uncertain about 3 and 4. But the others are exact. Fun.
Btw, I'm aware that I haven't yet completed and put out Burst of Stars as I had intended to. Which I'm sorry for, for myself and for anyone waiting for it. I haven't the money for a drums take for it, and so I think I'm going to leave it as is, for now... which I guess I have a good head start on doing.
If you haven't already given it a listen, I recommend doing so. Some of the best guitar tones I've put together are in it, and I think the music is pretty powerful:
Another piece of cool gear I acquired recently, is a Crate GX-15R practice amp.
The convenience of a relatively low-volume, small, tubeless practice amp is something I should have capitalized on a long time before now, because it is often making the difference between me playing and not playing.
I've had an interest in picking up a small "practice" amp, and also this particular amp for a while. I did previously buy a Crate GT-65 from somebody selling theirs through Craigslist, but, well... it was busted.
I spent a bit of time looking into what the problem might be, and it could be something simple (blown output transistor(s) are suspected), but the cost of getting the amp on a tech's bench to be looked at would be as much as I paid for it - and that would still leave me not knowing whether it was indeed a simple and cheap fix or not.
I let the seller know it wasn't working, and they offered to return my money and did through Paypal, leaving the amp with me till it would become convenient for them to pick it up. That was 6 months ago, so I figure it's abandoned, and I might as well look into fixing it, myself.
Anyway, I more recently spotted a Crate GX-15R on Craigslist for the inviting price of $50 CND (~$40 USD). This is the Crate amp I would prefer to have because of its use by the Smashing Pumpkins on their album Machina (and I've read a claim on, I think, the Gear Slutz forum that somebody talked to a MCIS engineer who told them it was also slipped into mixes on that album... though, I have not heard that claim anywhere else), and also live. And, what do you know, I'm a fan of classic SP music.
BTW, the timing of my spotting this GX-15R amp on Craigslist coincided with the Billy Corgan Reverb shop opening up, where BC was selling two of his own G-15R amps - one for $200, and the other for $6,000. Regarding the prices, I don't know why. Maybe one was used on the album and the other wasn't.
So, I really wanted The $50 CND Craigslist one, and I contacted the seller right away. But, my first (maybe bad) instinct was to try to haggle on the price, so I sent a text offering $40 CND. Then, I didn't hear anything for a couple of days, and I panicked thinking I lowballed them, and that it was dumb because I really want this amp, and I haven't seen it show up on Craigslist often, and this listing was really cheap, so I sent another text basically saying 'I'll give the $50 for it, just tell me when I can pick it up'.
Seller responded, and turns out they were out of town for a couple of days - probably.
When I was picking up the amp, I made a joke about missing my chance to haggle on the price, and the seller responded, 'well, here you can have this pedal', and threw a Punch Factory Optical Compressor on top of the amp while I was holding it, ready to leave.
I must be great at jokes. I was eager to buy the amp, regardless, but, awesome.
This is the only "practice" amp I've played, but I think its sound rocks. Except maybe for the reverb. So, the GX-15 part of it rocks. And the R part of it is still nice to have.
Here are a couple of videos I made after getting the amp. It's basically just the guitar going into the amp - only slightly boosted with a BOSS compressor out front. I also usually leave a BOSS PS-5 running subtly in front of the compressor, so it could be that it was running for these recordings.
The first one I recorded with my phone next to the amp, with the amp turned down a lot - but clearly not enough, since the amp's sound keeps choking out the phone's microphone. I flip through all of my guitar's pickups while playing. The second video is demo of how the amp sounds when using its speaker-out connector to hook it up to my 4x12 Marshall cabinet, which I believe should have G12T-75 speakers in it. I recorded it with a Zoom Q2HD camera.
I still haven't got my guitars back from my luthier - which resulted in my deciding to bring this one out of my basement to play with in the interim. This is the first guitar that I've owned.
I bought it for $50 from someone in highschool, and used it with an old Traynor solid-state amp that I was given by a friend of my dad's.
This isn't my specific old Traynor amp, but is a picture from the internet that looks the same as the one I had, and I think it's the same model. I gave mine to away when I bought myself a better amp (that I didn't really like and ended up selling to buy another amp).
One slight issue that I'm encountering with the guitar since taking it out of its hibernation, is that it doesn't pass any sound to an amp. I'm guessing it still worked when I last played it, but that was many years ago. I guess something of the electronics might have corroded away, or maybe it's just a simple dust issue preventing the pickup selector switch from making proper contact.
Let's check out some of its sweet features.
Just a bit more than half of a pickup selector switch-cover.
Rusted pickups that I couldn't adjust the height of because I just couldn't get the screws to turn. Don't know what's holding them in so strongly. This is authentic vintage rust, and none of that artificial "relic'd" stuff.
Well-aged tape to protect the player's shirt from being torn by the screws' jagged metal.
Guitar strap-holder that slides out for easy replacement, and usually constantly while trying to play the guitar. For a bit, if I just kept tightening it up every 5 or so minutes, it would stay in there for all the other minutes. But now it's just sliding right out any time the guitar headstock is tilted a bit upwards.
Also, I'm pretty sure the guitar's fretboard was covered with green-grey mold when I brought it up, but it seems to have died off in the drier, brighter, warmer upstairs. Oh well, better for playing this way, anyway.
Here are some tracks I made many years ago, while still learning to play the guitar, played using both the silver guitar and Traynor amp - and they're among my first attempts at coming up with music and recording it. I recorded them into my computer with some cheap plastic microphone that I had found lying around.
Well I guess it's not fully here, although its sort-of version is, and I apologize for that - and also for not saying something about its absence before now. Why? Well, reasons, and I don't think it's coming in the next few weeks, either.
Instead of talking about the full reasons for why it hasn't shown up, I'm going to do something that I really do not want to do, and provide a link to the track as it is, which is basically how it was the last time I posted about it, which is to say I haven't done any further recording for it. I could have posted it a while ago, but if I did that, and people listened to it, then what would be the point of working on it further, once I'm again able to? And it's a great track that will only become more awesome by working on it further. Since it's been so long, and since I still don't know when I can get back to it, I'm posting it, anyway.
So, with a recommendation to not listen to it (unless you really want to, which I guess is what I should hope for... actually, I think you should listen to it), here's that that track as it is, and as it will be until I get back to working on it...
... Which might not be for another month, or more, but I really don't know right now. What I do know is that I don't have either of my electric guitars with me right now, and when I have them back, then I likely will not have the power amp for my main guitar rig with me for 3 weeks to a month.
The guitar that I've written about modifying and having bought a custom replacement neck for has been with a local luthier I know for over 1/3rd of a year now, because they agreed with me to shave the back of that guitar's original neck down, apply a finish, and refret the guitar in exchange for the custom replacement neck I'd ordered for that guitar, and which was just too bright sounding for my tastes (its brightness didn't work with any of my guitar rig's presets, which all work with both the original neck's sound, and with my other electric guitar).
Having spent my money on that guitar neck, I needed a way to recoup on the neck, while also still doing something about that guitar to either fix up the existing neck (worn frets, neck too thick for my hand to play comfortably) . So, I bartered this deal, which has seen me go without having that guitar to play for many months now. The luthier is busy with lots of business and says they aren't going to put a non-paid job ahead of their paid work, but has assured me they'll have it done by the end of this month.
I've been playing my other electric, so that hasn't been a total problem, though I have missed playing that guitar. But now, I've also brought my other guitar to the same luthier to install an Earvana compensated nut, and so now I'm without either guitar. I should also have that guitar back by end of this month.
That's the guitar stuff.
I also need to take my Strategy 500 power amp to a tech for a capacitor replacement job, because it's doing some humming out of one channel right now, which I think is a capacitor going bad. The amp's 25 or so years old, and hasn't had any caps replaced, so it's about time for that.
I expect the amp to be gone for at least a few weeks, as I said above, because there's always a backlog for this stuff - and there aren't a lot of options for getting it done here in Vancouver, either. Some popular local techs simply didn't want to do the job, saying it's too big, or they've got too much other stuff.
So I'll get the job done at the service centre that I usually go to, which already has some equipment of mine right now, and has had it for over 2 months. But I won't take the amp there until I get my previous equipment back from them. They say they're really busy, too. I guess Vancouver needs some more techs.
And I'm not saying this current lack of access to my gear is why I haven't already finished the music track I previously was working on (it isn't), but not having my stuff is definitely going to ensure I won't be recording with it until I have it back. Clearly, there is an issue with audio tech service efficiency in Vancouver, BC (sort of like with me).
Even though I haven't worked on recording anything (other than many new tracks with my phone just for archiving), my tone configuration has grown, and come into greater clarity and refined. So, here's what my pedal board looks like, right now.
Other than the BOSS CS-3 (blue) compressor and the MXR DII clone that I built (lower-left, teal), those pedals aren't used in the new track I've posted while sort-of recommending you don't listen to it (but also sort-of recommending you do), so that when it is finished, whenever that is, it will be amaze and new.
I'm not going to have any money to pay for someone to play drums for this next track until right before Christmas, and so I probably won't get drums added to the track until a bit after Christmas. So, I'm putting up this older acoustic demo track of mine for listening to in the meanwhile.
It's just a little bit more than a basic track, with a mid-section solo, and a couple of brief bass-idea lines popping in and out in a couple of places.
I'm sure that I'll make a complete production of this song at a later time.
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:
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.
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.
So, this is the guitar neck that I had custom built and installed onto my '57 strat body, replacing its original neck. It's also the neck that I said I thought sounded too bright for my liking, and so I was likely to sell. And this is a demo video, which might help me sell it, though I'm not entirely committed to the idea of selling it.
I made this video to demo out how the neck sounds, and played in all the different pickup configurations that this guitar has, to show off its general sound.
Also, some clumsy playing, courtesy of my lethargy.
It's a little weird being a headless performer in the video, so you can put this head on top of the body, and imagine it as it were unshaven. And I think that's also the first time I've posted a picture of myself on this blog (edit: other than in a previously uploaded video). There I am.
This isn't the music I've previously mentioned I've started work on, but I made this for a contest which guitar effect makers Strymon are presenting, and for which they're giving some of their cool products as prizes.
The theme of the contest is to create ocean and beach inspired sounds or music, and to post it to Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc. I though I might re-record The Blue Tides and You for this, as a performance video, but I double-checked the contest rules today, and they say that the content (or maybe just the video, I wasn't sure) has to be created after March 11. And I already posted The Blue Tides and You a month earlier than that, so, this evening I put together another ocean-esque, tides-titled track: Tides of the Ether.
I've completed the phaser pedal I mentioned I was building in the posts Blurbing some news, and Almost there with DoE. It sounds great, probably my fav phaser pedal I have used.
Here's a track I recorded just with my phone, showing the pedal in some mild-phasing action. Its effect can be dialed in far more intense, bigger, and tangier, though, and the pedal has Speed, Depth, Resonance, and Mix controls, as well as a 4 / 6 phase stage toggle switch - all in addition to the classic MXR Phase 90 sound.
Just in time for Christmas, I've remastered and put together into a compilation some of the tracks I've previously put out.
I only now listened to these tracks using a different audio setup than what I had mixed them on, and I immediately heard a lot of things that could be improved. And so I improved them.
The biggest difference is going to be the bass sound and levels, which I reworked on most of these tracks. But I also adjusted the sound levels of some drum elements, and the occasional guitar part. I also made some previously mono guitar parts stereo, and boosted the spread of a stereo part in My World Come True (yeah, I'm using that title again, instead of Our World Come True. I think it gives a bit of a menacing edge). I hope these mixes sound a lot better than they did before.
An exception is Being Like the Wind, which is unchanged from its earlier sound design, but included in this compilation nonetheless.
1. Mezo
2. Superblast!
3. My World Come True
4. Being Like the Wind (not remastered)
5. Liquid Crystal
6. Minotaurous
And if you'd like to download the wav files for these tracks, you can even do that, right here:
Also, feel free to share this video and these tracks. Hope you have good holidays.
Here's something I just wrote, and recorded using amp simulators in Cubase - so no (getting fixed) preamp needed. It's an instrumental, but then so has everything been that I've uploaded so far.
Will Jones in England is again working out drums for this next track (My World Come True), and so I should also get my remaining lead/solo work done and leave walking in the rainy park for another day. Here is the rainy park:
Back to music, Will has previously given the drum tracks for Superblast! and The Stars are Iridescent, their videos here:
Often when I'm deciding to work on some music, my fingers end up producing something entirely new in a short period of time, and my attention is redirected. While working on Superblast, I came up with the beginnings of a few more new tracks, which are mostly complete now, although not yet recorded.
One of those tracks seemed like its parts could make for one whole track, or that maybe its parts actually belonged to 2 - 3 unique tracks. This track below is expanded from what was just one piece from that particular track.
Here's the version of Superblast! with Will's drumming. He did a great job, and I'm really loving listening to the track with him drumming on it. But I first had to get down something closer to the rhythm I felt inside me before shifting my perspective to his take, which is why I posted the track with a simple kick and snare beat first.
I made a decision to not listen to his approach more than once until I'd done that, so that I could always go reference my earlier feeling -
It felt important to me that I preserved what the track had been in my mind, before letting it branch into something a bit different.
That's not meant to suggest I've got issues with the track as it's presented, I think it's a super blast! (aha) ... and it feels incredible for me to listen to.
I also made an edit to extend the after-solo chorus. Wish I'd recorded it that way from the start:
