Well I finally managed to put the pieces together to finish another CD of material and I bring you EchoNET. I’ve designed the new artwork and just need to fabricate the new CDs for processing and worldwide electronic distribution. The thing about the new CD is that it will be packaged with a free DVD that contains the 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound mix of the album, so you can immerse yourself in the audio experience. The album is just over 45 minutes long and features 14 tracks, most of which have been previewed on this site in one form or another.
I’ll post proper links when it is all complete and ready for purchase.
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So you are probably walking around looking like Michael Jackson on a shopping spree in Dubai, resplendent with face mask and a prescription of TamiFlu, wondering if which of your family members are going to buy the farm during the great Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009? Well Swine Flu isn’t a new phenomenon, here’s an information film from 1976 which follows a similar slant to what we are getting today.
Does anyone remember the great Swine Flu pandemic of ’76? No, neither can I. All I remember was the blazing hot summer and having my right arm in plaster up to the shoulder. Summer 2009 is going the same way…but no arm in plaster, right?
I awoke from a dream in which none of the local newspapers had been delivered…
When we got to the shop, I opened the drop bin to find that the local papers had not been delivered.
Dreaming the future sucks all the surprise out of the day.
If you are a regular reader of this blog you have probably realised that I have a bit of a weak spot for music technology. If you are like me and have limited musical talent and ability, I cannot emphasise enough how important it is for you to scout around and find new ways of making your playing appear more interesting. This can be done by a multitude of ways; some practise, some have lessons, but I just hide behind a vast array of electronics in a pathethic attempt to add colour to my guitar playing.
Where is this going? Well, I am always on the look-out for new gizmos to either bring a new sonic array to my arsenal of sounds or to inspire new tunes. Last year, it was the Boss SL-20 that really floated my boat. The idea behind that pedal was to bring the “slicer” effect to the guitar, an effect that has existed for a while in synthesisers and been used predominantly in the dance music genre. It takes the sound source and cuts it into pieces and broadcasts it rhythmically, slicing it up and broadcasting a pulsing cut-up sound. It’s hard to explain further than that really. Anyway, the SL-20 was interesting to me because it also brought a level of harmonic delay to the proceedings.
Harmonic delay is something that has interested me for a while. The concept is that you strike a note and the equipment is programmed to play the harmonic variations of that note. So you can instantly create a backing track for a song with just a handful of notes. This is what attracted me to the SL-20 and then the Digitech Timebender which was advertised earlier in the year at the 2009 Winter NAMM.
I’ve been waiting a couple of months for the units to hit the UK and was lucky to spot them arrived at Absolute Music Solutions last weekend, so I put my order in. Absolute Music Solutions are a preferred music sales team of mine, so I wholeheartedly recommend them. When they have the gear in stock, they have it in stock (unlike many other musical instrument webstores) and their delivery is lightning fast. Prices are good too!
Anyway, the Timebender is a standard twin pedal configuration that has been championed by Boss et al. The delay side of the pedal is impecable and if you are looking for the ultimate delay pedal, it certainly gives the Boss DD-20 a run for its money. Something I noticed about the DD-20 is that it does “colour” your sound and you seem to lose some dynamic range. You don’t have this with the Timebender and everything sounds sparky and clean.
There are ten delay varieties and a 20 second looper. The range of delays are great, but to my cloth-ears, I can’t always hear a difference, but you get 5 seconds max of stereo delay. The interesting part of the pedal is how you present the delay in the mix. You can have it bouncing all over the shop with a panner effect, or you can select one of the 9 auto-rhythms.
Where the pedal comes into its own is with the “Strum” function. This allows you to hold down the right pedal and pick a dampened note in the rhythm you want your delay to repeat. It is frightningly accurate and you can create some great varieties of delay repeat. In fact, if you think about it, I guess it is only limited by your imagination.
This Strum feature can be combined with the harmonic delay feature, which gives you 100 intelligent harmony settings to pay with. Using the MusIQ technology, you press down the right pedal again and play the fundamental note (or chord) to figure out what key you are playing in and the harmonics are generated from that. It is a great feature, but it is a bit picky. During my tests, it would throw out many wobbly notes and I am thinking that it isn’t particularly fond of the output from the Roland VG-99. Funnily enough, the Timebender harmonic function tracked more accurately with my bass and VB-99 setup. I have a feeling that the pedal likes really clean, direct output from the guitar for it to operate with optimum accuracy. I will try this later and report back here.
If you don’t have a “do-it-all” delay pedal and are looking to buy into that market, then the Timebender is a must-have. However, it is limited by its five second delay and the mono 20 second looper. The Boss DD-20 has a 20-second max delay and stereo looper and its really still king of the castle when it comes to delay. But if you are intrigued by the idea of harmonic delay and can find a use for it in your recording setup, then gives this pedal a spin.
The following two tracks are recorded with just a guitar and bass and the Timebender harmonic delay function.
No One Knows – Stereo Mix
The next track is called “March of the Numpties” and ended up sounding like something off Robert Fripp’s “League of Crafty Guitarists” albums. It is a single nylon guitar with the harmonic delay panned left and right. I quite like it because it sounds ridiculous!
March of the Numpties – Stereo Mix
A new toy is always a cause for inspiration. When I heard that Digitech were launching a delay pedal that featured the concept of harmonic delay, my attention was caught. The Timebender pedal is a great digital delay pedal. Not quite as good as the Boss DD-20 in terms of delay length, but it does have this harmonic delay feature, which creates harmonic variations of the notes you play. It can create a shimmering harmonic fountation of sound, though I have been using it as bedding for a track.
For example, the following song has me putting my six-string bass through the Timebender and panning the harmonic delay left and right so that it has a more guitar-like accompaniament. My energy levels are a little low at the moment and so recording completely drains me now. This saddens me greatly as I do feel the creative urge biting and not being able to express it.
But yes, the bass/Timebender provides the harmonic backing of this track and we have some nylon six-string guitar doing the melody. This is a minor piece in-so-much as I spent about 90 minutes recording and producing it. The electric guitar solo in the middle and end of the track is another of my attempts to produce a “non-solo” in so much as it is more a wash of sound embodying “feel” rather than providing any melodic narrative.
To put it frankly, I recorded it to cheer me up. That’s why it is called “Sunny Jim”.
Sunny Jim – Stereo Mix
Direct download: CLICK HERE
Sunny Jim – Surround Sound Mix
Direct download: CLICK HERE
There are numerous jokes and sayings to illustrate the general dopiness of an individual. There’s “if he’s got a brain cell it would die of lonliness” or “if brains were dynamite he wouldn’t have enough to blow his hat off”, etc. Well while our journey is coming to a slow and juddering end with regards to the repair work on the shop, you never know from which crease or crevice the next fly in the ointment is going to appear. Today, the process was derailed by a level of dopiness that bordered on spectacular.
Yesterday, the builders warned that there would be a lot of work with regards to their next bit of work. OK – but they have taken down the partition wall that shielded our shop from the building work. You shrug and assume that they know what they are doing.
This morning we were greeted with a thick layer of grimy dust that impermeated every nook and cranny of the shop. We were back to square one and it was if the car had smashed into the shop all over again, but instead of red brick dust, this was a creamy limey kind of persistant crap, the likes of which I had never seen before.
The dust got into your lungs and rattled in your throat and we quickly opened the doors to alleviate the condition. Lugging bundles of newspapers about was a welcome distraction from the overall feeling of murderous rage I felt towards the builders. No effort had been made to contain the dust and everything was ruined…again. So for the second time, we would have to clean up.
So we made up the newspaper rounds, met the boys at the door and headed off home. An email was sent off to the project co-ordinator and he paid a visit to see the extent of the damage. Cleaners would be dispatched. Life would go on again.
It still doesn’t make me feel any better or get rid of the taste in my mouth and the grumbling ache in my lungs.
You’ve probably wondered what your childhood peers have been upto after school? Have they won on the lottery, developed a cure for cancer, or been up to more salubrious shenanigans? Well I know that one peer is the musical director of the Holyland Experience in the good ol’ USA, which came as a surprise as I didn’t realise that he was particularly inclined to all that religious mumbo-jumbo. But whatever gets you through the night, etc…
Well today I had another update from my past thanks to the reams of newsprint dedicated to a fraud trial going on in that there London today. I knew both of the lads involved from school, though I knew one better than the other, and if someone had said to me at sixteen, “You know so-and-so and whathisface…? They are going to be involved in a £3 million fraud trial by the time they are 38…”, I would have guffawed like a drooling idiot.
Anyway, here are the links:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5171213/Buckingham-Palace-policeman-threatened-to-kill-best-friend-over-3m-scam.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2380620.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/17/buckingham-palace-fraud
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/royalwatch/news/article_1471383.php/Royal_protection_officer_ran_con
The best line I’ve drawn from these reports is that the fraudster used the excuse that “a spider in his eye had caused an infection” to stall non-payment of debt. I must remember to use that the next time my creditors are after me. (That last line was a cynical attempt at humour – I pay all my debts on time, I might add!)
This story certainly beats that glorious Olympic morning when this guy got his chance at winning gold plucked from his hands after testing positive for drugs. We didn’t get on too well at school, so it really did seem as if god pays debts without money afterall…
Ain’t life strange and wonderful at the same time?
EDIT:
Now the fraud has gone up to £3m…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/5172567/Royal-protection-officer-threatened-to-kill-best-friend-for-exposing-3m-scam.html