Hacking The Sound

Trigger your Juno-6 arpeggiator from Pro Tools (or any DAW)

Scott — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 23:22:02 +0000

This is a very simple method to trigger your JUNO-6 (or any other compatible analog synth with CV input) using a positive Pulse waveform. 1) First, put your grid into time mode, and select MS as your grid. Make sure you have 1ms set as the display grid. 2) Select a region about 3ms long, and use the Signal Generator plugin (in the Other category) to generate your waveform. 3) Make sure you have Square wave selected, with a frequency of around 320hz. Square wave = pulse wave (After experimenting with this, it seems like the Juno really likes really short waveforms as a trigger). 4) Once you have created your waveform, make sure to fade it out; otherwise the arpeggiator will have false triggers. Finally, switch back to grid mode for bars and beats. Copy and paste your waveform at the beginning over every beat that you want to trigger on the arpeggiator. In this example, I set my grid as 16th notes, and created about 4 bars worth of pulse triggers. Consolidate, and duplicate your block down the entire length of your song. As well, make sure to route the output of that track to an external output on your audio interface and use that to feed the arpeggio clock in on the back of your Juno. Now, when you put your Juno-6 into arpeggiation mode, it will be synced up perfectly with your tempo map. For this to work perfectly, make sure that your latency setting is low enough so that there isn't a noticeable delay, and also enable delay compensation if you are using Pro Tools 9+. As a bonus, and for the lazy, I've added the pulse wave sample here so you can just download and place it into your session.

Modcan modular synth modules

Scott — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 21:39:57 +0000

Recently, I've become obsessed with the idea that I need to build a modular synth. After working so much on the new Mankind Is Obsolete album, and taking on more and more scoring and sound design jobs, it has become more apparent to me that I do have a pure love for sound creation. I think a modular system would be a great tool - and I can essentially mold exactly what I want out of it. More info to come, but for now check out Modcan. (Pictured - Daft Punk's modular system that was ordered for the Tron Legacy soundtrack, one of my main inspirations for composing and sound design).

9 ways that you can immediately improve your sound

Scott — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 00:17:48 +0000

We are all busy people; whether you play in the spare moments that you have after you get home from work or if you are a full time professional musician, sometimes there never seems enough time in a day to really get an edge on improving our sounds. Here are some things you can do to get ahead in the world of beautiful sound.

1. Practice, practice, practice!

It doesn't matter if it's for 5 minutes or 5 hours, make sure you show up to your instrument of choice at least once a day (preferably more). In my own experience, one of the best things you can do to improve the quality and tone of the sound that you create is by having a daily practice. The more disciplined about this the better results you will get. During your practice, make sure to use a metronome and keep a log. In fact I could write many more articles on that subject alone! By using a metronome you will become more solid with your sense of rhythm. This is especially for guitarists who have a habit of speeding up (I'm definitely not innocent to this). A log will help you keep tabs on how much progress you have made. After only a couple of days of practice, you will start seeing and hearing immediate results.

2. Seek out and play with other people

This is just as important as as number one (in fact I would say more so, except that if you don't practice most people will not want to play with you) - playing with as many skilled players as you possibly can is hands down one of the best things that you can do to drastically improve almost every aspect of your playing. Bonus points if you seek out players that are vastly better than you. One day, long ago I was hanging out outside of a coffee shop in Long beach and happened to hear some of the most amazing acoustic guitar I've ever heard in my life. I immediately went to my car to grab my guitar. I played with him for almost 3 hours that night and learned a lot.

3. Record yourself

Even if you aren't the most technically inclined person, I highly recommend that you start recording yourself during both practice and rehearsal (with your band if you have one). There is nothing like hearing the truth of the speakers. It is one thing to play and think to yourself "wow, I sound great!" - it is a completely different story when you record yourself and listen back. I promise you will hear at at least more than one area that you can improve. This works great if you record yourself practicing along to a metronome. You can hear how your rhythm works and if you are able to stay in the pocket, or if you need to compensate for any rhythmic irregularities by speeding up or slowing down. Additionally, you will hear how you actually sound. Even if you are recording your electric guitar directly into your computer, or using the audio recorder on your phone, you can get a good idea on how to improve your basic tone.

4. Emulate other instruments

An interesting way that you can expand your sonic palette is by learning to mimic the sounds of other instruments. It is no secret that early blues guitarists were only emulating the sounds of their favorite jazz/blues singers. In fact I would like to go so far to say that if it wasn't for that, rock music would have never happened! Players like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff beck, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton all used this method to define the sound of their instruments. How can you make your guitar sound like a violin, or a horn, or the voice of Ella Fitzgerald? Listen to some of your favorite recordings and learn to emulate those sounds. Record yourself, listen back, and adjust to fit. Rinse and repeat - integrate this into your practice!

5. Instrument setup, intonation, and tuning

If you play an instrument, make sure that it is correctly set up. For guitarists, if you are out of intonation, that means that some of the notes you are playing will not be in tune. And no matter how hard you try, there is little chance that you will sound amazing if your instrument is out of tune. For reed instruments, make sure that you have a fresh reed and that you are in tune with other instruments. For singers, this applies as well! I've heard many an amazing singer that sound less than amazing because they weren't tuned up. The human body is a very delicate instrument that needs to be properly tuned as well.

6. Optimize your electronic setup for tone

What is tone? This is a very subjective thing - but in the world of guitar, good tone for me is having a pure signal. That means that you should try as much as possible to keep your signal clear of interference and noise. First of all, make sure that there are no loose wires/solder points in your electric guitar. I've heard countless buzzy guitars and knew almost immediately that they had a failing solder point. Your best bet is to learn elementary electronics and become familiar with the art of re-soldering. Secondly, the same thing applies to instrument cables. Beware of cheap, half damaged cables. They love to attract interference like a bee hive will attract a bear - and will most likely end their crappy cable life by completely crapping out on you in the middle of an important solo. The more solid your connection to the amp, the more chance the tone of your guitar, fingers, and pickups will have a chance to cut through. If you use a lot of effects, make sure to plan out your signal chain carefully. Use effects that have buffers before any long cable runs, make sure to have fresh batteries and above all make sure your power source is as clean as possible!

7. Learn to play with dynamics

I'm talking about natural dynamics - don't just throw a compressor on everything and squeeze the life out of everything you are playing - but learn to introduce natural dynamics into your playing technique. For guitarists, this is easily accomplished by using the volume knob and pickup selectors. For vocalists, proper microphone technique applies: if you are belting out a line at the top of your lungs make sure that you don't keep your microphone in the same place as when you are whispering sweet nothings into the mic. this is a great element that can be vastly abused for contrast. If you have a wonderful tube amp that sounds great when it is cranked, by all means keep it turned up. But make sure to play your soft parts very softly - that will make your loud parts really rip.

8. Practice good vibrato technique

In your practice, make sure that you give some focus time to your vibrato technique. This is different for every instrument - but good vibrato is essential to communicating emotion and soul into your music. If you are a guitarist, figure out a good vibrato for yourself that you feel represents your voice the best. The same goes for singers, and instrumentalists of all types. Vibrato is a very human element of music - because it is what most closely resembles a voice. Once you master that, you will have the ability to express something that people can relate to on a subconscious level.

9. Interval and pitch training

A great way to help out your playing is to learn how to identify different intervals in major and minor scales. Beyond that, start training yourself on pitch identification. The more you can do of this, the better you will get in terms of being able to express your feelings through music. The reason this works so well is that through the process of memorization, you will form relationships, bonds, and even emotions with how different pitches and intervals sound. Then you can use that to communicate those feelings outwardly via your instrument. In conclusion, there are no hard and fast rules about how you can really improve the quality of your sound. On top of that, it is a very subjective thing - because what sounds good to one person may sound like absolute rubbish to another. But this is what has worked for me - so I hope that it can help you out on your personal quest for beautiful tone. PS. make sure to sign up for the Hacking The Sound mailing list to receive updates and future product offerings. I promise that I won't harass you. ;)

How to automate your effect changes and more for your show with MIDI

Scott — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:23:40 +0000

Are you sick of tap dancing on your effect/stomp boxes while you are playing a show, when you would much rather be focusing on playing and performing? In this post, I will attempt to explain how you can literally automate all of your effect changes for your live show.

I'll draw from my own experience in how I automated all of my effect changes for an entire live set's worth of songs. (Note: this can apply to any instrument, even voice, as long as your effects have a method of being controlled via MIDI commands.) First thing is first: do you need to automate? I'm personally a fan of the different effects one can acheive when using signal processing and effects on my guitar signal. For most of the bands I play in, I have a different set of effects per song. I sometimes like to switch between different channels of my guitar amp as well, depending on what part I'm playing. Basically, a good way to determine this is if you have to switch multiple effects and amp channels on and off at the same time. It is absolutely possible to do manually, but you literally have to plan out your effect changes. For me, it's no fun having to think about the part that is coming up and prepare to switch over in steps (ex., because I have to switch delay 1 off, switch on delay 2 and some reverb and change my amp channel to clean in a matter of a couple of seconds or faster). If you are dealing with all of this there is a big chance that you could benefit from automating your effect changes. There are a number of ways to achieve this, but the most simple and least expensive option is to use one or two main effect processors; plan out your effect changes, load up your favorite midi sequencer and map out each of your songs to a click track. Then, you can sequence all of the required MIDI commands for your effect changes per song. (I'm OCD about this in a major way - I even have my sequencer triggering my guitar tuner for periods of downtime that I'm not playing). Important: the only way to make this work correctly is if you sequence your song to a click track - which means you need to establish a static (or dynamic) tempo per song. Finally, your drummer needs to play along to this click so that all of your changes are automated. In addition to automating effect processors and pedals with MIDI, there is also the option of automating amp channel changes as well via using switching systems. You can do seriously amazing things with some (somewhat) simple MIDI programming. The more complexity you have in terms of effect processors and switching systems will obviously add more complexity to your system, but the concept remains the same: pre-plan your effect changes, program your song tempos and then map all of your changes in via MIDI commands. Before you start, you will have to figure out what your budget is for this, as that will determine the amount of programmability that you will ultimately have. For myself, I didn't have the hugest budget (and most musicians don't have much money to throw around.. but that's a story for a different blog), which is why I only use a Line 6 M13 to handle all of my guitar effect processing. If you have the budget, you can control analog guitar effects with a switching system like the Rocktron Patchmate or SoundSculpture Switchblade. Those switching systems also can control your amp channel by using analog relay switching, which is also MIDI capable.

Planning out your live system

First of all, you need a solid platform to act as your sequencer/click track. I personally use a MacBook Pro, an old DigiDesign 002 rack, Pro Tools 10, and a MIDI cable to connect to my Line 6 M13 stomp box modeler. Your live system truly needs to be hardened and tested. When I first built my system out, I tested it for about a month, tweaking almost every aspect of the setup to perform flawlessly. The last thing you want is your system to fail mid set - but in the case that it does we will have a contingency plan!, which we'll go more in depth below. Remember, always have a backup of your backup, and if worst comes to worst, know how to do a 'manual override'. Another question to ask is if anyone else in your live band could benefit from have automated effects. Something that I've been wanting to try out forever would be to automate live vocal effects. Additionally, in addition to automating effect processing, you can actually use MIDI to control a syncopated light show! The world is your oyster with this kind of setup. Especially if you are technologically inclined, this might be a very lucrative way to up the ante on your live show.

Research Your effects

What kind of MIDI capabilities do your effects have? Most effect processing units have a decent MIDI implementation. If you are using analog effects, you will have to go with a programmable effect loop switcher - basically a piece of hardware that takes your stomp boxes in and out of your effect loop depending on what kind of MIDI commands it receives. Some effect loop switchers have the ability to change your effect routing on the fly, and also have the ability to put your effects into your loop either parallel or serial. If parallel, you can then have the ability to adjust the ratio of wet/dry. Finally, what kind of control do you want to have? It is no fun automating absolutely everything! I recommend that you hook up (at minimum) two controller pedals so that you can perform with your effects (for example, you can setup the current part of your song to map one controller pedal to your delay mix and the other to your feedback amount. And that's just a very basic example! The possibilities are limited only by your imagination and ingenuity). Usually, by doing some basic research you can figure out what MIDI commands will turn on/off individual effects (usually MIDI control change messages) and how to change complete patches (usually MIDI program change messages).

Sequencing your effect changes

before you even get to programming your MIDI changes, make sure you have all of your effects and changes for each part all set up within your effect processor(s) (or if using analog stomp boxes, remember the effects that you used for different sections). This process can be done as you program your sequencer, but it's easier having an idea of what you are going to program before you sit down to actually do it. Don't forget any amp channel changes as well - if you are using an amp channel switcher, make sure to note the MIDI channel and control codes/program changes needed to switch your channels. This is probably the most complicated and time consuming part of the process. Using your sequencer of choice, you need to figure out how to map each song out with tempos and click tracks, and sequence out all of your effect changes. I recommend doing this with your complete rig set up as you play along to each song. Go through each section of the song and program your MIDI effect changes accordingly for each section. Even think about when you could switch on your tuner - it makes life a lot easer when you don't have to manually switch your tuner on. Trust me, after playing like this for a couple of times you won't have to even think twice about tuning, you'll just do it at the same place, every time, in and in between each song. If this is your first time going through this process, trust me, it's a pain in the ass at first. You are literally engineering your entire live show (well at least for your rig) - but in all seriousness, since everything will be on a click track you will have to make sure that the spacing and timing between songs is favorable to a good performance. If you can play your entire set from start to finish without stopping you will definitely have a really smooth running show.

Testing

Now that you have all of your effects sequenced out, it is time for testing! When I first started programming the set for my band, I initially used a PC laptop. It was really solid and reliable (so I thought); I tweaked the hell out of it and tested it under unfavorable gig-like conditions (heat, spilling beer, etc) and it stood up. The real testing is, of course, practicing the set live with your band. You will definitely have to go back afterwards and reprogram a lot - I can guarantee you that. But once you've gone through the process a couple of times, your system should be ready for a real live performance. [quote style="2"]Make sure to have a fallback effect ready to go just in case your entire systems craps out during your show. No matter how awesome technology may be, make sure to ALWAYS have a fallback plan.[/quote] Congratulations! You now have completely automated your effects. If you want to try this out and have any questions, please feel free to contact me @ scott [@] hackingthesound.com if you have any questions. I'm an absolute nerd when it comes to this stuff. Until then, enjoy and please spread the love! PS. make sure to sign up for the Hacking The Sound mailing list to receive updates and future product offerings. I promise that I won't harass you. ;)

10 things you shouldn’t do at a gig

Scott — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:15:28 +0000

As a guitarist, I've definitely played my fair share of live gigs. I've clocked anywhere between 400-600 shows (and I hope to make that number much larger). When playing shows, everything moves faster and faster until it's your time to play, and at that point, there are a number of things that you shouldn't have done to make sure that the show flows as smoothly as possible.

1. Bring only one guitar

I used to bring only one guitar to my shows. My thought at the time was "I love my guitar and wouldn't want to have to ever play another one" so I figured that as long as I've put a new set of strings on fairly recently everything would be fine. This was quite possibly one of the stupidest lines of thinking I could have at the time! With that mindset, I played many shows where I would be praying to the gods of rock that my strings don't break. And of course, the shows where my strings did break, thus forcing me to readjust my parts and playing on the fly (not to mention having the entire guitar kicked out of tune by a quarter step).

2. Forget to tune

I am OCD when it comes to tuning my guitar. There have been countless times on the road (in fact, most times) where I would be watching the other bands play before or after our set, and invariably, when something wasn't sounding good, it was either the guitar or bass that were out of tune. At that point, the singer doesn't really have a solid base to jump off of so that invariably, there is a lot of crappiness coming out of the speakers. If most guitar players kept their instruments in tune this wouldn't happen nearly as much. I tune between every song, and even during parts that I'm not playing. If I'm super out of tune I will opt to tune my instrument rather then play.

3. Bring only one instrument cable

This is another big no-no. I cannot count the number of times where an instrument cable has crapped out on me (or my bandmates). The first thing to always check when you have a rig emergency (eg., your sound disappears), after checking to make sure you didn't lose power, is to check your instrument cables. It is now second nature to me - as it should be for you! As well, having extra cables on hand will give you points especially if you have to lend it out to a headlining act (if you're an opener). Speaking of interesting side stories about opening up for bigger bands, one just popped into my head. MKIO used to carry our own sound system on the road for crazy situations. It wasn't much, but it serves as a great emergency backup if for whatever reason the venue doesn't have a sound system ready to go for the show. We were opening up for 16 Volt in Sacramento, CA. We show up and they really had nothing there in terms of live sound support. They did manage to get powered main speakers into the club, but nothing to mix with. So we essentially saved the show by having this on hand - we set our system up and helped run sound for the night (in addition to performing), and got wads of points from 16 Volt, with whom we partied with afterwards. I feel like they became very fond of us that night. I cannot tell you how many times having a backup have saved our asses on the road. On to the next item...

4. Play too loud

Now this is subjective, and also depends on the type of music that you play; but in general, make sure to keep your amplifier volume at a nominal level. Especially if the type of band that you are playing with has a lot of quiet, subtle parts, you don't want to drown out the music and singer. Also, keep in mind that you are on a stage. That will essentially direct your speaker cabinet pretty much in direct line of sight with the audience's ears. You might not be able to hear yourself as well, but trust me, if your audience hears your guitar more than the vocals they will hate you for that! This is especially true if you play in a mostly electronic music based band - I went out on the road with Android Lust last summer with my regular MKIO rig (which is a huge tube amp with 4x12 speaker cab) and I think that next time out with them I'll definitely be bringing a small combo amp to the gig. But if you're playing punk rock, noise music, or even if your goal is to have a loud sound, then by all means turn up. MOGWAI is a great example of this - they play instrumental post punk indie music and their shows are LOUD - but the sounds are a beauty to behold.

5. Stand in one spot, unmoving, on a huge stage

This is another pet peeve of my own - again, touring on the road has showed me this time and time again, if you are just going to stand there like a statue, looking straight down at your guitar and not interact with the audience at all, you might as well just stay in your bedroom. Seriously! When playing live, you have a stage, people are looking at YOU, and listening to YOU - give them something that they'll never forget. Lose yourself in the music - forget everything else, and let your body get into it. Make your instrument an extension of your self.

Feel the music.

6. Arrive late for a sound check

This is always a really awkward one - being a little late is all right, but one to two hours is kind of unnerving. Your best bet is to arrive early. Not only does the show run smoother, but the promoter and sound engineers will remember you. Invariably, especially when on the road, you will run into bumps in the road - but being on time communicates respect and invariably makes everyone feel good.

7. Practice

You shouldn't have to practice at a gig - this is your time to shine! (Though make sure to warm your fingers / voice / limbs up for the show). Make sure to spend at least a little time every day practicing your instrument. Be very disciplined about this - and when it comes time to play, you won't have to think. You only will have to feel the music. Our physical existence sometimes gets in the way of what we are trying to express. Especially our muscles - I've noticed that for myself, if I don't keep a daily practice when I play shows I am focusing too much on making sure I'm hitting the right notes. I make sure to play a little bit every day so i don't have to worry come show time. It is the difference between being good and passible to being great and exceptional. If your entire band practices their own instruments, there is a good chance that you guys/girls will perform exceptionally well.

8. Not have a backup of your backup

In my experience with electronic rock bands which rely on technology to supplement their show, these bands many times rely on electronic backing tracks. I can't count the times that these systems have crashed. If your show is being run from a laptop, bring an extra laptop. And have a backup for your backup. No joke! When we (MKIO) went to Algeria, Air France decided that our $3000 rack with our Digi 002 and wireless in ear system was worth losing. Lucky I brought a backup - an Avid M-Box in my suitcase was able to replace the Digi-002, but Tash had no ears. I've seen a popular band have to ditch playing their entire set because their iPod broke. This also goes for anything and everything else. I've mentioned it above but extra cables, tubes, guitars and amps are always a good thing to have on hand.

9. Get wasted before the show

In my opinion, it never is a good time to get wasted - but if you are going to pound those beers, make sure to do it after your performance, not before. I've played with people who were wasted and it's not fun. Everything goes out the window in terms of performance and vibe when you have a player stumbling all over the stage, slurring vocal lines and fubbing notes. Though if that is your 'thing', then go for it.

10. Not have fun

Lastly, remember that this is music. Stop taking yourself so seriously!! As an audience member, people are much more comfortable when YOU are comfortable on stage. The audience will know when you feel nervous. The audience will know when you are trying too hard. Relax, feel the music. Be yourself. Try to just channel the music as much as possible. Turn off the little voice in the back of your head that is being too critical. Close your eyes and feel it. There is only so much time we have on this planet, and if you are lucky enough to have a stage, you owe it to the audience to put on a stellar performance. Really, NOTHING matters except the part where you get to share and create something magical with an audience. Don't waste that by thinking about yourself. Let all the practice that you have done assure yourself that your muscles will do the right thing when called on. If you've done everything in this list, then you are (IMO) well on your way to become a well rounded live performer. There are a lot more things that I didn't cover here, but this is a great place to start. Until next time, thanks for reading another Hacking The Sound article. Please pass on to your friends if you've gotten anything out of this. PS. make sure to sign up for the Hacking The Sound mailing list to receive updates and future product offerings. I promise that I won't harass you. ;)

The importance of being in (and out) of tune

Scott — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 23:24:14 +0000

This might come as a surprise to some, but the most basic quality of good sound I can think of is the nature and physics of being in tune, and the manipulation of that boundary to create tension and release.

Western music, for the most part, is a play of different sounds that resonate in both primary and relative physical realms. I say primary because two notes played together that have the same or relative frequency (for example, on an equal tempered piano the A below middle C is tuned to 440hz; the A that is an exact octave below that is 220hz, etc) - those notes resonate together on the same primary (fundamental) frequencies. Notes that resonate on a relative wavelength to those fundamental frequencies create different tonal colors in a way that creates minor, major, or indifferent feelings or emotions. The only way that any emotion can be conveyed whatsoever by using notes together (otherwise known as music) is if those notes are played in tune with each other. Once you have the ability to stay in tune, I think it is then up to the discretion of the player/musician to take the instrument out of tune in subtle ways to create variations in sound. Honestly, I think most people would get bored if they listened to music with little to no variation (though that is just my opinion!). For singers, this is a powerful technique to really create emotional impact by using their vocal chords to not only create sound that is in tune, but to oscillate that sound to accent different musical parts. This technique is called vibrato, and it is a natural physical component of beautiful sound. In the world of guitar, this effect is achieved by literally moving your fingers up and down when playing single notes; or by bending the neck of the guitar when strumming chords, or by using a whammy bar. For keyboard players, most good sounds are created by stacking oscillators on top of each other that are slightly out of tune, and even using a LFO to modulate the pitch of those oscillators to create that effect. Any string or woodwind instrument is the same in the sense that their players have the ability to create this effect. An instrument like an acoustic piano, however, does not have this ability - which is therein the beauty of this instrument - as it creates a very solid foundation from which other instruments can float around in sonic space, but always have a ground to come back to. The point that I'm getting at is that it's really a fundamental aspect of music - if you can't play your instrument in tune, there is little chance that your music will 'sound good' to most western ears. Westerners are used to listening to music that is in tune to a fault; most popular music has used and abused a certain plugin called Auto Tune to create music that is so in tune that it all starts sounding monotonous - no variation. That is not to say that Auto Tune has its uses if used in subtle ways!

No tool should ever be discounted. But to me it's the difference between a fine scotch and smoking crack.

With the former, one can come back to on a relative moderated basis, but the latter becomes a deadly addiction that will, figuratively speaking, rot your eardrums. though, to some people, out of tune music might sound good. In western music, I think you can find a lot of either atonal, noise, or darker music to have elements that are more out of tune. I'm a fan of a lot of this type of music as well! The difference being is that the point of some of these types of music is to be out of tune. In western music, I think I can safely say that the instrument of a human voice is one of the most important components of music that needs to be in tune within an arrangement; this is why plugins like Auto Tune are so popular; it really is truly rare to find singers that can naturally sing perfectly in tune. When you do find it, it is an amazing, borderline magical thing to experience. Just as important, and I think besides it, it is the job of the fundamental, root frequencies to be in extremely good tune within an arrangement. If the bass and voice aren't in sync, you have little to no chance of making an emotional impact, no matter how 'good' the players might be. This to me, is a very integral, basic part of music, and good sound - but by no means is it a hardline rule. If the emotion, and quality of tone is there, that will make up for lack of resonant frequencies. Great examples of that are singers like Kurt Cobain and Bob Dylan. If you listen closely to their music, you will hear that the quality and tone make up for their lack of being in tune. With all of that being said, there is no rule in music that I know of that isn't worth being bent or broken. This is where character, soul, and voice comes from IMHO. These qualities don't really have any real scientific definitions, but it is more something that a listener experiences, I think. Punk rock embodies the sentiment of playing with pure heart and saying fuck it all to any of that - and just create songs and music that speak from the soul without any barriers. For myself, I love being in tune - but once my instrument has achieved resonance with whatever arrangement I am playing in, whether it's in a live band or recording tracks in a session, I then make it my goal to take things out of tune - hold a power chord slightly out of tune and then bring it back to achieve a dirty, emotional effect - to have slight or major vibrato for entire chords, and single notes as well. Again, I give one of my influences of this style to the guitar production of Trent Reznor and the multitude of live players that he's had play with him in Nine Inch Nails. I think one of my most personally influential heavy rock guitarists is Robin Finck - he's always managed to wrap the ugliest sounds within the most beautiful of tones. And part of this, comes from the ability to really control how in or out of tune his instrument is. The other parts, as you'll continue to read about in this blog, are many different components. To wrap things up - I wouldn't really listen to a word that I have to say because this all stems from my own subjective experience of being a musician and knowing what I like to hear. I do not consider myself an authority; I only know what I like, and love to share that. =) Have an awesome friday!

Manipulating guitar and synth through the Zvex Fuzz Factory

Scott — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:33:17 +0000

Noise. It's one of my favorite things in the world, as it is the embodiment of all that is chaos, and all that is life. From whence we came, we will ultimately go back into the noise.

Or something or other. Now, my favorite thing to do is to play with noise. And the ZVEX Fuzz Factory fuzz pedal makes it a very joyous activity indeed! I don't like playing with noise for noise sake, though - I try to create sounds that are more harmonious and musical in nature. A lot of noise enthusiasts like to just create atonal noise - I can definitely respect this art, but I'm always looking for a melody or a tone no matter what I do. The first example is a clip of me playing my PRS Custom 22 guitar into my Fuzz Factory. I'm actually strumming a chord and then twisting the right knob on the Fuzz factory to match the harmonic frequency of the chord. As you can see, I had a lot of fun mangling the sounds of my guitar. The following clip is a bit more noise-centric - the beauty of the Fuzz Factory is the fact that it does create a lot of ugly sounds - I like to find the right combination of ugly and pretty. Here we have some more typical guitar crunch. Remember that i am not going through any sort of external amplifier or amp simulation software; I am literally recording the direct line level siganl straight from the output of the Fuzz Factory. The beauty of this unit is the fact that you don't need much to create monster walls of sound. A lot of the times when I'm recording guitar tracks, all I need to do is stack a couple of Fuzz Factory tracks on top of each other to achieve a huge wall of sound. Now I am going back to some more Roland Juno fun! Nothing completes an article better than plugging a synth into a fuzz pedal! Here is a simple arpeggio generated on the Juno going straight into fuzz factory. please listen to hear the beautiful/nasty effects. The drawback with this synth is the fact that there is no easy way to sync the arpeggio with a master clock, so it is close to unusable. I can see where and how some of my favorite artists' created their synth sounds - by plugging a synth or something non-typical into guitar distortion/fuzz pedals. This brings to mind music by Muse and Daft Punk. Here is the same line, except I closed the gate on the Fuzz Factory. I'm getting soem awesome effects - with an almost eerie semblance to the theme from Fantasia (not sure how that happened - but I like it!). You can see where just playing and recording could generate an entire sound bank worth of sounds and samples that could be used on an album, or soundtrack. It's a great way to create unique sounds in a world where sound presets are overused and abused. The last example is something similar to what you might hear on a Nine Inch Nails record- a tweaked out Juno bass line processed through the almighty Fuzz Factory. That's all for today! Please leave a comment if you would be interested in a sample library of sampled noise and sounds to use in your own productions.

Hacking your guitar sound: amps, effects, and signal routing

Scott — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 23:05:10 +0000

Over the course of many years, I've gone through many different amp, effect and speaker configurations.

I'd like to say that I'm an expert now in terms of how one can set up their signal chain, but I believe that I'm still most definitely a novice when it comes to signal routing. Nevertheless, I would love to share what has worked for me up until this point. It all starts with your guitar - it needs to be in tune and intonated correctly. The second you start going out of tune, at least in my mind, is the second that you start losing the ability to control your tone. After a long period of getting to know your instrument, you can then play it in such a way to make certain parts sound 'out of tune' to create a a natural effect of sound - vibrato (oscillation of pitch). This effect actually mimics the human voice (though I'm sure not a lot of human voices can pull off the amazing feats that David Gilmour pulls off in his guitar solos!). Your hands, your technique, the wood that makes up your guitar and your pickups is the first place where your sound starts. Better make it good. Basically, the entire philosophy that I've ever had in terms of signal routing is a philosophy in cleanliness of tone and simplicity. When I first started playing electric guitar, I used a Fender Prosonic 60 watt combo amp. Instead of using the natural, beautiful gain channel that the amp comes with, I went out and bought a Tech21 SansAmp preamp. Kind of ridiculous - as from that point on I was always falling victim to a tremendous amounts of buzz, and general tone sucking. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why my sound sucked so bad. Either way, from that point on it was my goal to achieve a sound that was as crystal clear as possible (and as dirty as possible without being too thin/hollow sounding). I eventually got rid of the SansAmp and purchased a Lexicon MPX G2 multi effects unit. The fact that I have a very technical side to my approach is normal for me - so I loved the choices that came with this unit in terms of signal routing. Deep within the manual of this beast, there was a variety of signal routing options diagrammed out. It was kind of hard to wrap my head around it at the time, but it works something like this: The MPX G2 has the ability to send effects both to the front of your amp's preamp channel, and by using your effect loop, you can actually insert effects after the preamp. This is the really important part. I am a huge fa n of delays, reverbs, and in general time based effects. These effects usually sound like shit going into the front of an amp, especially if using any significant amounts of gain. So, by plugging effects into the effects loop, you are essentially taking the first part of your amp (the preamp), routing it into your effects, and then finally outputting that into the power amplifier stage of your amplifier. By doing this, one can achieve Edge like tones and beautiful delays and reverbs on signals that are already saturated with tone. I am a big fan of this - and also the reverse is true - if one wants to have more of a dirty, indie sounding guitar tones, all you have to do is put a huge amount of reverb before any gain - that will give one guitar tones in the vein of Modest Mouse, She Wants Revenge, etc. Even better, though, one can achieve Nine Inch Nails sounding distortions by pluggin a delay in front of a nasty distortion pedal, that is in turn going into a huge amp. I am a very big fan of this as well! So as you see, there are many different benefits of being able to split up and manipulate your signal chain in this manner. The benefit of using an effect unit like the MPX G2 is that I had the ability to switch around my signal chain at will. Now, I use a Line 6 M13 digital effect box modeler - it is really a great unit, and can accomplish some amazing effects. However, my ultimate goal is to one day own an analog switching system that can actually switch in and out the physical signals - also the ability to switch between different amplifiers and effect configurations on the fly using MIDI changes would be my most ultimate rig. This exists in a lot of products. SOmething like the Rocktron Patchmate would be a good starting point. I once got a chance to see Billy Howerdel's rig (guitarist of A Perfect Circle and Ashes Divide) up close and personal: my band, Mankind Is Obsolete, got a chance to open up for Ashes Divide at the viper room. Suffice to say, their crew hauled in Billy's entire rig. It was amazing. Right off the bat, I noticed that he was using a Lexicon MPX G2 effect processor as well! His rig consisted from what looked like 2 or 3 amps, all tied together with a custom MIDI switching system. I wish I was able to get more details on it, but it was a monster, and sounded amazing. In the future, I'll delve into more signal routing possibilities, and actually break down what I use in my current live rig.

More fun with Juno – Experimenting with my Roland Juno 6, part 2

Scott — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 04:54:14 +0000

This is the second part in my series of experimentations with one Roland Juno 6 - an incredible Polysynth amde in the early 80s.

I truly feel that i still have so much to learn when it comes to synthesizers. I'm am relatively new to the world of hardware synths - the juno is my first really hardware analog synth, and even still it isn't a 'true' polysynth because it uses DCOs to generate its' waveforms. These are digital controlled oscillators. A true hardware analog polysynth (meaning a synth with more than one voice) that uses VCOs for sound generators are a lot of money - I'm talking anywhere from $2000-$3000 just to start. Other than that, there is the world of modular synths which is a world that I'm still waiting to jump into once I have the cash. In that world, the sky is the limit in terms of what kind of sounds I want to create and/or mangle. Today I want to continue my explorations of my Juno. I think I will start by trying to emulate real world sounds by using subtractive synthesis. I feel like that would be a good thing to practice today. To start with, I'm going to attempt emulating the sound of a violin. As you can see, it's not the most amazing sounding violin patch, but that seems to be the closest I can get to what a violin may sound like. On the Juno, I am using the LFO to oscillate the pitch of a sawtooth wave. My high pass filter is at around 70%, and my amp envelope is set to have a long attack. That is the closest I will be able to come. The only way to make it better is to somehow control the oscillations of the LFO in a performance oriented way - that way I could somewhat speed up and slow down the speed of the vibrato, this emulating what violinists do. Overall, this sound sounds pretty cheesy - but right now this is more about teaching myself how to come close to real world instruments. This is more like it - it seems like subtractive synthesis is really good at creating brass like sounds. I kind of prefer this sound over some real brass instruments that I've heard. A simple sawtooth wave with an envelope with a medium attack going to the low pass filter achieves this sound. Now for something a little different! I'm sure anyone with a synth has created this sound, but I had to include it. To get the sound of a helicopter, I used a noise oscillator for the base sound. Then, I set up the LFO to modulate the filter very quickly thus producing this result. A classic example of this is a clip from "Apocalypse Now". This helicopter sound was created with an ARP 2600 synth (which I actually got to use when I recorded with Sylvia Massey in Weed, CA!) For this, I used a filtered square wave to create an emulated sound of a bass guitar. I really love the sound of synth bass - though this is a very simple example. Finally, combining all the elements I learned tonight, I created the following beautiful sweeping PWM sound. Some of my favorite synthesizer sounds are sweeping pads - and the Juno is really good at creating them. Enjoy!

Hacking acoustic guitar sounds using analog delay

Scott — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:00:35 +0000

I love me some delay. I especially love me some delay that has the capability to produce endless, swirly, variable arrays of audio signal. What's fun about delay is that fact that it is very easy to create soundscapes with very simple instruments.

Case in point, I use the Line 6 M13 for my live rig. It is a digital stomp box modeler made by one of the best digital-analog emulation companies ever. I like this unit because it introduces almost complete complete programmability into pretty much any sort of effect that one could dream up. No, it's not a fragile piece of vintage gear but it comes pretty close in terms of sound. In a live environment, there is not much difference in sound (though that's not to say that next time out I'll have a complete analog/digital hybrid rig). But I digress; let us get back to the topic at hand! The M13 itself has a lot of great sounding analog delays emulations available. In a live setting it is a no brainer to set it up to sync with the music (using click tracks or tap tempo) and manipulate the delay mix and feedback rate with one or two foot controllers. Today, though, I wanted to perform another sound experiment. Before I get to that, however, I just wanted to mention that in addition to regular practice (if you do play an instrument), it is also important to practice the art of getting good sound. Sure, you can play a million notes per second, or you can solo well, or you can be a good rhythm player - but none of that really matters unless you sound good. Sounding good takes practice, but not in the typical sense. You have to be willing to experiment - to twist knobs, to adjust your technique. Integrating the practice of listening is one of the most important parts of playing music. Perhaps you want to emulate the sound of classical middle eastern tones? Go listen and replicate with your instrument of choice. So, every day, sit down with your instrument and really get acquainted with it. Rediscover it. Challenge yourself to coax something new and truly original out of it! Part of that art lays in the valley where digital and analog meet. I recently acquired a Moogerfooger MF-104M effect pedal. For those not familiar with this unit, it is Moog's newest analog delay pedal. I absolutely needed to have it like I needed to breathe, like I needed to sleep. So after using close to the last of my credit, I picked it up. Close to broke now, I am luxuriating in the tones that this unit has to offer. The reason why I absolutely had to have this unit is two-fold: 1) Great analog delay. That's right - pure bucket brigade goodness. I'll get into more detail about what bucket brigade chips offer (if you don't know), but suffice to say the sounds that this unit is capable of producing is simply wondrous. 2) Moog managed to integrate full MIDI capabilities into this pedal, so that the analog delay parameters are fully programmable. This could potentially unlock a lot of doors in terms of sonic possibilities. For me, this is basically the holy grail of effect pedals. My ultimate plan (at least when I bought this unit) is to replace or supplement my digital effect modeling unit (Line 6 M13) with this. The following are some clips of me experimenting with this unit. I'm playing my Takimine acoustic guitar straight into the input, which is going through my standard signal chain. For the following clip, I have the delay set on the short delay setting, with the time knob set about 3 o'clock. The mix knob is at 12 o'clock. It is a pretty standard delay sound. The Short / Long delay switch switches between two types of bucket brigade chips. The short setting has a more crisp, bright sound while the long setting has a darker, softer feel. You can hear the difference immediately - the long setting is much darker; I'd say more somber sounding. There are some additional knobs on this unit - the first one I'd like to focus on is the feedback knob. When I turn the feedback knob up, the delayed signal has more repeats. If I turn it up enough, it will literally feedback on itself and start oscillating. You can hear this sound being used on some great records. What's truly fun is to process other instruments through this. As you can hear, we get some extremely musical effects. Imagine the possibilities in terms of sound design and soundscapes? All you need to do is play literally one note to make an entire vibe. This is my absolute favorite thing about delay processors - the ability to create epic soundscapes. Finally, this delay unit has a LFO knob, which is very unique for a delay pedal. This basically modulates the pitch of the delayed signal to an LFO wave form. As well, you can select the type of wave form that you want to modulate the signal with - sine, triangle, square or ramp. Listen as I switch between the four different wave forms in the following clip. I'm not sure what I can do with some of these sounds... But The fact that it exists means that lots of experiments are in my future. Finally, here is a clip that combines all of these elements. Please enjoy the musical soundscapes!