Sunday, April 23, 2017

Spring is here!

It's been a while since I posted, not a good sign. Busy with "life", arghh... I'm intrigued by Bill Vencil's (Chords Of Orion) explanation of creating drones. See this video for a comprehensive tutorial from the master,
https://youtu.be/KwyiN3wF2_Q?list=PLJdr6iJI2vRaxIocGMoMpg_JPhItEhQgU
Here's what I'm doing in the "Spring Is Here!" video:
1) Record onto the Ditto X2 looper, a simple motif, (8 note phrase), in Gm. Use the volume pedal to eliminate the attack of the guitar. I'm using a metronome a 65 bpm to keep it even.
2) Hit "reverse" and "1/2 speed" on the X2 looper. Half speed also drops it down a whole octave which is nice for a darker, ambient background.
3) Turn on: MXR Carbon Copy delay, (mild settings); Nemesis delay on "tape"; Neunaber Immerse reverb on Wet with almost full effect level and sustain.
4) Record the 8 note phrase with all the effects onto the Boss RC-300 looper track 1, one time through. (It's a little tricky to know where the beginning of the loop is because it's slowed to half speed and going backward! Best guess, but I make sure I get 8 notes recorded.) Note that I set the track one "Synch" to "off".
5) On track 2,3 of the Boss looper, I have set the "Synch" to "on". So on track 2, I recorded 3 note arpeggios, of chords in the key of Gm, (Bb basically, same thing.) Didn't try to sychronize the chords to the backing drone in any way. And I didn't try to make it "8 bars of chords"; I just played some chords til I felt like I had enough. I used only the Strymon Dig delay and the Immerse on Hall (settings on high.)
6) Turned on the LA Lady overdrive (light settings) and using the volume pedel, swelled in some lead lines which I recorded on track 3.
7) Let it all play back for a while.
8)   Fade out track 2
9)   Fade out track 3
10) Fade out track 1
I'm using my American Deluxe Stratocaster with noiseless N3 (stock) pickups and a Fishman Loudbox Artist amp (very clean, no effects.) I always have my MXR Custom Comp Deluxe on at a very mild setting.

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