Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Community => Gigs => Topic started by: hieronymous on July 12, 2013, 10:51:21 AM
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I can finally post here! My new band Stanley Lighthead is ready to gig! Our music can be found here:
https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead (https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead target=_blank)
(Also facebook (https://www.facebook.com/stanleylighthead target=_blank) and twitter (https://twitter.com/StanLighthead target=_blank))
I am really fortunate to have encountered the other guys in the band: David Wright on guitar, Patrick Robinson on drums. We've been coming up with new material at each rehearsal - we just start jamming and usually a new song will pop out!
So our first gig will be at Cafe Royale (http://www.caferoyale-sf.com/ target=_blank) in San Francisco on Wednesday, July 24, 2013 from 9-11 pm. I'll definitely have something Alembic, whether it's the Stanley Clarke 5-string (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8658) or the AlFeMbic. I'll also be debuting my GK MB-112 II combo amp.
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Congrats! Sounds very nice!
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Great stuff Harry!
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Wow - tonight is the night! Our first public live debut, in San Francisco no less! I think I have my gear ready - fastened my pedals to a new pedalboard, tested it last night, everything appears to be in working order! Looks like I'll be using the AlFemBic and the Gibson Les Paul Triumph as a backup. Excited!!!
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The gig went great! My biggest worry was parking but found a place right around the corner from the bar. It's a really chill place to play, people liked us - there weren't that many but the booking guy wants us to play on a Friday or Saturday next - we passed the test! One guy even came up to me after and said, Did you go to school to learn to play bass like that? LOL!
I used the AlFemBic for the first set - not sure if the recording I made will come out but here's a pic:
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/65124/169404.jpg)
By the way, the GK came through with flying colors! More than enough power - I never turned it up past 4, just like in rehearsal.
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Congratulations Harry!
Sounds like the event was a victory. :-D
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Cool!
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Unfortunately the recording from Cafe Royale didn't come out - input level set too high.
But we do have another gig coming up - this one is outdoors in a small California town called Walnut Grove. Ostensibly Buddhist music - my band isn't really Buddhist but I am so I guess that counts? ;)
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The outdoor gig went great! It was wicked hot and we didn't have as much time to play as I had hoped but it was still a blast. I have some pics posted at the bottom of my AlFemBic thread (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=707) - the AlFemBic has become my main bass with this band - but here's a group shot:
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/65124/173418.jpg)
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Audio! https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/hieronymous-meets-rev-harry (https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/hieronymous-meets-rev-harry target=_blank)
And video excerpt! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9BF4O8tmUw&feature=em-upload_owner (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9BF4O8tmUw&feature=em-upload_owner target=_blank)
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Dug up this old thread - Stanley Lighthead went on hiatus when the drummer moved back to Salt Lake City, but we got back together in September thanks to Bill's Labor Day Party!
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4336/36906159092_b62c940aa3_z.jpg)
Not only did we get to play but we also did some recording. We're going to put out an "EP" (do they still have those in the digital age?) - probably digital only release via Bandcamp - I'm experimenting with previewing the tracks on Soundcloud.
Here is the first one - I'm playing the Stanley Clarke Signature Squared with a graphite Adamas pick - I play with fingers and distortion on others, they'll be previewed in the coming weeks.
https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/schnappes (https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/schnappes)
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4528/24855406978_71992b9476.jpg)
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Harry, is this from the recording I made at the party? Sounds too good!
Bill, tgo
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Thanks Bill! This is from the recording we did the day after the party.
By the way, thank you very much for the video - slowly working through it - might include some of the audio as part of the EP!
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Sounds great Harry, cool stuff! :)
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Sounds great Harry, cool stuff! :)
Thanks! I really enjoy playing with these guys, we all have different backgrounds - I'm definitely more of a rock player but also an improviser, the guitarist is a hardcore jazzer, and the drummer can play both jazz and rock, and is also a singer-songwriter. Gonna preview another track tomorrow!
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Sounds cool Harry, thanks for sharing. And yes, the EP is still a thing, because I said so! 8) My band Nomadic put out a 4 song last December, both physical and digital download. We're going to record 7 more tracks to make a full length release for 2018. Keep posting the SL stuff here, looking forward to more!
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Thanks Tom - reminded me to purchase your EP! Sounds awesome - have you advertised it here yet? Did you use your Alembic on it?
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And - another track is ready for preview!
https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/sol-jamming-1 (https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/sol-jamming-1)
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4576/24914260048_53aa597aa4_m.jpg)
This one started out more straight-ahead, but for some reason we attacked it on this take and liked how it turned out. I used my HBE Hematoma bass overdrive. I'm not a jazz musician but my guitarist is, so part of the development of the band's sound is how we negotiate that tension.
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You guys sound great on YouTube, Harry... been listening up in my shop this afternoon... I'm afraid if I downloaded the SoundCloud app, my poor old Galaxy S5 would just melt on the spot. ::)
I'll put it on at work next week though. ;D
*by the way, "AKA AFB" is stuck in my head now!
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Thanks Tom - reminded me to purchase your EP! Sounds awesome - have you advertised it here yet? Did you use your Alembic on it?
EP went in the mail Saturday, thank you! The opening track was done on my 4003S when it had Activators on it, but I have since gone back to Ric toaster and high gain passive pickups. I decided to let the Ric be a Ric, and the Alembic be an Alembic! I plan to use the Distillate on 2 new tracks.
I love your guitar players tone and style. Hematoma is my favorite bass overdrive! Seems HBE is sadly no more.
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You guys sound great on YouTube, Harry... been listening up in my shop this afternoon... I'm afraid if I downloaded the SoundCloud app, my poor old Galaxy S5 would just melt on the spot. ::)
I'll put it on at work next week though. ;D
*by the way, "AKA AFB" is stuck in my head now!
Thanks for listening! Definitely don't blow up your phone!
Thanks Tom - reminded me to purchase your EP! Sounds awesome - have you advertised it here yet? Did you use your Alembic on it?
EP went in the mail Saturday, thank you! The opening track was done on my 4003S when it had Activators on it, but I have since gone back to Ric toaster and high gain passive pickups. I decided to let the Ric be a Ric, and the Alembic be an Alembic! I plan to use the Distillate on 2 new tracks.
I love your guitar players tone and style. Hematoma is my favorite bass overdrive! Seems HBE is sadly no more.
Got the CD - thanks! I actually found a thread about it on progarchives.com - that place is kind of weird, people are obsessed with genre and the forum software is kind of messed up so it can be hard to post anything.
I hear you on letting a Ric be a Ric - I love the stock electronics in my 8-string, but it would be cool to have one with Activators too! Looking forward to hearing the Distillate!
I didn't realize HBE went out of business. My Hematoma is really dark but it worked for this project. I'm still searching for "my" distortion/overdrive...
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Progarchives.com is interesting. It took several months to make it through a committee of moderators around the world before we got categorized ("heavy prog") and listed on the site, along with the review.
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Time for another Stan Lighthead track - this has become one of my favorites, this is the only time I'm playing clean with fingers, plus used the low B a lot during the guitar solo. My strings were really dirty and dead, but I like the sound on here - bass was recorded direct, with my always-on CAE tube compressor & Boss PQ-3B parametric eq boosting the low end:
https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/at-the-temple (https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/at-the-temple)
And special just for the Club - video of the same song from the day before at Bill TGO's Labor Day party!
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=spXJMgPHZ7w
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Long overdue updating this thread - all four songs, all 5-string Stanley Clarke Signature2:
https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/sets/forthcoming-ep-preview (https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/sets/forthcoming-ep-preview)
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4766/27976375469_2f37bdcb25.jpg)
Swamp Grass is an original by Dave Wright, the Stan guitarist, that he wrote for the band. Spur of the moment I decided to kick on my distortion - either I forgot I had turned it on or I was trying to turn on the volume boost part of the pedal, but the first phrase of my solo is clean - oops! But it's kind of nice to hear the contrast of sound.
At the Temple - spontaneously composed at a rehearsal almost 5 years ago, the original incarnation of the band before we went on hiatus - basically Dave the guitarist came up with the rhythm part over something Patrick was playing on drums, so it's credited to those two.
Sol Jamming - this is another one from 2013, spontaneously composed during rehearsal. That was the first year of the band, we were playing at least once a month consistently, I was recording everything, we came up with a fair amount of original stuff. I also decided on this one to spontaneously kick on the distortion - my Jack Bruce influence?
Schnappes - this was a spontaneous composition 15 years ago with my old band mates from over 20 years ago - Gary Backstrom, guitarist of my old band Jiggle the Handle, and Greg DeGuglielmo of Max Creek, he was also in Jiggle the Handle for a while and lots of other stuff, including much if not most of my music in hieronymous.
I've listened to this stuff too much - need to make a push to get it ready to release on Bandcamp!
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Here's one of the live recordings - Wolf recorded it for me, thank you Wolf! Came out great, much better than the H2n that I was running on the hill.
https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/aka-incomplete-live (https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/aka-incomplete-live)
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Sounds great, very cool!
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I took some time off from this project - I finally got sick of listening over and over, trying to balance the instruments, etc. Well, after a break I'm back at it! Working on warming up the guitar sounds - problem is, I worked on each track individually, so I'm having to dig back in and figure things out for each song! It's fun though, and I'm using my vintage Roland Space Echo RE-201, both for the reverb & occasional delay. This is my favorite one so far:
https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/at-the-temple-new-mix (https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/at-the-temple-new-mix)
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/796/40014112975_11c7c6d29b.jpg)
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I enjoyed that, it was rather Temple-ish with a meditative kinda groove. Sounds more defined than the older mix.
Harry, which bass and effect(s) are you playing on Swamp Grass?
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Sounds good to me!
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I enjoyed that, it was rather Temple-ish with a meditative kinda groove. Sounds more defined than the older mix.
Harry, which bass and effect(s) are you playing on Swamp Grass?
Thanks - I think I'm finally zero-ing on the mix for all this stuff - I spent so much time on it before and ended up lost and sick of it! But I think the time off did me good!
I'm using my 5-string Stanley Clarke on all of these tracks, played through a CAE tube compressor direct into ProTools. The distortion tracks are the HBE Hematoma Bass Overdrive. During the bass solo in Swamp Grass I ran the signal through my SF-2 during mixing to emphasize some of the midrange frequencies to make it stand out more. I find the Hematoma to be pretty dark - but it seemed to work on this stuff, helped me channel my inner-Jack Bruce.
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Yes, the Jack Bruce reference was what I heard! 8)
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I just listened to the track you posted in your Exploiter thread (can't find it now). Really cool! Love your guitar player's chord voicings and tones. Bass sounds great too.
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Yes, the Jack Bruce reference was what I heard! 8)
I was actually surprised that the Hematoma produces as much fur as it did!
I just listened to the track you posted in your Exploiter thread (can't find it now). Really cool! Love your guitar player's chord voicings and tones. Bass sounds great too.
Thanks! Here's that early hieronymous version:
https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/schweppes-first-take (https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/schweppes-first-take)
And here's the Stanley Lighthead version:
https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/schnappes (https://soundcloud.com/stanleylighthead/schnappes)
The 1985 Spoiler/Exploiter in the early version was my first Alembic, purchased in Berkeley in early 2002. I still have occasional pangs of regret selling it - it wasn't getting much use and I kept banging the end into door jambs - but it would be fun to use in Stanley Lighthead!
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The tracks are almost done! I listened to the whole thing as I cleaned up outside after our recent storm. About 45 minutes of music, studio & live. It's kind of in reverse order - the studio stuff is from day 3, the live stuff is from the party on day 2, and the last track is from the first thing we played on day 1:
https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/trio-improv (https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/trio-improv)
I really like this jam - we were basically checking out our gear and checking settings - I started with my octave (MXR Bass Octave Deluxe), they pretty soon switch on my Bootsy Collins-signature enhanced 3Leaf GR-2 envelope filter, then for some reason I kick the filter off, then turn off the octave. My guitar player had a cool DIY amp/combo - he was pointing towards the mics recording the drums so it gets a little loud at the end but I love it too - sounds like an organ or something! I feel like I'm finally figuring out mixing, at least a little bit more than before.
This was also the first time in several years that the three of us were playing together - even though I flub here and there I think we hit some nice groove plateaus as it keeps shifting along...
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All the music seems to be done, now the guitarist and I are working on the cover! It's going to be a digital-only release so that simplifies things. But it's hard to get it just right...
In the meantime went digging in pics from that weekend and came up with this:
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/964/41642396502_30b27b097e_z.jpg)
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Cool sounding stuff, should be a nice album, nice work!
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Nice... don't see many pics of SC 5'rs either. :)
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Cool jam; and the mix is nicely balanced. What is the effect that the guitar player is using? Sounds like it might be a B-3 emulator.
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I think we finally settled on an album cover! It's still going to be a while - I realized I need to experiment with breaking up one of the live tracks - we jammed three songs into each other, so the performance is continuous, not sure that I can do it in a way that there won't be a break in between tracks. So more experimentation!
Cool jam; and the mix is nicely balanced. What is the effect that the guitar player is using? Sounds like it might be a B-3 emulator.
I have a feeling it's a DigiTech TR-7 tremolo/rotary pedal (https://digitech.com/en/products/tr-7) - my guitar player is interesting - he likes to use cheap gear, he plays a Cort guitar for instance - but he always gets great sounds, another example of it being the player not the gear.
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Here's another shot from the session we recorded a bunch of stuff:
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/977/39893568780_620a712ed9_z.jpg)
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Just updating with another forthcoming live track - this also has the HBE Hematoma distortion - wish I could get the guitar a bit louder (and the bass!) but it's a 2 track live recording.
https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/noel-and-billy-live (https://soundcloud.com/hieronymous-seven/noel-and-billy-live)
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Nice!
Bill, tgo
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Rockin!
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It's finally out! Labor Day Weekend last year (2017) we recorded some studio and live tracks as I've detailed here. Well, it's finally available! My first release on Bandcamp, it was a great experience, playing both the studio & live tracks (at Bill's Labor Day party) - it's basically the anniversary, we finished recording on Labor Day last year and it came out on Labor Day today. But enough of my yackin' - here's the link:
https://stanleylighthead.bandcamp.com/album/getlightheaded (https://stanleylighthead.bandcamp.com/album/getlightheaded)
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Well Harry I just downloaded my copy. Maybe i will be one of the first to get a copy at least maybe of the first outside the USA. That makes two albums I have from forum members. I got Pierre-Yves album a few years back. I hope to find time to make a start writing for my own album before the end of the year my hectic life slows down a bit.
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Nice stuff, Harry, got a copy too. Good driving music! :)
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I haven't listened to it yet but will once I have burned it to CD. If the music fits with what II broadcast on my weekly NotStrictlyJazz radio programme over here in the UK I will feature it on one of my programmes. Maybe even play a teaser if I get a chance to hear it before I head out to the station later.
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Congrats! Just purchased and downloading now. My favorite so far is At The Temple.
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Nice !
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Thanks everyone! I'm blown away - I didn't expect anyone to get it for a while, friends in other bands tell me how low sales generally all. Another example of how cool this place is!
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Just listened to the whole album, Harry. Sweeeeet! And my first ever production credit! I also recognize where that cover photo was taken - the release payment papers are in the mail - hehehehe. Missed you at the party this year.
Bill, tgo
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Congrats! Just purchased and downloading now. My favorite so far is At The Temple.
I think that might have become my favorite track too.
Just listened to the whole album, Harry. Sweeeeet! And my first ever production credit! I also recognize where that cover photo was taken - the release payment papers are in the mail - hehehehe. Missed you at the party this year.
Bill, tgo
Thanks Bill - this entire release wouldn't have been possible without you!
Sorry we missed the party, I turned out to be busier that day than expected. The weather was so much better than last year too!
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Finally, some new music from Stan!
This one features the AleM-85 - I should have practiced more before we played, was mostly playing my Fenders but edwardofhuncote mentioned he hoped the fretless Guild would make an appearance so I wanted to oblige. I might remix it, try and make the bass louder - what do you think? I'm not sure if it's because I went for a darker sound on this track or just need to bring it up in the mix...
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Sounds fantastic! I like the way bass, drums, and the reverse sounding effect drive along with the guitar freely floating on top.
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Darn - I didn't bring my cans to work with me this morning! I'll plug it this afternoon on my walk. ;)
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Brought my 1/8" aux patch cable and listened on the way in to work this morning... man, that'll wake you up! Sounds great Hieronymous. 8)
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Thanks for listening - it really means a lot to me.
I have another track up from the same session - same instrumentation, but this time there's octave and distortion on the AleM-85 and the bass pedal synth (actually Micromoog with overdrive overdubbed after the fact) is much more prominent.
And I have to say - I love that we can embed the soundcloud player!
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Thanks for listening - it really means a lot to me.
I have another track up from the same session - same instrumentation, but this time there's octave and distortion on the AleM-85 and the bass pedal synth (actually Micromoog with overdrive overdubbed after the fact) is much more prominent.
And I have to say - I love that we can embed the soundcloud player!
Love your music Harry!!
Listening right now and it's putting me in a good mood. You are a seriously talented player and your productions sound great too!
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Love your music Harry!!
Listening right now and it's putting me in a good mood. You are a seriously talented player and your productions sound great too!
Thanks a lot! Being able to record my own stuff really changed my life - I'm not sure how much I would have stuck with playing if that opportunity hadn't been opened for me. I started recording in 2002 with a Mac & MBox/ProTools, upgraded in 2009, still using that 2nd setup 10 years later.
This piece Stanagram - I vaguely remember playing it, I felt like we went on too long (the original performance was something like 10 minutes long) and I didn't know what to play. But when I listened back I discovered this snippet and was blown away by the guitar solo! The key change wasn't preplanned, it just happened. So 10 minutes of music turned into hours of tweaking and listening - added distortion to the bass, used the natural room reverb on this track (Spree Upon Vale is BlueSky on the guitar & drums), added the Micromoog, and voila! - an mp3! lol, it was actually so much work to get to this point - three different intro fades, two different outro fades, etc. - but fun work.
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... Being able to record my own stuff really changed my life ...
When I read that statement my mind responded with a definite "yes". It's something worth pointing out, for it is indeed a big change in our world; for me anyway. Getting to listen to your music and that of other friends here, getting to share mine, and listening to what others put on youtube, soundcloud, bandcamp, etc, and what still others have distributed to spotify and similar services. Pretty amazing!
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Cool stuff, sounds great! I recently bought a Moog Sirin, looking to see if I can use my bass with midi output to trigger it. Fun stuff :)
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Cool stuff, sounds great! I recently bought a Moog Sirin, looking to see if I can use my bass with midi output to trigger it. Fun stuff :)
So put the audio signal of your bass through the filter and trigger with the midi coming from the bass? That sounds very interesting. Synths are so fun! Maybe we should start a "bass & synths" thread in miscellaneous...
I went back and re-read this thread - is it coincidence that I also picked up a Sirin recently? I thought you mentioned it because I did lol - I ended up trading my Micromoog to help pay for the Sirin. I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet - I just played with it a bit to make sure it worked. But I need to dig in and start experimenting soon!
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A “bass & syths” thread would be good, would motivate me to experiment! Watch your volumes as you work through the Sirin. I have a lot of figuring out to do with that unit as well. Should be fun! :)
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These songs have now been officially released on band camp! Featuring the AleM-85 (Alembicized Guild M-85 II)
https://stanleylighthead.bandcamp.com/album/stanagram (https://stanleylighthead.bandcamp.com/album/stanagram)
Here's the "album cover" (it's really just a single):
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48663008291_9b84f8431b_o.jpg)
I need to figure out how to put my music on the Apple music store - it's probably not that hard.
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Dig it!
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This seems like the best place to put this - I did a solo bass arrangement of a Stanley Lighthead tune, "Noel & Billy," as an "audition" for Bootsy Collins (part of a promotion he's doing on Instagram) - he was supposed to announce the winners on Xmas morning but nothing (though he did post other things) - winner gets to go to NAMM which is something I've wanted to do for a long time, also perform at an event Bootsy is putting on in the evening!
I recorded the bass & synth direct with my Zoom H6 at the same time as the iPhone video - glad I did, the iPhone audio wasn't balanced too well so got to adjust levels - the bass is my AlFemBic played with a Telefunken graphite pic (thank you Edwin Hurwitz for turning me on to those!), through my CAJ V-Comp tube compressor and SolidGoldFX Beta Germanium for the overdrive. I really like Activators, they offer so many tones and work great with distortion!
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Very Cool!!
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Rock on, Harry! So what’s the story with this Telefunken pick?
Bill, tgo
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Excellent! 8)
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Sounds great! :)
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Thanks for listening everyone - I didn't make the cut unfortunately, but definitely enjoyed the process of making the video.
Bill, I'll bring some of the picks to the mini-gathering!