Ambicon 2013 [VG related] My Experience at Ambicon 2013

Started by aliensporebomb, May 13, 2013, 08:11:15 PM

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aliensporebomb

So I attended Ambicon 2013 which was a live ambient music festival starring Steve Roach, Michael Stearns, Robert Rich, Stephan Micus, Jeff Pearce, Tim Story and Stellamara.  It was basically a celebration of the "Music from the Hearts of Space" radio shows' 40th anniversary.

They had a complete surround sound setup for the PA from Delicious Productions and the sound was STUPENDOUS.

There were eight concerts and most musicians played solo although Tim Story had guitarist Jeff Pearce with him for his set and at times Pearce and Story traded instruments.  Stellamara was a five piece band who concluded the convention and there were was a panel with all the musicians (mainly answering the question "how did you get a living in doing this kind of music" - short answer, ceaseless gigging and getting booked to do soundtracks and commercial work) as well as a speaker Mark Prendergast discussing his book "The Ambient Century" and the origins of that subject.

It was a big eye opener in so far as music technology goes - Steve Roach had a whole music store up on stage and three laptops running all of his technology.  Robert Rich and Michael Stearns each had two.  A few musicians were acoustic only with big reverbs.  Many of the artists had the Eventide Eclipse onstage although some other people had surprising "ebay level" equipment.  I've got lots of pictures in case anyone is interested.

-

But getting back to our forum focus here is that Michael Stearns was playing a Parker MIDIFly into a Roland VG-99 that he was using to trigger various synthesizer modules and he also played keyboard synthesizer as well.

It's kind of hard to see but the VG-99 is on the bottom right side of his gear.  You can see the yellow lights on the buttons.

Stearns gear:


During performance:


Deep Space segment:

Michael Stearns
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0824195/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
He had some really nice custom patches he put together.  It was his first gig in over ten years so it was pretty rare to see him live - some of the other musicians gigged regularly.


My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

rolandvg99

Good read. Looks and sounds like a musicians alternative to the PC guys LAN parties.  ;) 8)
To V or not to V: That is the question.

My little Soundcloud corner

thebrushwithin

Thanks for reporting, I'll bet you had great fun! I like Stearns' somewhat lean and clean setup. With today's tech, you don't need a music store, onstage, to produce a huge, intricate tapestry of sound. I was wondering if looping was used much, and if there was a way to know what software was being employed. Probably Ableton Live.

aliensporebomb

Every artist employed looping to some degree, some using either hardware loopers or some kind of software system and some were integrating laptop based sequencing alongside looping. 

I'll post more pictures of everyones setups - Jeff Pearce was playing a strat type guitar thru a rack of FX, Digitech Space station and looper, Robert Rich had a big analog/digital synth setup with lap steel guitar, Stearns had the setup you saw here, Steve Roach had a 24-channel mixer with a handful of keyboard synths, 3 laptops and a big Oberheim Matrix 12-module as well as a slew of effects.  The Stellamara synth player had two keyboards and a Mac laptop - not sure what he was using but he had some really nice sounds.  Tim Story had several keyboards and when Jeff Pearce was playing his keyboards he was playing Jeff's strat setup.  More later.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

mbenigni

Looks like a really interesting show!

QuoteMichael Stearns was playing a Parker MIDIFly

Sorry to be pedantic, but it's more likely he was playing a Parker Fly Mojo MIDI or similar.  The MIDIFly is kind of an anomaly in the history of Parker guitars:  a bolt-on (basically a high-end variation of the NiteFly) with built-in MIDIAxe electronics and true MIDI I/O on 5-pin DINs, as opposed to an internal GK with 13-pin output.  Almost no one plays (or has seen, for that matter) a Parker MIDIFly.  I'm a stickler about all of this because I own two of them, and one was my main guitar for many years.  :)

aliensporebomb

#5
All I know it was a Parker Fly with a GK pickup mounted internally.  Looked really nice.  He's made his living doing soundtracks and it appears that was a centerpiece of his setup.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0824195/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Smash

#6
Nice summary - That sounds like an amazing event - would be cool if they ever released a DVD of it in 5.1!

Are there any online clips you know of so we can get a flavour (deliberate spelling - I'm British!) of what we missed?

*edit* scratch that - a youtube search has yielded loads of material - just going through some now...look for youtube user Talischte

the Michael Stearns stuff is beautiful...









aliensporebomb

#8
They filmed the whole thing and recorded it in 5.1 and the surround was really quite amazing in person. 

Jeff Pearce is another guy to watch out for - what he does is very similar to what I do.  I was unaware of him prior to this but am a listener now. 
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

thebrushwithin

I do a lot of this film score, ambient music as well. I love their sense of patience, which is difficult live, as they let things build very slowly, with no sense of urgency. I would have loved to have been there!

jmars

Quote from: aliensporebomb on May 14, 2013, 06:11:46 AM
Every artist employed looping to some degree, some using either hardware loopers or some kind of software system and some were integrating laptop based sequencing alongside looping. 

I'll post more pictures of everyones setups - Jeff Pearce was playing a strat type guitar thru a rack of FX, Digitech Space station and looper, Robert Rich had a big analog/digital synth setup with lap steel guitar, Stearns had the setup you saw here, Steve Roach had a 24-channel mixer with a handful of keyboard synths, 3 laptops and a big Oberheim Matrix 12-module as well as a slew of effects.  The Stellamara synth player had two keyboards and a Mac laptop - not sure what he was using but he had some really nice sounds.  Tim Story had several keyboards and when Jeff Pearce was playing his keyboards he was playing Jeff's strat setup.  More later.

Could you expand on Jeff Pearce's setup at Ambicon?  Do you have any pictures of his rack and/or pedals?  From what Jeff has told me already, his setup includes: Roland GP-100, Volume Pedal, Boss DD20, and an Alesis or Lexicon reverb.  You saw a Digitech Space Station, which explains the synth sounds.  From a video taken at Ambicon, I saw that he was using the GP-100, DD20, a Morley volume pedal, possibly an A/B switch, and what I think might be a Korg AM8000R or the delay version, the DL8000R.  If I could see the warp knob color, I could determine whether it is an AM or DL unit.  Jeff told me that at Ambicon, he was running an effects send/return from the GP-100 to his pedals, which included a delay pedal (I assume the DD-20).  Jeff is ambiguous at best when answering questions about his setup.  He's thrown me a few bones over the past few years, but I just haven't been able to put all of the pieces together.  Since Jeff plays so few shows, few people have had a look at his rig.  That's why when I saw this thread I thought that I would write to you for more info, being one of the few people lucky enough to see it in person.  Thank you in advance for any information that you could supply.

John Marshall

aliensporebomb

#11
Hi John - Why yes I do have some pictures!  But my other ambient musician friend John opted to take close-up shots of everyones rig (I didn't want to get yelled at by stagehands so I didn't get TOO close), I'll see if I can't get his shots too.  I know, I'm beginning to realize how lucky I was.  I should put up the pics and videos I took because it's still blurry that it even happened.

Basically it looked like this:

Jeff played a Strat copy (nice woodgrained finished but the headstock shape was definetely not a Fender shape!) played with fingers, a pick, then also an e-bow, butterknife and paintbrush (yes, a paintbrush produces very soft sound colors when notes are brushed) going into 3 rack processors and the floor pedals appeared to be in the FX loop of the setup and it all went out directly to the P.A.

Then he had a Roland keyboard that he played periodically as well.

The rack processors was a GP-100 for sure but one of the other rack processors I thought for SURE was an Eventide Eclipse (several people there seemed to have this rackunit).

I was kind of out of my head and not thinking clearly because of the very fact you could just talk to Stephen Hill or his wife Leiyla or Steve Roach or Jeff Pearce or at all the ambient folk around and should have been documenting like mad.  I did, kind of but was a little star-struck at points and not thinking as clearly as I should have.

Jeff told me the GP-100 did a lot of his pitch shifting - he said that he had tried a lot of more expensive rack units but the GP-100 did it better than a lot of others and so he had been scouring e-bay to buy them used and has several spares so he's set. 

It's weird, it's very possible that I've played more ambient guitar gigs than he has even though he is WAY better known than I (I think I've done 30 or so over the last half decade locally).

Jeff told me that he basically buys a lot of his gear used on e-bay.  If I hadn't looked at the Space Station and DD-20 I'd swear his floor pedals were no different than that of a bar band musician.  I think he had a pretty common overdrive for his distorted e-bow lines, again, I'll have to bug John if my pictures don't reveal much.

Any other questions?  Go right ahead and ask.  I'll do what I can to respond.  My own rig I should document too, I've been asked to do a video but I'm waiting until I replace a key piece. 

Stay tuned for pictures!
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

aliensporebomb

If you want all of my shots of Jeff you can download them here:
http://madsound.dyndns.org/ambicon/pearce/big/
(have mercy, they're HUGE)

Just know this - I talked to my friend John this afternoon and he said that one of the rack processors in use was an Alesis Quadraverb(!) - he heard that from Jeff himself.   I used to own one and it NEVER made sounds like he made that night.
Jeff personally told me he had used a Roland GP-100 so we know two of the processors.

The pedals on the ground: Boss DD-20, Digitech Space Station, Expression Pedal for one of the Rack FX.  You'll notice a table with an audio mixer with the floor pedals in the FX loop.

So what's the mystery processor?  Look at the pile of rack processors and get back to me.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

rolandvg99

Quadraverb. Brings back good memories. That box is still great apart from the bypass which I never managed to balance against the processed sound. It was the backbone of my sound for six years, helping a Peavey Pacer sound good. 8)
To V or not to V: That is the question.

My little Soundcloud corner

aliensporebomb

Close-ups:

Racks and Mixer:

GP100 + Quadraverb + ???:


Floor Pedals:


White Pedal: DD20
Yellow foot Pedal with expression pedal to the Left:  Digitech Space Station
It looks like there's another pedal on top of the space station or next to it.
Red Pedal near the expression pedal: unspecified overdrive - I think it was a Boss - used for ebow guitar solos
Expression pedal nearest mic stand: this might be the control pedal for the DD20 as it supports an expression pedal.

Does that help?
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

aliensporebomb

In all likelihood a lot of the sounds Jeff was doing was kind of the Eno/Lanois crystal shimmer thing like this:


All he really needed was a VG-99, the right patch and the right routing order.  That's ok though - his setup was interesting and he did cool things with it!
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

aliensporebomb

#16
One more shot:



Note this!  Dual DI boxes:  He's running parallel effects chains.  Remember they were running surround sound that night but he might use a similar setup normally.  In my own rig it's up to six stereo pairs of quarter inch jacks going into a submixer to the house. 

You can see the DD-20, Space Station, Overdrive and expression pedal (looks like a Morley).  Not sure about the black box to the left of the space station. 
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

jmars

@aliensporebomb
Thank you for the pictures!  The "mystery" processor is the Korg AM8000R.  One of my friends has been bugging me for years to sell mine to him, but I'll never part with it.  The Space Station is hard to recognize because of the lighting I guess.  The last picture that you posted allowed me to see it better.  I would like a more detailed look at the pedals though.  If you don't mind, I would like to see you friend's pictures as well if he has close-ups of the pedals.   I have a lot of the same equipment as Jeff, I'm just trying to figure out more about how he's using it.  I'm glad that you had fun at Ambicon.  I wanted to go, but I live on the east coast and it was not economically feasible for me.  I did watch the performances either live or on Ambicon's Youtube channel.  It must have been great to talk to all of those epic musicians, especially all in one place!  Your story about not documenting as much as you should have reminded me of what everyone that sees a UFO has said.  That they were so enthralled with the experience that they forgot to take pictures!  Thanks again for the responses and the pictures!

Take Care,
John Marshall

jmars

@aliensporebomb
By the way, I've been by your website a few times.  In fact I have your site buried my my favorites list somewhere.  You have some very impressive material!

John

aliensporebomb

John:  I talked to my friend and apparently he didn't get any shots of Jeff's rig - just audience shots of him performing.  Sorry!  He did get shots of Steve Roach's big rig and I think he said Michael Stearns rigs.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

jmars

@aliensporebomb
Shucks!  Well, thanks to you I'm closer than I ever have been to figuring out the Pearce sound.  You made some good observations that I would have missed, like the dual DI boxes indicating parallel signal paths.  I may contact you later for advice on recommended signal chains, if you don't mind.  I've watched some of your Youtube videos in the past and got some good ideas from your responses to comments there.  Thanks again for everything!

Take Care,
John

jmars


@aliensporebomb
After studying your pictures a little more and comparing them to the information I already have, I think that I may have started to piece together Jeff's rig.  This is the first part of the chain: Guitar-Morley Volume Pedal-A/B Switch.  Chain A continues with: XP300-(unknown pedal)-GP-100.  Chain B goes directly to the board, presumably to use the Send/Return of the board for sharing the Quadraverb between the two signal chains.  The DD-20 is in the Send/Return of the GP-100.  After Chain A goes into the GP-100, it's only speculation from there.  I have gathered that he is lying down a bed of sound on Chain A then switching to Chain B for solos.  Jeff said that he uses the Quadraverb for Ebow solos, leading me to believe that he may be sharing the Quadraverb through the mixer.  I'm not sure how he's using the Korg AM8000R, unless it is for the rotary, panning and chorus effects on the AM as a post effect.  Jeff had suggested using a modulation at the end of the effects chain to create a swimming or swirling effect.  This may be how he's using the AM8000R.  So, basically the only piece that I'm really missing is the "unknown pedal", which is to the left of the XP300 in your picture.  You said that you saw an overdrive pedal.  That's not the pedal between the Morley and the Space Station is it?  That's got to be an A/B switch because the left output is going to the XP300 and the right output is going to the board and the only input is coming from the Morley.  Let me know what you think!

Thanks,
John

aliensporebomb

#22
John: 

In viewing that picture again what we have from left to right is Morley volume, Mystery Red overdrive, Space Station, an unknown pedal to the left of the Space Station pedal rubber footing (it looked like a regular overdrive or the like so I didn't pay much attention to it), and the DD-20.  I remembered a few things - Boss Blues Driver kept coming to mind.  And I remembered why because of something I thought to myself right before the show.

I think I figured it out:  The mystery pedal is likely a Boss Blues Driver (Blue with gold writing) and the red pedal with white lettering is a Boss RC-3 Loopstation.  He was looping quite a bit during his show and I suspect that the source was the little red pedal with white lettering.

That's why I kept thinking "If he has problems with ambient at least he could play some Skynyrd" because of the Blues Driver).  He ran that with the highs rolled off a little to smooth out the attack with the e-bow.

By the way, I was at a music store yesterday and saw a strat bodied guitar with the same shaped headstock as Jeff's and it was a Harmony.  The proportions were the same as Jeff's although I didn't see a logo on Jeff's headstock but the one at the music store was a Harmony.  Not a really great guitar in the conventional sense (low output passive noisy single coil pickups) but no worries if travel busted it up - just get another one.

When he was playing some of his ambiences he was using a small paintbrush which gave a very soft attack to the notes for his pad sounds and some of his melodies were executed with a butterknife.  So a lot of it was not only using parallel effects chains but different ways of enunciating a note other than you would usually see. 

Some of his pad sounds were the same type of sound as achieved with the FX plug-in called "Valhalla Shimmer" (see http://www.valhalladsp.com and download the demo, it will blow your mind).  I've gotten in the neighborhood with the VG-99 alone but together it's super spacey. 

I know for my own "regular non-VG99" rig I'm using a Lexicon Vortex for modulation and delay and pitch shifting and then a TC Electronic G Sharp for chorusing the modulated pitch shifted signal and adding some reverb to that which smooths it out nicely.  You can make a guitar sound very un-guitar-like with that rig.

I'm sure Jeff is doing something similar:  taking the guitar, having an original subtly processed guitar sound on one chain and then having a parallel chain where he's pitching it up one or two octaves, adding modulation, chorus and delay and then pitching it back down again and mixing the pitched/unpitched with the original and using the pitch shifted reverb trick from Eno/Lanois too. 

I might drop him a line though!  "Hey, remember me?  Ambicon?  Yet another ambient guitar guy?"  He probably ran into 40 out there.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

jmars

@aliensporebomb
Thanks for the response.  Look again closely at the images of the second pedal.  There is one input on the side and two outputs on the back.  One output is going to the XP300 and the other is going directly to the board.  The RC-3 only has power, aux in and USB on the back.  Also, Jeff told me that he uses the DD-20 for looping.  Since the DD-20 is in the FX Send/Return of the GP-100, he can move it to any point in the FX chain of the GP, virtually.  The Blues Driver would make sense, I'm glad that you remembered that!  By the way, supporting the fact that he's either using an A/B switch or possibly an amp switch pedal can be seen here: Pause the video at 0:38 and you can see the Morley Volume, the DD-20 and a pedal with two switches which looks like a line switch or an amp switch.  It looks like a Morley A/B switch, which unfortunately looks like a Fender amp switch.  I'm glad that you solved the guitar mystery, what a stroke of luck.  I already have ValhallaShimmer.  I couldn't do without it on my synth rig.  For my guitar rig, I have four units that do pitch shifting, the GP-100, Korg AM8000R, Lexicon PCM 81, and an Eventide H3000 D/SE.  The GP-100 does one and 5 part harmonies, the AM8000R has up to two pitch shifters with automatic regeneration (Eno/Lanois Shimmer), the PCM 81 has four voice pitch and the H3000 has dual, stereo, and reverse shift among others.  If you want to, prod Jeff a bit about whether he IS using an A/B switch or not and maybe a little about his FX routing.  I feel like I've bugged him enough about his setup already.  Thanks again for all of your help.  I am eternally in your debt sir!

Thanks Again,
John Marshall

aliensporebomb

Quote from: jmars on July 16, 2013, 10:32:17 PM
@aliensporebomb
Thanks for the response.  Look again closely at the images of the second pedal.  There is one input on the side and two outputs on the back.  One output is going to the XP300 and the other is going directly to the board.  The RC-3 only has power, aux in and USB on the back.  Also, Jeff told me that he uses the DD-20 for looping.  Since the DD-20 is in the FX Send/Return of the GP-100, he can move it to any point in the FX chain of the GP, virtually.  The Blues Driver would make sense, I'm glad that you remembered that!  By the way, supporting the fact that he's either using an A/B switch or possibly an amp switch pedal can be seen here: Pause the video at 0:38 and you can see the Morley Volume, the DD-20 and a pedal with two switches which looks like a line switch or an amp switch.  It looks like a Morley A/B switch, which unfortunately looks like a Fender amp switch.  I'm glad that you solved the guitar mystery, what a stroke of luck.  I already have ValhallaShimmer.  I couldn't do without it on my synth rig.  For my guitar rig, I have four units that do pitch shifting, the GP-100, Korg AM8000R, Lexicon PCM 81, and an Eventide H3000 D/SE.  The GP-100 does one and 5 part harmonies, the AM8000R has up to two pitch shifters with automatic regeneration (Eno/Lanois Shimmer), the PCM 81 has four voice pitch and the H3000 has dual, stereo, and reverse shift among others.  If you want to, prod Jeff a bit about whether he IS using an A/B switch or not and maybe a little about his FX routing.  I feel like I've bugged him enough about his setup already.  Thanks again for all of your help.  I am eternally in your debt sir!

Thanks Again,
John Marshall

Awwww, I wish whoever filmed that video had lingered a bit on those pedals - how cruel but that is the clearest shot yet - it sure looks like an A/B switch to me too.  Maybe that's the parallel FX chain controller for A/B integration.  Yeah, Valhalla Shimmer is pretty amazing.  Wish I had that thing in hardware - I have some of it on the VG99 but there's some of it that it won't do.  OK so he uses the DD20 for looping - that might make sense then - guitar gets split into two signals by the A/B box; then the rest of it is as you describe.

Another thing - that video you posted looks like he replaced the stock nut on that guitar with a graphite one for more sustain; it's black.  Sometimes people put a woman's hair band at the nut to lessen sustain but I would think he would want to increase sustain.  My own guitar has this modification:



I might need to do some playing around with my setup to see if I can concoct a similar chain.

My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.