Ambicon 2013 [VG related] My Experience at Ambicon 2013

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

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Elantric


jeffpearce

A friend sent me a link to this thread, with a "help me, Obi-wan, you're my only hope" sense of urgency.  I don't know a lot about- well, anything.  But I DO know a few things about my rig, and, specifically, what I used at the AMBIcon show, because I took a LOT of pics of my set-up at home, so I could quickly and accurately set it up at AMBIcon.

.... an aside:  when people write to me asking about the gear I use, I'm always flattered, but a little confused, since there are about a thousand different players who have WAY better sounds than I do, not to mention far better gear (almost all of what I use, as you will see, currently resides in the "extinct gear" suburb- there's nothing fancy or exotic in my rack or floor-space).  On top of that, my set up is almost always in a state of flux, so when someone asks me "how did you get that one sound on 'to the shores of heaven'?", I have to stop and think REALLY hard, since I'm not entirely sure how I did that.  Oh, I know the ingredients I used, I just don't know the order in which I placed them in the mixing bowl...  I also have a notoriously bad memory- so much so that I married a woman who has the same birthday as me (so I'll never forget her birthday- so far, so good... :))

aside #2- Man, Elantric- that is a BIG cover!!!  For those who are wondering, "in the season of fading light" is a piano centered project, with touches of ambient guitar here and there in the background.

Ok- I'll start with:  THE GUITAR.

It's one I bought in 2002- a Route 101 Solimar.  I thought it would be fun to take this guitar to AMBIcon, since the actual Route 101 was right outside the convention center.  :)  Sadly, the company is no more, which is a shame, because the guitar is a great one- mostly because of the neck.  I have hands that are only slightly larger than a Smurf's,and the neck on the Solimar just feels great- it's not too thin, not too thick- it's just right.  The guitar has EMG SA's, which aren't my FAVORITE pickups, but for live playing, they solve a lot of problems (no hum, buzz, or possibility of picking up any nearby radio stations).  The guitar came with a graphite nut, which makes all wiggle-stick activities run smoothly.  For the AMBIcon show, I used a roller capo at the first fret.  One of my "techniques" (although in this case, it comes amazingly close to "vandalism") is to hit the capo with a knife while holding a chord shape with my left hand.  The chord sort of "blooms" out of nowhere, and creates a sound I enjoy.  The roller capo is great for this, since it's a nice, big target.

Ok- the guitar goes into a Morely volume pedal.  I prefer the feel of other volume pedals, but with ambient music, it starts to get REALLY noticeable when a pot gets scratchy.  Since the Morely has an optical thingamajig, I don't get scratchy sounds live.

The Morely goes out to a Whirlwind a/b/y box.  The "b" channel goes direct into my Alesis quadraverb (I don't use distortion with the ebow sound, I just place the ebow over the desired pickup, and play away), and then the q-verb goes into my Mackie mixer.

The "a" channel of the Whirlwind goes into the Digitech Space Station.  I usually switch between two settings on there- an "octave pad" setting (#5 I believe) and a heavily chorused setting (#4).  The output of that certainly goes into a Blue Box, but it's not a blues driver (although that could sound twenty different types of cool).  No- it goes into a Boss CS-3, which i use for limiting the sound coming out of the Space Station, since it can get unruly at times (or maybe it's poor playing technique on my part!)

The output of the CS-3 goes into my beloved Roland GP-100 (I don't want to brag here, but what I am MOST expert in, in my opinion, is the "GP-100 internal battery hotswap".  Really- I'm a dang virtuoso at this).  I almost always use patches in the "harmony" setting, and that's because I love that 4-voice pitch shifter.  No doubt there are better ones- in fact, for every piece of gear I have, there's a "better" one out there- BUT- for what I do, the GP-100 is deeply inspirational in it's pitch shifting, and I think that has a lot to do with the "inv" and "inv2" options- it's an inverted delay or something on the pitch shifter, I don't know what it is at all.  All I know is that when I use it with volume swell chords- I like the "movement" it provides.

In the effects loop of the GP-100 is a Boss DD20.  BUT- and this is a BIG "but" (a Jabba the Hut sized "but")- I use it in delay mode, not the loop/sound on sound mode.  The delay mode is almost always somewhere between 16 and 23 seconds in length, and almost infinite in repeats, and the actual mode itself is the modulation delay.  I find that when I put something into the "loop" (even though it's a delay), the first time in, as I'm playing it, things sounds pretty clean.  But when the repeats start, things get "smeared" in a noticeable, but plesant way.  Keep adding layers?  More smear.

The output of the Roland GP-100, like my Q-verb, goes into my 12 channel Mackie mixer.  I only have one effects box in the "send-return" on the mixer- the Korg AM8000.  Do I use it for reverb?  Nope.  Do I use it for delay?  Double nope.  Do I use it for pitch/shimmer?  Probably should, but I don't.  I use it for rhythmic effects- I feed the AM800 a little bit of signal from the GP-100, and what comes out, thanks to the step phaser, sounds like "do do do do DO do UGGA UGGA do do do do DO do UGGA UGGA" and so on and so forth.  USUALLY, I just run the outputs of the AM8000 into my mixer, but the sound guys at AMBIcon said "look, we have this great surround set-up going on, why don't we run the outputs of the AM8000 direct into our board and send it to the rear speakers?".  So at soundcheck, I set up a loop, got the AM8000 doing it's "do do UGGA UGGA" thing, and went in the audience and sat in the sweet spot, where I heard the GP-100 in front of me, and the AM8000 moving back and forth behind me.  I have to say- it made my music sound better than it actually was.

.... so- if you looked at the stage and saw two direct boxes- that's what they were for- one stereo box for my Mackie mixer, and one stereo box for the AM800.  And I genuinely apologize if that is a much duller answer than saying "I was running parallel effects".

So that just pretty much covers everything about my AMBIcon set-up.  Again- there's nothing fancy at all in what I used on stage, or what I use at home.  Aliensporebomb- Valhalla Shimmer is a GREAT GREAT plug.  I use it mostly on piano.  Same with the EOS reverb.  It doesn't QUITE have the quadraverb sound that I love, but it is beautiful, and by far my favorite reverb plug in the world (I mean, you HAVE to love a plug-in that has a preset called "This Budd's For You", right?)

If anyone has any questions regarding my set-up, I'm more than happy to answer- but would also probably suggest that you listen to some better ambient guitar music than mine.  :)  Those Hammock guys, for example- now THAT'S a sound.

Elantric

Welcome to the Forum Jeff !

And your rig rundown sure answers the many questions speculated in this thread.

aliensporebomb

Hi Jeff!  I kind of thought you might show up here eventually.  It was nice meeting you at Ambicon!  I'm the Minnesota based guitar looper who forgot all of his CDs on his dresser at home (grin).  Good to know some of the facts of your rig - I also am a big believer of finding stuff that works for you and digging deep into it. 

I'm also happy to know what the story was on the guitar since there was a Harmony here locally in a shop that had a similarly shaped headstock but yours looked a lot nicer wood. 

Now Jmars can relax since the facts are out there.  But the big trick for a lot of us is: now that we have all this gear what do we do with it all? 

The answers in my case are at the link at the bottom of my messages. 


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

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

jeffpearce

thanks for the welcome, Elantric- and I apologize that the previous post of mine had nothing VG-99 related in it.  At one point in my life, I had a VG-88, and I was never able to get anything "useful" out of it, although many friends with VG-88's created some amazing sounds and music.  Watching how Michael Stearns integrated his VG-99 into his AMBIcon rig was inspiring- he didn't use it a lot, but when he did, I'd wager it was in HRM mode, since the sounds were of the "not quite guitar, not quite synth" category...

I remember you from AMBIcon, Aliensporebomb, and I enjoyed talking shop with you for a bit.  The wood in my guitar is "ok" wood- I believe it is Kapare wood, which is lightweight and tonally (fairly) neutral.  I AM a fan of the "root beer brown" color, though!  And, yes, you're right- what we do with the gear is almost certainly more important than collecting gear, :) and you're doing some really good things with yours!

Jeff

Elantric

QuoteI apologize that the previous post of mine had nothing VG-99 related in it.

No need to worry - 80% of the posts here have nothing VG-99 related. We have evolved into a forum for guitarists and bassists and a few Stick / Warr players  who want to break away and move beyond from the typical guitar domain sonic turf. Thats why we have dedicated areas for

* High Tech Guitar Gear
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=108.0

* Loopers
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=38.0

* Fishman TriplePlay
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=135.0
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=134.0
   
* Roland GR-55
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=60.0

* Roland GR-30
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=133.0

* Roland V-Link Visual FX Controllers
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=39.0

* Tablet and SmartPhone for Guitarists
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=132.0

and much more

aliensporebomb

That was the thing about Ambicon that surprised me: that so many of the musicians were guitarists that didn't necessarily sound like guitarists.   So that goes real well with the whole "Future Guitar Now" ethos of this system (well, the sister board of this one).

Stefan Micus and Hans Christian were the obvious exceptions but I'm doubly glad I went now not only because I got to see people I'd been listening to for years but never had a conception they might be on the world wide web (how did I miss that?  Good grief). 

And also that pictures of them exist but that what I listen to might not be a presumed keyboard synthesizer (although they were in evidence too) but some processed guitar which was a patch I went far down along for years myself.

For some reason when I saw Tim Story pick up your guitar and start playing I was really surprised because I don't normally think of him as a guitar player but more as an ambient chamber composer.

And even Michael Stearns - his music is so cinematic I don't think "guitarist".  Or your music too - much more cinematic than the average guitar player and the tones and attacks in a lot of cases don't suggest "guitar". 

And then Robert Rich with his lap steel madness.  I was surprised even though he was in Guitar Player Magazine the month before Ambicon happened.

Anyway, it was a big eye opener for me that's for sure.  And ear opener too but that goes without saying.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

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

Elantric

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2017/03/19/steve-roach-live-at-ambicon/

Sunday Synth Jam: This video captures the live performance of ambient/space music synthesist Steve Roach at AMBIcon 2013.

The concert, held May 5, 2013, in San Rafael, CA, was produced by Hearts Of Space and hosted by Stephen Hill.





https://www.youtube.com/user/AMBIcon2013




Tony Raven

Upon rereading this thread, I thought I might expand on one point.
Quote from: jeffpearce on July 31, 2013, 09:29:03 AMOk- I'll start with:  THE GUITAR. It's one I bought in 2002- a Route 101 Solimar.
Best I can tell, the company folded ~2003. They had the Solimar (Strat) & Rincon (Tele), with some hardware upgrade paths & variants, as well as their "Made in U.S.A." line. (There's much online conjecture that Route 101 got in trouble for assembling their "U.S." guitars from foreign-made components, but I have yet to see proof of that.) Their homepage remains, though, titled "A Custom Guitar from $329!" --
http://www.route101guitars.com/

As a gear hound, I have Route 101 on my "watch for" list because it's one of the few brands that offers a hardtail Stratoclone (& is MUCH less pricey than a Fender or even Squier).