Tag: guitar

Andreas Hald – Playful Filmic Composer

1: Favourite knob/fader/switch on a piece of gear and why?

Roland Space Echo RE-201

Ahh, that’s a tough one – there are so many! But – I like big knobs and I can not lie – so I’ll have to go with the Mode Selector on my Space Echo RE-201. It’s big and clicky, and it sits on one of my absolute favorite piece of gear. Sometimes I just turn it on so that I can hear the tape whistling around in there. So great.

[Editor: Possibly the greatest knob on the greatest fx ever]

2: Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

I don’t think so. What comes the closest, is my old trusty Juno-60. To me, it’s the most musical sounding synth I know of. It’s perfect with all its imperfections. Warm and noisy – “brown- and round-sounding” to be cliche, it so inspiring to turn on. Instant greatness. It would be fun to add some of the features from a modern synth like the Prophet 6, but again – the limitations that this (and others) instrument has, is what I like about it and keeps my fluids going. In my line of work I need limitations, so I welcome them.

Roland Juno-60

3: What setup do you bring on holiday/tour/commute etc.?

Well, back in the days I always towed a guitar, amp and ALL of my pedals to any vacation, but ending up not really playing it. So I don’t bring that much anymore. It’s more than often an instrument or synth of a kind that I want to check out further and haven’t had the time to do so. On my last holiday I ended up bringing my cello and a drum machine. I have this weird sickness, that I can only do proper work in my studio, so I try to avoid working elsewhere and don’t bring computer or anything. I need too much hardware to do my work.

Prophet 6 and Juno-60

4: What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

In software to hardware – Xils 4, an “Analog Matrix Modular Synthesizer” from Xils Lab. Would love to have that as an enormous beast in the studio. I love that plugin, but mainly use my (hardware)modular synth now. But that plugin tickled me in all the right places. I’m really a big fan of hardware, so I wish that all software was hardware and that we from birth learned to write music on paper and record on tape ;-). That being said, I’m obviously a slave of the modern world.

Xils 4 VSTi

5: Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

I only think I’ve sold three pieces of gear actually, and I regret all three. A Fender Hot Rod Deville 4×10 amplifier. A Bogner Shiva head amplifier and a Custom made Fender Stratocaster. Especially selling the Fender amp is a regret. I’ve listened to some recordings from back in the days when I had that, and it sounded awesome. I sold it to buy the much more expensive Bogner, which I then also sold. So because of that, I’m never selling anything again. I still have a Bogner amp though, and I’ll post a picture of it – just because it’s so cool looking. Can’t think of any regrets in buying.

Bogner amp

6: What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

Pianos. There’s something incredibly satisfying in playing a real piano. Hard to beat. Instantly something sounds as proper music. I haven’t always had a piano at a studio, but I have now – and I would love to get a Grand Piano one day. But for now, I’m really digging the intimate and noisy sound from this upright. Just got it serviced, and it’s so good now.

Upright piano

7: If you had to start over, what would you get first?

Hmm. Good one. A cello or a pedal steel guitar. I want to be good at those and would (now) have loved to have played something else, that every kid on the block didn’t also play (guitar). I would also tell myself to buy the best equipment. Quality over quantity. I have a pedal steel with humbucker now and love the sound of it.

Cello

8: What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

Maybe my Kemper Profiler. I use it all the time and love and adore it, even though I should record amps instead. I do both, but the Kemper is just so convenient. It just looks cheap – like it jumped out of the 90’s – and the menu scrolling is horrific. But sound and work-wise: Love it. I could add my computer to the list. Love/hate relationship – but I just can’t live without it.

9: Most surprising tip/trick/technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of kit?

Hardly a trick – but making my monophonic Korg MS-20 sound like an awesome stereo synth by using the headphone out in the external signal processor and then having two outputs from it, to plug into a mixer with panning possibilities and adding effects. Great revolution for me personally. I used that synth ALL THE TIME on a feature Netflix movie.

Artist or Band name?

Andreas Hald, composer for film and media. NBrigade – music teams for film, television and games.

Genre?

Filmmusic (which means all kind of weird genre-less music).

Selfie?

I don’t do selfies, but here’s a picture of me playing the pedalsteel!

Pedal Steel and film composer Andreas Hald’s silhouette

Where are you from?

Skagen, the very top of Denmark. Very small town.

How did you get into music?

Started playing rock music with a buddy when we’re 10, renting our own rehearsal space when we were 13 (one where we could do parties, drink beers and skip school without our parents noticing).We discovered and experimented with music together, and I’ve never let go of it. 

What still drives you to make music?

The moments with zen-like qualities that you can’t get elsewhere. They don’t occur daily, but when they do – it all makes sense. 

How do you most often start a new track?

With a weird sound created on a synth. Other times at the piano.

How do you know when a track is finished?

When I’m passed deadline. I need the deadlines.

[Editor: I also like the wooshing sound they make as they go by]

Show us your current studio

  • A ‘pad’ of polysynths
  • A ‘grrr’ of amps
  • A ‘zap’ of efx
  • A ‘bleep’ of synths
  • A ‘nest’ of modules
  • A ‘twang’ of guitars
  • A ‘playland’ of studio
Scenes from the Hald Studio

Here you go, a few pictures of studio and gear. My modular synth setup is connected with my guitar pedals most of the time, and i use Intellijell modules to do that. I didn’t have a 1 unit space in my rack, so I drilled them into a plate myself.

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

“No matter how good you get, there’s alway ten Swedes better than you”.

[Editor: Ha!]

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

I’m currently working on two tv-series, one called Friheden ll (Pros and Cons) – which is the second season of a Viaplay Original series, and a series for DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) currently untitled.

Andreashald.com

[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…]

The Front Room Fuzz Lounge – Lizard Of Distortion

1. Favourite knob/fader/switch on a piece of gear and why?

The volume knob, as it makes things LOUDER!!!

LOUDER!!!

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

My old Arbiter fuzz face from 1966/67. That pedal sounds incredible, but it’s a little bit temperamental when it gets too warm, the work around is to put it in the freezer for 20 minutes to cool the old NKT275 transistors back down and it roars like a lion after that. 

Freezing Fuzz Face Arbiter

3. What setup do you bring on holiday/tour/commute etc.?

I actually prefer to be away from any kind of music making when on holiday, I see it as time to reset and recharge my batteries and also allow for a bit of mental clarity.

[Editor: That is also a refreshing way to think]

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

I wish there was a hardware version of Valhalla Shimmer in a pedal format, as it sounds beyond huge!!!! I’d love a Fuzz style VST that sounds close to a genuine old Fuzz Face, sadly I can’t imagine anything filling those boots.

Valhalla Shimmer

[Editor: I love ValhallaDSP plugins too. I find that I use the Particle Reverb algorithm on the ZOOM MS70cdr in the same way as Shimmer. Note: They don’t sound the same, just that I use them for similar musical purposes. There is also a shimmer reverb in the zoom]

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

If  I’m honest I’d say the Elektron Digitakt, not because it was a bad piece of gear, I just couldn’t get my head round it, despite trying, I think my simple brain likes simpler UI or more linear workflow, win some, lose some… ha ha.

Elektron Digitakt

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

I think having access to a DAW at home has probably been the most inspirational piece of gear. You can have all the ideas in the world, but if you’ve no way to capture them, they are soon lost or sadly forgotten….

7. If you had to start over, what would you get first?

Knowing what I know now, it would probably be a DAW, midi keyboard and headphones/monitors and then get creating.

8. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

As previously mentioned, I’d say it was my old fully loaded NKT275 Arbiter fuzz face, when conditions are good, it makes the guitar sing like a violin, when the conditions are wrong, its spluttery farts-ville… ha ha.

9. Most surprising tip/trick/technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of gear?

For me  the penny dropped when I discovered  automation in Cubase, total game changer (might not sound too ‘out there’ but I’m a simple guitarist ha ha). It massively helped me to control the dynamics of my tracks and also is a great tool for destroying sound when gradually applied to distortion and bit crusher VST’s too.

Artist or Band name?

John McRitchie

Genre?

Blues/Rock/Doom/Electro/lo-fi

Selfie?

John McRitchie aka. The Front Room Fuzz Lounge

Where are you from?

Scotland.

How did you get into music?

My Grandfather taught me to play bagpipes when I was 13, from there I progressed to electric guitar and synths. I soon realised what I had learned on the bagpipes could be applied to other instruments and also, having to play as part of a marching band developed a strong sense of timing in my playing, as my grounding was in odd time signatures vs. 4/4 of most rock/dance music.

What still drives you to make music?

Both the pure enjoyment of hearing the fruits of my labour and the challenge to keep coming up with something new. I have some close friends who are a sound board for me and it’s always good to get their input too.

How do you most often start a new track?

It’s all very mood dependent, often I’ll start a track with drums/beats just to set a temp then delete them and leave only the instrumental. Sometimes it will be a bit more abstract where I may use some pre-recorded sounds that I slowed down to form more of a soundscape.

How do you know when a track is finished?

For me, the whole premise of writing a track is to tell a story without using words, like every story it should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Often when writing a track it doesn’t always come together in such a linear fashion, you may write a riff or chord structure that,whilst sounding fantastic, might not be appropriate for opening the track with etc (handy tip,record it anyways and save for the future).

The part I find most cathartic is the arrangement process after I have recorded everything into the DAW. By applying the ‘like a story’ method, this is where you can really start to shape your track and ‘trim the fat’ in a sense, I see little value in machine gunning the track with some wild guitar solo if it doesn’t require it or some equally self indulgent “look at me” type of playing, its all about balance.

I tend to do a lot of my work late at night, as I feel that’s when I am most creative and because of this, I always will sleep on a track and revisit with a fresh pair of ears a day or so later, this allows me to be more critical with what stays, what goes and what maybe just needs tweaked to sit better in a mix.

I’ll end this question with a quote that from Takaakira Goto —  ‘Music is communicating the incommunicable’.

[Editor: ‘Like a story’ – I like that]

Show us your current studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

My good mate David, from the band Slomatics, advised me to ‘make music for you first’. I took this to heart and have done so since then, if people like what I do, then that’s an added bonus. But as an artist, getting ideas out of your head and developed into actual musical pieces is incredibly rewarding.

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

Instagram The Front Room Fuzz Lounge

[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…]

ShoeGazeCity – Head DownTown Sound

1. Favourite knob/fader/switch on a piece of gear and why?

My favorite knob has to be the sequence multiplier knob on my Meris OttoBit Jr. This pedal is a bit-crusher/video game/glitch/stutter machine and it has a full on 6-step sequencer built in (which can be used to sequence multiple things, but pitch is the most obvious and fun one). The sequence multiplier knob speeds up the rate of the sequence being played, so you can get pretty wild on-the-fly video game arpeggios if you manually turn the knob while sustaining a note. (You can also use an expression pedal to do this, but alas, I don’t have room on my board for one at the moment).

Ottobit Jr. by Meris

2. Do you have an ‘almost’ perfect bit of kit? What would you change?

The DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory pedal comes to mind. This big and heavy expression pedal looking box has a bunch of different sounds packed into it… It has overdrives/distortions, flangers/rotary modulation, a full on whammy pedal, and my favorite: the legendary space station. The idea is to let the user control all of these authentic sounds via the expression pedal (ie: controlling pitch on the whammy setting, or the swell of the space station). However, it kind of sucks that the actual feel of this expression pedal is so hard to use. It’s very “sticky” feeling and doesn’t move a lot, so you have to be very precise on how you use it. It also requires a bit of an extra “push” to turn it on, which involves stepping on the front or back of the pedal, and it always feels awkward. I give it 10/10 for the sounds it makes, but is very difficult to use in a live setting.

DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory pedal

3. What setup do you bring on holiday/tour/commute etc.?

I play guitar and keyboards in an instrumental progressive-rock band called Tortoise Forest. We all have fairly large pedal boards and try to implement weird electronic sounds into our music whenever possible. So my usual gear that I bring to shows consists of 1 or 2 guitars (90’s Yamaha SGV-300 and/or Squier Super-Sonic), a loaded pedal board (Pedaltrain Novo 24), my amp (a Quilter Tone Block 201 head and a 1×12 cab that I converted from an old broken Fender Stage Master), my keyboard (Nord Electro 3 73SW) and synth (Korg Prologue 8) and sometimes a powered speaker for the keys/synth (JBL EON615).

I’ve gotten pretty good at setting all of this up in a timely manner, although the keys/synths are still pretty new for me in the band. I still play about 70% of the time on guitar and about 30% I switch to pianos, organs, electric pianos or synth leads & pads. I have thought about down-sizing the board and what-not, but I use all of these tools at live shows and I really enjoy improvising with new sounds each night, even if it means cramming extra stuff into my tiny sedan! 

Tortoise Forest live pedalboard setup
Quilter Tone Block 201 head with a 1×12 cab Fender Stage Master
Nord Electro 3-73SW and Korg Prologue 8

4. What software do you wish was hardware and vice versa?

Right away, I gotta say that I wish Serum was available as an actual synth and not just a plug-in. Serum is an extremely versatile synth plug-in that has a very intuitive user interface, even if you’re not a big synth person. I have used a lot of synth VSTs and other plug-ins and I wish a lot of them were available as hardware units, but I love Serum so much and use it to write/improv/record many projects. I went with the Korg Prologue for my live hardware synth because it still does a lot of things well (mono leads, pads, arp stuff, etc.) But to have Serum in an actual hardware synth would be a dream. I understand why it’s not really feasible to do this, as you can add so many voices and so many high-end effects with Serum, but maybe someday…

For hardware available as software, I’m just gonna be that guy and wish that my entire pedal board was available as one easy-to-use plug-in. There are certain products available to record your board into your DAW without an amp or any kind of cab emulation… But it would be rad if in the future, every new pedal you purchase came with a serial-code or something for a free plug-in version. Then you could design a board in your DAW and have it there for recording with actual effects that you’re used to using, instead of having to design reverbs with unfamiliar plug-ins.

Serum VST plugin

5. Is there anything you regret selling… or regret buying?

Well, I have to admit that when I first bought my Meris Enzo (synth pedal), I ended up selling it. I just had a hard time using it live and dialing in levels. Then after about a week of not having it, I missed it SO much and ordered another one. It is one of the most flexible pedals capable of so much other than just gorgeous “real” synth sounds. I especially missed it for it’s dry mode, which lets you use a plethora of effects including pitch shifting, portamento, modulation (with rotary vibes), filters, ring mod, delay.. It is the coolest!).

Meris Enzo

I don’t regret buying too many items, however I do own TWO 1983 Yamaha SBG-200 electric guitars, and I totally don’t need TWO of them. My friend had one when we were younger and I remember it being awesome, so I bought one on Reverb (and it was as awesome as I remember). Then I saw another one pop up, the same exact guitar in the same finish, and I bought that one… My thought process was that these are becoming rare and I want to have a backup, but now I have an extra guitar taking up valuable space in my tiny basement studio and I never play it. Also, it’s for sale if anyone is interested ;).

Yamaha SBG-200

6. What gear has inspired you to produce the most music?

Hmm… A few pedals definitely come to mind. Any delay or reverb pedal with super long decay times are always inspirational. I got my Strymon TimeLine when I was just out of high-school back in 2010. That thing opened up a whole new world for me. It has infinite decay times with a bunch of different sounding delays, modulation, and a built-in looper… Ahh that looper is SO good. I know there are more options for loopers on the market now (I want a Blooper)… But the TimeLine looper can do similar things as the Line 6 DL-4 and being introduced to this when I was younger let me explore different sonic soundscapes that I didn’t know were possible to create.

Strymon Timeline

I also have to give it up to Meris again, the Hedra is one of the craziest pedals I have ever used. I bought it the day it was released (because Meris is great at revealing mysterious new pedals) and it’s one of my favorites on my board today. I’m a huge fan of pitch delay and this thing has THREE separate pitch delays that you can dial in at different rhythmic patterns. It can also pitch glide as slow or fast as you want it to, giving every option you would want in the world of pitch shifting.

Meris Hedra

7. What’s the most annoying piece of gear you have, that you just can’t live without?

I mentioned it earlier, but again I have to say the Strymon TimeLine. It still sounds great compared to everything out there today, and I have been using the looper for so long that it’s become so natural to use compared to other loopers. BUT the foot switches are very worn out from a decade of use, (plus it’s annoying to have to click two switches at once to bank up/down). I have sold some gear recently so that I can afford to order a midi controller to control all of my midi pedals. This will allow me to access more presets on each pedal, explore new sonic territories, AND hopefully make it so I don’t have to ever use the footswitches on the TimeLine again (will be using the midi controller as a looper-controller as well). I’m very excited.

Strymon Timeline having a whale of a time

8. Most surprising tip/trick/technique that you’ve discovered about a bit of gear?

Using multiple loopers at once. I have performed solo sets where I will use two looper pedals that are not at all midi-synced or anything, and stacking them is surprisingly good sounding. What I do is loop/record a short melody into the first looper in my signal chain. Then, after auditioning different chord progressions and/or basslines to put under this melody, I will loop/record the new chord progression WITH the first looper also playing the melody INTO the second looper in my chain. I’m sure that some people reading this are like “why don’t you just use a single looper than can already do this?”, which is totally valid. Because that exists. Umm, they are more expensive and I like using cheaper loopers that I already have. Plus this setup usually takes up less space than larger loopers (had the Boss RC-300 and sold it for being so huge). Some of my favorite loopers I use for this are the Line 6 DL4, Hotone Wally, Boss RC-3, Strymon Timeline, and the new Dunlop Clone Looper. Side note: having a looper such as the DL4, Timeline or the Clone Looper with a “play once” function makes it easier to “sync” each stacked loop.

Multiple loopers: Timeline, Line6 DL4, MXR clone, Hotone Wally, Boss Loop Station

Artist or Band name?

Tortoise Forest

Genre?

Instrumental Progressive-Rock

Selfie?

Max Davies aka. ShoeGazeCity

Where are you from?

Buffalo, NY

How did you get into music?

I started taking piano lessons when I was 5, then switched to drums and guitar when I was 13 and played in a bunch of bands. Being able to record myself on different instruments at a young age helped me to grow as a musician (thanks old school Tascam 8 Track :).

What still drives you to make music?

A bunch of things. Friends who post clips on Instagram of new pedal/instrument sounds are always super inspiring and make me want to explore new ideas in my studio. Writing new stuff with the band is always fun because it gives us the opportunity to take time to create something extremely technical/progressive/mathy in a private setting and then allows us to record this and play it live for our friends and fans to hear. Such a good feeling to have people enjoy what you’re creating.

How do you most often start a new track?

It depends on which project I’m working on. Tortoise Forest typically starts with one single melody, chord progression or “riff”. We try to explore every single possibility of different ways of playing that riff, whether it be backwards, faster, slower, in a random time signature, drowned in weird pedal effects, whatever. This makes writing songs in the progressive genre very satisfying. 

I will also record myself on drums, guitar, bass, keys, and vocals from time to time and make solo ambient/math/post/prog rock stuff. Sometimes if I want to just record “something” I will lay down an improvised/on-the-spot drum part without knowing what I want on top of it. Then I grab a guitar and throw whatever comes to mind on it, then record the appropriate bass lines, keys and sometimes vocals. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t even come close, but it still lets me practice improvising and I think it’s important to create new music every single day.

How do you know when a track is finished?

You don’t! I mean, there have been songs where we just didn’t have any more parts to add on and we deemed it as being finished. On the other hand, we still have songs that have been in the writing phase for a while that feel like they need more of… “something”. I guess regardless of the traditional “verse/chorus/bridge” writing styles, if our songs have a beginning, a middle chunk and an ending that sounds like an ending, we are generally pretty happy. 

Show us your current studio

ShoeGazeCity Studio
ShoeGazeCity Pedals and Guitars
ShoeGazeCity DAW setup with Ableton Live

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Everyone has a different standard for what is considered good music. You can create whatever you want, just create something.

Promote your latest thing… Go ahead, throw us a link.

I post pedal sounds and loops on my Instagram almost daily → @shoegazecity

[Editor: Do you have a favorite tip, trick or way of working with any of the gear from this interview?
Then throw a comment below…]