Mike Berndt – Pedal Of the Day

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

Feedback knobs

I tend to lean towards the Feedback areas of pedals that can perform that function, so Feedback knobs, on Delays especially, and Gain knobs on dirt pedals would probably be tops. If you can mix the two and get an overdriven or distorted signal to feedback into self-oscillation, with the possibility to get completely out of control, that’s my happy place.

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

For years now, all of the demos I record have run through a Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo, and I recently upgraded to the Twin X Duo. The preamps are so nice, and the plugins you can get replicate so much vintage gear right at your fingertips…it’s pretty incredible. The functionality / ease of use is perfect, it’s almost a plug-and-play type of situation, with as big or small of a learning curve as you want.

Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo

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

Well, we haven’t really left or gone out or done anything over the last year, but usually when I travel for a vacation, I just bring along an acoustic guitar. I’m surrounded by electronics and hardware and pedals the majority of the day, and vacation is a time to get away and take a break from all of that. The acoustic lets me get back to why I started playing guitar in the first place, lets me focus on the raw energy that those instruments bring, and opens up or reinvigorates a passion for stripped-down music that can sometimes get lost in the world of effects. Been using an Alvarez AD60SC for about 16 years now, and still love it, but really want a nice Martin or Taylor or something along those lines at some point.

Alvarez AD60SC

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

I use some plugins with my UA Apollo Twin X Duo to clean up and finalize the audio for Pedal of the Day’s demos, but there’s something about having an actual rack of gear right in front of you that just can’t be replaced by a computer screen. Having a Teletronix LA-2A, Studer A800 and an actual vintage Tape Echo unit here in the studio would be rad. As for the opposite, they’re making pretty much everything you can think of into some form of plugin or patch these days, and there are many devices which let you run your analog effects straight into your recording, so the sky’s the limit there.

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

TONS of gear. I wish I could keep every single pedal or guitar or keyboard that I have ever owned, but I don’t have the space, and I wouldn’t make any money!

During the last Covid-infused year, I have had to get rid of some long-time favorites, but I think the ones that really hurt were my Moogerfooger Delay, Phaser,

Mooger Foogers LowPass, Murf and 12-stage Phaser

Low-Pass Filter and MuRF. I’d like to say I’ll have them all back again someday, but even since I sold them last year, the prices have skyrocketed, so those might just be gone for good.

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

I think all gear can be inspiring, even a piece that you may find boring or dull at first. With pedals especially, you need to sit down and really get to know them, how they act/react, what their key functions are, any hidden features or treasures they hide, waiting to be discovered, etc… Part of the fun of this line of work is the constant exploration and uncertainty about each effect, and since we all use them differently, there’s really no wrong way to go about that.

I think the demo community provides a lot of different perspectives on how each pedal can be utilized and exploited – the companies themselves seem to enjoy how different all the demos sound, as we each are giving an individualized interpretation of the effects, and come up with sounds the original designers might not have even thought of.

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

A vintage Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb, a cheap-ish guitar (maybe a Strat or Tele) that I could mod and customize, and a Delay pedal. I have enjoyed swapping pickups and wiring out of guitars over the years, but haven’t had the time or focus to do so recently, and think that would be fun to jump back into.

Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb

The Deluxe Reverb is a perfect pedal platform, plus you already have the Reverb and Vibrato built in. Delays are by far my favorite effects, so it wouldn’t even really matter how wild or crazy it was, just something simple to get started, like a Boss DM-3 or a Way Huge Supa-Puss, something along those lines.

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

Years ago I bought a couple of old Ibanez rack delays from the ’80s, a DM1100 and a DM2000. They each have this Hold function that can be controlled by and external switch, and the DM2000 has one for its Modulation settings as well. The DM1100, when it’s set the way I have it and you play a note or chord and hit that Hold, it takes the audio and continually ramps it up and down, with a thick, seemingly uncontrollable modulation sound that is different every time. It can get super annoying, but also adds a certain layer of chaos into the mix that is just lovely to experience.

Ibanez rack delays DM1100 & DM2000

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

There isn’t one specifically, but I love to dive into the more complex pedals (Microcosm, H9, ZOIA, etc) and see what hidden treasures await. The designing and execution of musical ideas over the last couple of years has been astounding, and I’m glad to be a part of bringing these sounds to people everywhere.


Artist or Band name?

I haven’t released anything new in a number of years, unfortunately. I had a number of little side jam projects starting to happen right before Covid hit, so those are all obviously on the back burner for right now. Years ago, I was in a bar band called Alcoholocaust, and we just played bars around Boone, North Carolina, where I was living at the time. I also released some tracks under the name DJ Big Berndt a couple years ago, mostly chill, ambient kind of background music, and that was a lot of fun.

Genre?

I love ALL genres of music, except for pop country. REAL country I can listen to all day, but the pop garbage I can’t do. Classical, metal, rap, jam bands, disco, yacht rock, classic rock, techno, you name it….I love it all.

Selfie?

Mike Berndt

Where are you from?

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, currently reside in Weaverville, North Carolina (USA)

How did you get into music?

My dad bought a drum set when I was 8, and he taught me a little bit about it before my folks split up. The drum set stayed, though, and I learned to play down in the basement with headphones, playing along to Zeppelin and Guns n Roses and the like. I got a cheap neon yellow guitar and a little Gorilla amp when I was 12, but didn’t stick with it for whatever reason. I finally got an acoustic when I was 19 or 20, started taking some lessons from a friend of mine, who ended up selling me his Epiphone Sheraton, and it was all over from there.

What still drives you to make music?

Music is everything! Constantly looking for inspiration in not only the music I create but from all kinds of outside sources is just the greatest. The way that different tracks, genres, artists and sound can influence you at any given time of day, or with anything that’s going on in your life, at any moment, is a pretty spectacular thing to be a witness to. The fact that music has and continues to evolve constantly, around the world, on a daily basis, is just a spectacular phenomenon, one I hope that never goes away.

How do you most often start a new track?

As a drummer, the rhythm parts are the keys, so getting a simple beat and maybe a little bass line down is always a great place to start. However, sitting around jamming on your acoustic can open up a can of musical worms as well, and when inspiration strikes, you gotta capture it. I have a lot of handwritten notes scattered around the office that have been building over the years, as well as a bunch of quick ideas I’ve recorded into Amplitube on my phone. Whether any of them will ever turn into something more or get recorded remains to be seen, hopefully I can revisit them soon and start working more on finishing some of them up.

How do you know when a track is finished?

You don’t. You can sit and overthink and tweak over and over and over, and still never truly be satisfied with the result. The first mix that sounds the best, stick with that. It’s kinda like recording a number of different guitar solos and then trying to decide which is the best – chances are, the first one was the best, because you were just playing, rather than comparing it and second-guessing yourself, you know?

Show us your current studio

Amp wall
Amps and friends
Mike’s Pedalboard
Studio desk

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

My grandpa used to say, “As you go through life, let this be your goal: keep your eye on the donut, and not the donut hole.” I think that you need to focus on all aspects of whatever you do, not just on one particular thing, whether it’s how you approach a new recording session, or how you cook a meal, or how you interact with your family and other humans in general on a daily basis. Focusing on the little things can be key, of course, but seeing the bigger picture, breathing and taking it all in is how I try to live and create.

Instagramming with Mike

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

Pedal of the Day – https://www.pedal-of-the-day.com/
Pedal of the Day on YouTube – https://youtube.com/c/pedaloftheday208
DJ Big Berndt on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/DJBigBerndt


Christian Colabelli – Metalicious Pedaler

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

I would have to say that it’s the pickup selector on my guitar. I think a five-way super switch is essential to my style. There is so much sonic territory and versatility on tap simply by switching pickup positions. It allows me to become a chameleon and tackle any genre I’m trying to cover. I should add that in conjunction with the tone and volume knobs, the tonal possibilities are endless. I feel this is often glossed over by the vast majority and I can never understand why!

Strandberg Guitars Pickup Selector

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

I’ve been endorsing Strandberg Guitars over the last several years. I love everything about them: the ergonomic design, weight relief, playability and sound. Maybe I would drop a middle pickup in on my seven-string version… I don’t know though… It sounds incredible as is.

Strandberg Guitars

Also, I have to give a shoutout to Pickboy Picks which I’ve endorsed for ten years now! The Pos-A-Grip Jazz 1.5mm in Tortoise Shell is unrivaled in my opinion: http://www.osiamo.com/christianColabelli I have a graveyard of picks that I’ve spent an inordinate amount of money on over the years in search of the perfect plectrum. I feel that tone is in your hands and the right pick is essential. I’ve tried pretty much everything out there and I can honestly say that this particular pick is the one for me. I can’t live without it! 

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

Purple-ish Eventide pedalboard

The above picture displays my board from 2020 NAMM. I built this for Eventide demo purposes, and it magically fit into an overhead bin on the plane! My fusion band, Surreal Measures also played at the Eventide Booth and this setup covered everything I needed sonically. This was one of the last live shows I played before the pandemic hit so I’m looking forward to taking this rig out again soon! 

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

The luxury of working at Eventide is that we have such a wide range of hardware and software available. I truly feel like I’m covered. Not to mention, we have some crossover between the platforms in certain products. I think I’m spoiled! 

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

Hmmm… I used to be a guitar hoarder of sorts (I still am). I sold a Peavy EVH Wolfgang, Gibson Les Paul Standard, Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster, PRS Custom 22 Brazilian Limited, Ibanez Prestige S5470SOL and this wild high-end USA parts-telecaster called a Voodoo Special that some guy on ebay used to sell years ago that I probably should have kept! I miss them all. Oh man… I can’t go down this road again… It’s a dark void… 

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

This is a really tough question… Maybe the Yamaha THR10X practice amp/interface purely because of the ease of use (for recording purposes)… not to mention… it sounds great! 

Yamaha THR10X practice amp

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

I don’t know if I would do it differently. My first electric guitar, a Gibson “The Paul II” is still very near and dear to me. I actually used it for the Eventide Blackhole demo content! I have no regrets and I feel this instrument really shaped my playing. 

Gibson “The Paul II”

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

Probably a USB mini cable because it’s essential to link the Eventide dot9 and Rose pedals to Eventide Device Manager – our free editing software… I have five of them now because there was a period where they would just inexplicably disappear into the ether. They are truly the bane of my existence!  

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

This: https://www.talkingbass.net/grolsch-straplock-trick-for-bass/ This is INVALUABLE! And… you kill two birds with one stone… or… something like that! 


Artist or Band name? 

Circuitry – https://circuitry.bandcamp.com/

Sightharvest – https://sightharvest.bandcamp.com/releases

Surreal Measures – https://surrealmeasures.bandcamp.com/


Genre?

Circuitry – Progressive Metalcore

Sightharvest – Instrumental/Progressive Metal/Fusion

Surreal Measures – Fusion

Selfie?

Christian Colabelli


Where are you from? 

New Jersey, USA! 

How did you get into music? 

I was exposed to music and music instruction at an early age. My parents were always playing a variety of genres around the house. They initially signed me up for piano lessons when I was 7 years old… from there I transitioned to viola… then to saxophone (which I ended up playing for 9 years). At age 13, I begged them to get me a guitar and finally they acquiesced and there was no turning back. It was full immersion. To say I spent a lot of time in my bedroom, endlessly practicing is a vast understatement.

What still drives you to make music?

It’s a never-ending quest. Music is a lifelong study: there’s always something to learn and perfect. I’m always trying to incorporate new aspects and nuances of the language. There are so many absurdly gifted and inspiring players. I really enjoy transcribing lines from the masters and then making them my own. I think the driving factor is continuously trying to develop my voice. I want to sound like myself! That’s a simple statement but when you dissect it, you realize the quagmire it becomes. 

How do you most often start a new track?

It really depends on what I’m working on and who I’m working with. I can easily adapt to other musicians’ workflows as I’ve done a lot of studio work. If it’s my own stuff, I will usually just have a loose goal/harmonic concept in mind and have a guitar in my hands and start playing around until something sticks. Once I get an initial motif, I record a short video so I don’t forget (as I’m constantly writing and everything is in flux) and then I dig in to develop it.

How do you know when a track is finished?

Well, there’s a DaVinci quote that has always resonated with me: Art is never finished… only abandoned… That couldn’t ring truer. A track is finished when every avenue and minute detail is exhausted and you finally decide to walk away from it!

Show us your current studio

I leave the production to the pros… Here is a picture of Matt’s studio (he plays with me in Sightharvest and is also a producer/engineer by trade. This is the setup we used for the EP we just recorded:

Sightharvest Studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

“Life is full of mistakes. Don’t be afraid to make one in your playing.”

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

Here is a link to my website: https://www.christiancolabelli.com/ which links to everything I’m working on… 

I just finished recording the newest Sightharvest EP which is a melting pot of genres. It’s a heavy instrumental project that was originally going to be video game music. However, during the writing process of the first record, we realized that it was destined to be more. It became the aural equivalent of the premise of a video game meaning: each track is like a video game level, that progresses in intensity. Hopefully we will have a release date soon! 

I also started my own fishing website/brand: https://www.bigfishsynergy.com/ I’m an avid bass fisherman and it’s been fun to immerse myself in finally devoting the time to making these fishing videos that combine fishing education, comedy, music and art. 

Christian also plays the 1-string for super heavy bass!

[Well, hey-deli-hoo dear Reader – Who would you like to see do an 9 Odd Questions interview? Throw some suggestions via comments below…]

TJ Dumser – Six Missing

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

Jazzmaster volume knob

Yes, absolutely, without a doubt, the volume knob on my Jazzmaster. Coming from a band background and learning how to blend with other musicians and when to step out front, I was always using my volume knob. Mostly to clean up my tone and then to send it into overdrive. I play expressively and dynamically, never with a compressor pedal so I am always going for the volume knob. I can control swells and it’s become such second nature to my playing that my pinky just sort of rests there all the time.

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

My room is pretty dialed in right now. Since my day job of being a sound designer and mix engineer for advertising, film, and TV keeps me mostly in the studio, I’ve put a lot of time and effort into making the room my instrument. I have my modular rack, my pedalboard, my synths all patched and routed so I can send and receive audio from any of those places – I have total freedom to create. But I would change the amount of space I have, haha, I always want more.

The Six Missing hub

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

Since the start of the pandemic we haven’t traveled anywhere. And before that I wasn’t touring all that much since my live setup got pretty large, in fact, the setup got to the point where I wasn’t able to take the subway any longer – I need a cab or to drive to the gig. Which for people that have never lived in NYC, that’s a huge dealbreaker as you’ll often spend the money you made from your set on cabs. So the biggest thing for me when I go on holiday is my headphones. I try to create music every day so when I take a vacation, I am truly off-the-grid. But now that I’m in Austin which is far from my home in NYC, I have begun planning a travel/mobile rig – it’s Ableton based and I think the Arturia Keystep looks like the best investment in a tiny keyboard as I could integrate it into my modular rack as well as controlling VSTs. I fall prey to the “I want to have all my options be options” mentality, so traveling light will be a fun challenge I look forward to. I’ll have to check back in with you and keep you posted on how I net out!

Compact setup: MacBook, UAD soundcard and guitar

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

An interesting question indeed. I had seen someone else you interview mention that a lot of software is hardware emulations or based on some piece of hardware, which I agree with. I don’t get picky, though I do think that having Big Sky algorithms in plug-in format would be super cool. Although, I’m sure you’d need a separate computer to run all that DSP, which then circles back to having a box, so I suppose they thought about that and why they stayed away from it. I mostly feel like there’s a companion piece of hardware or software for anything you can dream of these days, and like I said, I don’t discriminate – while, yes, an original Minimoog Model D probably sounds better than a VSTs version, I don’t have the $10k for the real thing and dang if presets aren’t awesome to recall.

Moog Matriarch and Eurorack

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

I’ve been fortunate enough to never really have buyers remorse because 30-day return policies are awesome. But I will say that I purchased the ROLI Seaboard recently with hopes and dreams of it completely transforming how I compose with strings and MPE devices and it was just…awkward. Perhaps I didn’t give it enough time to grow on me. The squishy part was fun for a bit, though I can see it attracting cat hair like crazy. I have only ever sold gear I know I was never going to use again. I tend to hang on to things because I’m a sound designer and having random old pieces of gear are inspiring and you never know when you’re going to need it.

Pedalboard goodies

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

Surprisingly, diving into modular gear was the most inspiring and overwhelming. And now that I’ve picked up Norns and Grid, I’m feeling that same sense of “how do I control you!” which I really think makes you enter into that beginner’s mind and where the magic happens. It’s for this reason (and I’ll get roasted for this, I’m sure) that I absolutely never read a manual. I love clicking about/turning knobs/making horrible mistakes when I first get a piece of gear. I think not knowing what you’re doing is when your true talent shines through. You just kind of use The Force to figure it out and stumble your way through. But to stop getting preachy and answer your question, modular. My newest EP on Inner Ocean Records happened in about three weeks after I got all my rack set up, it was just insanely inspiring to have semi-generative sounds morphing and allowing me space to write other lines over it with other instruments.

Norns and Grids

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

If I had to start over I would still start with just a single piece of gear and learn it completely inside and out before buying the next piece of gear. I admit to falling victim to gear acquisition a while back but I always had this sense of wanting to know how to use the gear I had before stepping up. Granted, I have a ton of pedals these days, but it took me a good three years to get to this point.

Pedals galore

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

Haha, this question is great. The most annoying piece of gear I have (though I still love it) is my DD-20, the old big block delay. When the thing boots up it defaults to being on. There’s probably a way to change that but I never looked it up and when it kicks on with the board the first algo is my custom 16-second delay. So if there’s a bit of hum from the unplugged ¼” cable or I flub a note I won’t hear it for another 16-seconds, way after I’ve forgotten and then I’ll chase line hum or a looper pedal somewhere in the chain for five minutes, until I realize it’s just the delay kicking around every 16-seconds. I have Nels Cline to personally thank for making me lust after 16-second delays.

Boss DD-20

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

Hologram Electronics Microcosm

I got to be one of a very small handful of beta testers on the Hologram Microcosm, so I had the pedal well before the public did and I have never had the opportunity to speak directly to the minds that designed and created the pedals I played, so I learned tons of fun insider tricks with it. But my most favorite trick on it, is taking a live effect and capturing it into the looper and then sending that loop back through the live effects pre-effect and processing that loop a second time but through a different live effect. So fun.

[Editor: The Microcosm is gonna be a classic!]


Artist or Band name?

My name is TJ Dumser but I perform as Six Missing.

Genre?

Ambient, Electronic… Meditation Music sounds grabby, so does Furniture Music or Music for Plants. Music that allows you to do other things and zone out to it.

Selfie?

TJ Dumser aka. Six Missing

This isn’t a selfie, but I spent money on this session with this talented photographer Shervin Lainez and so I usually like to get some mileage out of it 😛 

Where are you from?

I’m from NY, but have been spending the past year (lol, let’s be real, quarantine) in Austin, TX. 

How did you get into music?

I have always loved music and performing, I used to do it even as a baby in diapers, shouting nonsense into a microphone and directing orchestras through the kitchen. But it really hit when I saw Back to the Future and caught my first glimpse at Marty’s red Gibson 335. After that, I uncovered milk crates of records in my grandma’s attic and heard Stairway to Heaven and had my mind blown as a 11 year old. After that, I needed to have a guitar. So I was able to convince my parents that I was interested enough for them to get me one and had been playing since I was 12.

What still drives you to make music?

Music has always been a way for me to retreat from other stresses. Given the state of the world and the general level of collective anxiety, music has given me a way to take care of myself. It’s a way that I can contribute something positive. It ends up making me genuinely feel better having taken some time to play. My hopes are that I’m able to give just even the smallest bit of relief to people who hear my music, maybe it gives them that chance to take a breath or to help them meditate or go to sleep – which I realize isn’t every musicians dream “for folks to fall asleep to my music” but hey – if that helps someone, then I’m happy.

How do you most often start a new track?

It has morphed. When I was mainly composing ambient guitar loops or guitar based tracks, I would just turn on the gear and let the DD-20 sit in 16-sec delay mode and start piling layers into it, slam that into the Ditto x 2 and knock it into half speed and that became my bed. But these days I’m spending more time with eurorack modular gear and synths like the Monome Norns. I can usually get a nice atmosphere created by sending some audio to my modular gear and manipulating over there, capture some ideas and then start adding a bass line with the Moog Matriarch. Though I’m new to it, Norns is massively inspiring and I love the idea of having a tiny digital bandmate taking care of melodies and rhythms for me.

How do you know when a track is finished?

I’m sure the answer is very different for the musicians you’ve interviewed, but for me my answer changes all the time. I have a set of tracks that comprise an LP, about 11 tracks, just sitting collecting dust because I “still feel like they need something” and then I have EPs that I sit and complete in a weekend. Honestly, it’s that different for me. I suppose there’s just a knowing you feel about the track, like, did I serve this? If so, I move on. Also, if I get bored with or anything I try to add to a track starts sounding like garbage or I spend far too long working on a line…that’s how I know. If the track tells me it’s complete. It’ll push away all the superfluous junk.

[Editor: That’s a different way of doing things, it sounds almost like your songs have their own desires and needs. I guess a more empathetic approach to composition by considering the needs and wants of a piece, independently from your own wishes as a composer]

Show us your current studio

Six Missing home studio

Best creative advice that you’ve ever heard?

Show up each day and do something. Whether that’s reading about someone who set out to achieve a goal or career and is doing it. Or just noodling with the guitar. Or perhaps even just turning on the synth, just to let it warm up. You don’t have to expect a masterpiece, but the fact that you’ve done something with the day means that you’ve placed your intention on it and odds are you’re going to get surprised every once in a while.

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

Thanks for asking! I have my debut EP coming out on Inner Ocean Records called “Patricia” on February 12th.

It’ll be available via Inner Ocean’s site as well as mine – or you can stay tuned to my Instagram (www.instagram.com/sixmissing) for more!


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