The Duduk

I'm not an ignorant by any means but I have recently found out this instrument's name after years of loving the sound of it, thanks to various film soundtracks. As covered by this blog, I have a huge fascination with ethnic music sounds from my own country's Celtic flavours to Middle Eastern flavours and beyond. But this musical instrument's name evaded me for a long time, though I thought I had educated myself enough to have a decent idea of eastern ethic woodwinds and their categories.

I was ignorant and just assumed it was part of one of the above's musical groups, but it is actually strictly of Armenian origin. It has a beautiful sound. Very ethereal. It has the same effect on me as the Uilleann Pipes. Like them, the sound is otherworldly to me. I get goosebumps at the sound. I guess it's just a thing. Part of MY human condition if you will. It's difficult to describe the effect beyond that but I am looking to employ a similar sound in my work at some point. But at least I have a name to put to the sound. I have been listening to a lot of work by a gentleman by the name of Djivan Gasparyan. He is the eminent exponent of the duduk. And his work has spanned popular film and Armenian folk for many years. His most well known work was as collaborator with Hans Zimmer on Gladiator. His phrasing and expression is beautiful, even beyond words. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this piece half as much as I do.

Hmmmmm.....

As I've already covered, I was considering using computer aided effects to help my demo. Upon research I was hit by the unmistakable stench of techno rip off. Best sticking to doing the entire thing in my own human signature. This is not admitting my defeat to technophobia. I have done the research. 

TOYS, TOYS, TOYS!

We all need them, some have a handful, some have a truckload, some have big ones, some have average ones, some have little ones. Some like to play with theirs all by themselves and others encourage others to play with theirs.......enough of the innuendos! Anyway,

I am referring to effects pedals. All important parts of a guitarists "sound". There's a healthy debate between analog and digital but that's a debate for another time. Personally, I prefer analog but they are more than my budget allows so have some digital effects from BOSS and Electro Harmonix thrown in for good measure. Take a luck at my decidedly spartan rig for the 5 track e.p. that I will be commencing recording work on in a few weeks:

The Super Bender is brand new, delivered today. Hand built in Barcelona, Spain. Based on the Tonebender MK II, a legendary 60's fuzz pedal. When coupled with the treble booster, the sound is incredible. As you can see the setting, I keep it at a low "attack" level as the booster pedal, though quite noisy turns it into a CREAMY fuzzy sustaining monster which has already earned it a permanent place on my rig. The Chorus and Delay are practically staples for almost all guitarists. The Ravish Sitar, I've already blogged about. The Boss '63 Fender Reverb was an essential yet impulsive buy! My amp has no reverb and this particular pedal has a lovely Fender Spring reverb effect found on the rockabilly sounds of the late 50's and early 60's - think Dick Dale, though I don't utilise it for that, more for a slight bit of a "Hall" effect and it sounds great.

You're already familiar with the other two by now:

Interestingly enough, a fellow muso asked was it not a bit of a challenge as regards to not having any tone dials on the amp? It was a good question, but as I replied, chances are there's one or two on your guitar. "Touche!" was the reply. This is the guitar set up. My next post will be on the equipment I'll be recording through. If you're not asleep already! With a picture of the keyboard. And a picture of my bass. Because bassists are musicians too. Not necessarily human but still....... Just kidding! Thanks for reading :)

TECHNOPHOBIA!

Yep, it's true. I am a technophobe. Don't get me wrong - I know my way around a computer, such as switching it on and transferring files etc. But if I am presented with an interactive program or application, my brain switches off and I become angry or bored and start to drift off.........ooh a piece of string! I put this all down to the spreadsheet torture forced upon me in school. So as regards to a genuine interest in computers, I was a late bloomer!

But as music moves on, I must move on too. I have decided that the only way to make this E.P. perfect, will require the use of computer wizardry. No, not to manipulate the recording (no pro tools, EVER) but to add a little embellishment to my pre recorded material and improve the production quality accordingly. This will be expensive and time consuming due to needing 4 things:

1. A program to do this. To suit my sound I am looking at "East West Quantum Leap Ra". Est 180 Euros
2. A new dedicated laptop - There's alot of info in these programmes. Est 350-400 Euros
3. A Midi Keyboard - 100 Euros.
4. TIME, MONEY AND PATIENCE.

*Sigh*

Getting there!

A professional recording needs a professional set up and I am just about there! I've long sung the praises of pure tube amps over solid and valvestate and yesterday confirmed I have made the smartest purchase of my music loving life. As you will already know, on a whim after viewing endless demonstration videos I went and bought a Mooer AC Little Monster.

This little 5 watt amp has a power tube (EL84) and pre amp tube (12AX7) and runs hot enough to fry an egg on it after a while. I received my Vox V110NT cabinet yesterday and whilst initially having reservations about lack of bottom end the quickly dispersed when I plugged in! What a fantastic combo. I used my Hagstrom Deuce (F) guitar with humbuckers plugged into a BSM RM treblebooster on the top boost mode and found THE tone! The one I had in my head all these years but couldn't quite nail it. It sounds phenomenal! The Mrs tells me she hasn't seen me as happy in ages. Well I'm always happy but now I'm grinning like a six year old with their hand in the biscuit jar.

MOOER LITTLE MONSTER AC

VOX V110NT

A good looking combo and even better sounding! Gives me that lovely jangly British sound with a creamy saturated boosted tone. I'm almost done having my techno guitar gear nerdgasm here, I promise. So the point being, I've finally purchased a rig to help me record my songs in a professional manner. My rig is very spartan, unless I'm wigging out with the Ravish sitar, as I'm more of a plug and play type guitarist - (Bsm RM - Boss FRV 1 - Amp), maybe with a Boss Chorus or delay to add some character the odd time,  but I need one more pedal to complete my set up before this journey. A tonebender mk II. (The original Fuzzbox) - think Jimmy Page or Jeff Beck, for those gnarlier tones! I can't afford the actual pedal but the boutique clones are just as good sounding or better than the original IMO. As well as hand made so the build quality is top notch. I'm not a boutique snob but that route, though quite expensive (if you don't research it) led me to finding my treble booster from BSM. It's my favourite pedal and I'd never sell it. Am currently looking at Manlay Pedals. They look the shit and sound better, watch this space and thanks for reading

EXCITING TIMES!

Too many songs to choose from is a good problem, but not a useful one. Have decided to record a five track collection in my best semi professional capacity on my eight track and deliver a listenable, professional and hopefully, enjoyable collection. I finally feel comfortable enough to commit to a project I feel capable of being proud of, regardless of anybody else's views and I'm looking forward to it.

Have discussed in short and sweet with my new, hopefully, co producer (TBC) and he seems keen to help me. He is an old, close friend who is a music lover himself and knows me very well, so I reckon we can throw some ideas around about the eventual sound of this collection. In essence "THE SOUND" will be the rock infused with pseudo eastern European / Arabic sound that has been a source of great inspiration for me of late, and as any songs I have created have all been considered demos so hopefully we can create a demo that is as professional as possible with the time and tools employed by us. I have two working titles: "Anthology Of Guilt" and "In The Garden Of Good And Evil". I will also be discussing themes with a talented photographer friend of mine in the near future. The tracks to be revamped are in chronological order:

1. Empty Quarter pt. I (Rub al' Khali)
2. Just A Man
3. Hand Of God
4. Empty Quarter pt. II (Pray For Rain)
5. We Ride By Night

The production will be as organic as possible with a few tweaks. There will no longer be a direct guitar to digital fx in the 8 track. I will be mic' ing up the new Mooer Little Monster Ac which will be boosted by treble booster at full tilt and the clean and dirty sounds will be as usual controlled by the guitar volume knob.
The only digital effects will be provided by the Ravish Sitar and some reverb added by a Boss FRV 1. The rest will be a reliable mix of old school analog and acoustic sounds. I will document each song on this as it happens. Thanks for reading.

A different flavour.

Some time ago, I wrote a piece called "Morning Star" just to throw my hand at some classical-esque style guitar and added hand claps for a little flamenco style flavour. It was fun, it was throwaway and I quickly forgot about it.

A week or so ago, I rediscovered it on an old hard drive unit and thought "Hey, that's not bad for an amateur!" So I quickly relearned the piece and decided that at a minute long, it just didn't cut it.........and here comes the tangent:
Two dear friends of mine are getting married in December. The girl in question is a Spanish lady with a passion for flamenco. I am a self taught amateur with a passion for culturally different music, so whilst the flamenco is an art form performed by true Spanish masters, I am a simple Paddy who dreams of being one and so I am not labelling anything I may perform flamenco as it would be an insult to the music itself and the incredible musicians who live and breathe it. But I want to thank two particular women who've inspired this piece, my wonderful better half for writing an incredible story and creating the character in question who inspired the mood of the piece and my lovely Spanish "sister" for making me pay attention to this incredible music. I went to great lengths to try and create a piece to be proud of. This was a labour of love and whilst it's not perfect, yet, it is slowly but surely getting there. I stress, once again, that this is NOT flamenco but it does have some very Spanish influences. I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I enjoyed creating and playing it.

Siren's Scales (Selena's Theme)