It's been a busy few weeks in the studio, with a few changes to the gear.
The first and most significant addition has been an Orange Tiny Terror guitar amplifier. Beleive it or not, I have been without an amplifier for years, and certainly haven't used one since the last time I played with my old band Penguin Steak back in 2004. Everything I have recorded has been either through my old Digitech RP200 pedal or more recently DI'd and then run through a guitar amplifier modeller.
I've used some of the major guitar amp modelling programs in the last 5 years or so, Amplitube was probably the best one, Guitar rig was also okay, Mart used UADs Nigel on the Thursday Night EP which gave some decent sounds too. Since switching to Reason about a year ago, I had been using the Line 6 amp modelling software that come with it. It wasn't great to be honest, but then again I don't think I've ever really liked any of them - to my ears the sound always sounds processed and sometimes chords or other heavily layered sounds just don't seem to resolve properly.
Anyway, I'd read a few articles about miking up amps and I just thought why the hell not - I've got three nice guitars so why not let the tone shine through? So I did a little research and it seemed the Orange Tiny Terror was a decent bet - highly regarded, but with a fairly generic approach which meant it shouldn't be dificult to cover several bases. Clean sounds are important o me, all the way up to medium distortion. But I don't really need metal-like tones, so it's lack of very high gain wasnt' a problem.
At the same time as ordering the Tiny Terror (TT from now on), I bought a Shure SM57 mic, mainly for miking the amp, but also because everyone seems to have one and they are reputedly very useful for all kinds of sounds!
Nine Killer Bees
Work continues on my songs as time allows. In the last week or so the idea has come together to group some of them together as an album. Nine Killer Bees is the working title, and was the name I gave at the time to my collection of songs I wrtote between about September 2005 and April 2006. Listening to the old demos recently made me think how they all fitted together, both in terms of sound and theme, so it would make a good album. I have five of the nine complete or almost complete at the moment. The plan is to finish tracking by the end of January and mixed and on soundcloud by the end of February. We'll see!
The first and most significant addition has been an Orange Tiny Terror guitar amplifier. Beleive it or not, I have been without an amplifier for years, and certainly haven't used one since the last time I played with my old band Penguin Steak back in 2004. Everything I have recorded has been either through my old Digitech RP200 pedal or more recently DI'd and then run through a guitar amplifier modeller.
I've used some of the major guitar amp modelling programs in the last 5 years or so, Amplitube was probably the best one, Guitar rig was also okay, Mart used UADs Nigel on the Thursday Night EP which gave some decent sounds too. Since switching to Reason about a year ago, I had been using the Line 6 amp modelling software that come with it. It wasn't great to be honest, but then again I don't think I've ever really liked any of them - to my ears the sound always sounds processed and sometimes chords or other heavily layered sounds just don't seem to resolve properly.
Anyway, I'd read a few articles about miking up amps and I just thought why the hell not - I've got three nice guitars so why not let the tone shine through? So I did a little research and it seemed the Orange Tiny Terror was a decent bet - highly regarded, but with a fairly generic approach which meant it shouldn't be dificult to cover several bases. Clean sounds are important o me, all the way up to medium distortion. But I don't really need metal-like tones, so it's lack of very high gain wasnt' a problem.
At the same time as ordering the Tiny Terror (TT from now on), I bought a Shure SM57 mic, mainly for miking the amp, but also because everyone seems to have one and they are reputedly very useful for all kinds of sounds!
Nine Killer Bees
Work continues on my songs as time allows. In the last week or so the idea has come together to group some of them together as an album. Nine Killer Bees is the working title, and was the name I gave at the time to my collection of songs I wrtote between about September 2005 and April 2006. Listening to the old demos recently made me think how they all fitted together, both in terms of sound and theme, so it would make a good album. I have five of the nine complete or almost complete at the moment. The plan is to finish tracking by the end of January and mixed and on soundcloud by the end of February. We'll see!
