My Guitar Music

Today’s post was more forced by IK Multimedia e-mail marketing as I received a newsletter about NEW Amplitube 3 Guitar Amp Simulator Software. I’ve been using Amplitube 2 for some time and it’s a really handy peace of software if you want decent sounding guitar on the go. Some of the sounds are really great, but do not feel like TUBE at all.

I’ve decided to download trial version and give it a shot. Installation process went very smooth and I was ready to go. I went through couple of Amplitube 2 amps (as they said they improved them) to see if I can notice the difference. Yes, I could . Then I went through some new amps like Orange, Vox, Roland, Hybrids and I was totally speechless. Way better sounding amps, beautiful clean tones, pedals especially overdrive/distortion section sound amazing. New awesome rotary speaker is another big addition but my favorite were changes in the CABINET section. Wide selection of awesome speakers and 2 mic cabbing gives Amplitube totally different dimension, it’s awesome!

Amplitube 3 by IK Multimedia is a great software for home and studio quality recording. Many different sound dimensions and very good sounding amps without a hassle and you can play all night. You will not get real tube amp feel but on the other side you would never get a such a big inventory of amps that easy. I decided to make an ‘Amplitube 3 Sound Test Video. Check it out!

In today’s post I’d like to introduce one of my favorite voices I’ve ever heard – Piotr Cugowski. I’ve been following Piotr’s music career, saw him live in Warsaw and I’m totally blown away every time I hear this guy singing. Even cover arrangement he does sound as good, if not better than original, but this is only my personal opinion so I encourage you to take a closer look at this talent. I apologize that most videos are in Polish, but the whole point is just to show you his vocal abilities which I think speak for themselves. If you want to hear more original stuff with Piotr check “Bracia” band. They also have full English album – “Fobrock”

Today I’d like to share that from Wednesday, Feb10 on we officially start – Vancouver 2010 Olympics Torch Relay in Edgemont Village. Me and my Black Powder Toys boys will be playing few cool gigs, so if you get a chance to be in the area, you should definitely come down to see us live, and here how the schedule looks:

Black Powder Toys

• Feb 10, 2010 – 3:00pm North Vancouver, Olympic Torch Relay
• Feb 16, 2010 – 7:00pm, Plaza of Nations (beside Edgewater Casino) outdoor gig
• Feb 19, 2010 – 8:00pm, Pub 340 (340 Cambie St., Vancouver, BC) with guests including my other band Seven Second Chase, Stef Lang and Tara Crowther
• Feb 24, 2010 – 7:00pm, Plaza of Nations (beside Edgewater Casino) outdoor gig

Both Plaza of Nations gigs expect 10 000 people so it should be fun, however if you’re busy come down to 340 Pub .

Today post about something I should have done with my Taylor DN3 long time ago: install an acoustic guitar pickup to have decent sounding live instrument. My first guess (without asking anyone) was to find something portable that I can use live then take it away and have the same acoustic guitar without a need of cutting it. The choice was Dean Markley Pro Mag SC-1. Quickly realized this is not something for me:

Signal very weak, thin and too transformed plus very noisy single coil, the only thing that I liked about this pickup was no feedback. My advice is don’t waste your money and don’t do what I did, lost $70.

Anyways…, my next step was to actually find someone who knows some stuff about acoustic pickups: installation, sound, options, etc. and pick the best system. I also did my research going to some acoustic gigs, open mics to check what other players use and how it sounds. Most people complained that their acoustic doesn’t sound “acoustic” when they are plugged in. One of the guys I thought had a great sound, sent me to my usual music store (L&M) and after talking to the guy for about 10 minutes his #1 choice was K&K (I’ve never heard of this brand before). He also help me to pick Ultra Pure Western Standard pickup and after a week of waiting I got my acoustic guitar back with apparently great sounding system, woohoo!

I came back home and did my sound test: K&K Ultra Pure Western Standard vs Apex 180 Condenser Pencil Mic, and here’s my video:

Hey everyone,

At the beginning I’d like to apologize for not posting for a long time but I’ve been fortunate to be musically busy and travel a bit. I just came back from my second Canadian tour with – Seven Second Chase and I’d like to share some of the cool venues we played at.

#1 Very first and definitely one of the better shows this tour was Blind Beggar Pub in Calgary which first impression is more of a place to drink than listen live bands, however as soon as we sound checked we were pleasantly surprised with acoustics and great sound system. Even though there’s no actual ’stage’ Blind Beggar sounds pretty big, we did not have any feedback problems and most importantly drummer could play he’s tracks with a decent volume, not over-powering the whole band, so we could adjust perfect mix.

#2 After AB we headed down east to Brandon, MB (University Campus), Winnipeg, MB (University as well), London, ON ending up in Toronto where we played few all ages shows at Reverb known as “Big Bop”. This was definitely my favorite stage, big and spacy drums sound, so I could actually crank my amp and get the perfect tone. Reverb has a really nice PA system that just does the job in combination with a cool room Reverb is definitely good venue to check.

#3 Last Ontario and the whole tour show we played at legendary Horseshoe Tavern, where you could see performing acts of big boys like: Bryan Adams or Rolling Stones. The Horseshoe Tavern is a really cool, “underground” place where you can go for a beer, chat with a friend or enter big sounding room at the end of the pub and listen to some good music. Tavern’s stage is half of the Reverb’s size but it’s very nicely set up, again you can go full band volume without hurting your audience ears and actually sound good. Having smaller stage we could actually hear ourselves very good without monitors turned on, the only concern was some minor vocal mic feedback in the front of the stage.

Anyways, now I’m back in town getting ready for Vancouver 2010 olympics to play couple gigs with some local musicians. Last tour was definately some good experience and new friends connections. Cheers

Since I’ve finally found the way to record ‘good quality audio’ youtube videos I decided to share few of my guitar riff/melody ideas. Very often idea riff  sets up the whole song mood and pretty much dictates what the rest of the song is going to be like. Although it is good to have ability to play faster runs in my riff style main focus is on the right hand picking/rhythm technique, that way even old fashioned simple chords can sound cool as for example in…

Acoustic Riff Idea1
Acoustic Riff Idea1 is a simple 2 chord progression (C/a) with an additional G note as a bridge to the next loop. I’m playing Cmaj doing bar on the 3rd fret and Amin by just lifting the bar finger up and holding on G note on the D string 5th fret and C note on the G string, 5th fret. To get the right sound you have to make sure your A open string is ringing, otherwise you’ll loose the root note.

Electric Guitar Riff Idea – “They Try” Black Powder Toys

Another riff I wanted to show you is a short intro with the main riff subject I came up with to one of my band’s songs – “They Try”. Riff is based on oriental scale (1,b2,3,4,b5,6,b7) which sounds very open, spiritual, great for creating “a mood”. Here the main notes of the riff are: G,F#,C, D. With this riff it is also good idea to change your regular tuning to drop D and while playing riff melody keep your open D string ringing.

Acoustic Song Idea
A last piece I’d like to show you is one of my instrumental ideas I’m working on. It’s a simple E progression with an open ringing E string underneath the pattern:  Em, F#m, Gmaj, F#m, Em, Dmaj, Cadd 9, Em. All chords should be played as 3 notes (ringing E and 2 note chord pattern) starting from the Em (A string: 7th fret – E and D string: 5th fret – G) and then moving up to Gmaj and back. This riff again is very open, monogamic sounding since the root note E rings through all the pattern. I find these kind of riffs hard to combine with vocal line, however they’re great for intros, breakdowns or bridge parts. You can hear more developed version – “Demo2″ at www.myspace.com/tomlawreszuk.

That’d be all for today, if you have any suggestion, comments or your ideas that you’d like to showcase, fire me an e-mail: tom@myguitarmusic.net.

By far Youtube is probably my #1 visited website where I spend hours browsing: concerts, gear review, ‘how to’, music or informational videos. Since I’m musician I can live with poor quality videos, however audio should always sound good in order to pass the message from my system to all the youtube viewers. I have to admit that it took me some time to figure out the best way of recording and transferring my system sound and implement that with iSight video, but finally I’m able to do that fairly fast

Process

The gear I use to create a good video consist of: Apple PowerBook (can be just simple MAC), Digidesign Mbox2 (external sound card) Apple Logic Pro & iMovie software and here’s the process of creation:

1. Open up iMovie & Logic – if you’re on PC any audio/video software should be able to do the same thing
2. Record your video – record your video using either built in camera or any external camera – HIT RECORD. Once recorded you can make some edits/adjustments straight from iMovie.
3. Record your AUDIO track – while your camera is recording your image, simultaneously record your AUDIO at the same time. After you’re done click STOP in both VIDEO & AUDIO software
4. Apply Audio Effects – the beauty of this way recording is that you can use virtual instruments/effects at any time. You can add modulation, distortion or any other effects to your track to make sure it sounds real and ambient. 
5. Bounce your track - Once you’re happy with the final sound bounce the track(s) as mp3 and add it to iTunes library. 
   - iTunes >> File >> Add it to library >> choose your file
6. Movie Sync – the last process is to go back to iMovie software create ‘New Project’: iMovie >> File >> New Project and drag our previously recorded video to New Project Window. All we have left to do is to synchronize our audio track with movie. Simply click “Show or Hide Music and sound effects browser“ 

Show or Hide Music and sound effects browser

    >> find your track and DRAG it to the Project Window

select and drag previously recorded audio to project window

>> Drag & Align Audio file with Video

Align/synchronize audio & video tracks

Save it and all done! That was easy wasn’t it? From iMovie you can save completed project on your computer or post it straight to youtube by:

iMovie >> Share (choose your option)

I hope my tutorial helps some of you creating better quality audio videos, here’s my first video:

Roger Mayer Octavia

Roger Mayer Octavia is a very simple technological construction, what we have are few functional blocks including: filter, generator and frequency doubler. Despite its simplicity Octavia’s scheme it’s not easy to tune in order to get same as Roger Mayer’s version satisfying sound. I know of few guys who were trying to build this fairly simple construction themselves however desired effect (too short sustain, too long attack) was far from original.

How does Roger Mayer’s Octavia sound?

You can get many different sounds of it depending on the DRIVE position and obviously guitar/amp you use. Setting DRIVE from minimum to 25% of the partition we’re getting effect similar to “Ring Modulator”. Attack is very smooth, you can hear “ring harmonics” which sound especially when playing in the higher fret positions. This sound is great for slow, melodic solos with long, sustained notes which seem to transform to ‘harmonics’ sound.

By turning up DRIVE knob sustain is much longer, effect gets very responsible to attack and articulation. With different pick attack you can achieve many different sounds from CLEAN (light pick attack) ’synthetic’ octave sound to full few harmonics sound.

DRIVE MAX. Here the sound of octave is very dominant, variety of harmonics dissappear, sound gets very sharp and aggressive, excellent for ringing single or double notes, where you can get fantastic effect of layering different frequencies. 

Overall

Roger Mayer Octavia is a real analog pearl with very unique, harmonically combined sound. I’d suggest to use this effect in combination with Distortion plugged right in front of Octavia – “Purple Haze” solo – Jimi Hendrix. With Octavia you can create many sounds, I don’t think anybody will find this effect overwhelming or boring, as it can be applied to many different styles depending on the setup.  Octavia comes in two different versions: ROCKET or VISION (3 outputs, adapter plugin and additional TONE knob). I highly recommend to take a look at Octavia.

Cool Yotube Video with Octavia Sample:

As we all know finding “your” sounds is the most time & money consuming process, however I found very important finding the sound you feel comfortable, inspiring with. Through all the years of playing I tested lots of gear from old classic to nowadays modern amps and finally got my “sound” I’m happy with – ARD. I want to dedicate separate post to review this excellent, yet simple, beautiful rich sounding amp. I’ve tested lots of major brands and here are few amps that really caught my ears: Marshall Plexi, Marshall JCM 800, Vox AC 30 Top Boost, Mesa Boogie Dual/Triple Rectifiers and Lonestar Special. These are all truly excellent amps with different voicing and tonality structure. I’ve learnt that you always want to test your amp on CLEAN channel and that’s where VOX AC 30 Top Boost, my ARD and Wizard exceptionally stand out. It’s nice to have few independent channels that you can switch in between, especially live (solos, overdrive) however my ARD it’s only ONE channel amp that makes my work simpler. I use only 25% of the Master Volume to ensure tone clarity and no additional noises to make sure my CLEAN stays CLEAN especially using PIEZO ELECTRIC pickup.

Boost? Spend time with your amp and learn how to control volume/dynamics using your instrument. What I do is I always turn my amp “a bit” more to make sure I have some head room to max my guitar volume for solos, that way I don’t need to worry about switching, I know where my amp, volume-wise is and BOOST is easy. Overdrive? After testing many pedals my choice is OCD Fulltone – very responsive, excellent overdriven tone without unnecessary “wall of sound”. As I wrote before I’m preparing another post to showcase my ARD as this is not serial production amp, but it’s just GREAT and here how it sounded on my last gig.

Even though my main instrument and my blog is mostly dedicated to “guitar” I’d like to write about “drummers” that inspire me. Every song needs either flow or groove to make all general sense and structure. Most of the drummers do not bring “melody” (unless they sing) however choosing right, tasty groove is not an easy task, I guess lot of you would agree that right rhythm is everything. Saying that I’d like to share with you and showcase two of my favorite, totally different styles, inspiring drummers : Tommy Aldridge and Michał Dąbrówka. 

Tommy Aldridge

Tommy is mostly known as a drummer of Whitesnake – classic good rock songs that we all know (“Here I go on my own” or “Crying in the rain”). If you like heavier, guitar driven, melodic rock you should definitely check their material where it’s really hard to imagine this band without Tommy. He brings so much energy, dynamics, unpredictable changes, as you can see from the video here sometimes you may think he’s not a human – “Skeleton” . I’m not usually the fan of “busy” drums but here it feels like there’s nothing better to be played with this kind of material. If you get a chance go see Tommy live as this will totally change your view about drumming and what a difference good drummer can bring.

Michał Dąbrówka

Here’s my other hero, truly my favorite drummer thank to his unique style: ”broken” rhythm patterns, exceptionally well implemented in songs, listening to this guy I get a feeling that he’s the main engine of every band he plays. Michał belongs to the most busiest Polish session musicians (recording lots of albums and worldwide recognition) but also orchestra player (“Kulig” – Adam Sztaba) and showcase drummer for Yamaha team. Michal’s unique style brings lots of life to the songs, mixing latin-funky styles with pop-rock music. For those of you who never heard Michal Dabrowka is action I totally recommend to watch these videos:

Michał Dąbrówka Yamaha Drums Showcase

Yamaha Groove All-star – 2008