My Guitar Music

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

Today I’d like to bring my first song idea recorded using Logic Pro. My general idea was to get “optimistic/airy sound” using clean guitar sounds, my tempo choice was 120bpm.

I’ve created 7 guitar tracks all different sounds + Logic drum loop. I found it really hard to make a song out of it, but I kinda like the mood of the beginning part where I created 3 rhythmically/sound-wise different tracks, and here’s what I came up with.

How did I get these sounds?

All song idea was recorded using same guitar MusicMan Axis SS, I did not use any amp, one cable straight to Digidesign Mbox2 and Logic Pro. I’d like to take a closer look at my used Amplitube2 settings.

1st guitar: As my Amplitube 2 virtual amp I chose VOX AC30 (not the closest sound to original VOX but not bad at all for digital), I used also 2×12 cabinet simulation of Vox cabinet with Shure SM57 replica and bit of ambience. I have not used any external or Amplitube2 pedals, the only effect added to my sound were: Tube Compressor, Digital Reverb (get some air) and Stereo Enhancer. My rig was finally mixed with Logic EVOC FB plugin to get wider, thicker sound.

2nd guitar: As a main amp, Amplitube 2 factory setting for “Thin Rhythm”, 1X12 match cabinet with Shure SM57 (near + on axis). No external pedals, Opto-Tremolo with maxed RATE & DEPT. I got old vintage, vibrolux-y sound adding Tube Compressor (thicker sound), Digitar Reverb (air) and my favorite Speaker Rotary effect (old Leslie speaker).

3rd guitar: On the last guitar track I did not use Amplitube2 nor any amp, this is again my MusicMan Axis SS using PIEZO pickup blended with single coil clean electric sound. My idea here was not to imitate acoustic but boost high frequency nuances and articulation. All the effects used were built in Logic Pro plugins including: EVOC FB (I love this thing, brings up totally different dimension), CHANEL EQ (boost lower frequencies) and PLATINUM COMPRESSOR (thicken up the sound).

All 3 guitars together

Usually when creating/recording music it’s really hard to guess how the final product will sound, especially when combining lots of different sounds, different rhythm patterns, instruments etc. Here’s my intro with all above 3 Guitars, if you’d like to hear more feel free to check out my Youtube video and comment.

“Get what you deserve” by Derek Trucks

In my first post I’d like to bring my first song arrangement - ”Get What You Deserve” with The Derek Trucks Band. The reason why looked more closely to this artist is Indaba website. I registered on this really cool music collaboration site 2 months ago and 2 weeks after they sent me an e-mail about “Get What You Deserve” remix contest . I have already submitted my entry, with replaced guitar tracks, all I kept were drums and vocal track. 

Get What You Deserve

How did I get my guitar sound?

For recording my project I used Apple Logic Pro (I’m new to this recording software so it takes me some time), to get my guitar sound I used IK Multimedia Amplitube 2 running through Fulltone OCD pedal and MusicMan Axis SS.

About my entry

When I first heard “Get what you deserve” rock/blues tune I wasn’t sure if there’s a point changing anything as Derek is one of the best players on the planet, especially with his slide technique, however since this is a contest (March 19 deadline) I thought I’d give a shot. Most of the replaced parts are in the same mood the only major change was the solo, I wanted to stay away from original solo as far as I could just to see what I can come up with. Feel free to comment my work, hope you enjoy it, cheers.