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A little iffy about an action


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ah, i never thought you'd ask.

well, i play everything from slow complicated jazz, to really heavy metal stuff. i only play that hard when i'm pissed off or something, it's fun and surprisingly extremely easy. it's the speed that gets people in awe. i have a passion for learning, and i learn a new scale, or weird chord, every single day.

i incorporate everything in my playing...just a few nights ago i took a strobe light and held it up to my bridge pick-up, and it gave it tap tremelo effect, and with my other hand i had a slider going with some really strange "slow gear" effect going. it was a trip.

as for effects, they are the only things i spend my money on! i love effects. right now i don't have much.

a boss dd-3 delay, moogerfooger ring modulator, boss gt-6 multi effects processor, and a hendrix wah.

if i had it my way, i would own a pedal board like 10 feet long, but...i'm still young, and i'm still broke. i got my whole life for that adventure.

yes! i am into computer recording. i have a pro tools hd3 accell system in my bedroom, which i will eventually move into my own recording studio after i go to college for music production/recording arts.

right now i just mess around, record things here and there, and i'm actually recording an album right now.

i love acoustics, and vintage tones. i just spent my entire life savings on a marshall mode 4. i'm pretty happy with that thing.

i would have liked an orange half-stack, but...the head alone costs more than my head and cab! wayy too expensive.

i guess my main goal in my guitar playing/music production is to just have a ton of fun, and when i get up on stage, blow people away.

i'll keep you posted about the album, i'm going to take my time with it (unlike my last one which i cranked out in 3 weeks...bad idea)

it's probably going to be something like....western influence, with futuristic and psychedelic incorporations.

oh, and just to let you know, i hate country music...i'm just a fan of that western/spanish style acoustic playing.

hmmmm, what else....

and just for the record, i am extremely open minded about music. i don't just hate country for no reason, i just honestly can't stand it.

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A soul mate. Thanks. As for the country music thing, we are on the same frequency.

 

I listened to some of the music on your website and found it really strange. Not in a bad way, because I like "strange", and I particularly like "experimental". More often than not I find that "experimental" (in my case) is due to a lack of focus. I can sit and doodle for a while, try to record a bit here and there, but in general those pieces will be filed either in my "Worh keeping" folder or in my trash can...

 

My background is a "bit of everything", music-wise. I started playing guitar around 10, but I had already been singing in a choir for 3 years by then. I also tried my luck in my primary school's marching band (coming from a family of brass and woodwind players). I desperately wanted to play the trumpet but I ended up with the alt horn. Since it was about the same size as me (at 7, remember), it was a very short story.

 

I kept singing until around 13, when my voice broke, then I took it up again when I went to a Norwegian college of education (wanting to become a music teacher). I kept my guitar playing at a decent level. I took lessons in classical guitar since around 12, but only for two years. I then got my "first real six string", which wasn't really good - couldn't keep the damn thing in tune if I had welded the strings on - but it was a start.

 

I then got really lucky and got a scolarship to study music performance at an American college. So I had classical guitar as my major instrument, and jazz guitar as a secondary instrument. I also finally got to take some lessons on the trumpet but that was short-lived because I simply didn't have the time. When you're taking a performance degree your life pretty much consists of sitting in a practice room, only broken up by runs to the vending machines and endless student recitals.

 

When I finished my degree I returned to Norway and taught private guitar lessons for about 4 years. But eventually I found less and less time to play and the guitar started collecting dust.

 

It did help to have a music background when I worked as a volunteer engineer for the student radio station in Oslo - and also when I was a science reporter for the national broadcasting corporation. But I didn't play much.

 

Around 2000 I slowly began picking it up again. Two years ago I started making music on my computer - on a whim, more or less - but now I spend a lot of time with it. I find it immensely fun to play around with soft synths. I must admit to being a preset junkie, though. I own synths like Absynth and Reaktor Session but I don't really know how to program them. I just use them as is.

 

But I use a PodXT to play my guitar. I have never ever owned a tube amp, so I'm quite used to that chip sound of old Peavey and Crate amps. So the PodXT is great for me because I can pretty much create the tone I want. And if I can't make it, I find that I can add stuff as I record it into my PC. I have some plugins for mixing and mastering that really help me - from Voxengo, PSP, and Kjaerhus.

 

For sequencing I use FL Studio, Ableton Live, and Tracktion. I don't use Pro Tools because I can't afford it, and also because I'm pretty happy with the current tools. I also use stuff like BFD for drums. I could really need a bass synth since I suck at making bass lines...

 

Anyway - I want to get more into songwriting. I tend to write compositions for solo guitar where most of the stuff is improvised or seqenced. It would be nice to use some of my lyrics and actually put some music behind them. Still working on that.

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sounds awesome.

you should check into a program called Reason.

i think they may have a version 3 out, but i have 2.5.

it's pretty much, everything in one program.

it's got synths, loop players, a drum matrix, and just tons of stuff.

that's cool you have some vocal background. i actually took lessons about a year back, but i gave up. i just don't have the voice.

the stuff you have now is great. you're right, pro tools is really expensive.

my dad is really interested in this stuff, and invested in it, that's the only reason i have it.

improvising over sequenced stuff is so much fun!

that's usually what i always do.

just set up a click track on an auxilary and play away.

i like this lounge.

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Oh, I forgot Reason. Yeah, I have it (managed to get my boss at work realize I needed it to make music for some flash animations I were working on...)

 

But I frankly don't use it much because I am so used to the VST standards...can't live without them. I did make some really interesting stuff with Reason rewired into Live, though...Reason has some wicked reverb and delay effects. I'll post some of the songs - they're on my Mac so I'll do it tomorrow.

 

Oh, we have a lot to talk about. But right now it's bedtime in my timezone. Keep the fire burning and have yourself a scotch over at the bar.

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Wow! You music guys are awsome. I can't sing, I took sax for 2 years in grade shcool , but my parents made me quit because they didn't like the teacher I was going to have in the next grade. Then I took some drum lessons a year later on a special at a music store, but I had to quit when the next session was full price. I picked up a few harmonicas a couple years ago & a Berringer amp & an effects pedal, & a mike. Experimented around with it all awhile, but I'm not good & I just lost interest though & gave the amp & pedal to a cousin who is learning guitar the last 4 years. He is just 17 and a total Beatles fanatic, We sang Rocky Raccon together once; well, if you what I was doing singing. I have a Jambey(sp) drum I traded some Bonzais for a few years back; I pound on it once & awhile still when I'm in that heavy metal mood thing you mentioned Orb.

I love music though, & well, you never know...I might still learn to make some. ;)

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Here are two tracks of mine with NO guitar. I also like to dabble with experimental electronica and chill-out music, which should be perfectly fitting four our little lounge...

 

Luster Autumn

 

and the more cheerful

 

Limp

 

Both songs can also be found at my page on http://kovacs.wusik.com/ (kovacs being my artist name) ;)

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I have the Animatrix movie but haven't got the soundtrack. Maybe I'll just see the movie again - it's a great piece of work, I think. At times better than the Reloaded and Revolutions movies.

 

Right now (before I start working on putting music to Turtle's Kabalabak system) I am writing a pop song for the next contest at kvraudio.com - problem is I have a really cheap dynamic mic and I'm having problems not sounding like a huge plosive with a nasal problem.

 

Do you have any advice on this point?

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ah i knew that reverb sounded framiliar!

well, there are a billion things you can do to beef up vocals.

double track here and there, maybe using different effects on the other tracks.

if you have any tube emulators, use them. they work.

panning your tracks subconciously plays with peoples minds, and it gets them digging your tunes without them really noticing.

if you have a "deEsser" plug-in, you can turn down your vocal volume, but have it rise up over all the music. great trick.

and just sing your heart out

it's amazing how differently your guitar sounds if you play it harder, or pick it differently, and you can definitely tell when a person is singing to their fullest potential! :]

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If you like experimental guitar that's kinda jazzy. Check out Don Caballero, Storm and Stress, or Battles. (They all have the same guitarist Ian Williams). Phenomenal.

You can check it out here:

 

http://www.epitonic.com/artists/doncaballero.html

 

Also the site as a whole is an amazing playground to find new and exciting music. all slated toward the underground scene, but has everything from electonica to hardcore. And its FREE! Good info on all the bands it lists (Bio's as well as similar artists, etc.).

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