As part of a carefully orchestrated invasion of the north, another room in my residence has now been claimed in the name of live performance and breathing space. Meanwhile the control room, where I recorded my forthcoming album Great & Terrible Potions, remains as control roomy as ever.

Which means I’ll be in a position shortly to offer production and recording services to other artists and bands out there. Stay tuned for more details, or by all means give me a yell if you have a project and you’re looking for a great introductory price..

Before and after (so far..)

Digitech RP500

[2010-06-23 - I've just added a clip on youtube, including screen shots of the settings.]

[2010-02-28 - New clips for low gain and whammy pedal!]

Let me say up front that as a guitarist I’m not particularly for or against multi-effects units and amplifier modelling.

I won’t argue with you that individual pedals and real valves and real amps sound great. They can be physically modified to sound more to your liking. They also take up a lot of real estate, introduce fun (but expensive and time-consuming) distractions about buffering and true bypass, need to be miked up properly for recording, and really should be played Loud.

On the other hand, modellers sometimes don’t sometimes sound entirely like the pedal or amp they purport to model (or at least my version of it). And some present such a barrage of amplifier and speaker combinations (and then choice of microphones and placement) that it’s difficult to resist the temptation to tweak endlessly in search of a slightly better sound, rather than, say, play guitar.

But on my budget I’m never going to have access to so many real amplifiers and pedals in one room at one time. And late at night in my small, not-entirely-soundproof studio, a great modeller is the bee’s knees.

So what I’d really like is a realistic-sounding modeller with some flexibility in pedal placement. For instance, I like using a compressor into a distortion pedal into a big clean amp. It’s amazing how many modellers won’t actually let me do that. *

Well, the RP500 at least lets me do that. But what originally caught my eye about Digitech’s current line of multi-effects were some of the choices of amps and pedals they model:

• Fane 4×12 speaker cabinet? First time I’ve noticed that on a modeller.
• Hiwatt amp? Great.
• Boss CS-2 and Dynacomp? Interesting.
• EH Electric Mistress? Really.
• Univibe? I wonder if they got it right.
• Boss CE-2, Big Muff, Whammy? Umm..

It seemed to me there was a pretty good chance that some of the guys at Digitech were David Gilmour fans. It’s no secret I am too (particularly of his post-Wall tones), so I was keen to give it a try.

Then I noticed Digitech also modelled the TC Electronic SCF, which is a chorus pedal I’ve been trying to get my hands on for a while. I understand Don Felder has been using one over the last twenty years, and his recordings sound heavenly. So when I came across an RP500 that was significantly cheaper than an SCF, I thought it was worth a shot.

There are three main guitar sounds I used a lot on the upcoming album, and they’re typically the first ones I find myself trying out on an effects unit. As a reference for these examples I used David Gilmour’s most recent Live In Gdansk release, which I choose to believe is a fairly honest recording of a great-sounding rig.

1. “Clean” – A big clean Fender sort of sound, specifically for the neck pickup of a strat.

It took me a bit of searching, but I ended up combining a Fender Twin Reverb amp with a Fane 4×12 cabinet. The Hiwatt amp sounds too thin to my ears, and Gilmour generally bypasses his Hiwatt preamp anyway, replacing it with, for instance, a Fender-like Alembic preamp.) The RP500 doesn’t sound too bad here, with a hint of EQ, delay, reverb and stereo chorus to taste, although I wish the compression had a slightly more-squished attack. This patch makes a good foundation for adding distortion pedals later.

[See post to listen to audio]
(Compare tone with Shine On You Crazy Diamond intro, from Live in Gdansk.)

Guitar: Fender Strat EMG SA neck pickup -> EMG SPC at 5
RP500: Digitech compressor -> ’65 Blackface Twin amp -> Fane 4×12 speakers -> EQ -> TC SCF Chorus 15% wet -> Modulated delay 380ms -> Twin Spring reverb

2. “Drive” – For solos using a strat neck pickup.

This one was a little harder to come by. I was specifically looking for a good overdrive or distortion pedal to add to the clean patch, perhaps close to a BK Butler Tube Driver. There are 3 varieties of tube screamer on the RP500, and all sound similarly too warm and middy for my use. (There’s probably a reason so many people make a living out of modifying real-life tube screamer pedals.) The RP1000 has more potentially-useful models than the RP500, but the Redline distortion seems to do the job, albeit with both the High and Low EQ controls just about maxed out.

[See post to listen to audio]
(Compare tone with Shine On You Crazy Diamond second solo, from Live in Gdansk.)

Guitar: Fender Strat EMG SA neck pickup -> EMG SPC at 5
RP500: Digitech compressor -> Redline distortion -> ’65 Blackface Twin amp -> Fane 4×12 speakers -> EQ -> TC SCF Chorus 15% wet  -> Modulated delay 380ms -> Twin Spring reverb

3. “Lead” – For solos using a strat bridge pickup.

This is a tricky one. The Big Muff is typically the obvious choice, but to achieve the right Gilmour flavour, the signal has to be boosted before the muff. That might be done in real life with a fairly-clean Tube Driver, but it’s also acceptable to use a compressor as a boost by turning up the volume. Which is exactly what I did here. And with very little coaxing, this is the tone that fell out.

[See post to listen to audio]
(Compare tone with On An Island second solo, from Live In Gdansk.)

Guitar: Fender Stat Hot Noiseless bridge pickup
RP500: Digitech compressor -> Big Pi distortion -> ’65 Blackface Twin amp -> Fane 4×12 speakers -> EQ -> TC SCF Chorus 15% wet -> Modulated delay 380ms -> Twin Spring reverb

(It’s worth noting that the Demeter Fuzzulator model sounds pretty good here too.)

4. “Univibe” – Thrown in for good measure.

Not as lush and watery as real ones I’ve heard, but heaps better than the overly-throbby Line 6 version.

[See post to listen to audio]

Guitar: Fender Strat Hot Noiseless bridge pickup
RP500: CS compressor -> ’65 Blackface Twin amp -> Fane 4×12 speakers -> EQ -> Unovibe -> Modulated delay 380ms -> Twin Spring reverb

So in summary, the RP500 is promising:

• I haven’t completely made my mind up about the compressors, but I’m warming to the Boss CS-2 model.
• There could be a greater variety of overdrive pedals, which might already exist on the RP1000.
• The modulations sound pretty good. The Boss CE-2 is warm, the TC SCF seems very useable, and the EH Electric Mistress sounds acceptable enough for me to use instead of the real deal.

I could see myself recording with it on the next album, but not exclusively. I’m still keen to get my hands on the RP1000 to try out the extra stompboxes..

* (Unless I add my own compressor up-front, but then I might as well use the rest of my pedals up-front too – which may well be the ultimate soluition.)

[2010-02-28 - Updated!]

5.  “Low Gain”

I think I’ve solved my low gain dilemna, and that’s by using the MXR Distortion pedal model (up front into a clean amp). Which really shouldn’t be a huge stretch of the imagination, given that Pete Cornish reportedly used the MXR as the basis of his SS-2 and SS-3 pedal designs. The following clip starts out clean, and then the distortion kicks in.

[See post to listen to audio]

Guitar: Fender Strat, Bill Lawrence L-280S neck pickup, L-290s bridge pickup
RP500: CS compressor -> MX Distortion 30% Dist -> ’65 Blackface Twin amp -> Fane 4×12 speakers -> EQ -> TC Chorus -> Modulated delay 400ms -> EMT Plate reverb

6. “Whammy”

I think the Whammy pedal really needs to be approached as an instrument in its own right. It takes a bit of practice to achieve smooth pedal action, and the pitch-shift effect seems works best on the top two strings, so notes should be carefully selected. The pedal artifacts would be less noticeable within the context of a full mix. I don’t know if the real Whammy pedal sounds better because I don’t have one, but it’s nice to expect that this model should be able to replicate fairly accurately a similar digital pedal from 16-or-so years ago. One drawback of the RP500 is that the Whammy is treated as a modulation pedal, so it’s not possible to, say, add chorus after the amp as well.

[See post to listen to audio]
(Compare tone with The Blue solo, from Live in Gdansk.)

Guitar: Fender Strat Hot Noiseless brige pickup
RP500: CS compressor -> Whammy -> Redline distortion -> ’65 Blackface Twin amp -> Fane 4×12 speakers -> EQ -> Modulated delay 400ms -> EMT Plate reverb

Just a quick note to let you know I’m playing a solo set this Friday night at the Queens Arms Hotel, Fortitude Valley (Brisbane). A few old songs, and a few new ones, transformed from my usual lush arrangements into a single guitar.

I’m supporting Nik Phillips who’ll be performing a showcase later in the evening, so it really would be the height of rudeness not to stick around afterwards for all that entertainment (and the many opportunities to enjoy alcohol responsibly).

Full details here..

Would be great to see you there!

Damn straight, I told them. So I quickly wrote a song, to spec, in between recording sessions for the new album.

It’s completely different from anything you’ll hear on ‘Great & Terrible Potions‘. It’s not multi-layered, indulgent, pompous, or completely over the top.

But it still has some redeeming features!

Let me know what you think. You can hear it opening the clip. I should probably get in there and finish it.

Sixty seconds is all it takes…

I’m ensconced in the studio.

The next album is coming along swimmingly now. All the instruments have been recorded, and just this last week the vocals were completed.

Now I’m in the final mixing stage. And I’m struck with a strange sense of deja vu reminding me of mixing Two False Idols. That is, I went into it expecting sonic clarity, before discovering just how much sweeter echo made everything sound. Vocals, guitar solos, squeaking brakes, you name it. Vocals, guitar solos, squeaking brakes, you name it.

But on this new album, some of the musical arrangements are so completely over the top that, without a dry sound, the individual instruments just get lost in the mix. So as a rule of thumb I’m taking more of a documentary-style approach. I’m simply reporting on all the tracks that have already been recorded and trying to bring them out in the best light.

Man, but this slide guitar here sure sounds great with a bit more delay. And geez this lead vocal has so much more presence with a bit of echo. And these band-shifted radio signals sound much scarier..

Guy is of course a bit of a hero of mine, being the bloke who had the nerve to play slap bass over songs where Roger Waters previously hadn’t. And then twenty years later, Guy chose not to.

Seriously I love the energy of those precious few live performances of Echoes from 1987, and I still remember double-taking when I heard his solo on One Slip. And check out what he did with Any Colour You Like in 1994. That was a revelation.

Guy also makes it cool to like disco.

Anyway the show was hilarious (like his book) and the bass interludes were fantastic.

(On the minus side, it never ceases to amaze me how some people can spend good money on tickets, take a table right at the front of the stage, and proceed to talk to each other through the whole show!)

Guy was right decent enough to have his photo taken with this happy chappy from the front row, whom he reckoned didn’t look like Comic Book Guy. Which must be one of the nicest compliments I’ve received from anyone.

Secondly, here are some fantastic photos taken on the night by Michelle Aziz. I’m sure you’ll agree the execution more than makes up for the photogenic limitations of the subject matter.

And thirdly, if that wasn’t enough to knock all of us to the ground and leave us panting for more, here’s a bona-fide bootleg-quality video of the first live performance of Golden Band, well, ever.

“My name is Ben Craven and I write songs for 10-piece prog rock bands. Then I massacre them by playing them solo.”

Setlist:
Great Divide
Enough About You
If You Knew
Captain Caper
Over
Not Me It’s You
Look Away
Ready To Lose The War (new song!)
Golden Band

I’ll be stumbling out at 9:30pm, hopefully after the consumption of several confidence boosters.

Highlights-to-be include the live debut of Golden Band, the acoustic premiere of Not Me It’s You, and a sneak preview of a new song, Ready To Lose The War, from the upcoming album. As long as I finish the lyrics in time!

I’ll also be introducing my new second guitarist, Bruce. He plays exactly what I tell him: