LinuxMusicians

This is a video from a gig I did shortly after lockdown ended :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z08Y9WAKdNA

I edited the video with Kdenlive and processed the audio with Ardour, LSP compressor and airwindows ToTape5. I had a recording straight out the desk which I combined with the audio from the video. The desk audio was a bit dry as you can imagine, so that was an obvious candidate for the legendary Dragonfly Reverb. I used x42's R128 for metering.

It's an instrumental, and I take a solo on my guitar synth.

Awesome @merlyn !

Hi,

Wow, what a talented bunch! Great Video and sound too!

I'm a huge fan of the Meters and Cissy Strut truly sounds unlike anything else.. While you all are obviously extremely talented players and your solo chops are formidable I have to admit I don't get the synth sound...? The rhythm section is playing the arrangement pretty faithful to the original in fact the drummer must have went to great pains to get that trademark snare sound so it seems you are not trying to take the arrangement to a whole new place so a cold spacey synth with some steamy swampy New Orleans funk seems incongruent to me.

Since the original has a distinctive Hammond B3 line in it I'm kind of surprised you didn't employ the guitar synth as a Hammond..? Anyway my bias as a funk/soul/blues fanatic is probably showing, I'm not taking away from your fabulous playing I just think a different sound would have been more in keeping with the tune. In any case great to see you in the section here and someone with your jazz skills should be seen and heard more!

Hi @merlyn , I agree this is brilliant. I didn't know it was a cover. I love the synth sound. Did you use a guitar synth for that? Great song and great playing!

LAM wrote: ↑Sat Aug 27, 2022 2:48 am Awesome @merlyn !

Thanks LAM! I'm glad you liked it.

GMaq wrote: ↑Sat Aug 27, 2022 12:40 pm Wow, what a talented bunch! Great Video and sound too!

Thanks!

The rhythm section is playing the arrangement pretty faithful to the original in fact the drummer must have went to great pains to get that trademark snare sound ...

For this gig the drummer used the kit that was already in the venue. The soundcheck was : "Bass drum." doof doof doof ... "Snare." crack crack crack ... "Toms" dum dam dom ... you know, the usual

Since the original has a distinctive Hammond B3 line in it I'm kind of surprised you didn't employ the guitar synth as a Hammond..?

It was a three hour gig, so I like to mix it up. I use a Hammond sound on other tracks and like to use different sounds. I do solos with the Hammond sound, but they're short solos in vocal numbers. I like the Hammond sound for chords and I've set up a pedal on the synth to switch the Leslie speed which is good. I haven't got it to a point where I think it's great for a single note solo. The sound I used (my own patch using the Aggroclav preset as a starting point) is good for soloing for me because it sustains and has movement (a filter sweep). The filter sweep speed is controlled by how hard I pick, so it has some expression.

I would admit that if you're familiar with the original this could be a surprise.

jeanette_c wrote: ↑Sun Aug 28, 2022 1:15 pm Hi @merlyn , I agree this is brilliant. I didn't know it was a cover. I love the synth sound. Did you use a guitar synth for that? Great song and great playing!

Thanks jeanette. I'm glad you liked it! Yes, it's a Roland GR-55 guitar synth. You can hear the straight guitar in unison with the synth. There's been some discussion on the forum about guitar synths, latency and pitch tracking. I am not a huge fan of the Roland Corporation, as they are not Linux friendly but their guitar synth technology now does work. This could be the combination of the GR-55 and my Godin guitar, which In addition to the usual audio out has a thirteen pin DIN connector that Roland call 'GK'. Each string is output separately to the synth which makes pitch tracking easier. Having this already built into the guitar may make the system more reliable.

I had a Korg guitar synth in the nineties, and it was hopeless The delay on the bottom E string was unusable. I would play basslines up an octave, where the latency was better, and transpose them down. But ... it was fine for pads with a slow attack. Latency gets more noticeable as the attack time goes down.

The GR-55 takes a little setting up. Not too much. Roland advertise the system as 'plug and play' and I wouldn't agree with that if you want to get the best out of it. Guitar synths have always been niche, and the evidence is that they'll stay that way.

GMaq wrote: a cold spacey synth... seems incongruent

You read my mind. From the very first note, that synth sound really annoyed me. It reminds me of the days when keyboardists first started using synths. No one knew what to do with a synth because it was so new. So they just went for the most jarring sound possible, which almost always included a deep, slow, broad sweep of the filter cutoff frequency. That effect was so overused that it has become a cliche to keyboard players. Whenever I hear that, I cringe. And Merlin apparently found that dreadful patch in the GR-55. Ack!

The guitarist sitting down surprised me. That guy can play. There was one run that was so fluid and legato, it almost reminded me of Alan Holdsworth. (You guitarists know Alan, right??)

That drummer is so restrained. I'm surprised he gets the sound he does, since he barely hits the drumhead. He's the antithesis of Carl Palmer and Christian Vander.

For the epitome of live guitar synth playing, check out Robert Fripp of King Crimson. And if you want to know how to make a "normal" guitar sound like a synth, check out Arian Belew's deranged techniques, in the same band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvJe25wA-e8

j_e_f_f_g wrote: ↑Mon Aug 29, 2022 5:58 pm So they just went for the most jarring sound possible, which almost always included a deep, slow, broad sweep of the filter cutoff frequency.

Maybe it's just me, but it sounds good to me. Long life to acid sound.

Thanks LAM. With jeff's track record I know that he's joking.

merlyn wrote: Jeff's joking.

No, I seriously hate that sound, It's an ugly synth cliche. Stop using it.

In fact, dump all the presets. I never use synth presets. They're designed to show the most extreme variations in a synth's sound, and consequently the majority of them are not very musically useful.

Band looks (and sounds) very 'together'. Good work.

j_e_f_f_g wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 5:39 am No, I seriously hate that sound, It's an ugly synth cliche. Stop using it.

I realise your humour works best when presented in a deadpan style. I get the joke. You love it really.

folderol wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 9:09 am Band looks (and sounds) very 'together'. Good work.

Thanks!

This just looks like so much fun! It makes me wanna be there.

I very much enjoy watching fellow LM:ers on video.

Thanks for the great playing and for sharing this video and song!

I skipped the forum only a couple of weeks and missed a lot apparently! Great vibe