Exit Signs - Week #19
By Matthew Flook on May 11, 2014 11:47 pm
This week we go beatless, and back to some of my shoegaze-inspired soundscape roots. Putting the focus on guitar harmonies and washes of reverb, we trade rhythmic elements for enveloping layers and deep bass. This is only a temporary detour, as next week will see the arrival of the new Maschine Studio drum machine/controller into my hands. While I'm very excited for this new addition to my percussion arsenal, let's get back to this guitar business at hand.
I recorded the basic guitar chord progression from my Digitech iPB-10 with a mostly-clean tone, using the sustainer pickup to keep each chord ringing a bit longer than usual. This entire channel is duplicated 3 times and offset by a few bars each to create the rhythmic flow of chords, with each channel panned diversely and with varying levels of overdrive, reverb, delay and "shimmer". The lead guitar melody comes again from the Digitech with a bit of distortion and the Eventide Space kicked on in the FX loop.
Synth bass comes from the usual V-Station with a good helping of Cubase's Magneto 2 tape saturation and ValhallaRoom reverb. And finally, we round out the mix with a field recording captured on a nice spring evening walk home from the St. Johns Parade/Bizarre. Simple, and satisfying.
Key equipment/software used for production:
- Fernandes Native Pro Sustainer guitar
- Digitech iPB-10 pedalboard & Eventide Space pedal
- Tascam DR-2d digital recorder
- Novation V-Station synth plug-in
- ValhallaDSP ValhallaRoom reverb plug-in
- ValhallaDSP ValhallaRoom & ValhallaShimmer reverb plug-ins
Key: C Major
BPM: 120
Time Signature: 4/4
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