HOME | CONTENTS | SEARCH | POST
from: piggin' out
The 'blue rack' arrived today. I don't like presets, as a general rule, but I got friends from different walks of life who play guitar. They drop by pretty much at random, in the interest of still being able to use my own plug-in spots at the same time, I dropped some cash on the alternate inputs section. The white rack for bass and keys was pretty 'regular', this blue rack is for lead guitar and I was looking at the list of preset names, #1 on the list is 'American Blues'. Well, we seem to be on the same page here. I got this piece of shit for $170, I just couldn't spring for the Line 6 red rack, $600 list. I'll probably end up getting the Line 6 echo unit, that's the green stomp box, I've seen it new-in-box on ebay for about $180. I don't need any effects except echo. I don't have much use for reverb, chorus, flangers, and such, although I like the sounds they make, I just prefer to add them AFTER the fact, I don't like sound of a guitar recorded with a phase shifter, its horrid. I don't want the sound to move! I want it to come in and stay in my face, if I want to change it or make it move, then that's what happens, but that's maybe one out of ten situations. I can't think of any instrument that sounds 'better' phase shifted. I like pitch shifting a LOT. I also like expansion, it brings out incredible detail in an over compressed fuzz guitar that's been squished down to a square wave. I like an expander on just about anything, it makes everything sound better, less uniform, more obtuse unto itself, its a good universal tool for emphasising the oddball element in any recorded instrument, or mix. If any producers are out there recording a bunch of tracks, and you'd like a specialist to bring forth quirky qualities hidden in the sounds, I'm your guy. Don't spice up your tracks, better to use the spice they already contain that's been hammered into the particle board. There's TONS of it in anything, no matter what it is, just fluff it up and magnify to size. Another added benefit of expansion is a free noise gate at the lower end of the volume scale, it dispenses with any unused debris.
