Monday, February 15, 2010

nerd alert!

warning: the following material may cause
drowsiness and a foreboding sense of ennui.
do not read while operating heavy machinery.
suitable only for gearheads, or bonafide nut cases.

as promised here comes the update on my attempts
to downsize my huge guitar gear arsenal while moving
forward into the 21st century. thanks to daniel rowland
and the good graces of a few very smart manufacturers
I'm blazing ahead, more confident than ever, writing new
material, and creating some smokin' new sounds!

a quick summation at this junction has my rig as follows:
1 apple macbook running apple main stage II,
and soon to be running all my necessary synth programs,
as well as looping, piano and orchestral samples, etc.
1 fractal audio axe-fx ultra providing the bulk
of my guitar sounds and the impetus for so much more;
1 roland vg-99 the virtual guitar system which allows
for essentially a second guitarist with different tunings.

thus far all of this can be amplified any number of ways
for international shows where amps are supplied,
but sound amazing through the 2 bose L1 towers I use,
which will be my amplification performing stateside.

still to be added: a small midi-pedalboard to operate
all the program changes needed and 4 expression pedals.
I'm intending to use the new pedalboard from fractal
which is made for the axe-fx and is called the mfc-101,
but is not yet ready for production.

all of this should fit elegantly into two luggage-size cases
as compared with my current rig which fills half a cargo van.

I'm also trying a myriad of new pedals which may be added
to the "effects loop" section of the axe-fx. ones I love most
so far are soundblox pro classic distortion (which is
midi) , gig-fx pro chopper (also midi), and digitech
harmony man
. I'm waiting to try the eventide pitch
factor
. I prefer the small light roland ev-5
as my expression pedals. likely I'll need 4: one for master
guitar volume, one for master vg-99 volume, one for master
laptop volume, and one for any and all expression effects.

next topic: StudioBelew's new tabletop recording studio.

24 comments:

  1. Could you put some photos of your rig? Very interesting.

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  2. This is all greek from outer space, to me.
    Is it the 21st century ?
    Well, if it's Belew music, it's more than OK.

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  3. Guess I'm a geek. That post was literotica. Excelsior!

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  4. If you really want to mess your guitar sound up, I recommend a Boss SL-20 which can provide some interesting rythmic harmonics overlays and the DigiTech Timebender if you are interested in programmable harmonic delay.

    Still waiting for Amplitube 3 to be released, but I'm worried my VG-99 and VB-99 will think I'm having an affair. It's gear porn...gear porn, I tells ya!

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  5. Brilliant update, thank you Sir!

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  6. Awesome! Bring it out west, please.

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  7. zzzzzzzzzzzzz.....:)
    Downsizing can be very liberating, happy for you.
    Maybe you can spice up the next post a bit, for those of us that are not nerds ? :):) xo

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  8. MORE NERD STUFF !

    i read this thread in 4.25 seconds , will spend the next 2 hours googling the new stuff mentioned above . that axe effects sounds wonderful . when the modeling tech. catches up (looks like it made a huge leap) the debates will be pointless .

    seems a lot of folks get worked up about using these tools , like really miffed !?!?

    oh well , its truely inspirational to see someone who can really play , push the limits of the hardware .

    thanks , adrians new shoes , weeee !

    Pt2 .

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  9. thanks for the info, although most of it is way beyond my grey matter. I just listened to your live version of Beat Box Guitar and was wondering how you're going to accomplish all of those transitional sounds with a laptop. So, will it be you tapping your toes on buttons to make the sounds change, and how does the computer know which sound? Is it programed by song?
    your currious friend,
    Mark

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  10. my head exploded after reading that. time for some tea.

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  11. I'm doing my ear exercises while I wait to hear the new sounds.

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  12. Non-offense, it seems to read some guitar kid hittin the spot with his new freaky setup, excited.
    I mean, at your age (I repeat no-offense), I find such thing as FANTASTIC!

    In my opinion, you really deserve to be considered worldwide one of the music pioneers of the last 2 decades!

    I'd kill to see you play once in Italy.

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  13. 21st Century Schizoid Pal!

    That laptop idea is awesome man, although I'm more a fan of seeing the whole "Mad Scientist" kind of laboratory onstage :)

    Lookin' forward to see the process of your new way of applyin' the effects thru. the laptop.

    All the best from an Ecuadorian fella :)

    Carlos

    ps: U an Al Di Meola fan? Hearin' some of his music :)

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  14. mmm gear talk. you should check out the Mobius software looper. It's like an EDP for your computer. http://www.circularlabs.com/ and it's free.

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  15. I love gear porn...and I've been looking at those bose towers for a long time..as a long time fan and musician,i'd love to hear more sbout gear and your studio...

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  16. We love Gear Lust ! Keem 'em commin' !

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  17. Ade - Glad you are one of us Axe'rs! We should patch trade! Check out Paul Trombetta's pedals, the MiniBone, the Donita and the Tornita especially. For expression, I'm using a Moog MP201 which has MIDI and can handle cv/expression for up to four connections. Hope you get out our way again soon! Best.

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  18. dear adrian,can you please please PLEASE come to the uk to play,preferably Brighton ! we're in dire need of your incomparable music to get us out of recession (any old excuse!) maybe the whole of sgt peppers & abbey road in your own style ? nows theres a thought
    yours hopefully
    don

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  19. Thanks Tony (in a previous post), for suggesting the Mobius. Actually that plugin is in the top 3 we're looking at...they all have pros and cons. Adrian's new setup really is pretty amazing. No doubt some innovative new music will come out of this (already has!).

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  20. We're very proud that our Multiwave Distortion is in your rig!

    Randy
    Source Audio LLC

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  21. randy g (from soundblox):
    in fact the multiwave distortion is 1 of only 2 stompboxes I've currently added to my set up with the axe fx.

    my fav sound on the multiwave is program 11 with sustain and output set to 1:00 and drive set to 11:00. it works best to use the neck pickup. it's a sound I've never found any where else.

    I recommend the soundblox classic distortion unit for a great variety of killer distortion past and present. both boxes are excellent!

    cheers,
    adrian

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  22. Nice blog.Now,from your blog,I know something others. thanks.Let's keep in touch.

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  23. I agree you should be playing one of Paul Trombetta's pedals. He's a fan and would send you one.

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