Break/Lunch Report ------> Friday, October 21, 2011

[jwebsmall]

G&L: Step on it - The Weekend is coming

Just heard this ASAT special - looks like Leo's signature on the upper bout.
(Does that signature date the guitar?)
[youtube]tEtOSSbky30[/youtube]

I've been thinking about getting a G&L pedal for some time now. I wanted to get the
Double Barrel to simulate the PTB system for guitars that don't have PTB (Passive
Tremble Bass rolloff). I don't play out these days (except acoustic open mic nights)
but the Double Barrel boost function would come in handy for e-guitar I'm sure.
Can someone report on their use of the Double Barrel in their pedal board or
in front of particular amps?

Please post your BBE/G&L pedal demos or guitar demos of any sort - I love
all the music. Also if you are really into pedal boards and have photos that
would be nice too if you could post those. Tell us what works and what doesn't!

But I was also thinking about starting out with the Buckshot and hoping to try
it also with a bass. Does anyone use either G&L pedal with a bass guitar? If that's
stupid question it's because I really know next to nothing about bass guitars. I may
be thinking of fuzz bass instead.

I'm not crazy about any of the DAW amp simulation plugins except the BBE stompware.
The BBE plugins are subtle, simple but effective when dialed in and don't sound as "digital"
as other plugin amp modelers I've tried. I use the BBE Green Screamer plugin with
my Tribute Invader XL. Works great on both humbucking and single coil modes.



Perhaps Craigs knows if the G&L pedals will be brought out in plugin versions like
the BBE pedals have been. I started out with the BBE mind bender and Optic compressor
pedals 4 years ago. I tried other pedals but stopped using them mostly. It was the
BBE pedals that lead me to G&L in fact.

The BBE Sonicsweet plugins (Sonic Maximizer, etc.) are indispensable IMO for home
demos. In seconds I can clean up a mix that just doesn't sound right (mush) without the BBE
Sonicsweet plugins.




The acoustics for vocals is poor (but so is my voice) here at my
apartment and always has that hollow sound of a small room with hard walls. But for
purposes of demoing a song concept it works. And I'm finding less is more in the way
of tracks and arrangement for purposes of demoing a song concept anyway. If I ever
do write something worth listening to it will be obvious and I'll get someone else to record
it anyway who can play and sing well who does this as their day job.

Knowing how well the Sonic Maximizer plug in works has got me thinking about
getting the BBE Acoustimax Instrument Preamp for acoustic guitar open mic nights.
It has the Sonic Maximizer built in. If I played e-guitar out again there is no
question I would definitely get a sonic stomp even if I used no other pedal.

I'm generally not into pedal boards but now that I'm getting hands on with the
stompware finding out what doesn't work and what does I could see maybe
getting a pedal board with BBE pedals if I ever play out again. Once G&L
brings out a plugin version of the G&L effect pedals that may help others
discover these pedals as well through using them in their DAWs. All the
BBE pedals are subtle in effects but when once you learn to dial them in
they are killer IMO.



Sonic Maximizer Controls:

Lo Contour - regulates the amount of phase-compensated
low frequencies
Process - regulates the amount of phase-compensated high
frequencies Output
Level - adjusts output level from -12dB to +12dB

Harmonic Maximizer Controls:

Lo Tune - selects range of low frequencies for harmonic enhancement
Lo Mix - adjusts level of harmonic enhancement
Hi Tune - selects range of high frequencies for harmonic enhancement
Hi Mix - adjusts level of harmonic enhancement
Output Level - adjust output level from -12dB to 0dB

Loudness Control

Controls:

Sensitivity - adjusts input sensitivity level from 0dB to -30dB
Release - adjusts release time from 0-100ms
Output Level - adjusts output level from -12dB to 0dB

I figured out a lot more stuff this week about song craft.
I smoothed out busy chord progressions even more and have
a better ear to detect over the map compositions, slick licks, etc.
i.e. what I call discontinuities. These doesn't give the sound an edge
any more than a kid first learning to play guitar loud, with lots of
distortion and caked on reverb makes him a better player. I had
already learned that lyrics need to be simple words in simple
conversation that convey profound thoughts. Clever lyrics that
are too cute by half are really no different than playing loud with lots of
distortion and caked on reverb. Clever lyrics rarely if ever say
anything profound. It's a trap most all beginning songwriters fall
into. Kill the distortion, turn down the volume and the reverb and
the kid's playing skills are laid bare. To expose the emptiness of
a song's lyric all you have to do is write down the back story
(if you can find one), strip away the clever phrasing and check off
the list of whether it immediately invites the listener into the
conversation, raises an expectation and continues to mount until
it fulfills that expectation in the nut (remember the hook and the
nut are not necessarily the same thing/lyric that is).
If your back story is something a woman want to listen to
while driving to work for a boss she hates or back home to
relationship that isn't working out then and only then is your
lyric good enough to possibly chart IMO. What you eat for diner is not
want you want to eat for breakfast. The club people may love
your music but if it doesn't pass the drive time test you can
pretty much forget about getting a publishing contract. I used
to think lyrics don't matter. If lyrics didn't matter instrumentals
would be climbing the charts all the time. And women in the
audience at concerts wouldn't be mouthing the lyrics. Write the lyric for
that woman in drive time - not for the guys or to sort out
your disfunctional past - that's writing for you and the dudes
and nobody wants to listen to your problems anyway except
a bunch of dudes. All they care about is themselves at drive
time - the only time they get to escape from reality during the
week in their hectic lives. At night in the club isn't the same
- then they are looking to be entertained which is a different hunger
than wanting to be lifted. People buy your CD's in the club
perhaps but they will never listen to them again. Rich people
pay good money to their shrinks. The rest of us listen to pop
drive time music. Be her shrink and you will get rich. Just as
you clear away the clever lyric laying bare the backstory
(and the lack thereof) when you smooth out the arrangement
and harmony you discover what you thought was edge is
now gone. Don't be like the kid clinging to his distortion
and reverb. Clever lyric isn't back story any more than slick
riffs are edge. So what the heck is edge then? Edge is luring
the listener in immediately raising sonic expectation and
developing it to the sonic nut which is the music the hook
in this case. The bridge is R&R before you slam them back
for the final hook sonic orgasm. In other words edge follows
similar rules to what makes the lyric compelling.

So what does this have to do with pedals and/or
effects? BBE pedals are subtle and they are a
step in the right direction in constructing a song
bed without caking on the FX or having 22 tracks
of arrangement. Constructing the edge
in a song bed is something I haven't figured
out yet but I'm working on it.

Doing the Lunch Reports was a real honor. Thank you!
I hope I didn't screw it up too much. I'm just not into
food and I hope I didn't spoil anyone's lunch. Also
I'm more into songwriting because I'm not that good
of player like some of you are. I heard some really
talented players this week!

Non G&L: the sun hasn't come up yet. I'm debating on taking my bicycle out
for a ride to see the sun come up or take a walk instead. Hopefully I don't
have to work through the weekend so I'll have time for more song writing.
No I take that back. It was dark when I started writing this and
it is light now. I gotta run now.

[Aussie]

Hi John.
I've been a bit strapped for time this week and haven't had much time to put pen to paper so to speak but I've tried to keep up with the daily conversations.

Composing. What works for one doesn't always work for everyone, but I have to admit that I cringed a little when I read that you have a shelf full of books on songwitting. To my mind composition is a creative art. My thoughts (for what they are worth) would be that its great that you've done the research and analysis but I think the next steps would be to let all of that sink back into your subcouncious and let go of the rule book and formulas. Start to trust your instincts, trust your ears and develop the feel for music. If a songwritter works too much with formulas, the music they produce will inevitably sound formulaic. Having said all that ... I listenned to and liked all the tracks on your site ... good stuff.

Are Lyrics Important. Really depends on the purpose of your composition, and Ed (Zapco) will probably take me to task, but as a general statement I think not really. There is a considerable body of successful music in many genres that is lyricless .. indeed there are whole genres of music that are lyricless.. Listening to music without lyrics can be like reading a book rather than watching the movie ... the reader/listener is more able to visualise and interpret. I suspect that even in popular music you would find that far more people will be able to hum the melody from a top ten hit than would be able to actually quote or sing the words (Wasn't there some game show in the US built around the ability of contestants to remember lyrics to popular songs?). I recall seeing a documantary a year or two ago that explored the issue of whether lyrics were important, and it concluded that while the presence of a human voice was comforting and attracting, the actual words or indeed the ability to understand what was being sung were not all that important for a successful musical piece (For the Aussies amongst us ... think James Reyne).

Robyn. Was first introduced to Robyn when my son mixed the acoustic and full versions of Be Mine with some other stuff for a dance producrtion he cooreographed in high school back in 2006. The mark of a good song is when it works either in full production or stripped right back to one voice and one instrument.

ASATs and Lap Steels. Never seen an ASAT in the flesh so can't really comment, but as far as single coils go I'm more of an "S" type of guy. I love to hear a well played Lappie but never tried one so don't have much of an opinion here either, although I suspect it is probably too small and specialised a market for G&L to wade into.

Pedals and Modellers. Very much a horses for coarses, fit for purpose thing. Therese a place for subtle and theres a place for in-your-face. BBE does what they do well but there are a lot of good pedals around and as lots of discussions on these forums will show at the end of the day, it pretty much personal taste thing. I have occassionally contenplated the BBE SonicSuite but have enough "real" pedals for what I need to do. Most of our recording is via mic rather than line and we don't use a lot of computer based effects.

Nice week

cheer, Robbie

[jwebsmall]

Thanks Robbie!

I should have qualified my rules of song craft. They are only meant for drive time pop 40
songs - not club songs and not non pop radio drive time genres. The songs on my play list
have serious structural flaws and that is one of the reasons they sound so mediocre.
They're flawed in the chorus structures, lyrics, harmonic progressions, all kinds of
discontinuities, etc. I couldn't hear or identify the problems even a couple of months
ago. One song I wrote last week and now I can hear problems with it too. Another good
trick to do is to put your songs in a play with with current hits and play the list
randomly. This A/B'ing of songs will quickly contrast the differences. My goal
is songwriting. But this A/Bing will work for cover bands too. Play your covers
with other songs and your ear will train faster. The mind is extremely good at
comparing and contrasting. I also found you can only learn one flawed layer at
a time. You have peel back one layer before you are ready to hear the next layer.
I found that when you think you sound really bad it is means your ear training
has advanced to the point where it can hear that you are really bad and this
usually happens a few weeks before your next break through.

A common manner of speech and a shared vocabulary doesn't keep people from
communicating original thoughts, quite the contrary. I do agree that too much
analytical thinking will drown out the emotional side of the brain when composing.
And if you don't enjoy this kind of thing then by all means don't do it or it will ruin your
hobby. I write software all day and debugging code is second nature and fun to
me. Debugging a performance or a compositional structure is play time for me.
But then again I have a strange diet by most people's standards too.

But analysis is one of only two methods of acquiring this skill that I know of.
Learning structures is critical. All successful bands subconsciously learn this
structure by playing covers. Good local bands eventually learn how to capture
the signature sounds of at least some of the songs they cover. Very few local
bands ever get good enough to understand what constitutes a signature let alone
create their own signature (and brand). They may acquire it through osmosis
over time by playing all kinds of covers. That's great and works best I'm sure.
(I just don't have a lot of time to go out and play in cover bands at this stage of
my life.) Rarely will you find a band who never played covers but from day one
instead only played their own compositions without regard for what went
before or what is currently in vogue. Musical tastes of an audience only evolve
so fast. Today in Urban genres these tastes are evolving perhaps every 6 weeks.
In pop music there are turning over now in 2 to 3 months because of the digital
download age. But this evolution is like growing layers of skin. One layer has to
been laid down before the next. You have probably experienced this getting
DVD's of vintage films or TV shows. It takes one or two episodes to get back
in the groove where you can enjoy watching these productions. In the music market
people will click through to the next song if there is too big of gap because what
their ear is atuned to and what they are hearing in your song. The problem is they
can't hear because their subconscious structural models can't track it the first few times
they hear it. If you are playing to a club of people sharing a common musical experience
back ground that's different.

Another thing I noticed is that to create a brand for the band it typically takes 2 signature
components of the song arrangement and 1 visual characteristic to define the brand...
The simpler the arrangement the better for the brand to register its prominent
signature components. If they can adapt this to their covers and retain somewhat
of the cover's original signature they are likely to draw an ever stronger local following.
Without this signature formulation a band's not likely to break out.

One reason I brought up the lap steel guitar is because it is beyond the reach of the average
local band. For the same reason it has a small market it also has branding potential.
One person said he only met one person who played the lap steel in all his experience
with local bands and that person wasn't very good so why bother with selling lap steels?
Imagine if you could pull off a song with a good lap steel performance. That would set off
your band from the other local bands for sure. And an even easier out of the box performance
can be achieved with a simple mastery of the harmonica for example. There are more
harmonica players around than lap steel but still not a lot. It's easier to differentiate your
sound with one of these out of reach instruments than improving on your guitar. You have
to improve a lot more on the guitar before you open up the differential gap with other bands
(because everybody's playing the same instruments). Isn't that one of the reason we have
G&L guitars because their build quality?

The signature components might be as simple as the unique way your band vocalizes harmonies.
I've seen bands differentiate themselves with just simple hand percussion instruments
that were not the typical tambourine, but just slightly beyond the reach of the
common drummer.

Any 3 second snapshot of song should have the signature that you can name that tune
and identify the band - that is if you want a strong branding for songs that you hope
to push into the main stream pop market.

Today's pop market is getting stilted by too much sameness. But that is largely
because problems with synth arrangements haven't been resolved IMO. Hence my
reason for bringing up Lady G and Robyn as examples of two who have worked
out some of the problems with synths but they are just getting started.

[Philby]

I've never tried the BBE plug-ins. They look kinda interesting.

Guitar effects plug-ins have come along in leaps and bounds over recent years. I've got Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 on my DAW and it's awesome. If there's one fault of modellers it's that they can't quite do an authentic clean, but the overdrive and distortion emulations are very realistic.

Great week John! See ya round.

[blargfromouterspace]

Lyrics
Interesting discussion on songwriting there. I've written a couple of songs this week for an album we'll be recording over summer. As a band that play to people dancing and drinking in a bar I tend to focus on the feel of the music. If someone can move to it you're off to a good start. I like to think that the lyrics I've written are okay and that is my ultimate goal - if I'm pleased with them it's good enough. I try not to think about them too much - if you force it they generally end up being <censored word>.

Lap Steels
I have one but I suck at it. I will learn it one day as it is my second favourite instrument and I'd love to play Hawaiian music in nursing homes when I'm an old man. I recently read something by Hartley Peavey (of Peavey amps) at the Steel Guitar Forum. He says that they make steel guitar amps but they don't make money off of them. Essentially the market is too small, but they do it because they want steel players to continue to use their products and because of the long history of steel guitar and Peavey amps. I can't imagine G&L ever getting into such a tiny market.

Pedals
I have a lot of pedals. Most of them aren't doing anything and lie about the study cluttering it up. My pedalboard is a piece of wood - those Pedaltrain etc things are a total rip off. I'm surprised so many people have them.



It's very simple - a fuzz, an overdrive, clean boost, tremolo, delay and a tuner. This board does both the bands, that's about 200 songs. The clean boost gets the most use, by far. There's nothing on here that doesn't work good and it's been a long process of elimination to get here!

[jwebsmall]

I see the Tremor on the pedal board. That comes in the Stompware as one of the
pedal emulations.

I have the Satriani Vox distortion pedal and that is nice with EMG's
but I can get something similar for passive pickups with the BBE
Green Screamer plugin. Again the BBE pedals are not in your
face FX. But they work with the proper song bed arrangements IMO.
I also liked the Visual Sound Route 66 pedal.

I got a publishing contract from one record label that went broke
before one of their artists could cut the song. The A/R people were
really good so knowing what I know now I wonder why they picked
the song they did because it's seriously flawed in lyrics, structure,
and genre confusion. I know that now but i didn't know it when
I wrote it. It was one of the few songs I wrote in 20 minutes - no
rewrites - straight off the cuff. I almost didn't submit it. I suspect
they were going modify it because they had to know it's flaws. The
A/R people were really good - it was the label management that
were newbies from outside the industry that caused them to go
bankrupt. I'm going to go back and rewrite that song eventually
because I think I can fix a lot of the problems. I have written close
to 150 songs so far. But many of these are rewrites of previous
songs attempted (sometimes not recognizable as the same song).
So the 150 number is not viable in form to stand on their own.
Most have no value ... looking back I see I needed to climb the
learning curve and pay my dues. And even now I nowhere
close to getting lucky again. That was just dumb luck that
I scored that first contract that I did. (That's probably why
I tried so hard to improve and not give up though.)

I have a few friends who are song writers having written
maybe 10 songs and they show them to me. It's funny
because everybody seems to come down the same learning
curve. I can see them doing things I used to do. Most give
up never getting past the stage of writing for themselves.
They don't realize they are writing for themselves of course.
But there comes a point where you have to give up this
notion that structure and market requirements will ruin
your artistic expression and learn to work within the constraints
to say something within the vehicle for delivery. This is part
of what I'm mean they are writing for themselves (for the
sake of their own art and what it means to them). You
have to remain human of course but the is this dividing line
between songwriters who give up and those who go on.
The ones that go on make the songs about the audience
and no longer writing for themselves. I'll try to draw
an analogy. Nobody whats to hear about your medical
problems. So why do people watch soaps like General Hospital?
Your problems are about you. GH is something that people
can identify with. But people have problems in common.
BUt there is an art to story telling and art to conveying
emotion that provides a vehicle for the audience feel
and move about themselves. They may love you but
they don't care about you. They love what you do for them.
That has nothing to do with you writing art for your sake.

I don't want to drop names but I do have several producers in Nashville
now who have invited me to send future attempts because I'm showing
progress. (I also don't want to drop names because I'm nobody and
problem will eventually run out of steam without anything to so for
it - but I'll never know unless I try. And it distracts me from worrying
about growing old in my spare time or sitting watching TV.) They said
my attempts are getting better but not ready for prime time (they
really are kind). Most people think that the music industry
is out to stop you from succeeding when I found the exact opposite is true.
They are desperately trying to find something with commercial value with
something that they can work with that doesn't have a huge ego. And they
seem to be willing to give of themselves to someone really trying even if
that person will never have the talent to go the distance.
I'm lucky for sure but they know I'll keep trying and not be shattered
when they say this is not right - try again. Maybe they are amused.
My welcome could run out any time and all the labor for nothing.
I know I'm below average and have to try harder and thankful for
anything I get in the way of their listening time. Many songwriters
initially are shattered when they have poured their hearts into something
and be rejected. So far I haven't worn out my welcome but I tread
gently and wait to be called and never nag.

(You are right about songs that make you want to move. Emotion is
closely related to our desire to move. The music doesn't move you
it's a dud.)

They are cautious because so much money is invested in pushing a song.
And they pretty much don't want to work with an artist that is over 24
years old. They like to get them young because to develop an artist
takes time and lots of money and most will never break out. There
are exceptions of course. If you have developed yourself and obviously
about to break out because of your local following and online marketing
exposure then they'll be interested. You may think you have done all the
work then but the marketing machine for a major label artist has lots
of overhead and takes team effort to get your songs on the radio station
play lists (of those who even take new releases). These go on rotation
and if they don't get a response(public reaction) after so many plays
they are dropped (this is stations doing market research looking out
for their advertisers). This takes full time effort to bring in an artist this
old way. The internet is changing a lot of this old wisdom opening up
new paths for PR but the problem there is getting lost in the noise
and not having the filtering process you get from the old marketing
channels. Even if people like you the new paradigm you aren't likely
to get the repeated plays that you get in a drive time radio format
that makes most songs chart. There are exceptions to these rules
obviously. I don't know how Universal / Motown and other reinvented
labels are operating - the business is changing rapidly.

If they like something they will typically re-demo it and let it sit and
have multiple sets of ears and fresh ears to hear it. If you're lucky they
will put this demo song on a short list of perhaps 60 songs candidates
for an album. If it makes the cut to the 24 candidate shorter list they
will re-demo it again and pick the final 12 -14 songs from this shorter list.
Of course not everybody works this way but the older producers I've
contacted still do. I"m talking about the path for songwriters here and
not artists. More and more artists are writing (or co-writing) their
own songs these days. And the stand alone songwriter profession
is slowly disappearing. That's one reason you see so many co-writers
these days. But co-writers generally lead to less influential songs IMO,
i.e. artists with ghost writing collaborators.

The best way for a young artist to make it is still to get the local following
and move over to a buzz about his/her signature sound and slight
genre innovation among a young audience (and not just an older club crowd
- the older crowd is never going to make a new hit go - they can validate but
they generally never pick the hits).

Other than biking, walking and hiking I spend most all my free time song
writing these days. It is not uncommon for me to spend 10+hours a week
on songwriting. Sometimes I put in that much time on the weekend alone
on writing and solving problems with previous songs and going back to the
drawing board. I've hit the ceiling at this point where my playing skills
have to improve so I can improve the song beds and arrangements so I'll
be shifting gears and practicing and learning more music theory and studying
current genre hits or I won't improve anymore and I'll stall out. If I stop
improving my welcome will be gone.

[zapcosongs]

Oh man. I wrote a thoughtful, responsive post and thought that I had posted it, but alas.....

Must have fumbled one of those message things where you are advised that someone else has posted while you are working on your response. I guess I guessed wrong in making a selection, and lost my post. Sorry. - ed

PS: Would anybody else not miss this "feature" if it were to never appear again? - ed

[bassman]

BBE pedals and bass: I use a Sonic Maximizer with my bass sometimes. It adds a very nice dimension to the upper and lower register depending on the bass and amp that I am using it with.
I own a bass amp called an A.M.P. (for Amplified Music Products) and it is rack mounted with a Sonic Maximizer and together they make the best sounding bass amp that I own.