Category: Blog/News

Frippertronics Style Ambient Guitar (MainStage 3)

If you’ve been listening to Chords of Orion for any length of time, you know that Robert Fripp’s tape looping technique called Frippertronics is a big influence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frippertronics). Although I have several reel to reel tape decks and can get a good Frippertronics sound with them, I really wanted to see if Apple’s Mainstage 3 live performance software was up to the task. This piece is the result. It’s all MainStage 3 and its native effects, along with a volume pedal and an EBow. There is a lot of potential to create great sounding ambient guitar patches using the “stock” Mainstage 3 components. I predict more experiments in the near future!

Slumber Album Released!

William Wordsworth was a poet who wrote of an enigmatic young woman who died at an early age. Her name was Lucy.

Slumber is an album of 8 songs (and an epilogue) – each one named after a line of the 5th poem of the “Lucy” series:

A slumber did my spirit seal
I had no human fears
She seem’d a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years
No motion has she now, no force
She neither hears nor sees
Roll’d round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks, and stones, and trees

Filled with haunting soundscapes and melancholy melodies, Slumber presents a musical mourning of the long lost Lucy. This album truly was a labor of love. May you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed making!

Slumber Album Release Announcement

The new Chords of Orion album, Vision, releases on October 1, 2014 on BandCamp!

slumber-art

William Wordsworth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth) was a poet who has inspired and fascinated me for many years. In particular, his set of 5 poems about an enigmatic girl who died at an early age. Her name was Lucy. Here are all 5 poems for your poetic reading pleasure. Let them roll around in your soul: http://www.poetry-archive.com/w/lucy.html

Slumber is an album of 8 songs, each song named after a line of the 5th poem, “A slumber did my spirit seal”. Here are the song titles:

1. A slumber did my spirit seal
2. I had no human fears
3. She seemed a thing that could not feel
4. The touch of earthly years
5. No motion has she now, no force
6. She neither hears nor sees
7. Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
8. With rocks, and stones, and trees

I am so excited to release the album for download!

Lucy Ambient Guitar Album Track 6 Rough Mix

If you are new to this series of songs, a quick summary – The new Chords of Orion album (mid-2014) is in progress. It is based on a William Wordsworth poem (http://www.bartleby.com/106/180.html). The challenge is to write and record a song for each of the 8 lines of the poem. This is the 6th song written, and the 4th line of the poem. As with all the songs from the album posted so far, this is a preliminary “rough mix”. After all the songs are recorded and previewed on YouTube, they will undergo a final mix, be mastered and officially released.

Equipment used:
Carvin Holdsworth Fatboy HF2
Avid Eleven Rack
Strymon Timeline
TC Electronic Ditto X2 Looper
Morley L’il Alligator Volume Pedal
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 firewire audio interface

Signal path — Carvin to Eleven Rack to effects out to volume pedal to Ditto to Timeline to effects in to Focusrite

Lucy Ambient Guitar Album Track 5 Rough Mix

Listen to “No Motion has She Now, No Force”, an ambient guitar meditation, set to the beautiful backdrop of Antelope Island State Park in Utah.

This recording features “faux” Frippertronics. In addition, the wind-powered drone created in this video (http://youtu.be/V93Hh_xt-og) was used.

Hope you enjoy the music. Be on the lookout for the 3 remaining tracks and the final release of the album!

Equipment used:
Carvin Holdsworth Fatboy HF2
Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic
Avid Eleven Rack
Strymon Timeline
Morley L’il Alligator Volume Pedal
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 firewire audio interface

Signal path — Carvin to Twin Tube to Eleven Rack to effects out to volume pedal to Timeline to effects in to Focusrite

Wind Powered Ambient Guitar Drones

While working on a track for my next album, I’ve started having visions of wind chimes and other wind driven instruments. It occurred to me that if air current could be used to create guitar string vibrations, some really cool ambient guitar drones might result. My experiments were successful. Watch to see how I use the wind to drive my drones!

Equipment used:
Carvin Holdsworth Fatboy HF2
Avid Eleven Rack
Strymon Timeline
Morley L’il Alligator Volume Pedal
Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 firewire audio interface

Signal path — Carvin direct to Eleven Rack to effects out to volume pedal to Timeline to effects in to Focusrite

Create Ambient Guitar Drones with the Strymon Timeline and Ditto X2 Looper

Learn how to create ambient guitar drones using a (Strymon Timeline) and a looper (Ditto X2). If you have different equipment, no worries. The concepts can be used with any delay and/or looping device.

As work on the new album progresses, I’ve been creating backgrounds drones/pads that provide a tonal foundation for the songs. The “glue” that holds everything together. Creating a nice sounding drone is easier than you might think and does not require dozens of pedals. Get some ideas going. Watch the tutorial!

Lucy Ambient Guitar Album Track 4 Rough Mix

Pushing the new album of AMBIENT GUITAR MEDITATIONS forward!

Song #4 is entitled “With rocks, and stones, and trees”, the eighth line of the Wordsworth poem the album is based upon (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174822).

This is a “rough mix” release. Vocals at the end will change and there may be another guitar track that sneaks in.

EBow and Strymon Timeline are key players in this track. The Timeline was used to create the drone/pad that glues the song together.

Equipment used:
Fender Blacktop Baritone Guitar
Carvin Holdsworth HF2 Fatboy
Avid Eleven Rack
EBow
Logic Pro X

Signal path — Fender/Carvin to Eleven Rack to effect send to volume pedal to Strymon Timeline to effect return to computer.