Just a quick post to let the bassists and guitarists among you know about a couple of bits of gear I have just posted up on eBay for sale.
First is my Lexicon MPX G2 guitar effects processor and R1 midi controller. This is the processor I used to create all the sounds on my first album Mandala (CD’s still available by the way… hint hint). And those of you familiar with Steve Lawson (aka the mighty @solobasssteve), this is the unit he uses for all his solo bass work. It’s a great piece of kit and they are pretty hard to come by, especially here in the UK. Here’s the link…
The second offering is my beloved Warwick ProTube IX bass amp. I bought this from a guy who got it from Cass Lewis from Skunk Anansie. It sounds absolutely amazing and has been my backup amp for a couple of years. I’m attempting to scale down my bass rigs at the moment and this is just a bit too hefty for my usual requirements so I’m letting it go. The fan is a bit loud once it’s revved up and the little W light doesn’t light up anymore but these are minor issues. The amp works a treat. And it’s essentially 1000 watts. Which is rather powerful folks. Here’s the link…
It’s that time of the year again. The time of year when I release another solo album. But this one is different. This one is acoustic. My third solo album [un]plugged is officially out now and available for download right here.
Well, I say acoustic. As the title suggests it’s not entirely acoustic in the traditional sense. The entire record was made using my new Breedlove acoustic bass and my usual live-looping setup. This time I’ve used minimal effects from the Pod X3 Pro and Lexicon MPX G2, concentrating on bringing out the natural sound of the instrument. I’ve been blogging about the writing/recording process quite a bit, so hopefully you’re all familiar with how I came to record an acoustic record after my previous offerings. This album is quite different.
I mastered the album yesterday with Steve Alexander (the other half of Little Alex). The ceremonial naming of the tunes ritual was performed last week, with a couple of interesting results. The final track listing is as follows:
frostbite
into the out
lie down & be counted
repetition is a form of change
sigismund
kalimba
breathe
the avant gardener
midas’ barber
And just like The Knowledge of Things To Come and the Rejectamenta EP the music here is presented in glorious 24-bit better-than-CD quality for your listening pleasure. You can stream the whole album right here if you fancy…
If you like the album, please click the ‘Like’ button on the Bandcamp page (the music tab above will magically transport you there), tweet about it and share the player on your Facebook profiles, blogs etc. This will be such a big help in spreading the word. And you’ll know who amongst your friends will like this music much better than I will…
I really hope you all enjoy this record. If you’re a music blogger and want to write a review then let let me know and I’ll send you a copy. Every little helps.
My latest album The Knowledge of Things To Come was featured in this month’s newsletter from Line 6. So I thought now would be a good time to say a few things about my effects setup for the solo project. Over the last few months since the album was released, a lot of people have been asking me how I get all the sounds and what effects I used. Let me clear that up for you…
After I finished Mandala, I decided that I wanted to further explore the world of multi-effects. I used my Lexicon MPX-G2 with the Looperlative for all the sounds on Mandala and whilst I loved some of the sparkly sounds and pitch shift effects, I couldn’t quite get the more guitar-orientated tones I was looking for. After much research online and faffing about in various guitar shops I eventually decided to invest in a Line 6 Pod X3 Pro (the rackmounted version). I also bought the FBV foot controller to give me some proper control.
The unit is dead easy to program and some of the presets (I use both bass and guitar presets) are astounding. They are also incredibly easy to tweak. I always found the Lexicon UI massively complicated and unrewarding, but the X3 Pro is very intuitive and sounds great. Each patch I program is like having access to a whole new rig and switching between sounds is fast and reliable, especially with the foot controller.
Line 6 have been very helpful and have been plugging the album since it’s release a few months ago. They asked me to upload some of the key tones from The Knowledge of Things To Come to their Custom Tone site so that other Pod users can download my patches and work with them on their own machines. So I uploaded six of the key tone patches from the album. You can download them all at the following address:
I hope you have fun with some of the patches. The L For Leather patch is particularly fun…
If you haven’t got your copy of the album yet, you can download it from the Music page, where you’ll also find Mandala (CD and download) and the Rejectamenta EP. I’ve still got plenty of CD copies of Mandala left, so if you want a signed copy just let me know when you order.
Here’s a little player so you can have a listen. Until next time…
Happy bidding folks!
