Dig a Little Deeper

Okay, here we go again. Lets see if I can get more then one article out this year. This is about something we are all guilty of, some more than other's. And I myself am guilty of it when it come's to surfing into a website. I am talking about going deeper then just the surface of any application, or FX processor, or any piece of software or hardware that is really pretty on the outside, but even more delightful once we dig into it's gut's. I am guilty of this when it come's to surfing through a website, if it look's bad on the outside, I rarely go much further, but I have been guilty of missing some really cool stuff because of that. I now stop and take the time to look deeper into most site's and sometime's I find something pretty good that I may have missed just because the I didn't dig in a little. A few year's ago, Lexicon came out with a couple new processor's, one of which was the Vortex (audio morphing processor) which had some pretty cool preset's, but for most people, it was just not enough. The reason being that it was a little harder then normal to get into tweaking it, and as is the case most of the time, people just don't get into tweaking thing's. Well I for one have alway's been a tweak freak. Well anyway I picked it up from a friend of mine who bought it for his guitar rack and thought it sucked. Well I got it home and hooked up foot switches and a control pedal to everything that it had on it. I then started tweaking the preset's and found I could control any parameter with the control pedal. Long story short, I recorded a really cool track with a 12 string guitar that ended up sounding like a synth. I played it for my buddy and he asked what synth I used to get that bazaar sound, when I told him it was just a guitar processed with his old Vortex he lost it, needless to say he is now and forever more a tweak freak.

I apply this theory to every piece of gear and software I own. My POD is a good case in point, most people either like it or dislike it. The biggest reason for the dislike is that they get bored with the preset's, and who doesn't. But if you take the extra time and dig in, the unit come's with software that allow's you to get inside of it and tweak till your hearts content. If you are a guitar player you may not be adept at MIDI and using a computer because you think they do not belong together. Well you are wrong, as was I. Have you ever wondered what a Mesa Triple Rectifier would sound like through a 10" speaker, well you can do that with the POD, and probably some of the newer amp modeler's as well. You just need to get past the preset's, hook the thing up with MIDI, or however they tell you to get inside. And program away till you get what you want. I tweaked up a patch for the POD that used a Fender champ amp algorithm and pumped it out of a 4 X 12 closed back cabinet model with the mic simulated to be off access and it turned out to be the most horrifying sound, but put back into the mix, it was just what I needed.

FX processor's are not any different, nor is software. These thing's are built to do so much more then the book can tell you about, but some manual's (yes, sometime's even a geek like me will read the manual) have special section's about going deep into the power use of their stuff. And it is well worth the time to read a little about it, you just might find that magic sound, or effect or compression tweak, or whatever you might think of. All it take's is a little extra effort.

I still have and will be buried with, my old Roland Juno-106, why, because I love to tweak it, and still after all these year's (in case you are not familiar with it the Juno is an old analog synth) I still come up with new sound's, by tweaking it and combining it with different processor's and even (I know some people are going to jump all over me for this but who cares) after all that tweaking go back into whatever I am using , and reprocess the recorded track again and again sometime's adding effect after effect after effect to get the sound I want. You can make yourself sick with some of the thing's and sound's you can make with today's DSP in most application's.

Tweaking can be as simple as using a tone control or EQ the opposite of what you should do with it. Add reverb to an already wet with reverb piano track, than for yuck's flange the crap out of it, go back and maybe try some out of the ordinary EQing. You might end up with the next horror movie sound track, a new game sound, or a completely new instrument. But you won't know untill you try.

The point of this whole article is to make it clear that you do not need the biggest, or the best, or the newest or the fastest to make something new. Experiment with what you have and you might be surprised at that piece of gear or software that you thought was out of date or lame, and find it has a new life.

Don't be afraid to turn the knob the wrong way, because in the end, who is to say "which is real, and which is an illusion".

Wishing you all a HAPPY TWEAKIN NEW YEAR,

Noize 2 U