“Life of Sound” the new album by my band The Nightwires, is available to buy now from our website. Head over to our store page to buy a copy:
http://www.thenightwires.co.uk/store/
We recently held a Launch Party in Derby. Here is a little video of the track “Hey James” filmed by Linsey Bancroft and shared by our esteemed drummer Rob Reeve…
The Time That We Have is the first song to be released, from the new album by my band The Nightwires.
The album is released on Friday July 24th, at our Album Launch Party in Derby.
Here we go, the July 2015 pedalboard build.
The Greer Amps Southland Overdrive has been added and the Keeley Aurora Reverb has been taken off. There is nothing wrong with the Keeley Reverb, but I just wasn’t going to use it, as my Strymon El Capistan Tape Echo does all the spacey effects I need! The Aurora was a bit of an impulse purchase really, so it will be moved on soon.
I’ve rewired the whole thing using an Evidence Audio Monorail patch cable kit, which I purchased from thegigrig. They do patch cable kits specifically for each of their Quartermaster switching strips, with the correct number of jacks and length of cable, depending on which Quartermaster you have.
I have been using George L’s patch cables for years but I kept reading how much better the Evidence Cables sound, so I thought I’d give them a go. The USP is that once you have stripped the end of the cable, the solid inner wire screws into the jack socket, making the connection much stronger and firmer than other solder-less systems. The hard part is that, to fasten the end cap on properly, you need fingers of steel! My index fingers and thumbs are still sore two days later. However, Evidence got in touch to say that they will stay in place, so fingers crossed (or not in my case!!)
The Southland will provide my main overdrive sound with the EP Booster and Wampler Euphoria providing differing levels of boost. I’m not sure which pedal will stack better into the Southland, out of the Euphoria or my Wampler Clarksdale. As the Clarksdale is a TS type pedal, that might be better at boosting for solos, as it has more mid range. However, the Euphoria is so good, I’ve decided to try that first.
The black footswitch at the top, is for My Victory V50 head, but when I’m using that head, I still generally use it with a slightly over driven clean channel and then use the drive pedals.
I’ve resisted re-instating my phase 90 in favour of retaining the TC Electronic Shaker. That pedal does such a great Leslie type sound, I can’t take it off.
I’m looking forward to rehearsing with The Nightwires this weekend, so I can try the board out and then gig it in Belper on July 12th….
I am now offering lessons on a full time basis! Therefore, my availability has been much increased. Head over to my Lessons page, to get all the information you need on the services I offer and for details on how to contact me.
Today, has mostly been about burning the final Red Book master for the new album by The Nightwires. Having listened to it a couple of times to check all was ok, it occured to me that all of the guitars have been recorded using DI and speaker simulation. The majority of this involved using my Morgan and Victory heads into my Palmer PGA04 rack unit, with a few bits and bobs recorded with my Guitar Rig software.
To be honest, I really dont think that any casual listener will be able to tell that I haven’t mic’d up any cabs. Granted, a few tone snobs may CLAIM they can tell, but in the context of a band mix, I think its impossible to tell. The beauty of the Palmer unit is that you can use a 50 watt valve head at full power, silently! With a subtle bit of post EQ and compression, you can get a great sound very quickly.
However, I cant see me going down the Axe FX or Kemper route any time soon for live work. Partly because I have so much money invested in my stupidly expensive boutique amps, but mainly because I still dont hear any digital modeling units that can truly compete with a proper tube amp at decent volume. Yes, digital is getting close, very close, but its not there yet.
So in the studio, I shall continue to do whatever gets a decent tone quickly and painlessly, but I wont be giving up on tubes any time soon.
My band The Nightwires, have revealed the artwork and title of our new album.
Head over to our site, for more information on the release of “Life of Sound”
I’m currently mixing the second album, by my band The Nightwires. This will be the fourth album I have written, produced and mixed and I still feel like a bit of a novice when it comes to the mixing part. It’s the alchemy involved in it. Infusing the songs with the magic, the air, THE LEVEL!!
I’m probably doing my skills a bit of a disservice but making the album sound like a cohesive professional project, is so difficult. For this project, my first mixes were very far advanced. Normally, I would present my singer with a mix after the initial tracking, a warts and all mix. I’ve just realised though that that method means too many changes are made and I’m forever altering things and doing endless CDs of mixes.
No, this time I did a first mix which, I hoped, would be not far off finished at the first attempt. And you know what, I have almost achieved that! The changes I’m having to make now to the mix are quite small and thats ended up saving me a lot of stress. However, its still the case that the old adage is correct: you never finish a mix, you merely leave it once you cant stand hearing the song anymore!
That’s the problem. You listen to the songs so much whilst mixing, that when you listen to a CD of mixes, you are instantly disappointed. My advice is definitely to leave it 24 hours before you listen to that first mix on your car stereo. And it will then take a few listens for it to sink in and then, if you’ve done the right things to the mix, you will start to think it sounds good.
The problems I always hit first are, making the vocal level/volume consistent across multiple songs and also making the kick drum clear and loud enough without dominating. Add to that not wanting to make the mix too bassy from the off; these things can make you liable to holding back a bit on some vital frequencies.
And then there is the overall volume. Ahhh, the volume wars! I’ve been guilty in my younger days, of trying to make my mixes as loud as possible but, after heeding the advice of songwriting god and mixing guru Steven Wilson, I ain’t gonna take part in your loudness war!! These new mixes for The Nightwires are loud enough, but I’m not going to push them beyond that. It makes things sound overly compressed and so small. Also, mid range is king. Too many albums have that smile EQ curve, with all of the mid range sucked out of the sound. Mid range is where all the body of a sound lives. I want my music to breath and pump and be dynamic. Hopefully I’ve achieved that.
So, I cant wait for you to hear the fruits of my labour. I shall be putting the first song up here soon.
Finally got a CD in my hand yesterday, of mixes for The Nightwires new album. They don’t sound too bad!
The first mix stage of any recording is always hard to deal with, as you have got so sick and tired of hearing the songs during the process, making it hard to be objective. In my experience, the hardest thing to accomplish is to make the music sound good on lots of different systems. My hi fi separates system, makes anything sound good!! However, my car stereo doesn’t.
There are a lot of things to sort out, but I think it should all be finished in a week or so. Watch this space…
Phew! Its been a few hectic weeks at guitargeek towers. Mainly due to the fact that I’ve been recording and mixing the new album by my band The Nightwires. It is sounding rather spiffing and I hope to have a track up for you to listen to soon. Stay tuned.
Loads of other things are happening or about to. Not least an update on my lesson availability. That will come soon also!
Its always “soon” with me 😉
Greer Amps have been kind enough to add my video of The Southland Overdrive, to the Southland product page on their website. Check it out….
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