Been working on pedals for the past few weeks while I write Fight Songs lyrics.
From top left: V4 MV, DS-1 mods, 404 M 2 ST, R2-T2
These are all one-off builds for my own use.
V4 MV – Passive master volume control for my Ampeg V4 amplifier. Ampeg used to sell these as an accessory but they’re dead simple to make; a single potentiometer wired as a variable resistor. The amp is incredibly loud so this will help bring it partially under control
DS-1 mods. This pedal is literally my first, from around 2002 (except for the battery compartment cover donated from the “DS-1 lab” unit). At my request Cole modded it years ago with the Casper Electronics gated feedback/oscillation mod. I added my flat + LPF tone stack mod, tucked away on a toggle in the battery compartment
404 M 2 ST – A passive mono-to-stereo passive pan box mostly designed for use with my SP-404 sampler. The 404 can record in mono or stereo, and has stereo effects, but doesn’t have any type of simple pan control to move things around in the stereo image. With this I can pan stuff as it’s being sampled
R2-T2 – Breakout expression box for the Pigtronix Rototron rotary speaker simulator (which mostly lives with my Roland VK-1 organ). The footswitch and toggle engage the Brake function. The knob can be plugged into either the Low or High Rotor Control to defeat the on-board Speed control for that “rotor.” If it’s reminiscent of anyone’s favorite droid, well, that’s a happy coincidence
Nobody Lived is the live set Drew and I were preparing in March 2020, as the pandemic loomed. The show at Records with Merritt was ultimately cancelled. From the liner notes, the email that got it started –
“like 1:00 sunday? my idea for a piece is building up a volca bass sequence in the C dim scale (or any diminished scale, but C is easyish) and tearing it back down to noise/sub freqs. then i was thinking the paraphonic ms20 patch as an accompaniment to something of yours.”
I finished guitars for Fight Songs last week, I think Friday night. The last few tracks were Motown-inspired guitar DIs using the setup below.
Something old, something new, something I made, something from Radio Shack. That’s how it goes, right?
Signal path, from the right:
Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone Germanium Gold Micro – Quite a mouthful for this little optical compressor. Picked it up used on a lark based on how much I’ve enjoyed the DOD 280 reissue, and the added blend and grit controls are nice additions.
Fulltone GT-500 – Haven’t used this in quite a while. As I was recording I decided I wanted a kind of cocked wah sound, but an actual wah was too much. The inductor-based mids control on the distortion side of the 500 was perfect cranked all the way up. Only used this for the EQ, it’s not doing any distortion.
I haven’t done any meaningful soldering since making last summer’s Thereatari, but I’m getting ready to. The other day I modified my Caroline Guitar Company Meteore reverb.
I always liked (and haven’t changed!) the sound of this pedal, but I had a couple problems using it: the sweep of the reverb volume knob made it hard to dial in the amount of reverb I want, and the “Havoc” switch went to instant oscillating madness when the size, regeneration, and gain controls were above about halfway.
To address the first issue, I switched out the stock anti-logarithmic “C” taper potentiometer for a linear “B” taper. No change in sound, but more fine control over low and medium reverb volumes.
Our own Cory Kibler and Mike Papagni are Van Ripper & Galactifader, a seriously funny and oddly poignant rap duo. You can check them out on Spotify below.
There’s no way to explain this music that makes it sound cool or real, but it is both. Mike is an incredible drummer, and Cory worked his way into bars that reflect his point of view without pretending to be anything he’s not or assuming any kind of weird affectation, and a delivery that manages to put a touch of edge into his dad jokes (“Extra Virgin” being Exhibit A).
I’ve been working steadily on guitars for Fight Songs, switching over from electric to acoustic a few weeks ago. I think I have six left, something like that.
Keepin’ it DIY
Most (all?) songs are getting two guitar tracks to start with. Then I’ll add some shakers and tambourines and other percussion and get the mixes roughed together before doing vocals. At that point the question will be “What details will help this song?” and the answers will be different for everything, “None!” being a viable option.
Mic is an Audio Technica PRO-37, which I am absolutely loving. It happens to be a very affordable mic, but it sounds like a million bucks to me. To my ear is has a full-frequency, flat-ish response for a small diaphragm condenser, and most importantly the off-axis phase cancellation that’s an inherent aspect of condenser mic design is minimized. Really great.
I finished the Monotribe-based Minirig – quite a while ago – and have had some fantastic jams on it, though I haven’t recorded anything with it yet.
Long story short, there’s drums, two synth voices, two drones (Thereatari, DS-1), and effects. It sits in a sweet spot of possibility and limitation; there’s certainly enough to keep busy and make a full, if minimalist, track, but whatever I make with it retains a kind of smallness befitting the rig itself.
One of the design goals was to build something that could be used for solo performance, and I hope to give that a live test soon.
I challenged myself to come up with a way to visually communicate the sequence of Night Mode recordings and releases, and the result is below.
Click to embiggen
OTHER was first recorded, and first released. Dirac Spike was second. So far, so good.
Then Damon and I made a collaborative album that’s finished, but hasn’t been released. In this chart that means it has an entry in the left side “Recorded sequence” column, but no line (because it doesn’t have a “Release sequence”).
There’s no record I’ve listened to more in the past five years than Bonzo Madrid’s Worry. (Vhol’s self-titled may be tied, though!) We had CJ on the show to talk about it, unearthing a ton about its origins and meaning, plus – breaking news – a follow-up is coming!
