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Low Red Moon

ギター弾いてる時だけは、なんか無敵になった気分でさ!!

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Noise

Sounds that I make

Man Of Arun BIWT No.3 – David Bailey

2023/03/21

Set arpeggiators to stun!

The folks at the Music Weeklies Challenge post a regular theme to prompt people to knock out some tunes and I’ve had a bash at the latest, ‘Gods Of Olympus’.

I went for the most obvious choice of David Bailey.

Not unexpectedly it didn’t come out as I intended and there wasn’t enough time to fulfil my original plan of adding a mantra to the start, the OM one.

Noise because it was there, man of arun

Man Of Arun BIWT No.2 – Content Is The Enemy Of Art

2023/03/19

Before deciding on the track Pyramidion for February’s Phantom Circuit internet radio session I toyed with a synth 12 bar blues but the 1888 recording of Arthur Sullivan I used within it is a bit difficult to understand without subtitles. So I’ve done a version for my ‘Because It Was There’ series. (Elongated backing track a longs ways down the page).

I went to add a few useful links to this video on YouTube but ended up writing a short discourse on MIDI Guitar In Practise.

Though there are ways to convert an ordinary guitar signal to MIDI, if you want the ability to play polyphonically with independent control of each string, particularly when bending, then as of the time of writing a hexaphonic pickup is necessary. That sends six signals to be converted to MIDI and currently the best at that conversion in terms of both speed and accuracy is the Fishman TriplePlay; here in the Connect version which plugs into a computer via a USB cable.

Roland shifted the emphasis of their MIDI guitar products over a decade ago and concentrate on making the internal sounds of their hardware work as well as possible and their performance with external equipment has deteriorated. If you can find one at a reasonable price the Axon from yesteryear is compatible with Roland GK pickups as is the Yamaha G50 which is based on the same technology. There is a comparison of latency on Wayne Jones’ site, but bear in mind there are other factors to consider.

But what to do after the conversion? From the mid 2000s on times were lean for the synth guitarist as with multi-timbral synths and MIDI Mode 4, which allowed for using 6 channels to transmit data, falling out of fashion. Even using computers could be a pain as you’d often need to set up a plugin for each string and changing the sound meant adjusting every one.

But with the introduction of MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) things have been looking up in both hardware and software – though idiosyncrasies in implementation can mean intervention is required at times. For example TriplePlay only sending on channels 1 to 6 can result in oddities as channel 1 is normally for control information in MPE so you need to shift the strings away from that. I tend to use a computer for convenience and Reaper as my Digital Audio Workstation which has a number of their JS Script utilities that can do the job with MIDI Tool 2 the one I tend to reach for.

There is a wide range of plugin synth choices with Surge XT a good free example but here I’m using Arturia‘s Pigments which I like for easy CC (continuous controller) assignments and the clear visual indication of what they’re doing. MPE mode can be found in the settings reached by the cog icon in the top right of the program.

But how to get those control messages into the computer? Once you get beyond the couple of expression and switch inputs available on most equipment, or don’t want to take a hardware synth or controller keyboard just to plug pedals in to, then options are a bit limited. I’ve found the best bet is the Audiofront Midi Expression which can take four inputs or more if using simple switches rather than pedals that output a range of values like those for expression and some for sustain. You can also use multiple units together.

This won’t be news to a lot of people but many of the problems guitarists have playing MIDI equipment from their guitar is down to playing technique attuned to the very forgiving nature of guitar amplifiers and not grasping the difference in how sound is produced in both other physical and synthetic instruments.

For the latter how fast the sound starts and fades away is probably the most important as anything blown will not be able to start a note as quickly as picking a string with fingers or plectrum. Those are the attack and release parameters on a synth which is part of the amplitude, or volume, envelope which often is found in the ADSR form – attack, decay, sustain, release – though many more stages are possible.

For technique avoiding producing a signal from strings you don’t want is most important. That doesn’t necessarily mean a note as brushing past a string without producing a definite tone will send a value for the MIDI convertor to interpret. I favour the way I play slide where I leave my fingers and thumb resting on the strings I’m not playing to damp them.

That’s enough for now but if anyone is interested I could go into detail.

Incidentally the backing for this track was generated by Band-In-A-Box by PG Music and then fed through various plugins. They have concentrated in recent years on realistic playback of sounds which isn’t my thing but the core MIDI engine still produces usable results without great claims of artificial intelligence, as it has been since 1990.


As promised above, the backing track – full size version.

Noise because it was there, man of arun

Man Of Arun – Carnival (New Mix & Mods)

2023/03/10

Annals, Noise man of arun

Man Of Arun – BIWT No. 1 You Won, Get Over It

2023/03/04

The first in a new series, Because It Was There.

Not abridged.

Main Ingredients

Eastwood ‘Skinny Rats’ guitar – The reason for the name I’ll leave for a moment as I’m curious to see if anyone recognises the reference but what was the ‘Californian Rebel’ was a bit of a disappointment on purchase but after modifications is now a favourite. Expensive way of doing it though.

The only person I’ve seen very occasionally use one in anger is Enon Kawatani of indigo la End, ゲスの極み乙女 and @gesunokiwamiotome and ジェニーハイ amongst others.

Lace Alumitone Pickups – Bought mainly because I liked the idea of someone trying to do something a bit different with pickups and it didn’t hurt that they had square corners like the one’s they replaced.

Swope Descedent Vibrato – available in the UK from James’ Home Of Tone. Though I use every type of vibrato going this is the first alternative to the original Strat type to match it for feel and sensitivity – to my taste in those fairly nebulous concepts at least (upwards bends excepted). Not used heavily here but will feature in the future. I’ve paired it with a Schaller roller bridge which has made its way round a number of my guitars over the years.

For ease of dangle I plugged into my computer and used Scuffham Amps S-Gear modeller which doesn’t offer the earth in options but has the best basic sounds of the plethora of modellers to suit me. On this occasion I’ve used the free Alberto Barrero Producer Pack as a starting point and didn’t muck up the settings too much.

I forgot to mention in the video that the backing synth and bass parts were created using Orb Producer. Careful selection of the ‘wrong’ plugin instruments and patches to follow it can create interesting results such as by sending the output of the ‘Chords’ module into mono synths and let them decide which note to use.

For anyone who’d like a bash themselves here’s the backing track.

Annals, Noise because it was there, inevitable backing track, man of arun

The Spectator

2023/02/09

The inevitable release of the recent Phantom Circuit Session along with various of the more ambient / airy fairy tracks I’ve recorded in recent years. Except the first one.

Annals, Noise man of arun, release

Compare & Contrast

2023/02/05

About 43 minutes into this week’s Phantom Circuit is the conclusion of the session I recorded for it.

The video below is what the first part of that is based on before it became electrified, synthed and effected.

It’s the sort of thing I’d lumber Richard with to make up a tune and lyrics back in the VTOR days.

Annals, Noise man of arun

Chromatic Input

2023/02/02

On this auspicious day, Thursday 2nd February 2023, Beachy Head Radio played a few new tracks of mine as a Phantom Circuit session, archived here.

They kindly mentioned my Bandcamp page which I realised didn’t have much music in the same vein so I did a summary of vaguely similar tunes on social media which I now collect here.

In the same ballpark, ‘Wickham’ from Amateur Hour

A bit more tenuously, ‘The Streaming Suite’ as found on Ne me quitte pas

Mr Slater’s Parrot fit the bill when not in guitar mode with ‘Openshaw’ from a previous Phantom Circuit session and anything from On The Beach the likely suspects.

The ‘long track with lots of different bits’ came into it’s own when my 4 track broke down whilst recording the ‘Field’ albums in 1998 with Voice Of The Rain and whilst it was being mended I just had my Alesis MMT8 hardware MIDI sequencer and a Roland JV1080 synth I won in a Sound On Sound magazine competition to play with. Wishworlds, the second of a couple of tracks here, was the result.

Going further back to 1992’s Other People’s Angels from the tape of the same name is the first of the completely effect driven guitar numbers in what would now be called the ambient style.

But even something like 1988’s ‘Mesmerise’ by The Gits has the airy fairy guitar and reverby drums.

There are s number of other tracks which incorporate the same approach but within more usual structures and a lot of the YouTube stuff, soem of which I’m thinking of sticking on a release with tonight’s session.

NB. Video thumbnails for embedded Playlists only show if the YouTube API is used and as I haven’t they don’t here. They will nonetheless still play.

But this is probably enough to be getting on with for now.

Annals, Noise man of arun

Voice Of The Rain – Breathing Space July

2022/12/03

Further to my video of 18th November…

Another of the videos I’ve made after working out how I played some tunes from back in the day.

Noise how to guitar, voice of the rain

Voice Of The Rain – Taste

2022/11/18

I’ve been working out how I played a few tunes of yesteryear from less than exhaustive notes and videoing them for posterity.

Noise how to guitar, voice of the rain

Discomplicated

2022/11/10

The denouement won’t come as a shock to regular viewers…

Noise, Small Beer

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