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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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Yes, you're right in thinking it's all 'mixed' on the fly - it's recorded 'live' (onto minidisc! - my kit's SO out of date. But it works for me) with just a bit of editing and mastering to arrive at what you hear.
The drums are a product of the new JamMan looper setup (and an advantage over the old DL4). I'm still investigating working methods as I like to keep stuff as spontaneous as possible for creativity but, for that one, I had the drum loop stored on the JamMan and all subsequent loops were layered (on the fly) on top of that.
Actually getting the loops suitable for the JamMan does take a bit of time. The actual drum sounds come from Addictive Drums (run in Cubase SX) on my computer - mostly tweaked preset patterns as I find drum programming really tedious. Once I have something I like, I export a mixdown as a .wav file. But the process doesn't stop there.
Before loading the drum loop onto the looper (it connects to a computer via USB) there are two things I have to do -
1) The level has to be adjusted to a suitable level to allow guitar lines to be layered on top. The JamMan does allow the loop level to be adjusted but, if you turn down the loop, all the layers you record on top are reduced in volume as well (rather than being recorded at the level you've played them). For this reason, I keep the loop level on the JamMan set at unity gain (and everything I record on to it is then at the same volume as I've played it) at all times and mix things 'in the moment' with the volume pedal (the looper is last in line of all effects). Because of this setup, the drum loop level has to be at a low enough level to allow multiple guitar layers on top with enough headroom for the final 'live' lead guitar playing to rise above all the looping.
The levels of the drum loops loaded onto the JamMan need to be pretty low to allow this amount of headroom - I generally lower the level by around -18dB to -24dB from when they've been exported from Cubase. It took a bit of trial and error to find the right sort of level. I now just compare any new loop with others I've prepared previously to get the level right.
2) The second part of the process I've come up with is to compensate for the guitar speaker emulation on the drum loops - a 12" speaker is all mids and the drum sounds will be quite muffled when played through a guitar amp (or speaker-emulating pre-amps like I'm using at home). I went online and found the frequency response curve for a 12" speaker and then 'inverted' this response using a graphic equaliser plug-in (in my case, using Cool Edit which I've used for years) - cutting mids, boosting bass and treble frequencies. Again, there was a bit of trial and error to get it right but I now have a preset eq curve and it's just a case of processing the wav file quickly with this.
Once that is all done, the drum loop can be loaded onto the JamMan. As you can see, not the most spontaneous of processes so I do tend to use these base loops again and again. In fact I need to have a session with Addictive Drums and prepare a few more loops - I'm getting a bit over familiar with what's on the looper at the moment.
Obviously, this starting loop can come from any source - I've done things with sampled sections of live drums or singing, for example. Another method I developed with the DL4 before I got the new JamMan (you can't store loops on the DL4) was to created pecussive elements to the loops by slapping/knocking the guitar in various ways - I developed a 'kick drum' technique, a 'snare' technique and a 'hats' technique by varying where I slapped the strings, what pickup, how the tone control was set, etc. While this method sounds much cruder than the stored drum loops, it is far more creative and spontaneous and I still use it.
I'll leave it at that for now but feel free to pick my brains for more specifics. I've been looping for around 15 years now and it's only when trying to explain it that I realise quite what methods I've come up with.
I used a line 6 m5 with an expression pedal I borrowed the other day and if I'd had a looper I'd have had a great time with that plus an extra delay.
The pattern trem with expression pedal takes it from quite a naff effect to something you can do cool rhythms that sit on top of ambient nonsense to break into a dancier thing.
And the particle verb with expression is cool, but it's not the best particle verb I've heard. The cave is nice.
I also LOVE the low res delay for ambient stuff - it's very washy sounding. That, plus a heavily modulated cleaner delay before it gives all sorts of nice sounds.
But, coming back to the original question - with the addition of a volume pedal (and maybe an e-bow ) you have pretty much everything you NEED to produce some fairly sophisticated sounding ambient tracks right there.
One thing that I feel is often overlooked when discussing ambient guitar 'sounds' is the enormous possibilities that open up when you fully explore the use of a looper.
As guitarists, we're used to playing a guitar and having a sound come out of the amp. With all the wonderful effects units now on the market, that sound can be as huge, lush and epically un-guitarlike as your imagination (and budget!) allows. And, if you're performing live, maybe you NEED all those esoteric fx in order to get the performance to work.
But, especially if you're just recording stuff at home, you really don't NEED very much at all to come up with comparable (and, arguably, better) sounds with a few basic effects - because you can layer up parts on top of each other.
Not only can you layer up different parts but you can layer up the same (or similar) parts - maybe varying tone, texture, effects, etc. - to create vast new sounds. It's a case of a change of mind set, really. If you think about the sound of a single violin and then the sound of a massed string section in an orchestra, they are very different sounds that perform very different roles in a musical composition. A looper allows you to layer up multiple versions of 'you' playing along with your 'other selves' in a kind of virtual orchestral section.
It does take a bit of a change of mind set. I've been working with two friends who are new to looping who have made the same mistake we all do when we start - if you're 'mixing' on the fly, if you make your initial layers, your initial parts too 'big', by the time you've put 6, 12, however many new layers on top you've filled up everything to a messy mush of a sound. A part can be quite small and 'background' and still have a huge impact on the overall sound.
You have to think more orchestrally, more like a conductor maybe? A single violinist's playing may be buried in the overall sound of the orchestra but it's a vital part of what makes the overall musical effect.
I'd even argue that layered up sounds have more 'life' and 'depth' than a single part through the lushest, most esoteric multiple Strymon board by the very fact that you are hearing multiple parts, multiple 'versions of you' playing together. In the same way that several guitarists playing the same guitar line together sound richer and fuller than a single guitar through even the latest lushest-of-the-lush chorus pedal.