Richo?
The weirdest Fender guitar
The strange variations being produced by Fender have been on my mind ever since I bought a Meteora
Given I have more guitars than I need, it's difficult to justify purchasing one; but the warmth of my Meteora's split humbuckers and wide neck has made it a favourite.
Disquiet Junto 0711 Show & Tell &
The Junto project this week is to "Share some recent music; get and give feedback."
I'm sharing a track that was originally recorded for the Junto, which I thought to revisit recently.
My feeling is that it's too long, possibly too repetitive (although it is aiming for a pop sensibility), and I've wondered if it's offensive -- so I was thinking to replace the word "bitch" with "glitch" and then adding more of that kinda effect.
Obsessed much
Yesterday I thought I'd built the ultimate board, then last night I saw it could connect to an earlier one.
So it turned out to be the penultimate board and this weekend it'll feed on the disconnected cables, pedals and power supply to become a greater board.
Pedal bored
Then I noticed how neatly the cables fit the keyboard tray, and thought I should try something new.
So I plugged the omnichord into the MIDI box, where the drum machine had been.
That sounded better after I plugged in another drum machine, given it's a 505 it's not so much better but enough.
It's been fun looping with Habit, then adding cheese.
Lost & Found
I feel like a fan for wanting to write about it but Chase Bliss' new pedal has missed the mark for me.
Before they announced Lost & Found I had pondered whether a multi-effect would be an option for their new pedal.
Usually Chase Bliss will dive really deep on features, almost exhausting possibilities and then adding a digital brain that allows for recalling multiple presets and other MIDI options.
That, as much as being their first multi-effect, is a significant difference with this pedal and I can't help but think that it might be what's lost.
This focus on possibilities with switches and dipswitches has been an aspect of the company tagline "Digital Brain, Analog Heart" but interestingly it's an area that's been scrutinised by other fanboys.
The digital side of that analogy has come to dominate the CBA product line and the move away from light-dependent resistors must have pushed them further into algorithms.
So the announcement of the Brothers AM pedal earlier this year struck me as being a statement affirming their brand values, as much as another of those clever collaborations that have made Chase Bliss such an inspiring company for musicians.
I was really impressed with the original Brothers pedal and am looking forward to trying the new version, but it's still a long way away (like probably a five-hour drive).
This new pedal, Lost & Found, seems very much a digitally-brained and also "hearted" effect in combining a dozen or so interesting sounds and maximising the potential to cross-pollinate them together.
The video detailing the feature set includes Tom Majeski, who contributed to so much Bliss with the Onward pedal and Cooper collaboration Generation Loss that has been a part of that shift in the product line.
When I was daydreaming about what a new Chase Bliss pedal might include, I thought the idea of having a synth-style pedal could be good with the filters that provide character.
The pitch-tracking of pedals in recent years that allow polyphonic results has been a development that means I'm less likely to grab one of the MIDI guitars for jamming, but I guess I've been using Ableton Live's transcriptions for recordings for years anyway.
The idea of an instrument-like effect was one of those things that surprised me when it then appeared in the Lost & Found announcement, which brings together a "museum" of Bliss.
As a curator I really like the wunderkammer idea of the cabinet of curiosities from this company. but I guess the converse side of that was feeling underwhelmed.
These options seem to be kinda shallow compared to the deep dive other pedals take into failing media (like Lossy or Generation Loss).
From a value-proposition perspective I can see the brand needs to balance providing an inspiring palette for musicians within a pedal, while trying to include enough of the character that has distinguished Chase Bliss but not so much that people decide another pedal provides a depth to really make these sounds one's own.
I'm still weighing up whether I'm such a Bliss fan that I "need" this pedal, but my initial response is that my existing pedals provide most of these sounds.
With a few Zoia pedals I could probably get rid of most of my pedal collection, but I think their interfaces and design serve so many roles for a musicians.
I've written elsewhere about how much I like the nostalgic branding used by Chase Bliss, particularly the way old media shapes their sounds and appears in their marketing -- like the Viewmasters in the current promotions.
It's this character that underscores the "lost" in the model's name.
It is this blend of sentimentality and a nostalgia for things lost as the world moves forward that seems to embody a Japanese concept like wabi-sabi.
In fact, grief is such a theme in the Chase Bliss brand that I think it provides a sense of emotional depth and resonances that reach beyond being a pedal company.
If they were to start emulating Teenage Engineering, then I would be fascinated to be a fly on the wall in the meetings that Joel Korte would chair to canvas possibilities.
I would love to smell a range of candles or taste a sample box of chocolates for the experiences that I expect Chase Bliss would provoke, but at present I feel like Lost & Found is still looking for a place in my guitar effect pedal collection.
Robert Smith on writing a pop song
“Genuinely dumb pop lyrics are much more difficult to write than my usual outpourings through the heart,” Robert told Spin Magazine. “I went through hundreds of sheets of paper, trying to get words for [Friday I’m in Love]. You have to hit something that's not cringe - a simplicity and naiveté that communicates. There's a dumbness that sort of cracks. We've always done pop songs. It's just sometimes they're way too down, sort of desperate.”
Chords
“It's a really good chord progression, I couldn't believe no-one else had used it and I asked so many people at the time (I was getting drug paranoia anyway) ‘I must have stolen this from somewhere, I can't possibly have come up with this.' I asked everyone I knew, everyone. I'd phone people up and sing it and go, 'Have you heard this before? What's it called?' They'd go, 'No, no, I've never heard it.’” Smith told Guitar World.
Accidents
“That was an accident, albeit a happy one.” Robert remembered in an interview with Guitar Player. “I was playing with the pitch control and forgot to turn it off. The whole feel changed, and the fact that it’s the only song on Wish that’s not in concert pitch really lifts it out and makes it sound different. After working on the record for months, hearing something a quarter tone off makes your brain take a step backwards.”
Disquiet Junto 0710 Let's Get Loud
The Junto project has one step, "Choose a recent piece of your own music and rework it by making some portions of it significantly louder and busier than they were initially."
I've taken a piece of a guitar recording and cut it in half, then layered those together.
naviarhaiku604 – In spring sunlight
Disquiet Junto 0709 Overclocked
The Disquiet assignment is to "Speed up a machine (or process) until it falters":
Step 1: Think of a machine (or process) you use frequently.
Step 2: Push that machine (or process) by speeding it up, until it begins to break down.
Step 3: Record something making use of the sounds resulting from Step 2.
I've recorded my second pedal board, which I put together after noticing I'd left a bunch of Chase Bliss pedals off my first pedal board.
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