My latest album The Knowledge of Things To Come was featured in this month’s newsletter from Line 6. So I thought now would be a good time to say a few things about my effects setup for the solo project. Over the last few months since the album was released, a lot of people have been asking me how I get all the sounds and what effects I used. Let me clear that up for you…
After I finished Mandala, I decided that I wanted to further explore the world of multi-effects. I used my Lexicon MPX-G2 with the Looperlative for all the sounds on Mandala and whilst I loved some of the sparkly sounds and pitch shift effects, I couldn’t quite get the more guitar-orientated tones I was looking for. After much research online and faffing about in various guitar shops I eventually decided to invest in a Line 6 Pod X3 Pro (the rackmounted version). I also bought the FBV foot controller to give me some proper control.
The unit is dead easy to program and some of the presets (I use both bass and guitar presets) are astounding. They are also incredibly easy to tweak. I always found the Lexicon UI massively complicated and unrewarding, but the X3 Pro is very intuitive and sounds great. Each patch I program is like having access to a whole new rig and switching between sounds is fast and reliable, especially with the foot controller.
Line 6 have been very helpful and have been plugging the album since it’s release a few months ago. They asked me to upload some of the key tones from The Knowledge of Things To Come to their Custom Tone site so that other Pod users can download my patches and work with them on their own machines. So I uploaded six of the key tone patches from the album. You can download them all at the following address:
I hope you have fun with some of the patches. The L For Leather patch is particularly fun…
If you haven’t got your copy of the album yet, you can download it from the Music page, where you’ll also find Mandala (CD and download) and the Rejectamenta EP. I’ve still got plenty of CD copies of Mandala left, so if you want a signed copy just let me know when you order.
Here’s a little player so you can have a listen. Until next time…
Well it’s been a fortnight since I released my new solo album The Knowledge of Things To Come on Bandcamp and iTunes. So far I’ve had a very positive response from all concerned.
I had a lovely review from Oliver Arditi on the fantastic eBurban site. I was really pleased to get a review on eBurban as I really like that site and they have some great writers working for them. Oliver’s closing comments:
Little presents a series of atmospheres, a selection of airs for us to inhale. They do not take us to extreme places: there is a tang of melancholy, but there is also a sense of purposeful movement. The experience of listening is highly rewarding, for the continual sonic transformations, and the ongoing flow of ideas, as well as for the moods he creates. The Knowledge Of Things To Come is the work of a thoughtful and very creative musician, and one who shows signs of development and growth with every new release.
Oliver is such a great writer. He has previously done reviews for both Mandala and the Rejectamenta EP. In fact he is the only person to have reviewed all my solo releases. He has a brand new website so go check it out and subscribe to the feed.
I also had a little feature on the front page of the Warwick website. For those of you that don’t already know, I am a long-standing endorser for Warwick basses and amps. The whole of the record (and the previous albums) were recorded using my fantastic Warwick Thumb bass and they are a big part of my sound. I was really pleased to be featured on the site again and it’s great to have their support, especially for the solo projects.
One track from the album will be the featured free download of the day on the All About Jazz website on July 16th so keep your eyes peeled for that one. I won’t spoil the surprise and tell you which one.
I’ll keep you posted on any new reviews or features on the album as they come in. Probably via Twitter. I’ll assume that if you’re reading this we probably chat on twitter at some point!
Had a rather busy week last week as I scooted up and down the country with Clare Teal. We played Glastonbury last Saturday in the Bourbon Street tent. Didn’t get much chance to see any other acts (saw two songs from Rumer on the main stage; it was nearest) and only slightly wrecked my bass in the mud. Please remind me to take my electric bass next time I play Glastonbury; it really isn’t the place to be carting around antique instruments.
I went straight from there to play a show in Tychy (I’ve seen it spelt about a million ways) in Poland with Maggie Reilly. We had a lot of fun out there in the short period whilst we weren’t on planes and waiting in airports. For the first time since I’ve been playing with her, somebody in the audience filmed us playing a song that isn’t Moonlight Shadow. Here is a wobbly video of us playing To France. The sound is pretty nasty so don’t get over-excited!
I shall leave you for now. Don’t forget to grab a copy of the new album from the Music page via Bandcamp. It’s the only place where you can get the full hi-res audio. The iTunes versions will be all squashed down to fit in with all their other squashed down music. You know it makes sense… And don’t forget to spread the word of the solo bassist and his new album 😉
I thought it was time to let you in on some of the new music I’ve been working on this year. Most of you probably have Mandala by now, or have at least heard it on Bandcamp. And you will of course have checked out the latest Rejectamenta EP, which consists of tracks that didn’t quite fit on the new record but were recorded during the same period.
Yesterday I posted an unmastered preview track from the new record The Knowledge of Things To Come on my Soundcloud page. I had a great response over Twitter and Facebook from a number of people and thought it should be posted here on the blog.
I also thought this would be a good time to talk about what it is I do when I’m playing solo. Many people who bought Mandala have asked me whether I played all the instruments on the album. They were surprised when I told them it was just me playing solo live and I’ve found it is quite difficult to explain to non-musicians the concept and process of live looping without the music in front of me.
So I’ve annotated the track on Soundcloud with their rather useful timed comments utility. This had allowed my to provide you with a running commentary as the track plays through, explaining what is occurring musically and technically in real time.
Obviously this is one of the simpler tracks from a live looping perspective. A lot of what I do is a kind of musical plate-spinning exercise where I’m both playing and steering the arrangement live with the Looperlative. All the sounds on this track were produced wit the Pod X3 Pro going through the LP1.
The new record should be ready sometime over the next couple of months. It just needs mastering now. I also posted a preview of the album artwork via Instgram last night; got a good response for that too which I was really pleased about. The main image is by the excellent Icelandic photographer Johann Smari and the cover design is my own.
I was lucky enough to be invited by the excellent bassist and educator Lee Pellington (@Guerillabass on Twitter) to give a masterclass at Leicester College on Friday. We talked about what it means to be a freelance session musician and what you need to know to make it on your own. We also talked briefly about the solo bass project and I performed a few short live looping improvisations for the bass players in the morning. So, seeing as we’re looking at the process in today’s blog post, here’s a short video of one of my improvisations filmed that morning. The sound isn’t great and the noise of me pressing buttons is louder that the music, but you get the idea…
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Hope you like it. It’s also up on YouTube if you want to share the link. Watch this space for news of the new record. As soon as it’s ready I’ll be sending out advance download copies to a few bloggers and music writers for reviews. If you are a music blogger, reviewer, podcaster or radio host and would like to be included in this select bunch, then drop me a line here and I’ll put you on the list. Â Phil and Oliver, you are at the top of the list…
After I finished Mandala, I decided that I wanted to further explore the world of multi-effects. I used my Lexicon MPX-G2 with the Looperlative for all the sounds on Mandala and whilst I loved some of the sparkly sounds and pitch shift effects, I couldn’t quite get the more guitar-orientated tones I was looking for. After much research online and faffing about in various guitar shops I eventually decided to invest in a Line 6 Pod X3 Pro (the rackmounted version). I also bought the FBV foot controller to give me some proper control.
