Bass Wah Pedal Extravaganza
This one is an all-bass Multitrack Videosong (a la Mystery Guitar Man or Pompaloose) that we filmed in my old apartment in Brighton. There’s a decent chance of this music becoming a more developed song with vocals later on, but we’ll see about that…
Ghosts in the Machine: The five-year listening study behind the Soundblox Classic Distortion
Referred to as the “best distortion box ever” by both vintage tone champion Adrian Belew of King Crimson and neo-shredder Herman Li of DragonForce, the newly released Soundblox Classic Distortion by Source Audio is showing that analog soul can be captured on a digital chip.
Playing Jaco
‘Portrait of Tracy’ is a song that I learned back in high school during my independent studies. I was very lucky to have a teacher who was willing to just shut me in a room and let me practice for half of the afternoon every day. As for the song itself, those high ringing notes, … Read more
Jamming with Reeves Gabrels of David Bowie
The work side of the trip was spectacularly fun. Since we were performing as a part of the Warwick booth, I had four days to really hang out with some top-notch musicians. I had especially great hangs with Jean-Paul Bourrelly, Divinity Roxx of Beyonce’s band Suga Mama, DeWayne ‘Blackbyrd’ McKnight of P-Funk and Ryan Martinie of Mudvayne. Each and every one of them showed themselves to be kind, eloquent people with a sincere interest in thought provoking conversation.
Slappin’ Da Bass!!
So, I was kind of sticking my nose up at slapping bass during demos for a bit there and then I realized that it’s awesome and I should do it. So I did.
Playing Bass upside down?
I met Quintin at NAMM back in January. I’m not going to lie, at first I kind of stuck my nose up at his upside down playing style until I really sat and listened to his crisp tone and mean phrasing. It’s more than a gimmick. The dude is good. Real good. The greatest part of meeting him was that he had a show in the Hilton later that night in which Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey came up for a guest spot…it was like watching someone’s career blossom overnight. I’m not sure how much has happened for him since then, but I hope him the best.
Another reason why I love my job…
Jamming out with some hot hand wah flute
Daft Punk Covered on Bass
Turn Up the ‘Good’ Knob: The Importance of Mastering
Mastering. For years of my life, I went on having no clue what it was all about. All it meant to me was dropping our CD off at some seedy studio in Boston, paying them $75 a song and then picking up another CD with the same music that just…sounded better.
Videoblog 12: The NAMM Blues
These guys could really play and that made for a few great moments that I always look for in a good jam. Check out 1:15 for one of those moments when just for a few seconds, we all hooked up and played a tasty slow blues lick together, not because we planned it, but because it’s what we all wanted to hear. It’s moments like that…
