My new pedal board is an absolute monster. Its a custom made box, as I could not find anything big enough on the market to hold the RC-300 and GR-55 side by side..also I can now put my Voice Live2 in the system, which was not really possible due to floor space and cable issues. But thanks to the equally custom made loop switch I can use it and the VLTouch I've been using.
It all looks a bit overkill but really its just due to the size of the 3 main pedals which are fooking huuuge. ;)
If anyone's interested its actually quite simple...My main guitar tones are produced by the Adrenalinn III , the little blue/black box on the left. Which among other tricks is a drum machine and rhythmic arpegiator, but mainly its an Amp/FX sim unit that lets me do everything from nice clean tones to monster metal screams...It is incidentally also hooked up to another slightly large thing, a MIDI FCB 1010 control board, not pictured above, but here below, but I can use it without.
That is supplemented and occasionally replaced when playing by the GR-55 Guitar synth, big blue thing, bottom right, which is ...a synth..so it can do mega loads of instruments and fx, like strings and keyboards, and most importantly bass which I play from time to time in one of my bands when we don' t have a bass player.. also oboes', flutes..its a great machine.
It also can do guitar fx and sounds, and I like to use it in combination with the ADIII for contrast and boost..
One other major thing it can do is set up alternate tunings...so if I want an Eb acoustic guitar for the intro to Nobody's Wife..press a button and done...press another and I have the Eb overdriven Gibson Les Paul into a Marshal stack for the power chords...
Press another and I have a standard tuning 12 string acoustic for Like I do's intro (with a hint of strings and a choir behind it). Afterwards, switching back to a telecaster in drop D for a Rolling Stones number...and I never have to change guitars or retune...its amazing!
These 2 pedals are the main tone systems..so on the face of it I don't have as many pedals as most people do..and indeed my other guitar board has 6 pedals in it...and does not come close to ths number of variations and abilities. Its just the physical size of these puppies that make them a pain.
I play my Patrick Eggle Berlin (Margaret)into this system, as it has a midi pickup to control/trigger the synth..
I have added an older FX pedal to the mix, just because I could, there was space.. The Digitech FX Factory wah pedal has been added to the mix, with a foot controller pedal, but mainly for 1 particular sound, it does an awesome Rotary speaker fx, which the ADIII does not quite match. I don't know if I will use this much, but for now I'll see if its worth keeping on the board.
Ok so that's guitars;
----------------------------------
Vocally, I need a lot of help with my vocals, so I have on this board 2 main toys. both of which need signals from guitars to generate harmonies, tuning or FX, which is why they are on the board.The 1st is the TC Helicon Voice synth, which is there mainly to do Vocoder fx, for Daft Punk numbers and other things.... Most of the time its in simple bypass mode, and the mic goes to either the Voice Live 2 EE seen here, (the big blue box top right) or via the loop switch to a Voice Live Touch on my mic stand. I like the VLT for looping and changing harmonies on the fly, but the VL2 is in fact the more powerful bit of kit, I just need to learn use it better, which now its on the deck I can do.
Anyway..the VL units give tone and auto correction as well as echo, delay chorus, etc and harmony fx.. which are great.
Then we come to the RC-300 looper, which the guitar, synth and vocal signals are all sent to which I can mix a little, which allows me to loop them at will. the output from the RC's main output goes to the PA or Amp, usually PA... The sub output goes to a small transmitter under the plinth which sends the sound simultaneously to my in ear monitors.. That lets me hear what I play, which is surprisingly hard to do in a band when everyone is playing...
Also under the plinth is a wireless receiver which takes a signal from my wireless bug attached to a non midi guitar, (or if the battery is flat I can just plug in..but I hate cables) so I can use my normal guitars as well without the synth. :D I pick which system with a little A/B switch on the top right to maintain a signal to the vocal units.
At the moment the cabling is mish mash and untidy and I have to put a better power system under the plinth to power it all..but that's will be done next week, and all will be ready for the rehearsals for the run up to Birthday and Christmas Gigs...
I have to sell a guitar to pay for all this though... :( but I think it will be more than worth it in the end, tidy cable free floors are a joy to behold.
Ahthankyew
No comments:
Post a Comment