The Importance of Cabinets

I'll be honest, I never took much stock in cabinets. I mean, I payed attention to the basic aspects of them, but they were just speakers. Or so I thought.

I've had the pleasure of playing many amps and cabs over the years. Some have been amazing, and some not so much. The choices I made for my rig always came down to what I wanted to achieve sonically. Up until recently I was using a 2x10 combo. It was perfect for what I did. After I joined Truant Minds I had to look at how I was achieving my sound and what would fit best. I had great high end response with the 10s, a 15 seemed like a great addition to add the low end definition I needed.

I knew I wanted Gallien Kreuger, and quite by accident I ended up with a RBH 1x15. I wasn't planning on going that heavy, or that unable to easily fit in my car. It was the cab that was available. It was a situation where I took it home and plugged it in and instantly nailed the tone I was going for. It's such a responsive speaker in that cab, which is it what makes it great for me.

Like I said above I've played through many rigs, and recorded through a few as well. Some of these were great amps, they sounded great and they responded great. I've been doing a lot of recording for Truant Minds tunes recently. The common theme I'm noticing here is that the RBH with a Shure Beta 52 sounds better than any Ampeg, trident board or Avalon pre I've played through. 

In short, I never payed to much attention to my cabinets. But now its time to do so. I'm realizing how much speaker size/cabinet construction can impact tone. It changes my sound in the same sense that a new bass or a pedal in front of an amp would. 

What We've Been Up Too

      The workflow that both Tyler and I use for the cover videos has changed a lot since the first one. I know that he has spent a lot of time perfecting camera angles, learning about lighting and editing. He’s doing a great job, I’m really proud of what we have.

 

      Mix wise, my workflow has changed with Tyler’s drum setup. Slight adjustments, nothing out of the ordinary, but new drum heads, angles and cymbals do necessitate a different approach. I’m finding what works for me.

      I’ve made some improvements in the microphone department. I am discovering how to achieve a solid fundamental sound. Mixing is becoming a more precise process. Rather than crossing my fingers, closing my eyes and hoping I do something right. 

      

                               So I guess musically, things are pretty cool right now. Here are the videos

                                          

Mic wise I’m using:

Audix I5- Snare

Sm57- Toms

Akg D-112- Floor Tom

Shure Beta 52- Kick

Overheads-AT4040 (2)

Room- Sterling Audio St51

The Search for the Sounds in Your Head

There is a beauty in choice. There is a sigh of relief when you hit the sound you have been searching for. There are also the days of research, trial and error that go into nailing tone. Those are sometimes are not as beautiful.

It’s really awesome when you break down tone, and the descriptions of it. Tone can mean a different thing to everyone. My idea of “transparent” can be someone else’s “colored”. That’s mind blowing to me. There’s no exact definition to these adjectives and onomatopoeia’s, which means no set standard, which means a degree of personal interpretation and flexibility in these definitions (within reason of course). Again that’s really cool to me, or maybe I’m just a nerd, who knows?

In my search for tone I realize that this is a great time to be alive; there are a plethora of options when it comes to pedals, amps and instruments. That is such a cool thing, but it also means the amount of time it takes to nail those onomatopoeias, the sounds in our heads, can take a very long time. The upside is that when you nail those sounds, you nail them right.

I explored this world of chasing the sounds in my head for the better part of year. It’s been a rad journey. There are so many options. I can search for a fuzz today and find 240+ Unique options, which is absurdly awesome.  240+ potential sounds that could work for what I hear and what I am trying to achieve.  So how does one narrow it down?

    A monstrous amount of research followed by a feasibility study, more research, refreshing the track my shipment page for the 5 millionth time and finally (hopefully) shredding.  Or maybe it is not the right sound and it is back to the drawing board.

That’s really it.  I’ve used this to find most of my board, amps and basses.  Playing the field for the right solution. It’s so fun; there are so many choices. Many choices may be 99% what I had in mind, but only a few will be 100%.

What I have learned through this is that there is nothing more rewarding than chasing and achieving the sounds in your head. Whether it’s a line I’m writing, or a tone I’m chasing. When I hit it, and I know I’ve hit it right, there is nothing better.

Moving away from gear. This also applies to playing, though not in the exact same way. When you hear a line, shred on it until its right and play it exactly like it was meant to be played, it feels right. That is the same idea, the same feeling of accomplishment. It all comes down to nailing YOUR sound, whatever and however you envision it.

    

     

     

A Year in Review

  A year ago, I started this blog as an exercise in writing and as a journal, a stream of consciousness if you will, focusing on music. For me it has become a sort of testament or snapshot of my musical endeavors, thoughts and ideas. It has become a place to share what is happening, regarding music, in my life.
 I've had a lot of fun with this. I love writing, but documenting this point in my journey is equally worthwhile. 2016 is looking rad and loud. I'm really excited for all things Truant Minds coming up. But most importantly I'm excited to just do. I'm enjoying music more than I ever have. This blog has been an important part of that. Having a place to reflect is invaluable.
 

                                                A Think Tank, a Mirror, a Journal.

Tyler Cover Series Video #2

This was a fun one to do, and as such I thought I should document some of the process a little bit. This is the first video with Tyler's reconfigured kit. Mic choices were a little different as well, I'll get into that later.

   The cymbals setup/positioning changed quite drastically from the last video, which helped me out a lot. I was getting a lot of odd filtering and cymbal interference on the tom mics, this setup negates that. Another improvement was using a ported kick, getting the Beta-52 in there really captured the tone I wanted from the drum. It also freed us from a drum tunnel. We also opted to not use a second kick mic, instead using the extra input for the side of the snare.

  I am beyond stoked with how the snare came out. First time using an Audix I-5 and the side snare setup. A huge part of why this is one of my favorite snare drum tones is the Pork Pie Cherry/Bubinga that Tyler is using. This drum is magnificent. At any given time we have 3 snares at our disposal and this is the one that gets chosen, for a very good reason. 

Here's the latest video. Hope you dig it:

October Part 2

     It has been an interesting month, an interesting time and an interesting existence. October started off as a disjointed vision, nothing was what it needed to be. My playing was off, my life was off and my drive was off. Or perhaps my playing was off, so everything else sucked.

      I found the groove again though, I don’t know how, but I found it. October was hard, but things slowly fell into place.

     I played my first show in about a year last month. It was a fun one. It has been far to long since I’ve been able to turn it up and do

it live. On the other side of that, it has been far to long since I’ve played live. There were many mistakes and grooves that need to be tighter.

     Having said all that though, it felt amazing to be back playing. For a set, for 10 songs, I was in my element. I messed up a lot, I shredded a lot, but most importantly I was super stoked to be there.

     On the recording front things are (always) improving as well. The goal for this, at least for me, is to have everything better than the last song we put down.  And it is going in that direction. We did a few songs today and they sounded really solid right away. That is, was and forever will be the goal.

   A setback we had earlier was the idea of expansion. For whatever reason my lack of computer knowledge usually contributes to these failures, but I think this setback was not entirely my fault. The idea we had was to expand our inputs, which would have been great. More cymbals could have been mic’d, it would have been a lot of fun to have those options. What I discovered was that when things stopped working, when software failed, going back to our standard 8 mic setup was a breath of fresh air. Getting a great sound from those 8 mics was/is perhaps more rewarding than getting a great sound from 12 mics ever could have been.

On to November…

Choices

          

                                                               Choices


     When I started playing bass, my idea of what I needed to sound like, what I needed to look like, the gear I used and the way I played were all influenced by others. I think that’s part of the process, but if you do not break away from that I feel like its detrimental. It certainly became detrimental to me. Productive practicing was something I learned much later than I should have. I cringe when I think about all the hours I could have spent playing instead of trying to figure out what Duff Mckagan’s amp settings were online.

       A lot of the realization that my tone and my playing were decent was a by-product of self-confidence. I know, first hand, that accepting that things are ok can be difficult. It took me a while, longer than it should have.
 

Credit:Nick H.

   I think the light bulb moment was listening to myself. Realizing my tone and my phrasing wasn’t coming from my fuzz pedal, or my newest bass, or any material thing. Sure, those things where all part of the end product, but the most important thing was that I was making the choices. The choices I made were not dictated by me, they were dictated by the music. I wasn’t playing things because I could; I was playing things because they mattered.

     This is all very timely, interestingly enough. A couple years ago was when I had this realization, I was at M-Sound in Philly with two incredible Albright musicians. We were recording two covers that day, Voodoo Child and St. James Infirmary.

    I’m super proud of Voodoo Child from those sessions. I felt like I played for the song, more than I ever had. I didn’t try to emulate anyone; I didn’t try to be anything other than a solid bass player, which is my job. There were a variety of experiences leading up to this unadulterated moment of clarity in my playing and my self-confidence as a bass player, including The Picturesque album. But I think the Voodoo Child recording cemented the kind of player I envisioned myself as. It sounded like me, and that was all that mattered.

     I had a really good practice session today, which kind of spawned this. But looking back, it’s interesting what a little belief in what you produce can do. If I went into those sessions and tried to copy Noel Redding note for note it would have sucked. It’s the fact that I went in there, not to sound conceited, with the sole intent to tear it up in my own way. And that’s what matters. It doesn’t matter if my bass cost $200 or $2,000 (it cost $150). It matters that we leave it all out there. As musicians that’s what matters and that’s what our legacy is at the end of the day.  A mantra I like to live by and judge anything musical I do is this: How hard did I go? "Hard" being a measure of how well I was able to execute what needed to be accomplished, wether it was a fill, a solo, riding a note or knowing when silence was key.