Sound effects used in my band.....
Posted: 15 May 2011, 18:15I’ve been asked about the equipment used by me in the band I was in, the Buttles ( It’s in the soundfile section ) to achieve the sounds.
Here’s a picture taken by me at the time.
On the right is a Roland VG, ( Virtual Guitar ) this was a guitar modeller so I could call up acoustic, 12 string, hollow bodied ,etc, guitars.
The blue pedal is a Roland GR09 guitar synth for the trumpets, pianos etc.
Between them is a Roland US 20 which enabled you to select which unit you wanted to use, or both at the same time.
Slightly to the left of the VG is the expression pedal which could be programmed to be a variety of things , volume, pitch shift, wah wah etc.
The GR09 was midied up to the VG so selecting a synth voice automatically selected the relevant guitar in use for a specific tune.
The midi also went off to an Akai 3000 sampler which further enhanced the versatility of the set-up.
An extreme example of this useage was, of all things, when we did Yellow Submarine.
Apart from the acoustic guitar at the start and the brass band in the middle when the end came there was much made of the big bass drum being banged all round the studio by Mal Evans when it was recorded so we decided to bring this somewhat prominent, as you might say. The midi control out was 6 channels, one for each string. I set a nice big bass drum for each string on the Gr09 so a strum of the guitar produced 6 bass drums. This was also done on the Akai sampler so there were then 12 bass drums with every strum of the strings. There was also a velocity setting so the louder the volume, obviously the louder the drums but also a velocity switch was set so as to bring in a different voice over a certain volume, another 6 bass drums, of a deeper tone. 18 bass drums with every strum as well as the normal acoustic guitar chords.
The looks of puzzlement from the punters was a joy to behold, the sound was fantastic.
Here’s a picture taken by me at the time.
pedals.jpg- (170.78 KiB) Downloaded 3575 times
On the right is a Roland VG, ( Virtual Guitar ) this was a guitar modeller so I could call up acoustic, 12 string, hollow bodied ,etc, guitars.
The blue pedal is a Roland GR09 guitar synth for the trumpets, pianos etc.
Between them is a Roland US 20 which enabled you to select which unit you wanted to use, or both at the same time.
Slightly to the left of the VG is the expression pedal which could be programmed to be a variety of things , volume, pitch shift, wah wah etc.
The GR09 was midied up to the VG so selecting a synth voice automatically selected the relevant guitar in use for a specific tune.
The midi also went off to an Akai 3000 sampler which further enhanced the versatility of the set-up.
An extreme example of this useage was, of all things, when we did Yellow Submarine.
Apart from the acoustic guitar at the start and the brass band in the middle when the end came there was much made of the big bass drum being banged all round the studio by Mal Evans when it was recorded so we decided to bring this somewhat prominent, as you might say. The midi control out was 6 channels, one for each string. I set a nice big bass drum for each string on the Gr09 so a strum of the guitar produced 6 bass drums. This was also done on the Akai sampler so there were then 12 bass drums with every strum of the strings. There was also a velocity setting so the louder the volume, obviously the louder the drums but also a velocity switch was set so as to bring in a different voice over a certain volume, another 6 bass drums, of a deeper tone. 18 bass drums with every strum as well as the normal acoustic guitar chords.
The looks of puzzlement from the punters was a joy to behold, the sound was fantastic.
) doing a Shadows step too 
