GUITAR SYNTH.........."Mad Easter"

[ToneZappa]

Guitar Synth track "Mad Easter" all played on a MATON JB6 guitar with a midi pickup fitted. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=747383&content=songinfo&songID=5910888

Have a listen !!!

[Fumblyfingers]

Very nice...I had never heard of this guitar.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

 

 

 

[Fumblyfingers]

What is your setup....what softsynths, MIDI converter etc etc? The samples sounded nice, when I get time I will browse your site some more, listen to more clips.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Maton's an Australian company.

[ToneZappa]

What is your setup....what softsynths, MIDI converter etc etc? The samples sounded nice, when I get time I will browse your site some more, listen to more clips.

 

"Mad Easter" was played on a MATON JB6 solid body electric guitar its an interesting guitar solid as a rock. It has a zero fret, 24 frets and 24 inch scale (thats small like the Brian May guitar) 2 x HB pickups Dimarzio dual sounds, Master Vol and 2 x Tone, 3 way pickup selector and 3 x 3 way mini switches for "Series mode", "Single Coil mode", "Parallel mode" and "Phase Switch" giving a total of 24 sounds and of course the old Roland Midi pickup going into a Roland GI-10 Guitar Midi Interface that was triggering an old KORG X3 synth for all the sounds. The midi info was recorded on an old ATARI.

 

MATON guitars are from Australia and are very well made most people know them for there acoustic guitars but they have been making electrics since they started.

 

I have another track on my sound page ("Jumbuck")which is all midi guitar and the real guitar is another MATON JB6 but without all the switches, its different wood as well and I fitted a Kahler trem (its the kind of guitar that just lets you do your thing......)

[Fumblyfingers]

That's great....not to sound rude but it is great that you can get such nice sounds out of an older system. The tracking sounds pretty good, did you have to edit a lot or does it track really well?

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

I have another track on my sound page ("Jumbuck")...)

 

What's a guy in MUNICH doing playing Matons and writing tunes called "Jumbuck"? Are you an Aussie expat living there?

[ToneZappa]

That's great....not to sound rude but it is great that you can get such nice sounds out of an older system. The tracking sounds pretty good, did you have to edit a lot or does it track really well?

 

Thanks.....all the sound including reverb was from the KORG X3 synth. I would like to get the AXON for the guitar synth side but if everything is set up well the ROLAND GI-10 is okay (there are some crazy fast runs in "Mad Easter" but the Roland seems to deal with them) I recorded the track with a marimba sound that works (tracks) very well for me then changed the sounds afterwards. All pitch bend was off so the guitar is chromatic, 95% was played into the Atari which had Cubase with midi only (used like a tape machine no click or anything) and 5% made up on the edit page of Cubase. So you can play 95% on a regular guitar. BUT.....what I did to arrange it was copy the part about 8 times then assign 4 tracks to different midi channels and erase hundreds of notes. Thats why it sounds like a quartet (plus a percusion bit) You have to have a plan though, which I did.

 

Playing guitar synth is a different frame of mind for me. Its more dynamic than a keyboard and I use different fingering (left hand) and normally play finger style (thumb 1st & 2nd) and your playing has to be tight........etc

[ToneZappa]

 

What's a guy in MUNICH doing playing Matons and writing tunes called "Jumbuck"? Are you an Aussie expat living there?

 

Errrr I,m from the U.K.(London), I found my first Maton in Sydney OZ and Jumbuck is what the JB stands for in Maton JB6 (its the name of the guitar) The "Jumbuck" track was called that because everything on it was done on that Maton JB6 !!! and finding names for instrumentals is really really hard.......Oh and I now live in Munich.

Thanks for listening.

[Fumblyfingers]

I like the idea of using the patch that tracks well and then changing the sound once you have a good MIDI track. It is easy to stop an otherwise good track because there was a glitch somewhere.

[miroslav]

The midi info was recorded on an old ATARI.

 

God...and I thought I was the only nut left on the planet still using an Atari for basic MIDI sequencing! :grin:

 

Are you using Cubase or Notator?

 

I still use Cubase on my Atari...but these days it's only for doing basic MIDI stuff, like when I'm working out scratch tracks to record against...plus, the Atari/Cubase combination locks real solid with my open reel tape deck, letting my lay down the Click track to tape from Cubase, using the MIDI sequence scratch tracks as guides.

 

Otherwise...I use a more "modern" DAW app for editing....

 

Your stuff is pretty cool...nice work.

 

[Fumblyfingers]

Funny how far we have come so fast as far as processing power etc.

 

It always sucks though, especially when you are not made of money, when you finally buy the computer of your dreams and 3 months later it is old school.

 

This is when you Pee Cee guys jump up and down like Jack Russell terriers on crack, because you just go in and get a motherboard or whatever and upgrade...us Mac guys are wondering how many months it will be until we can afford a whole new one.

 

Then too, the "old" Mac computer won't get all that much to sell as it is almost obsolete, and is too good to let go for a song...plus you are remembering how much it took to buy it in the first place......the pain from the hole burning in your back pocket.....so you keep it as a "backup" or "just for internet use"...."archiving"...."to give to the kids one day"

 

 

Like Craig say's.....his current PC is still in the same case it came with years ago but is current as far as CPU power etc....still, you guys can keep 'em

[ToneZappa]

[quote=miroslav

God...and I thought I was the only nut left on the planet still using an Atari for basic MIDI sequencing! :grin:

 

Errrr you are ......I got rid of mine, almost ten years ago just after I did that track, could,nt sell it had to give it away. It always worked just fine with the third version of Cubase.

I have a very old MAC and a PC (Lap Top) now. The track "Jumbuck" on my sound page had all the real guitar recorded on cassette !!!!! (you can hear where the tape got a fold and the guitar goes from left to right for a second).......Thanks for checking it out.

[miroslav]

Like I said...I use it only to create a basic MIDI scratch track and to lay down the Click on my tape deck.

 

I haven't used it to seriously sequence music...in like, 10-12 years, but that's mostly 'cuz I just got away from the whole MIDI thing.

These days, apart from the MIDI scratch/Click tracks and occasional synth pad sequencing...I just don't bother with MIDI all that much.

I record 90% of my tracks using acoustic instruments and microphones.

 

I guess the main reason I hung on to the Atari/Cubase rig is because it has drivers that allow very easy synchronization with the tape deck, so its always been my safety net...and it was the first "DAW" that worked well for me.

 

Otherwise, for all my current DAW work, I use Samplitude...and I am able to lock the tape deck to it also, but Ive never touched the MIDI features in Sam...so I still fire up the Atari occasionally. :grin:

I have two spare Atari computers and another monitor...and recently I thought of tossing one on eBay...but I saw that no one was really buying them anymore, not even collectors...so I figure I'll just hang on to them until the next major studio spring cleaning....