Today's SG12 recording:


I decided to make a studio recording of the jam video piece I uploaded for sharing last week. The idea of today was to use only the SG12 for all layered parts and tweak the AxeFxII to get amp sounds that differ but still work well together in an ensemble mix. At most there are five tracks of SG12 layered. I'm quite happy with the reverb sound, it is in fact a rather crappy spring reverb simulation of the AxeFx... but with some kind of magic I like. It was an experiment to record including reverb but I liked the sonic result that process leads to and will definitely use the method again (otherwise reverb is traditionally added in the mix).

To be honest, I had been planning to record this piece with different instruments; for example the tenor sax playing the melody lead line and some cello too, but it was so fun to start with the SG12 that I skipped over all that and tried to get all needed colours out of the SG12+AxeFx instead. With distortion and a careful setting of noise gates you can reach pretty far.

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In case someone is interested in checking out the old live version I'm pasting it in below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIqAxD99AQ0[/youtube]






And just for fun I made a third version of this tune. A really slow version with just a soft piano and strings.

Just returned from a brief holiday in Scotland, saw that you'd posted this piece but my phone wouldn't play it .
Now home and loving listening to it on my laptop - another fantastic song, Per. Every post from you, I get more impressed with both your playing and the sounds you're getting from the AxeFX - it's top of my wish list!

Looking forward to your next composition.

-Marc-

Very nice Per!

Is that a capo or a damper on the bass side?
and why are you using an extra damper on the melody side?
I saw a picture of Tony Levin using an extra damper on both the bass and melody side second fret and also some white paper under the lowest bass string. Why is this?

It's a capo. You can see in the video how I'm using it. Because I originally ordered this SG-12 with a Roland GK-3 MIDI pickup. Later on my taste in Sticks changed and I sold the GK mic... but I forgot to remove that extra damper. It is only required to help the GK to read strings well for triggeringSet list? He, he... sorry, just kidding. Sometimes extra damping is needed, depends on what part you are playing. Even guitar players often put something soft close to the nut for damping. I do that very often in the studio when recording guitar. I can imagine that the way Tony plays Stick bass, loud and with heavy compression, any unwanted noise could mess up the bass sound quite badly.

I was talking about this picture amongst others. You see the white thing under the lowest bass string. I wander why that is? Sorry for the off topic.
http://www.songkick.com/artists/514875-tony-levin

Yes, I can see it there - strange arrangement. It looks as it covers both side's lowest string nut score so my guess is that it is an old "quick fix" to raise only those two strings a little - and then it worked so he never changed it. Maybe he needed thinner bass strings and the score got too wide and he didn't have the time to fix it properly. I noticed he already had that thing in 2008, as can be seen in this video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edqH0ofRQrM[/youtube]

I saw a video a him from that same year having covered the whole first fret of both sides with some white paper or other material. Apparently he was having some problems with the damping or something.

Per, Magic is the word of choice here, beautifull melody. It reminded me of the peice you performed in the 'Echo Temple' (with that great shirt everyone wanted!). I can see a theme album here, possibly " Emerald Suite"?

Loved it dude!

Cheers,
Eric

Hi guys, just a short note that I edited my first post (top above) to share also a third version of this piece. It's kind of fun to make different versions of a musical idea.

Per, love all 3 versions, the new one with cello and piano has a sadder feel than the previous 2, but I can't say I prefer one over the others.

Always a pleasure to hear one of your pieces, except this time I got an extra treat.

Cheers,

-Marc-