Home › Forums › Tips, Tricks, Clips, and Pics › My guitar playing and how I use EHX
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November 25, 2008 at 1:07 am #77295julianModerator
Personally, I try to use guitar pedals for more than just tone shaping. I try to seek out ways I can use them for extended technique. EHX guitar pedals are often very awesome for this. Especially via some of the modes on the SMMH, the expression modes on the HOG, and just about any of their pedals by momentarily turning them on for a single note and turning them off, or just riding the switch and turning them on and off repeatedly while strumming the right chords (I love doing this with the frequency analyzer!)
Some examples from my band myspace (excuse the recording quality and the looseness of the takes, we did it in a rush):
http://www.myspace.com/recinerated
all tracks use the Little Big Muff
Though you may not like my music, I think maybe the way in which I use some things and the thought process behind them might be inspiring to you anyways.
-Outta Control uses the frequency analyzer at the beginning of each part quickly and then is turned off and followed by the prettier strumming. Then on the middle part I turn it back on and tweak the pitch with my foot for this background lead part over the gentle note picking.
-The Advent of Synthetic Intelligence and 1K kinds of Kung Fu use the SMMH (I set it fully wet and plug it followed by a volume pedal into my 2nd channel) with a volume pedal afterwards to make quick bursts of noise.
:On the Advent, with the volume down on the volume pedal, I start a loop. Then I gently tap the preset button which I have set to the 1/2 speed octave down setting, and then I do an overdub. I tap tempo, which brings it back to full speed, original octave (and the overdub double speed and up an octave) so at the very end of the song I can have these sporadic bursts of sort of computery sounding noise.
:On Kung Fu I turn on a sample and hold filter pedal with my big muff, hold a chord, loop it, then rock back on the volume pedal until I need it for the verses.
-On Bomb Your Face, I use the step bend on the HOG just to make those trem-picked neck slides sound a bit wonkier from time to time
Ok, now for some non-new band stuff:
http://www.soundclick.com/pedaldemos
on the polyphase + SMMH + LBM demos on that page, with the square mode and the expression pedal, plus tap tempo echoes, you can get sort of a dub beat going, and using the expression pedal changes where it tops out, while still keeping that bottom thud. (the cool pseudo S+H abilities of the polyphase in square mode using an expression pedal are better shown here though http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=651215&songID=5722010 in the 2nd half of the clip)
also on http://www.soundclick.com/pedaldemos the Spooky Organ clip demonstrates a cool sound I got by using the expression mode on the polyphase to accentuate and create controlled feedback over guitar notes, with a shallow fast vibrato on the clone theory to give that rotary sound
also, “cosmic brook” uses the SMMH for modulated delay and looping, while I play the frequency analyzer with my hand and an unplugged cord. For some reason under the right circumstances (I believe socked but un-shoed foot on the pedal controlling the frequency) you can put your guitar cable to your tongue, and it will make those cool sounds. So I made a whole loop with those sounds
lastly- another “on/off” use of the frequency analyzer- with chorus and OD on, this one chord when played at the right frequency analyzer setting sounds like a gong, so I used it in the end of this old song for my old band (excuse it for its deficiencies and just listen to the end) http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=691427&songID=5891583
I’ve got a bunch more cool tricks up my sleave, like using the SMMH in reverse mode to give you a sample and hold filter type sound, but I’ll post that later when I can remember the setting. I don’t believe I have any clips using it.
November 25, 2008 at 9:49 pm #87711John JMemberI really really dig yr. band, I’ve been trying to figure out ‘fuzzpunk’ myself these last few weeks but to no avail – it always comes out too funky. I really dig the sloppy drums, I’m not sure if that’s intentional or due to his own inabilities (it sounds totally punk), but either way it works perfectly. Your Hazarai-isms rival my own, and it’s always nice to find another HOG user, too – there’s so many rad settings in that box, it’s helpful to hear what other people are finding.
November 25, 2008 at 9:58 pm #87712julianModeratorthe sloppy drums are a bit of everything. Matt just started drumming very recently. There are no reliable drummers in our group of friends, so he’s taken it up in 2 bands. The original idea was just to use very simple cave like drums and use just a tom and a snare, but it ended up not working very well.
November 25, 2008 at 10:40 pm #87715John JMemberYeah, that cave thing never works. Because it is boring to play and rarely supports the song.
He’s doing something right, at any rate. I’ve been playing drums close to six years now and I basically have come to realize that perfect drums are just plain boring to listen to.
November 25, 2008 at 10:58 pm #87716julianModeratoryeah, I personally like drums to be a little off kilter myself
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