Sarah McLeod’s ‘Wild Hearts’ Video

Posted onSeptember 19, 2017

Sarah McLeod has just released a video for the track ‘Wild Hearts’ from her new record Rocky’s Diner, and is about to hit the road for an Australian tour in support of the album. The Wild Hearts video captures seemingly routine moments in time, like passing buskers in the street – but rather than rush by them, like you might if you were on your way to work or similar responsibilities, the clip allows you to stay a while. It also features her adorable little dog, Chachi!

Here are the tour dates:

Tickets available from http://sarahmcleod.oztix.com.au/ | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets

FRI 3 NOV | WARATAH HOTEL, HOBART, TAS | 18+

Tickets available from http://sarahmcleod.oztix.com.au/ | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets

SAT 4 NOV | CLUB 54, LAUNCESTON, TAS | 18+

Tickets available from http://sarahmcleod.oztix.com.au/ | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets

New Satriani Album And Tour!

Posted onSeptember 19, 2017September 19, 2017

Wow, 2018 is gonna be a big year for Joe Satriani fans! Joe has announced a new record called What Happens Next, and it’s out on January 12. It features the rhythm section of Glenn Hughes and Chad Smith, so I can’t wait to hear the results. Visit Joe’s website to hear a preview of the track ‘Energy.’ And Joe is also kicking off a new G3 tour on January 11 with John Petrucci and Phil Collen. I’m really excited about this one because that’s three of my favourite guitarists from my teen years (who am I kidding – now too!) on the one bill, and it will be really interesting to see what Phil does in a solo context.

Here’s the press release about the new record and tour. Read More …

T-RackS 5 Looks Crazy Cool

Posted onSeptember 15, 2017

When the email about IK Multimedia T-RackS 5 hit my inbox, it dawned upon me that I’ve been using T-RackS for 18 years now. Whoa! If you haven’t tried it yet, a) what’s wrong with you and b) it’s an incredible suite of plugins for mastering, and I use it in all sorts of ways. Currently I’m using some of its EQ models to emulate particular mixing desk channels – my guitars go through a the model based on the Pultec® EQP-1A and a Black 76 Limiting Amplifier, then through my secret weapon: the Mic Room mic modeller, set for the same kind of mic I’m using but giving me access to the Proximity and Harmonics controls. Shh, don’t tell anyone.

T-RackS 5 has just been announced and it includes all the same great models but with a new improved audio engine, four new processors for a total of 38 high-quality modules on a flexible 16 processor series/parallel chain, a comprehensive broadcast ready professional metering tool section, a new completely redesigned, smart single-window GUI as well as an album assembly section with multi-format exporting function.

I’m particularly excited by the new Master Match module, which automatically matches the sound of your songs using up to three different source tracks as reference.

Watch the video below and hit this link for more.

Alice In Chains – Dirt

Posted onSeptember 6, 2017

Man, I’m continually blown away by how well Dirt by Alice In Chains holds up today. For all its darkness and brutal honesty there’s something strangely beautiful about it. It’s not an easy listen. You can tell even at this stage that the band was surrounded by and drawn towards self-destruction. The lyrics speak not just of addiction in an abstract sense, but of surrendering willingly to it, throwing yourself into it and letting it take you over completely. Embracing the hopelessness and the fuck-it-ness of it all.

When I first heard the record, I couldn’t relate to that at all. Hell, the biggest addition I had was playing guitar, and I managed to turn that into something constructive. But as I got older I started to understand Dirt a little more. I was never a drug guy but I came to understand self-destruction, hopelessness, the compulsion to see how far you can take something that is bad for you, how low you can get before you admit you need help, how much you can dislike yourself before you decide to either do something about it or give in.

There are a lot of albums I love that I don’t particularly feel like I need to listen to regularly any more, just because they’re so burned into my brain. But this one keeps calling to me and I keep hearing new things. And although Dirt has been out there in the world for 25 years now and has been a part of my life since my teens, I don’t listen to it for nostalgia. I listen to it because it feels like a living, evolving document of the human condition. It’s filtered through the lens of depression, addiction, desperation and surrender but as a listener you can superimpose all sorts of demons onto it and hopefully exorcise them in the process.

Dirt is still not an easy listen. If you’re a sensitive soul, you’re going to feel a lot of things and you’re probably going to want to just sit in silence for a few minutes afterwards, letting your mind come back from wherever you’ve just been. But it’s a very worthwhile listen too.

What’s Your Approach To Effects?

Posted onAugust 30, 2017

What kind of a player are you: straight into the amp, or do you build your sound through stompboxes or effects units? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because the maturity of digital modelling means there’s a third alternative: “It’s all in my Kemper/Helix/Axe-Fx/etc” so sometimes it’s just an amp, sometimes it’s a bunch of effects, and sometimes it changes from verse to chorus.”

Me, I’m typically a straight-into-the-amp player. Generally I follow the EVH approach of using the guitar’s volume pot to adjust the amp gain, and most of the time I’m on the dirty channel whether I’m playing distorted or clean. I still love my pedals though and I’ve been collecting them since I was 13 years old so I’ve amassed a few favourites in that time. The Z.Vex Fuzz Factory, the Jim Dunlop Q Zone and Buddy Guy Cry Baby, the DOD FX25 Envelope Filter, the BOSS OC-2 Octave. And then there are my beloved Seymour Duncan pedals (As many of you no doubt know, I’m SD’s social media guy and I’m pretty loyal): the Forza and 805 Overdrive are my go-to drives even though I have …way too damn many overdriven to choose from. The Catalina Dynamic Chorus is the only chorus I’ll ever use now. And the Pickup Booster is so simple yet so classic. Can’t wait to get my hands and feet on an Andromeda Dynamic Delay too.

I guess the dream setup for me personally would be something like, say, a BOSS ES-8 so I can dip effects in and out while still effectively getting my main tone from the guitar and amp. The way I approach effects is very similar to what I recall Chris DeGarmo saying in a Guitar World interview back in the 90s: I see my tone as a beam of light, and effects as a prism to shine it through. I always want to keep the spirit of the sound intact, and I know that Marshall so well in terms of how it responds to my playing, what it can do, and what it needs a bit of extra help with.

One of the things that excites me about the Andromeda is that it’s MIDI-capable, and so is the ES-8, so if I get the two I’ll be able to build Andromeda preset changes into my patches. Kick in a Pickup Booster or 805 with some ducking delay for a hotter lead sound, switch on a nice atmospheric reverse delay for my rolled-back-volume cleanish rhythms, hit the OC-2 and a fat analog delay sound for big riffs of doom …actually I’m thinking of using a Seymour Duncan PowerStage 700 power amp to power a pair of wet speakers so I can have a wet/dry/wet setup for delays, chorus, reverb and pitch shifting, still taking advantage of my ‘straight-into-the-amp’ approach on the gain side of things while also getting the most out of my pedals for the ambient and really ear-catching stuff.

What about you? How do you approach your use of effects?

IK Multimedia announces iRig Keys I/O

Posted onAugust 24, 2017August 24, 2017

IK Multimedia has just announced iRig Keys I/O, a keyboard controller with a built-in audio interface. I love this! Personally I find that one of the biggest impediments to my recording projects is having to set everything up and deal with cramped spaces while trying to feel free and creative. With iRig Keys I/O, IK Multimedia has packed together a keyboard controller with 25 or 49 full-sized keys, line/instrument/mic input with phantom power, eight MIDI-assignable drum/sample pads, assignable control knobs (actually they’re in two banks so there are effectively eight plus a volume/data one. Assign them to your AmpliTube 4 amp knobs!), balanced stereo and headphone outputs, transport controls for your DAW, two assignable touch strips and more. Imagine the possibilities: with just an iRig Keys I/O and an iPad or laptop you can take care of all your keyboard, drum pad, instrument and mic inputs in a single device when you’re out and about. At home, just plug the outputs into some powered monitors and you’re ready to rock. I have to get one!

Here’s the press release…

Jim Dunlop Geezer Butler Cry Baby Wah!

Posted onAugust 22, 2017

Geezer Butler wah wah

I don’t know a single bass player who has plugged into a wah wah pedal and not immediately played Geezer Butler’s N.I.B. intro licks. Geezer knows what he wants from his wah sound, and now he’s got it in the form of his new signature Jim Dunlop Cry Baby. It has several very stageworthy features: you bring it out of bypass simply by putting your foot on the pedal; you can set the effect ring-out time (ie: how long the effect remains engaged after you return the pedal to its heel position); and there’s an internal Q control. Rotate it clockwise for a narrower frequency range and more pronounced wah effect or counterclockwise for a wider frequency range and subtler wah effect.

Order yours from Musicians Friend.

Star Wars Is Def Leppard

Posted onAugust 21, 2017

Ok, so if you follow me on Twitter you know I’m a huge Star Wars fan. Even the prequels. Yeah. Come at me if you wanna fight about it. Anyway, something just hit me while listening to a (subscriber-only) Steele Wars podcast where fans called in with their ideas about the possible Obi Wan movie or other non-saga Star Wars movies:

STAR WARS IS DEF LEPPARD.

Def Leppard is a huge band, right? There was a time where they were selling tens of millions of albums (Hysteria alone has sold over 25 million copies). They have die-hard fans the world over who know every song from every album. Every B-Side. Every little piece of trivia. They collect pressings from different countries, etc etc etc. These are your real hardcores.

Now, here’s the thing. Go to a Def Leppard concert (seriously, do it. They’re awesome) and you’ll see 15,000 people in the audience. Among them are probably, like, 500 people who know every single song. Then there are another 14,500 people who only know the big hits. If the band was to drop in some deep cuts to please the hardcores, you have 14,500 people going “Uh… what’s this? Let’s go get a beer.” Throw in enough of those songs to satisfy the super-intense fans – the B-side collectors – and guess what: the reviews will suck. “Oh they played a bunch of stuff I didn’t even know. What a waste of money. Nobody ever heard Lady Strange on the radio at work.” And next time Def Leppard comes to town they’ll be playing to just those 500 people – but they won’t because the machine is too big. They’re a business with employees. They have staff to pay. They have ongoing costs to cover which the touring cycle takes care of, and you can’t just take a business like that and say “Y’know what? Let’s make 95% less money on the road this year!”

What I’m saying is, some of us may really really want a Star Wars movie that fills in some piece of obscure timeline trivia or would just be, like, totally cool, but instead we’re gonna keep getting Pour Some Sugar On Me.

They’re saving Ded Flatbird for the novels and comics.

I Heart Guitar

Guitar news, reviews, interviews, videos and lessons

Author: Peter Hodgson

Sarah McLeod’s ‘Wild Hearts’ Video

New Satriani Album And Tour!

T-RackS 5 Looks Crazy Cool

Alice In Chains – Dirt

What’s Your Approach To Effects?

IK Multimedia announces iRig Keys I/O

Jim Dunlop Geezer Butler Cry Baby Wah!

Star Wars Is Def Leppard

September 2017
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