........... or any of the many other DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstations) that are out there. It’s often a matter of personal preference and, out of sheer familiarity (if nothing else) I use Cakewalk Sonar. One feature that’s most important though, if you want to do more than the very basics, is that your software supports VST plugins. This allows you to........
Record a performance
Route the playback through a plugin which modifies the sound in some way
Mix all your tracks to a master file (eg mp3)
............ but your original recorded track stays unmodified so, if you want to modify the plugin settings or even use a completely different plugin you can do so and produce a completely different sounding master version. See Shopper 264 for the full text.
To illustrate both the process and the quality of the latest amp simulators I prepared
some sample mp3 files based on the old Shadows number 1 hit Apache written by Jerry
Lordan. To avoid copyright infringement issues my recordings are a pastiche of the
original called Commanche (I had toyed with Arapahoe but it didn't trip off the tongue
so easily). As Eric Morcambe once quipped to conductor Andre Previn "I'm playing
all the right notes -
The CommancheRaw.mp3 has the lead track recorded direct from the guitar with no amplifier or other device in the sound chain so it's as close to the unmolested sound as you can get. This was recorded from my Bender Distortorcaster (see www.brianeastwoodguitars.co.uk/dist.html) via a Lexicon Alpha USB audio interface straight into Sonar. If you examine the picture carefully you’ll see that it’s not just the body that’s bent, the frets aren’t parallel, but it’s not as difficult to play as you might imagine. It does attract a lot of interest when we play live though.
The middle section of Commanche has 16 bars played using palm muting in typical Hank
Marvin style. This is done by carefully resting the fleshy part of your right hand
on the bit where the strings cross the bridge to prevent the notes ringing on. The
result should be a note that's still in tune but staccato sounding. Because the note
doesn't ring out there's a more silent part between the notes and, if you play through
any kind of delay or echo device, the result is Marvin's signature tripping echo
sound. You have to get the pressure just right -
The amp simulations used on the examples all come from Native Instuments Guitar Rig
4 software (http://www.native-
CommancheTweed is based on a Fender Bassman 1958 vintage amp and set for a fairly clean sound (quite low gain)
CommancheAC30 is based on a Vox AC30 (as used by Marvin, Beatles, Brain May etc) this is also set at a very low gain
CommancheJCM800 uses a Marshall JCM 800 supposedly set up for a sound similar to that used by Jeff Beck at the recent Ronnie Scott's Club recording
CommancheBoogie is a high gain distortion sound from a Mesa Boogie similar to that used by Carlos Santana
I'll leave you to decide which you like best although the first two are most appropriate
to the style of the piece. Purist should note that I'm NOT trying to produce an accurate
imitation of the Shadow's original sound. The rhythm guitar on the tracks was a hybrid
Fender Stratocaster body with a Vox Phantom 12 string neck that I built a while ago
from 2 damaged guitars. The bass is a vintage Vox Clubman and the drums and strings
synthesised through Sonar's TTS-
The whole thing took a couple of hours to record, fix the odd glitch and mix with the different amp sounds.
Just to add a little style contrast you could also download/try Rockin’Chair a swing jazz number written by Hoagy Carmichael. This one uses a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 amp simulation and was played on my 1986 Fender USA Stratocaster, or the seasonal Sleigh Ride using a clean(ish) Mesa Boogie simulation played on a PRS CE24.
In Computer Shopper Issue 264 -
Cubase
Sonar
Abletron Live
Logic
Garage Band
ProTools
