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n.b., update June 23, 2010: in depth review of Godin xTSA, part 1: as electric guitar. Part 2: as acoustic. Part 3: as guitar synth with Roland GI-20 and Axon AX50

I decided to get a new guitar for traveling so I would not have to subject my ancient SG and pre-cbs jaguar to airport bumps and tosses. If you just want to hear what the new Godin xTSA sounds like, here are a quick one, strange attractors, and recession era dreamscape 17, all showing off the synth and acoustic capabilities.

I have been eying up Godin guitars for some time now, and played a neat one with two humbuckers and a single coil in the middle with a little twist…there was also an onboard piezo pickup to emulate an acoustic sound. The one I played was in Honolulu, at Easy Music Center, and a good deal, but I decided to forgo it and wait til I got to Los Angeles to buy anything, thus saving one leg of travel. Plus I figured there might be more guitars in LA than in Honolulu. I sent some emails out inquiring and got back a response from Jon Bingham at West LA Music on Santa Monica Blvd saying he could get the Godin for me. He got me a great deal. Go see him for yr guitars! When we got around to details, it turns out that Godin has stopped making this particular guitar but makes the exact same one with a guitar synth built in as well, the xtSA.

I have been playing synthesized guitar for a while, using first G-tune, a tuning program with midi out, then the widi pitch tracking software. This has been fun–but tracking is a problem. Widi did a better job than g-tune (it should, it is made for the purpose while g-tune is primarily a most excellent tuner program), plus you could delimit the note range, taking some stray hits out of the picture. Still, it was like having a slightly drunk Thelonious Monk wannabe playing something vaguely similar to what you played on guitar but a little later. It is actually kind of cool sometimes, especially if used as an inexact wash kind of thing…check out rreplay’s round the perimeter, but the problem is something called tracking. Turning guitar string vibrations into midi notes is computationally inexact and intensive, so the tracking was never more than an approximation. Plus, neither captures any of the dynamics of your playing. This is particularly a problem with widi…it would not take much to put in an envelope follower to track dynamics and map it onto a midi control change message…that should be built into the program.

So anyway, Jon said he could get me a sweet deal on the xtSA, basically getting it for the same price as the discontinued model without the synth, so I thought , ok. Now last time I checked, guitar synths were always multi-thousand dollar affairs that locked you in to a particular set of synth hardware that did not sound so great. I checked again and found the Roland GI-20, which was just what I needed, basically it just took the signal from the guitar and changed it into midi, which I could then run through my zillion plugins.

After a few mixups which delayed the guitar’s arrival, I got it, the GI-20, a road-worthy case, and the attendant cords and a cool strap. The guitar is a beautiful flame maple top, black with lighter detailing in the wood. I also like the cognac flam maple finish, but got the better deal on the black one.

Got it home and spent a week on the acoustic and electric pickups without doing the synth. Very nice. The combination of humbuckers and single coil is nice. I have always played single coils, so it is nice to have that edgier sound available, and I figure when I get back to Honolulu, having something with humbuckers will add to the sonic palette. The single coil is not so hot, outputting only about half the volume of the humbuckers, but with a nice fendery slinky kind of sound. I am going to try raising it to see if I can get it to output a little hotter. I like crunchy single coils a la p-90s, but I am not sure this one has it in it. The pickup positions, selected via a strat-style 5 position switch are neck humbucker – humbucker/single coil – single coil bridge humbucker – and bridge. I thought it might be nice if the humbuckers could be tapped, instead of mixing, and a couple of other Godins do that with two pickups, the the LGX-SA and the LGXT, but they are two to three times the price.

The acoustic section is cool sounding, though without some doctoring up, not really acoustic sounding. It is more like the glassy 80’s Police/Andy Summer kind of tone that sounds really good chorused. I am playing with running it through a convolution reverb with a guitar body impulse loaded to make it sound woodier, and also mixing it with an octave up signal and a light slow moving chorus to get a twelve string sound…hmm, maybe a delay would be better than a chorus to get that…I’ll have to try it. One down side is that the whammy bar is really microphonic when the piezo is on so usually you’ll want to swing that out of the way.

The guitar plays flawlessly. It came set up right, and there are no dead spots or buzzes. It has locking tuners, which I guess I don’t get the point of just yet. They put on strings with no extra winds around the tuning peg, and I guess the lock is supposed to keep them in place and in tune, but mine slipped when I bent the strings, so I had to immediatrely restring. Not a good pitch for the Godin strings that they recommend on the guitar.

My setup for while I’m away from home

noise from ground loop

Now on to the synth…this is where things get a little squicky. The setup is to run an acoustic and electric analog out and a thirteen pin analog to midi cord to the Roland GI-20 midi box. When I plugged the Roland into the USB, it gave a terrible whining noise through the electric pickups at 1000 hz, 2000 hz 3000 hz and so on (see image above). I solved the problem by dispensing with the roland usb midi and running a midi cable out of the Roland and into an outboard USB midi port. Another seeming problem is that the synth volume knob does not work until you program it to work on the roland, as I found out when I RTFM. Once all that got sorted out, I was able to make some interesing music. Check out a quick one first if you don’t have much time or patience. It is the acoustic guitar played with a synth bass tracking the guitar sound. Next comes strange attractors, and last and weirdest, but showing some of the interesting things that can be done with the synth, is recession era dreamscape 17. All are recorded in one take in Plogue bidule. Everything but the drums comes from the guitar. As always, check out the rest of the music on way music.

OK, just because I am getting so behind here because of all the good music in LA…Ozomatli totally rocked the Disneyland House of Blues two Saturdays ago. If you have never heard of this LA band, their albums are great, but their live show is amazing, one of the top five concerts I’ve ever been too. I have just missed them three times at home in Hawaii…they are one of the few good bands from the continent to come through.

It was a packed house, but we got a great spot in the front center of the balcony, where it was not such a mob scene and Monisha could see. Plus it was right over the sound board, so the sound was great. A woman about my size kept trying to slide in to a space about half my size all during the first band…I moved over but there was still not room and she kept pushing…I thought she was going to pick my pocket or something. Finally she asked the woman next to me to move over while her husband was away so she could get in, taking hubby’s place. The woman said no, the spot was her husband’s, and finally the woman gave up. I would have let her in, she was just too big! But my wallet was ok. It distracted me from the first band though.

Ozomatli accurately describe their music as “a notorious urban-Latino-and-beyond collision of hip hop and salsa, dancehall and cumbia, samba and funk, merengue and comparsa, East LA R&B and New Orleans second line, Jamaican ragga and Indian raga.” They have been working with rappers Chali 2Na (from Jurassic 5) and Kanetic Source. The songs they were in weren’t just jams with raps over them (except maybe one or two). They were worked out so the raps fit the music to a “T” even to the point of having the whole band do synchronized dance steps with them which was kinda fun. I was waiting for them to break out the electric glide or the macarena (not really).

The band, together for fourteen years, seems to be at the top of their game and having fun while still managing to be political. I’ll check out their politics a bit more when Ozo come to the Grammy Museum in LA on March 24th. I only tell you cuz I just got my two tix for this 200 seat place—if you can, hustle over to ticketmaster and get ’em — they are only ten bucks (plus all of tixmaster’s fees upon fees). They’ll be talking, not playing though.

But back to the playing, they covered all the styles they claim to and then some, even having some oud-ish sounding instrument at the forefront for one song. It was really a family affair, with about 1000 family members present and rocking. A couple of band members’ kids and partners even took to the stage at the end, when opening band Upground joined them too. The whole thing ended with Ozomatli setting up a second-line style marching band and wandering around the HOB floor for about half an hour. I talked about the Ninja Academy’s getting revenge for classical Japanese music lessons….I am sure this was the revenge of the kids who had to play in the high school marching band…who knows, with a band like that in HS maybe I would not have dropped out (don’t worry, I went back and now can’t get out…I’m a college prof)!

Upground was also excellent in their own right, rocking the place with their Latin infused rock and reggae sound. Check them out too!

Sorry Ozo heads (is that the right term?) for not knowing the songs — I always listen but seldom learn titles. I’d have had more to say on the music if I was able to write a little sooner after the concert while stuff was fresh, but work impinged.

As always, if you made it this far, give rreplay and the rest of way music a listen, especially my “The Revolution will not be on the Internet” which is going on an album with Chumbawamba and John and Yoko among others!

Eric Parker from rreplay has a new Boston thing going…check out the music at his blog, theriex.

Went to hear Ozomatli and an East LA band that I had not heard of before, Upground. Both were great. Ozomatli was one of the best live gigs I’ve ever heard. More later, once I get done with some of my real job.

Juana Molina, Juana Molina, Juana Molina, and Juana Molina (along with Gregor Hilbe on drums and Martin Iannaccone on bass for most of the night) played the Trouadour Tuesday night. Molina spins out a magical web of sounds based on something called looping. Think of a loop as a section of a song that one plays, say on guitar, and then replays after it is recorded, with the option of recording more over the top of what has already been played. Molina uses four of these loopers plus what she plays and sings over them after recording them: building some up while taking others out, now a vocal loop with another voice dubbed over it, a synthesizer might come in while layers of guitar shift and swirl in everchanging textures. Molina’s playing requires an insane amount of multitasking and juggling. Hilbe managed to sound like Molina’s idiosyncratic percussion through a combination of wonderful playing and technological wizardry, thickening his beats by running them through pitch-shifting delays on a MacBook. Iannaccone also did a fantastic job on bass and occasional backing vocals.

At one point, the band left her to her own devices for a few minutes then came back with some low-tech wizardry for a change. A table with 3 overturned plastic bar glasses was set up on stage, and the three musicians played a percussion game consisting of pounding the the cups in a rhythm interspersed with claps and everyone exchanging cups to the beat. It was great fun and sounded quite cool…I think there was a contact mike on the table. It reminded me of the bottle-and-ashtray-with-handclaps percussion of the Dixie Cups classic “Iko Iko.”

All the machinery could be a recipe for mechanical sounding music, but she never sounds canned. In fact, mixing all the loops together almost always results in some unique, irreproducable sounds. The danger is that mistakes get replicated too and one little glitch can wreck the most carefully planned loop. The trick here is to turn glitches into musical moments on their own terms, which I think happened once or twice during the night.

The music is stunning, and at the risk of sounding new agey, it has an opening up effect on me, something that I might have called spiritual a few years ago, but for now I’ll just enjoy it it without having to label it. This goes along with Molina’s lyrical intent. Most of the songs are in Spanish, but while I would like to understand the words better, much of the singing is just notes with no particular words. I think this helps her cross-cultural appeal, because she sings in a more or less universal language all her own.

I managed to get right up front without knocking anyone over or barging forward in spite of the nearly full house. On the right at the top is the best of the lousy iPhone pix I was able to get, and below are my attempts to make them a bit more interesting.

Finally, as always, give a listen to rreplay and the rest of my music on way.net.

Opening band Fool’s Gold, from LA, had great energy, it it was kind of a wonder that we went from their tremendously upbeat music to Cat Power’s much more subdued delivery — it speaks a lot to the talents of both. My favorite moment from them was “Ha Dvash” which managed to get Tianawaren-sounding Tuareg desert guitar with the chords and beat of “Don’t Rock the Boat Baby.” And I guess it is in Hebrew. Fool’s Gold pitch themselves as tropical, drawing heavily on Afropop, but try as I might, I kept hearing space for fiddles and the drone of bagpipes in the three guitars. It left me wondering if there is a category for “Afro-Scotch.” I think in part it was the guitars not quite getting the polyrhythmic thumb-piano and xylophone derived rhythm playing of the best soukous and other Afropop guitarists. Mind you it still sounds great if you just give up the desire for authenticity, which is way overrated in music, and embrace your inner Scotsperson along with your Juju-dancing, high-life playing Afropoppish self. The ryhthm section was awesome, especially Argentinian percussionist Erica Garcia, who played full-body percussion, sometimes stretching time to its limits while other times being totally in the pocket. She was funnest to watch, but the rest of the formidable drum and percussion crew were also excellent, as you will discover if you give them a listen. You can do that on myspace (change the text color or the background so we can read it though!) or live at the Echo in Echo Park every Monday night if I heard right (better check before going though).

Finally, as always, give a listen to rreplay and the rest of my music on way.net.

Rich Rath’s “The Revolution will not be on the Internet” is going to be part of “Art for a Change,” an exhibition by artist English artist Alan Dunn on how artists, writers, and musicians have have used the word “revolution.” I’m still pinching myself to see if it’s true. As part of the exhibition, which will take place in May 2009, Dunn will make and give away for free 1000 double CDs each with a twelve page booklet that will include, besides “The Revolution will not be on the Internet,” a whole slew of artists and musicians. The most famous will be John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who will be represented by a London TV interview from 1972 (I think it is London Weekend Colour show “Aquarius” listed here). The interview took place in the midst of John’s deportation proceedings, which he ultimately beat.

Some more not too shabby company: A clip from Aldous Huxley’s dystopic 1962 talk at Berkeley, “The Ultimate Revolution” [text] [audio] [comments], a 1968 speech by Fred Hampton, the Black Panther murdered in his sleep by the FBI, British anarchist collective band Chumbawamba‘s “Liberation” from the Revolution 7″, ex-Guided By Voices member Robert Pollard’s new band Boston Spaceships playing “Headache Revolution,” Fiomily, a duo consisting of two German teenagers performing “Talking About A Revolution” from youtube, and French punk band Sylvester Staline playing “Revolution is Trendy.”

If I get some time, I’ll find out more about the other contributors and post about them. Here is the whole list of confirmed contributors so far: Aldous Huxley, Sara Marlowe, Chumbawamba, Fiomily, Fred Hampton, Sylvester Staline, Foreign Investment, Boston Spaceships, The Pinker Tones, A Challenge Of Honour, Rich Rath, Miek en Roel, Marcel Duchamp, Giddee Limit, Cyness, Mark Dowding and Chris Harvey, Cameron Carpenter, Redskins, Charles Dreyfus, Herbert Marcuse, Rob Sewell, Schoolz Of Thought, Pekatralatak, Flag Poles, Microphone Killa, Mellow Mark featuiring Gentleman, Marcel Journet, AMBASSADOR21, Alex Dempster, David Jacques, Kurda Abdulla, Pimiento Pastel, Kelvin K, Nataliya Nadtoka, The Sound of Aircraft Attacking Britain, Simon Whetham, Gintas K, Mark Whitford, Samantha Wass, Diego Restrepo, Expresión Sonora, Yolanda Spínola Elías, Aidan Deery, Alma Tischler-Wood, Rie Nakajima, Kevin Logan, nerefuh, Sara Jones, Raul Castro, Lennon & Ono, AD&THEFILMTAXI, DZ, Nels, Marco Capelli, Warsaw Poland Bros, Derek Horton, S. Bin Astrid/The Committee, Douglas Gordon, Katrin Lock, Jeff Young, Paul Ashton, James Chinneck, Elisabeth Davies, Grrrls Next Door, Ricardo Basbaum, Peter Suchin.

As always, check out my music from way.net and rreplay.

First post from LA, Where I’ll be spending the next few months. We are staying downtown, and as it turns out there is a fantastic club there called the Smell. They are cooperatively run, with founder Jim Smith getting help from the bands and people who come to listen. I found out about the place from a great writeup in LA Weekly this week. No alcohol, and I saw no signs of the usual bar-like scene of fuckups fucking things up by being wasted on this or that…it’s just about the music, which is fantastic.

I dropped in this past Saturday during a great set by the Ninja Academy. They consist of a drummer, Outdo-Ninja and bass player Indo-Ninja (who did all sorts of tapping and chord work run through distortion, echo, and a looper). For about half the songs they were accompanied by two women, one a Taiko drummer, Gongis Khan, and the other, Ninjamamalickum, probably getting a most awesome sounding revenge on her parents for making her learn Japanese traditional vocal music. She had this voice that emits probably the most decibels per pound of any singer in the world. Check “Robot Falls in Love with Computer” on their myspace page (linked above) for a taste that can’t begin to match the live effect. The guys wore ninja masks for the whole performance so you could not tell who they were. Khan was in a taiko drumming outfit and I think Ninjamamalickum wore a kimono, can’t remember. Ninjamamalickum’s theatrics seemed very carefully worked out and probably drawn from Japanese music, though I know nothing about Japanese traditional music, so who knows.

After Ninja Academy came Good for Cows, a Bay Area instrumental duo comprising Ches Smith on drums and Devin Hoff on double bass. Smith played with his feet on the drums to change their pitch, and rubbed cymbals to get a peculiar ringing buzz out of them besides rubbing the drums like they were congas. Hoff played an electric upright bass, sometimes bowed, mostly plucked and occasionally run through some effects. They rocked too.

I missed the other three bands that played there, Clevis (also listen to their myspace), Totally Serious, and Bay Area shredders We Be the Echo. I hope I get to catch them some other time, especially Clevis, whose music I liked a lot.

As always, give a listen to my music if you get a chance! Who knows, maybe I’ll get a chance to play at the Smell too. If you are in LA, I hope you check this place out.

After a very busy couple of months, finally a little post. Just finished mixing rreplay’s dnb piece “multigrain serial tiller.” Give it a listen! I have lots to write, just no time to write it. There are some great developments on the DIY scene, bringing multitouch to the masses. I have to post some of my soundscapes from last summer’s trip to Kolkata. One of my favorite bands, deerhunter, has a new album out…soon come, byem bye writem.

Another plugin maker who makes cool music is Skye Klein from Australia, who plays under the moniker of Terminal Sound System along with a bunch of other projects. His music, in TSS anyway, is dubby, minimalist, occasionally bordering on ambient but at other times moving towards industrial glitching. His latest album is Compressor, and another, Constructing Towers, is due out soon You can hear the latest music at the TSS site. His older stuff is all downloadable from Embryo Records. Among my favorites from the old stuff are minimal tolerance to injected errata, deep trauma, and tomorrow will not come, though I have not really listened to the whole catalogue yet.

His plugin and software site is arcDev Noise Industries, which has a frustratingly cool web interface that evokes some alien version of DOS or the ancient gopher net protocol. Type ‘help’ if you can’t figure it out.

I use two of his plugins a lot. The first is the aptly named hosebeast, which you can hear in action on rreplay‘s sizzle. Hosebeast is a “5-part fx processor for noisy, lofi, glitchy and general audio mayhem” with a filter, granulator, warper, bitcrusher, and ring modulator in any combination, including multiples of the same. In other words a FSU device.

The other great arcDev plugin is arcDev’s entry in the 2007 KVR Developers’ Challenge plugin contest, Ellipsis. It, along with mdsp‘s livecut, which I’ll discuss in its own post some time, are responsible for the drums in cubanecho and f it from rreplay. Cubanecho also relies on mdsp’s entry in the 2006 KVR Developers’ Challenge, fire. If you take a guitar and set it standing up with the strings against a tabletop, then pull it away a little and let go, then the strings will bounce on the edge of the tabletop ever more rapidly, just so: Booooooooing Booooing Boooing Boing Bng Bn bn bnbnbnbnbn (I take no responsibility for any damage to guitars or furniture this may cause). Mdsp has figured out how to mathematically model that warping speed change using delays in fire.

The way Ellipsis works is that you load ten samples into it, most usefully, drum loops that will more or less go together. You have to tweak the settings a bit to make the drums play at the right (or wrong!) speed. Then when you hit a corresponding note on your midi controller (usually a keyboard, but I use a footboard), it triggers the loop. You can set it for any BPM and it will speed up or slow down your loop accordingly, or sync it to your plugin host. If you only like the last half or the first quarter of the loop, you can play just that, or play it in reverse. One useful way to set it is to put the same drum loop in several times and play different portions of it frontwards or backwards to give some variation to the drums.

So that’s it for today. I couldn’t find any of mdsp’s music to play for you, but I hope you enjoy rreplay and Terminal Sound System.