randyman
Experienced
Hey there, Ultra mavens –
I’ve been debating for a while whether or not to go ahead and write in, as I’m jumping the gun a little… you see, I’m waiting a check to arrive, and as soon as it clears the bank later this week, I’ll be placing an order for the magic box. Yes, you know the one I mean.
I wanted to say “hello”, as I’ve been getting a ton of valuable info from the forums for a while now. I’m hoping the time will come when I’ll be able to give something back, and I’m thinking the best chance of that happening stems from the fact that I’m coming from a completely different background than most of the musicians I’ve been reading about here; the fact is, I’m pretty much a babe-in-the-woods when it comes to all things guitar-related.
I’m basically a keyboard player. I’ve been playing synths for a long time, starting with a classic Arp 2600 in ‘73, going polyphonic with one of the first modular Oberheims in ‘77, and – well, you know how it is. Things just tend to snowball.
Along the way, I’ve picked up an affection for exotic instruments like the sitar and the guqin (goo-CHIN, sort of a 4-foot-long Chinese zither) and have spent a fair amount of time strumming acoustic 6- and 12-string guitars, without any particular level of accomplishment. No picking or melodic work, really - just the kind of simple rhythm chords that fit well into backing tracks.
Still, a lot of fun. Recently, I replaced my 15-year-old 12-string Yamaha cheese-grater (it was pulling itself apart) with a bargain Breedlove 12-string I found on Craigslist. As a bonus, it has a Fishman pickup built in, and I started looking around for an inexpensive effects box I could use for practicing in the living room, without having to fire up all the gear in the studio. Since it seemed to have a good range of capabilities, I picked up one of Roger Linn’s AdrenaLinn III boxes. It’s got a range of effects, a handy bank of drum patterns to play along with, and – something that was pretty much off my radar – a collection of amp and cabinet models.
I should apologize for how long I’m babbling on, but I’m trying to bring you to the point where you see the searchlight-grade lightbulb blazing over my head as I plug my humble acoustic 12-string into a “Marshall Plexi” simulation, and strum for the first time.
As a life-long solo studio keyboardist, used to seeking the flattest and cleanest amplification possible, I was suddenly hearing things that at least evoked a whole class of sounds I’d heard all my life, but never had the chance to produce myself. (I’m not counting the borrowed Sunn Coliseum amp I used with my first band back in the summer of ‘73, which made my Arp a lot louder, but didn’t seem to do much for its tone at all.)
Well, this was definitely something I wanted to pursue further. I picked up an instrument better suited to the box – a Steinberger with the built-in sliding capo, for greater compatibility with the keys native to those exotic instruments I mentioned earlier – and I’ve spent the last 4 or 5 months exploring the joys and wonders you electric guitarists have known all along.
It’s been great, but the little Linn box is kind of a stop gap, a temporary measure that has become less inspiring the more I’ve read and heard from the Ultra. There are some great demos on the Fractal site, but fremen’s recent series of videos just blew me away. I’ve spent a lot of time over the decades learning instruments, and I know at least one thing for a fact: the progress you make on a given instrument is directly proportional to the amount of pleasure the sound of that instrument gives you while you’re playing.
So while it may seem appalling to the accomplished guitarists out there, and those who would give their left nut (sorry, ladies) to have this box to gig with, my first and primary use for the Ultra is as a learning tool – one that will give me the positive feedback to encourage to me stand there and put in the hundreds upon hundreds of hours of practice and exploration required for progress. From what I’ve heard, I can’t wait.
I’m not daunted by the tech side of things; I’ve got a few decades of programming gizmos down, and 25 years of MIDI routing, though some of the Ultra’s parameters - especially the amp and cabinet models - I have absolutely no touchstone for. What does a Fender amp bring to the sound? Damned if I know, but it will be great fun to explore.
That’s the second application I have in mind – the chance to process my synths through amps and cabinets I’ve never had the chance to try. Don’t get me wrong; I love the electronic sound of my primary synths, and it’s something I’ve cultivated through the years, but I’m excited at the thought of putting pianos and organs and leads through the Ultra’s library of amps; it’s a tone modification option I’ve never had available. It’s a completely unexplored world for me.
The third application I’ve got in mind for the Ultra involves those exotic instruments I’ve mentioned. Let’s face it; here in the West (and by “west”, I mean in the global sense) there really aren’t many guqin players running around. I’m hoping that if I can get some kind of East/West thang happening with these instruments, and out there onto the InterTubes, maybe I can introduce some new listeners to musics they wouldn’t have heard otherwise. At the very least, there’s a damn good chance I can be the first to post processed guqin samples here on the Fractal forum!
(I just remembered - if you’ve seen the Jet Li movie “Hero”, there’s a scene where a guqin is being played in a rainy courtyard. It’s a cool movie, if you haven’t. There are also instruments in “Kung Fu Hustle” that are a strange, imaginary mix of the guqin and the koto.)
Well, if I haven’t worn out my welcome with this protracted introduction, I’ll look forward to posting when the Ultra arrives, and in the months to come. It’s clearly a great community, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these babies, and work towards the day when I’ll no longer be the least capable guitarist to ever plug into an Ultra. It can happen!
Randy Walters
?Bristol, RI USA
http://haikutweeter.com
I’ve been debating for a while whether or not to go ahead and write in, as I’m jumping the gun a little… you see, I’m waiting a check to arrive, and as soon as it clears the bank later this week, I’ll be placing an order for the magic box. Yes, you know the one I mean.
I wanted to say “hello”, as I’ve been getting a ton of valuable info from the forums for a while now. I’m hoping the time will come when I’ll be able to give something back, and I’m thinking the best chance of that happening stems from the fact that I’m coming from a completely different background than most of the musicians I’ve been reading about here; the fact is, I’m pretty much a babe-in-the-woods when it comes to all things guitar-related.
I’m basically a keyboard player. I’ve been playing synths for a long time, starting with a classic Arp 2600 in ‘73, going polyphonic with one of the first modular Oberheims in ‘77, and – well, you know how it is. Things just tend to snowball.
Along the way, I’ve picked up an affection for exotic instruments like the sitar and the guqin (goo-CHIN, sort of a 4-foot-long Chinese zither) and have spent a fair amount of time strumming acoustic 6- and 12-string guitars, without any particular level of accomplishment. No picking or melodic work, really - just the kind of simple rhythm chords that fit well into backing tracks.
Still, a lot of fun. Recently, I replaced my 15-year-old 12-string Yamaha cheese-grater (it was pulling itself apart) with a bargain Breedlove 12-string I found on Craigslist. As a bonus, it has a Fishman pickup built in, and I started looking around for an inexpensive effects box I could use for practicing in the living room, without having to fire up all the gear in the studio. Since it seemed to have a good range of capabilities, I picked up one of Roger Linn’s AdrenaLinn III boxes. It’s got a range of effects, a handy bank of drum patterns to play along with, and – something that was pretty much off my radar – a collection of amp and cabinet models.
I should apologize for how long I’m babbling on, but I’m trying to bring you to the point where you see the searchlight-grade lightbulb blazing over my head as I plug my humble acoustic 12-string into a “Marshall Plexi” simulation, and strum for the first time.
As a life-long solo studio keyboardist, used to seeking the flattest and cleanest amplification possible, I was suddenly hearing things that at least evoked a whole class of sounds I’d heard all my life, but never had the chance to produce myself. (I’m not counting the borrowed Sunn Coliseum amp I used with my first band back in the summer of ‘73, which made my Arp a lot louder, but didn’t seem to do much for its tone at all.)
Well, this was definitely something I wanted to pursue further. I picked up an instrument better suited to the box – a Steinberger with the built-in sliding capo, for greater compatibility with the keys native to those exotic instruments I mentioned earlier – and I’ve spent the last 4 or 5 months exploring the joys and wonders you electric guitarists have known all along.
It’s been great, but the little Linn box is kind of a stop gap, a temporary measure that has become less inspiring the more I’ve read and heard from the Ultra. There are some great demos on the Fractal site, but fremen’s recent series of videos just blew me away. I’ve spent a lot of time over the decades learning instruments, and I know at least one thing for a fact: the progress you make on a given instrument is directly proportional to the amount of pleasure the sound of that instrument gives you while you’re playing.
So while it may seem appalling to the accomplished guitarists out there, and those who would give their left nut (sorry, ladies) to have this box to gig with, my first and primary use for the Ultra is as a learning tool – one that will give me the positive feedback to encourage to me stand there and put in the hundreds upon hundreds of hours of practice and exploration required for progress. From what I’ve heard, I can’t wait.
I’m not daunted by the tech side of things; I’ve got a few decades of programming gizmos down, and 25 years of MIDI routing, though some of the Ultra’s parameters - especially the amp and cabinet models - I have absolutely no touchstone for. What does a Fender amp bring to the sound? Damned if I know, but it will be great fun to explore.
That’s the second application I have in mind – the chance to process my synths through amps and cabinets I’ve never had the chance to try. Don’t get me wrong; I love the electronic sound of my primary synths, and it’s something I’ve cultivated through the years, but I’m excited at the thought of putting pianos and organs and leads through the Ultra’s library of amps; it’s a tone modification option I’ve never had available. It’s a completely unexplored world for me.
The third application I’ve got in mind for the Ultra involves those exotic instruments I’ve mentioned. Let’s face it; here in the West (and by “west”, I mean in the global sense) there really aren’t many guqin players running around. I’m hoping that if I can get some kind of East/West thang happening with these instruments, and out there onto the InterTubes, maybe I can introduce some new listeners to musics they wouldn’t have heard otherwise. At the very least, there’s a damn good chance I can be the first to post processed guqin samples here on the Fractal forum!
(I just remembered - if you’ve seen the Jet Li movie “Hero”, there’s a scene where a guqin is being played in a rainy courtyard. It’s a cool movie, if you haven’t. There are also instruments in “Kung Fu Hustle” that are a strange, imaginary mix of the guqin and the koto.)
Well, if I haven’t worn out my welcome with this protracted introduction, I’ll look forward to posting when the Ultra arrives, and in the months to come. It’s clearly a great community, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these babies, and work towards the day when I’ll no longer be the least capable guitarist to ever plug into an Ultra. It can happen!
Randy Walters
?Bristol, RI USA
http://haikutweeter.com