HurdyGuigui
Inspired
Hello,
Now it has been almost two months I put my hands on this fabulous axe fx III, and I would like to share with you how this originally guitar processor works so well with my hurdy gurdy.
My background with fractal audio : I have used the axe fx II for 5 years I beleive, and last year my setup consisted of 2 axe fx II. Now the III replaces the 2 IIs.
How does the hurdy gurdy work :
It is basically strings bowed by a wooden wheel. Right hand is cranking the wheel and left hand is playing on a keyboard. There is different types of strings : melodic strings (that goes thru the keyboard), drones, rhythmic strings which make a buzzing kind of sound, and sympathetic strings.
Here is a video that shows some of the sounds I can do with my electric hurdy gurdy. Not everything was made with the axe fx on this particular recording, but it is basically how I play it live with effects and live looping, everything only with the axe fx III. I did the animation by the way
Well, now that you are familiar with the hurdy gurdy, lets have a look at how I integrated it with the axe fx III
About my HG :
My hurdy gurdy is home made (my dad is a HG maker ), it has magnetic pickups (9 in total) that I built specially for it, which makes it an "electric hurdy gurdy". Some of the pickups are coupled, and this goes into 6 separate outputs, 1 - melody low, 2 - melody hi, 3 - drones, 4 - sympathetic strings, 5 - rythmic strings, 6 - percussive sounds I make drumming on the HG.
Routing with the axe :
The 6 outputs of the HG are routed in 6 of the 7 inputs of the Axe III. I use to have 4 outputs going in one axe fx II. But then I moded the HG to have 6 outputs so I used 2 axe fx II. Now with the III, I can have all 6 signals plugged directly into it, and everything separated on the grid to be able to put different effects on each signal, which is just soooo awesomeeeee !! I know nothing around here other than the axe fx that would allow me to do that !!! The routing capability of the III is also just incredible.
Amps and effects :
-I use an amp on the melodic strings, I love the Deluxe verb for clean, I also use a few amps for high gain but I am still switching from different ones. I use the second amp block on the drones, all 4 channels going from clean to distorted sounds.
-Lot of eq and compression going on all the channels
-I use a pitch block on the drones, and I control the pitch value with my midi controller, so I can change the pitch of the drones with my feet, just awesome .
-I use the looper, what I love compared to the use of an external looper is the possibility to put the reverbs and delays after the looper so that when I cut the loop it is smooth and clean. I use also a trick with the looper to be able to do 2 tracks looping (using the left and rights channels of the looper as 2 loops).
About what I like on the III compared to the II :
-Well obviously the extra power, it is a bit like having 6 instruments plugged in, so even if I just want to do only eq, comp, amps and few effects, this is a lot of blocks, and almost all my patches run above 80% CPU.
-I am a front panel user (even on the II), I barely used axe edit, now with the III, it is just amazing to have this bigger screen and everything in color and all the knobs are just wonderful. It is so fast to edit presets now on the ui.
-The extra channels, I can have my basic clean, crunch, hi gain, boost in one amp, and this allow me to have almost all my blocks as globals so it is easy to keep consistency in the sound across presets.
-The 3U shallow, I prefer this to the deeper 2U of the Axe II, it is almost the same volume, but much more handy.
-There is certainly more things, but no I just got used to the III so I don't remember how it felt on the II
Conclusion :
Well so far I am in wonderland , this is just the dreamed box for me. Of course there is a few things that would improve it for me : flexibility of the tuner, and more looper blocks, a little more added cpu would help too, but well so far I can do the music I want to do, so that is the most important.
Also, I need to say that having studied computer engineering, before doing music for a living, I am absolutely amazed and respectful about how Fractal Audio is working. Having all these updates and this incredible support is just part of the wonderful experience, and makes me trust and love this box, which even if it might not be the most important factor in, helps to make better music I am sure.
I don't know what kind of setup I would have if the axe fx where not available in this world, but hell in analog world that would be a lot of boxes and cables...
Now it has been almost two months I put my hands on this fabulous axe fx III, and I would like to share with you how this originally guitar processor works so well with my hurdy gurdy.
My background with fractal audio : I have used the axe fx II for 5 years I beleive, and last year my setup consisted of 2 axe fx II. Now the III replaces the 2 IIs.
How does the hurdy gurdy work :
It is basically strings bowed by a wooden wheel. Right hand is cranking the wheel and left hand is playing on a keyboard. There is different types of strings : melodic strings (that goes thru the keyboard), drones, rhythmic strings which make a buzzing kind of sound, and sympathetic strings.
Here is a video that shows some of the sounds I can do with my electric hurdy gurdy. Not everything was made with the axe fx on this particular recording, but it is basically how I play it live with effects and live looping, everything only with the axe fx III. I did the animation by the way
Well, now that you are familiar with the hurdy gurdy, lets have a look at how I integrated it with the axe fx III
About my HG :
My hurdy gurdy is home made (my dad is a HG maker ), it has magnetic pickups (9 in total) that I built specially for it, which makes it an "electric hurdy gurdy". Some of the pickups are coupled, and this goes into 6 separate outputs, 1 - melody low, 2 - melody hi, 3 - drones, 4 - sympathetic strings, 5 - rythmic strings, 6 - percussive sounds I make drumming on the HG.
Routing with the axe :
The 6 outputs of the HG are routed in 6 of the 7 inputs of the Axe III. I use to have 4 outputs going in one axe fx II. But then I moded the HG to have 6 outputs so I used 2 axe fx II. Now with the III, I can have all 6 signals plugged directly into it, and everything separated on the grid to be able to put different effects on each signal, which is just soooo awesomeeeee !! I know nothing around here other than the axe fx that would allow me to do that !!! The routing capability of the III is also just incredible.
Amps and effects :
-I use an amp on the melodic strings, I love the Deluxe verb for clean, I also use a few amps for high gain but I am still switching from different ones. I use the second amp block on the drones, all 4 channels going from clean to distorted sounds.
-Lot of eq and compression going on all the channels
-I use a pitch block on the drones, and I control the pitch value with my midi controller, so I can change the pitch of the drones with my feet, just awesome .
-I use the looper, what I love compared to the use of an external looper is the possibility to put the reverbs and delays after the looper so that when I cut the loop it is smooth and clean. I use also a trick with the looper to be able to do 2 tracks looping (using the left and rights channels of the looper as 2 loops).
About what I like on the III compared to the II :
-Well obviously the extra power, it is a bit like having 6 instruments plugged in, so even if I just want to do only eq, comp, amps and few effects, this is a lot of blocks, and almost all my patches run above 80% CPU.
-I am a front panel user (even on the II), I barely used axe edit, now with the III, it is just amazing to have this bigger screen and everything in color and all the knobs are just wonderful. It is so fast to edit presets now on the ui.
-The extra channels, I can have my basic clean, crunch, hi gain, boost in one amp, and this allow me to have almost all my blocks as globals so it is easy to keep consistency in the sound across presets.
-The 3U shallow, I prefer this to the deeper 2U of the Axe II, it is almost the same volume, but much more handy.
-There is certainly more things, but no I just got used to the III so I don't remember how it felt on the II
Conclusion :
Well so far I am in wonderland , this is just the dreamed box for me. Of course there is a few things that would improve it for me : flexibility of the tuner, and more looper blocks, a little more added cpu would help too, but well so far I can do the music I want to do, so that is the most important.
Also, I need to say that having studied computer engineering, before doing music for a living, I am absolutely amazed and respectful about how Fractal Audio is working. Having all these updates and this incredible support is just part of the wonderful experience, and makes me trust and love this box, which even if it might not be the most important factor in, helps to make better music I am sure.
I don't know what kind of setup I would have if the axe fx where not available in this world, but hell in analog world that would be a lot of boxes and cables...