Still Silhouette Reverb Effect explained
Next to "what tuning is_____ tune in" another really popular question I get is about the reverb processing on my solo tune Still Silhouette from my CD Outre.
If you're not familiar with the tune you can grab a free listen on the Last FM OUTRE player.
Its fretless piccolo bass with increasingly strange reverb effects building in the background throughout the piece. When I asked for this kind of effect I had David Torn in my mind.
The effect was created old school style by my producer Cookie Marenco from OTR Studios in Belmont CA.
I was just smart enough to capture a bit of video of Cookie explaining how she creates the effect while we were in the studio.
Today, I got a few e-mails and myspace messages about this track (I think there's a post on a bass forum about it) so I found a bit of the video and uploaded it to the interwebs.
Still Silhouette Reverb Effect explained from Jeff Schmidt on Vimeo.
Obviously this is the old school way - with vintage Lexicon PCM and Super Prime Time verbs, delays, Eventide Harmonizers and real time parameter manipulation (performance)
Not exactly something I can bring out on shows without dropping about 20K in gear and as much IQ to be stupid enough to bring it all out to venues.
Thankfully, there's a reasonable alternative.
I created an effect chain in Ableton Live on my laptop with plug-ins.
It's not exactly the same thing - but it's very, very close to the effect created for the CD.
The main key to the alternative sound is the use of an effect called "Crystalizer".
It's a cascading pitch-shifted reverb/delay process.
You can find it in plugs like SoundToys and Guitar Rig. While the SoundToys version is waaaay better (I think it's based on the Eventide algorithms) the Guitar Rig version is what I have on the laptop and it works just fine.
You can hear that effect in performance on the 2 "ruiner severhead" videos I posted "SEVERED" AND "BOUND".
The combination of these processes is something I've come to call SMOKE because I can't fit "cascading pitch-shifted reverbs & delays" on the return label.
UPDATE:
ok - I realized it's totally easy to just show this Ableton Live chain on video. I don't have a screencast app so I just pointed the camera at the computer screen - ghetto style!
Using Ableton Live to create the Still Silhouette Reverb FX from Jeff Schmidt on Vimeo.
With this info you will, without question, be able to duplicate everything I do and render me completely useless in the global marketplace.
Use it wisely.
;)
