Category Archives: Jazz

Guitar pedalboard v3.0

Guitar pedal evolution. We were faced with the difficult decision to take off pedals from our pedalboard to make space for new ones. Too difficult. So we didn’t. Instead… we got a second board 😉

Temple Audio Duo 17 arrived to help us host 3 new pedals we have  had our sights on for quite some time. And so we reconfigured the whole signal chain. And the MIDI chain. Again. These three bad boys are the VENTRIS reverb, IRIDIUM amp modeler and HEDRA triple pitch shifter/delay.

    

Guitar synthesizer ENZO (yellow machine) was moved to the new (smaller) board to make space for the VENTRIS reverb from Source Audio (last row, second from right). We have wanted to have a second reverb to overlay on top of Strymon’s BIGSKY and the VENTRIS filled the bill perfectly. Two reverbs in one box, each with 14 different engines,  which can be run in parallel or series. In essence, we got 2 more reverbs, for awesome ambient soundscapes. The VENTRIS is placed downstream from the BIGSKY in the signal chain. Read more...

Early interview with ralph towner – guitar player, december 1975

A hard-to-find, early interview with composer and guitar virtuoso Ralph Towner, rescued from the original issue of Guitar Player magazine of December 1975.

I didn’t even know what a guitar was until I was 22… I went to a music store to buy a trumpet mute or music paper, something like that, and there was this salesman type there who sold me a classical guitar. I taught myself a little bit, and then wrote a composition for flute and guitar.

Read the original article HERE.

Boarding Completed

All aboard the pedalboard… it’s boarding completed. No more space in our pedalboard after the addition of Meris ENZO synthesizer, Morning Star MC6 MkII MIDI controller and Mision Engineering EXPRESSIONATOR expression pedal controller. From the previous version, a few pedals had to be relocated and other squeezed closer together to make room. There are a total of 52 switches and 60 knobs on this pedalboard.

ENZO is an incredible sound machine, with four engines for mono synthesis, polyphonic synthesis, arpeggiator and a dry mode with tons of effects. With delay onboard, portamento, sustain and incredible filtering capabilities, the ENZO is an endless source of possibilities and inspiration. All reviews have ranked ENZO as the number one pedal of 2018. Here is a looped little tune that we did recently using all four ENZO machines: Read more...

Power Board

Here is an update to the electric guitar pedal board that we started one and half year ago. Click on the image below to enlarge. (And go to the full post for a pic of the cable jungle underneath!).

In the top view, we can see some new additions: a Wampler EGO compressor (top right) replaces the mini EGO, and a Strymon BigSky reverb machine replaces the BlueSky. Also, the Neunaber Iconoclast speaker emulator, previously featured outside the board, is now on it (left).

There is also a some news about connectivity (arrows). Instrument inputs remain the same, with the switch that toggles between guitar #1 and #2 in between them. Above them, there are 4 outputs. Normal unbalanced outputs (left and right stereo channels) come right after the effects chain (minus Iconoclast). Below them, balanced outputs coming after the Iconoclast. Read more...

Chromatographies vol. 2 out in Bandcamp

Volume 2 of the Chromatographies project is out in the  Bandcamp website for download or streaming. The free download includes a digital booklet. There are also CDs available upon request.

Chromatographies is the jazz and ambient guitar project of Carlos Ibanez.

The Chromatographies project consists of solo guitar performances that alternate improvised guitar meditations with jazz guitar pieces. As in a live performance, each volume is arranged as a continuous suite with all sounds and effects made in real-time using stomp boxes.

The second volume follows the structure of the first one, with  improvised compositions by Carlos Ibanez intermixed with renderings of pieces by Maurice Ravel (from an arrangement by Larry Coryell), John McLaughlin, Horace Silver and Ralph Towner.

Chromatographies vol. 1

Chromatographies is the new jazz and ambient guitar project of Carlos Ibanez.

The Chromatographies project consists of solo guitar performances that alternate improvised guitar meditations with jazz guitar pieces. As in a live performance, each volume is arranged as a continuous suite of single track recordings, and all sounds and effects are made in real-time using stomp boxes.

The first volume includes improvised compositions by Carlos Ibanez and renderings of pieces by Bill Connors, Victor Young, Charles Mingus and Ralph Towner.

Volume 1 has just been released at the Bandcamp website. The free download includes a digital booklet. There are also CDs available upon request.

Blue beauty

Here it is our new Gibson Les Paul Standard HP 2017. A solid body electric guitar packed with features to achieve that great classic humbucker  tone.

We have just used this blue beauty to record a few pieces in volume 1 of the brand-new “Chromatographies” project which has just been released at the Bandcamp website.

But more on that in a later post. In the meantime, here is a sample of some of the sounds we have got from this incredible guitar, a track called “Overload”.

New guitar pedalboard

It took time, but our new guitar pedalboard is here! The board itself is a Trio28 from Temple Audio Design fitted with an IEC AC Mains Micro Module (left) and a 4-way Jack Patch Module (right), all from Temple Audio Design.

As far as the pedals are concerned, from upper left clock-wise:

  • Triple custom pedal from JAM Pedals:
    • DelayLlama + (analog delay)
    • WaterFall (chorus)
    • TubeDreamer+ (overdrive)
  • GOO Limited Edition designed by Nels Cline from ToneConcepts (distortion)
  • Mel9 from Electro-Harmonix (mellotron)
  • Mini EGO from Wampler (compressor)
  • DVP4 Volume X Mini Pedal from Dunlop (volume and expression)
  • Mini Modular Switcher Ver. 2 from LoopSwitchers (volume pedal switcher)
  • SneakAttack from Malekko Heavy Industries (attack/decay envelope modulator and tremolo)
  • Lil Buddy from Malekko Heavy Industries (tap switch for SneakAttack)
  • DIG from Strymon (stereo dual digital delay)
  • BlueSky from Strymon (stereo reverberator)
  • DittoX4 from TC Electronic (stereo dual looper)
  • Read more...