In no particular order here are the 10 records I liked best this year. I wish I could listen to every new record, but inevitably something always slips through my radar. I find every year I discover several records in early the next year that I would include.
You can never have too many gain pedals right? Ever since I first heard the Voyager I knew I needed one on my board and have been trying to make room and excuses for it since. Walrus Audio makes some of the coolest pedals right now. I love the special editions they do also. It really appeals to my collector's personality.
Once I decided on the Strymon TimeLine I started looking into MIDI controller pedals for it. Using MIDI with the Timeline enables faster access to the looper (which I need), and cool reverse and half speed modes. I love the Molten Midi 2 pedal I've got for the Whammy so I looked into the Molten Voltage OZ. I eventually decided the OZ was too big to make room for —it has a bigger footprint than the Timeline! I had almost given up on the extra control and was dealing with the controls as they are on our last tour. That was until I found Disaster Area Designs.
A huge part of putting together a pedal board is the actual board itself! What should you make it out of? Should you buy one? What about cases? There are lots of options and no one-size-fits-all solution!
I loved David's post on emerging bands that need to be heard. I thought I would share my list.
Below are 5 more bands that you need to hear. Being from Boston I'm mostly familiar with Boston bands, so be sure to leave a comment to tell me about favorite bands in other areas.
In no particular order...
Undersea is currently putting the finishing touches on recordings of about a double album's worth of material! We want to be able to get these songs out in the fastest and best way possible, so we've decided to release them indvidually as singles. Over the course of the next year expect consistent updates and output with new music!
As can be seen from my last several posts I've been reorganizing my board once again. A big part of a board reorg for me is looking at other boards for ideas. Of course the Radiohead video I've linked to several times was a big one. But videos from Smashing Pumpkins and Troy Van Leeuwen are also awesome. The guys at Nice Rack Canada make some really clean setups but this one from Annie Clark knocks me out. Steph Carpenter from the Deftones often goes through rig changes in his quest, but this particular board has always been one of my favorite layouts. In fact two layouts ago I had the same three Z. Vex pedals on my board.
Another new pedal to add to the rig and this time it's a big one. The Strymon Timeline delay. Delay is such an important part of our sound and I currently have four delay pedals on my board each with a different purpose. I previously was using an Akai Headrush E2 as my final delay and looper. It was the last thing in my chain and an important part of so many songs. Recently when trying to clean things up I've noticed that the Headrush isn't as quiet as I would like it. There was always a slight white noise added to the signal. Maybe it's because I've had this pedal since 2005! I started looking for a combination digital delay and looper. I thought about the possibility of the Ditto X2 Looper, but I didn't want to give up that last clean delay. The Timeline seemed like a natural choice. It's remarkably flexible, has tons of sounds, and 200(!) presets.
Saying our band is a big fan of Moog would be a serious understatement. We've got 7 pieces of Moog gear in our rehearsal space! So when Moog announced their new line of Minifooger pedals, I knew I had to check them out.
A huge portion of laying out a board is wiring it. There have been plenty of layouts I've put together that fell apart when I started to layout cables. Even the smallest, slimmest plugs take up space between your effects.
