Why We Make Big Cool Sounds for Harp Players: History is On Our Side
There was a recent discussion on Harp-L of FX, which I found revealing of all sorts of things. It’s chronicled here, and be warned: gotta lotta words. (The boldface emphases I put on certain lines in that discussion were added by me, and were not…
In the Studio: Keepers of the Streak
I did a session earlier this week with Brian Keane, a composer/producer I’ve worked with on a number of occasions, for a TV movie titled “Keepers of the Streak”, which is about four photographers in their 70s/80s who’ve photographed every Superbowl from the start. (The…
Digitech RP360XP or RP500? Here’s how I make up my mind
I published most of this post in a response to a question posted in the comments here. I figured that it was worth publishing as a post in its own right. So here are a half dozen things I think about when I’m choosing between…
RP Tip #23: Use the Expression Pedal for SOMETHING
This tip’s message is simple. You’ve got an expression pedal. It makes the RP more expressive (as you might expect from a pedal whose name includes the word “expression”). So use it on every patch to express something.
Jackson Kincheloe Interview, Part 2: Gear and Roles
As I noted previously on this blog, I interviewed Jackson Kincheloe of Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds right after the band’s performance on the afternoon of Sunday, July 21 2013 at Targheefest in Alta, Wyoming. The band sounded great at this show, with a…
How to Set Your RP Up for Multi-Layered Looping
Now that the Huntersounds v17 Patchset for Digitech RP500 is shipping, I’ve started configuring my RP500 for live performance, which means adding in patches that are song-specific and setting up the sequences of patches that I use in my looped performances. Every looped song is…
Comparing the Zoom G3 to the Digitech RP
As I work on patches for the Zoom G3 (now in version 2; see our Zoom G3 page), I’m constantly comparing what I hear to the sounds I get from my Digitech RP355. In fact, I have the two boxes side by side on the…
RP Tip #21: When the RP gets flaky, do a factory reset
RPs get flaky after a while if you make a lot of changes to them. I think that somewhere in the RP operating system, there is a garbage collection routine that gets rid of what’s left over after a patch is edited from the front…
Cracking the code on the Zoom G3
I’ve made a number of runs at the G3 in the last few days, and I have about 8-9 patches that sound very good to me. The count is somewhat misleading. Because you can use dedicated footswitches to bring FX modules in and out of…
RP Tip #20: When you open the door to new sounds, new roles for the harp come too (clips included!)
I played three gigs last week with The Maw Band in Idaho, and of course I used the RP355 on all of them. I recorded all the shows on audio and video, and I’ve already started putting some of those recordings up on this site,…
