Happy New Year everybody

I've tried to catch my thoughts on yesterdays evening and transform them into a small piece of music. Here you go. Let me know your thoughts.

Korg Kaossilator double loop length

Since yesterday, I'm using a Korg Kaossilator for live looping purposes although I'm not a friend of using such stuff within handmade music.

However, lets give it a try...

There is one important thing (many thanks to @UKDad at twitter), because Korg has designed this tool in order to record 2 measure phrases (8 steps). But the developers put an "easter egg" into the Kaossilator which allows you to record up to 4 measure patterns (16 steps).

Here is, how to take advantage out of this feature. (Jump to the News section).

New videos on my YouTube channel

Some days are gone since my last blog - I was a little bit busy.

I've uploaded four new songs on my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/stephanschwenk

I must admit that all of them are not played well but I want to put the videos live on my channel without spending too much time on the recording of these songs.

Greensleeves
It's a wonderful small song and I'm playing the easy version of it.

Freight Train
If you're going to start travis picking then you should take this song first. It is excellent for beginners (like me :-)). I had some trouble with the picking because I used a thumb pick. I've started practise with this pick only two weeks ago. It is not as easy as it seems at first sight.

Godfather theme
This is another cover of this beautiful song. I've started playing two weeks ago and here is the result. I know, there are a lot of things to improve...

Weißt du noch
I love this song and especially the unconventional tuning of DADF#BD which gives you this special sound. Ulli Bögershausen has composed this song and you can even feel the magic of it while playing.

 


Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Stephan

Building an isolation box

Based on an article of the "Recording Magazin" I had decided to build an isolation box. This box is used and helpful for recording purposes in environments where you can not turn on your amplifier at a very high level. Let's say, you are at home but the sound out of your amp sounds bad, because you have recorded the guitar track at a low degree of loudness. The result would be much better if you could raise the loudness (without kicking your neighbours out of bed :-)).

The solution is very simple:

Put your amp into an isolated box and grab the sound with microphones out of the box. I have decided to build my own box in order to get more flexibilty. You can use up to 4 microphones, 1 DI connector and up to 6 6.3 mm plugs (line-in/out, footswitch).

You will find some pictures at flickr. A small video will follow soon.

Enjoy it and let me know your thoughts!