I won a guitar amp in a raffle – an Engl Steve Morse Signature 20 tube head to be precise.. And it appears that Emmy and Sieglinde like it a lot. They have been hanging in the Spielzimmer whenever I played through it. Which was mostly noodling together maybe with loops or patterns on a SP-404.2.
But while #maxialbum is slowly progressing (and not much to do for me there), why not do a really simple, low-effort album on the side? Called „Emmy & Sieglinde“?
Music
I did a few recordings of what I was doing. Consider them sketches. Or something that might actually be an album track later.
First up is Balkonsaison and the interesting things a housecat will discover once the large balcony is open.
Anode (the title inspired by the Röhrenverstärker) is the first proper song I did on the SP404 (plus a guitar, and existing samples).
vor der Anrichte is Emmy’s new preferred sleeping location (both of them change them often – keeping things interesting).
Tech
The setup is as simple as it gets: the guitar (Ibaenz RG RX370) goes into the Engl Steve Morse Signature 20, which goes into the Roland SP-404MK2 external in. The Roland goes into the BigSIX, and this goes into the Zoom H8 for recording. I don’t remember if I used the SSL Buss Comp or Elysia Xfilter on this one.
This also means that this was direct to 2bus – no mixing, editing or whatever. I used prerecorded samples and patterns on the Roland (which all came from the RG-Engl signal chain) and triggered them as I went.
It appears that there’s some clipping – maybe I drove the Roland’s in a little too hard? There’s an issue of sorts with the mixing between external in and pads that’s not that easy…
Cats
This was really motivated by cats. So I’m going to share a few more pics, mostly because I like to.
What’s Next?
Will there be an album? I don’t know yet…
If there will be one, there might be other things than just gratuitous guitar noodling, though. Just today, Sieglinde reclined on the sofa while I was playing piano. Emmy has already started to play the piano and bell chimes. And Emmy also likes to sit on the big A-100. So there will be other things as well.