25 Match 2008

Recordings from last Roxy gig were a bit guitar light (i.e. none existant..!!) - must've been loud on stage then (he he!)...anyway had a go at over dubbing guitars on 3 of the tracks...so any guitar you hear is the PX5D/Ableton 6.
In Crowd
Both Ends Burning
All I Want Is You
Any hiss/digi noise is from the original recording! Guitar sound was my USA Strat and the PX5D Biglead preset U55 with maybe some added Phaser 1 and Delay 4 for solos. Needed a bit more fiddle in All I Want Is You and added a fast delay via Ableton!

13 March 2008

Long time gone. Anyway, still here. Work work work. Self-employment certainly takes up a lot of your free time. But still, traded in my old Korg Pandora PX4 for the new PX5D. A great bit of kit. Sorry Line 6 but my Toneport has gone (but I still have both my Variax 300's (current pic at the top of the page) that I use with RoxyRama and Mirage)...PX5D has USB connectivity so it will act as a link to Ableton or any other recording program plus you get loads of other stuff and portability. It's grrreeaattt!! So in true Nick Rivers style, here's a short recording of some of the more silly sounds (if you can spot them) all played on my Strat. On the work front, Computer Helper has merged with Digital Media Infrastructure of which I'm now a partner!! Check out www.dminf.co.uk for more details of you local I.T. Support Company. You can get me on nick@dminf.co.uk. Sorry, no solo gigs anymore (phew!)...bye for now. p.s. Nick Rivers Band may be appearing for a one off gig soon - ish...

19 February 2007

Well, back again after no time off what-so-ever!! So as usual life takes over and things get busy. Main news is that I'm leaving my current contract employer this week and heading off on my own. My new company is called Computer Helper (www.computerhelper.co.uk) so if you have any computer troubles, give me a call or send me an e-mail (nick@computerhelper.co.uk). I've also put some solo demo's on this site (above) for prospecitive bookings of my solo act so feel free to have a listen. Bye for now.

18 December 2006

Heyup! Had a bit of a remix and here's the result...less reverby and I think it seems to sound a bit better somehow. Evened up the guitars then added some light compression, reverb and eq to the final master mix. It's amazing what the reverb and eq do to the final sound. Anyway, tell me what you think, you usually do.

Mick came round today and had a chat. He was the original drummer in the Nick Rivers Band. Good to see him again and hopefully I'll get him to come out and see Splinter soon, I know he's thinking about taking up the drums again...good on ya Mick.

12 December 2006

Two days later...OK here's another version of 'Demo 1' as it's currently known. Re-recorded all guitars except lead part. Bit of compression here and there and also a new riff to run thru the song (with rotary effec)..the song even fades out at the end, still lots of work to do. Getting to grips with Live 6 now a bit more so getting more adventurous..but remember kids, less is more.

10 December 2006

Wow, only a week between postings...what's going on??? Well the blue Variax above has just be sold to make way for bills and Christmas (boy do I need a new job!). Anyway, had a quiet weekend and so concocted this. Sort of a fall out from seeing Status Quo and their support act Twentysevens. Had a chat with the lads from Twentysevens and bought their two CDs (and a good Rick Parfitt t-shirt!). He was playing a strat through an AC30 and had a good sound. Nice chaps, anyway, when out jogging on Saturday mornings (yesterday) and listening to their CDs (duely ripped to MP3), it inspired me to start someting and here it is..but note (!) it is only the start of this project and thus is ruff and not right and has no vocals (as I have no words yet)...and so like most things is in a state of flux. As you may be able to tell, it's all Strat (a real one by the way..the blue one that I've had for about 12 years or so). All amps noises are thru the Line 6 Toneport, recorded in to Ableton Live 6. Drums are Ableton (Ballad) and bass is the Strat and then using Live 6 to detune the sample by an octave. Its recorded straight, only using drum midi loops, all the audio is recorded start to end.

3 December 2006

Had my first gig with RoxyRama last night. You may guess that it's a Roxy Music covers band!! Anyway, thus the long absence from here, spending all my time learning new songs. But...managed to record some stuff from the night so here's a link.

6 November 2006

Here's a taster of the 'bit of a dance thing' that I mentioned last time. Again it's just work in progress, it probably will never get finished as it's really a way to learn Ableton Live 6. A little info about the song: The high pitched shaker has an auto-pan effect to make it move left and right in the stereo mix. There are also a couple of drum kits playing. One more like precussion with a random pattern that's heavily gated and then different filters and delays applied to the left and right pans.The other kit I've split down so that I can bring parts of it in and out, e.g. kick, hi-hat and toms. There's the main bass riff which is also repeated using the B3 sample which comes in with two xylaphones which are running random appegiators panned left and right. There's also a high pitched whistle that is another appegiator, this time going in a downward pattern. Finally I've added some acoustic gutiar with ping pong delay. Not sure if it works and it's a total rip off from a Doobie Brothers song (I think) with a distorted 12 string acoustic playing in the background. I then created loads of different scenes with a mixture of tracks on each one. Then, this recording is just me clicking on the different scenes in a 'random' order. A different song or 'mix' everytime!! So this is it so far...!! Dance 1.mp3

2 November 2006

Has the pleasure of driving to Telford twice this week (not that I'm having a dig at Telford). Highlight was the 4 accidents on the M6. People who use that motorway must wonder when it will be their turn (or their turn again)...a very busy road. On the plus side, bought a Tom Tom One sat nav and it got me out of a mess a couple of times, love it. Got the start of something in Live 6...bit of a dance thing..I'll post up a snippet soon.

31 October 2006

Yes that is a pumpkin bucket on my head...Halloween party with Splinter...Nice subtle picture of the Mesa (to my right) and old faithful Strat awaiting instruction.
Started that gig wearing Ben's monster mask and could not see a thing...random factor playing in a Les Dawson stylee I can tell you...managed to not get lost on the way though...still need to get some sort of sat nav as it's getting a bit silly.

25 October 2006

Finally upgraded to Ableton Live 6...time to play...

13 October 2006

Wow! Just back from a long weekend in New York. What a mind blowing place. Did all the usual tourist things, Empire State, The Rock, Statue of Liberty etc. I'd say spend your first day doing one of the open top bus rides as you get loads of info and start to get an idea of the place plus...a deal for ESB and SL as well as some museums. Also managed to do a couple of jogs around Central Park...Maraton Man style around the lake!! Some pics below. Anyway, now I'm up for a bit of music recording again so it's off to buy Ableton Live 6!!!

NYC Looking downtown from 'The Rock' - Rockefeller Centre

NYC Looking uptown from 'The Rock' - Central Park

11 October 2006

Happy Birthday Suzanne!!

18 September 2006

Welcome back...had a couple of weeks away from the recording/learning situation due to work etc but tonight I dabbled a bit more. A bit of a Status Quo thing going on at the moment and trying to get something like their sound (listening to the Live double album from 1977 - I was 8 at the time). Here's a sample using the Variax on T-Model, bridge pickup and using the JCM-800 sim on the toneport with very little gain, just allowing the guitar to break the amp sound up. One guitar hard panned left, the other right then bass and drums. Anyway, it's one you can jam along to...in the key of B (a Quo favorite from the 70's) very simply put together and using the Ableton Live loop and scene facilities but you can see where it's leading...enjoy...
test 3 quo.

4 Spetember 2006

OK, hello anyone reading this. How are you?? That's me up there with my Line 6 Variax 600. I tend to use that now for recording this and that. A great little invention I suggest all you guitarists go and get one...now...right now...

Anyway, I'm still gigging. If you remember the old Nick Rivers Band days then sadly they're no more. That band has long gone (which ever version you care to remember)!! but....for something very ROCKy and loud and good fun (and tight), get yourself down to see Splinter. I'll be there rockin' away as ever. You may even recognise some of the songs from the old NRB days. There's loads of stuff on that website, including links to videos and recording and also gig dates. For live work I'm using a Epiphone Les Paul Elite (the expensive one!) and a Mesa Boogie Stiletto head with a Rectifier 2 x 12 cab.

Right, the main reason for this blog type effort is to post up some dodgy recordings I've been doing. Now these are demos of my experimenting with new software and digital toys. There's more to come but here's a start...(notice I've not used the term 'song' - a good reason for this....)....

They're only demos. Not songs. No lyrics just jamming and recording so don't expect too much.

First one I created last Christmas 2005, hence the title! I think I used a Korg Pandora PX4 to make the amp and FX noises. Guitar was the Variax. It was nearing Christmas day when I recorded this remembering what it was like when you were a kid, waking up, remembering it's Christmas morning and venturing down stairs to see if Santa has been....

Next one, test track 1, is my first dabble in to Ableton Live (version 4) which came free with my Line 6 toneport. Finally gave this a bash. Live 6 is due out soon and so I'll upgrade to the full version. If you're unsure of a DAW to go for, have a look. It's different but very good.

This first track's timing is all over the place and I manually play the drums to try and match the timing. Bass is just my Variax but passed through a bass amp sim.

Test track 2 is the same 'song' as test track 1 but re-recorded, again in Live 4 but I've sussed things out a bit more and played around a bit. Worked out the loops (although simple) more as you'll probably be able to tell. And paid attention to the click - so timing is better. Although it's the same chords (E, Bm A with the run down being D, C#. C, Bm) it's very different. There's only one acoustic and it's heavily reverbed (in Live). On the left is a Mesa sim that sounds a bit digital on mp3 that goes round and round the 3 chords. Bass is recorded on the Variax and then I used Live to lower it by and octave.

The two test tracks are one extreme to the other but it's all learning for me and very enjoyable.

Anyway not much time for recording at the moment. But will try something new soon.

Keep practicing..