MELLOTRON

FRANCIS ROBERTS / KING GORM, OLD MAN WIZARD, YAGA-SHURA

Gear & Loathing is proud to present the brand-new Yaga-Shura track “The Sky Is Blue” for your listening pleasure. Be sure to buy it via Bandcamp if you can.

Francis Roberts: Bandcamp / King Gorm / Old Man Wizard / Yaga-Shura / Instagram / Twitter

1. In your last Gear & Loathing feature, we mostly focused on your Old Man Wizard gear but you’ve got more (and different) irons in the fire right now. Tell me about your new projects and what you’re working on. What’s inspiring you these days, musically?

Funny you mention that. I’m actually listening through my second mix of a new Old Man Wizard album while I answer these questions. As far as new stuff goes, I’m doing a lot of more cinematic music, mostly with synthesizers. I recently scored a couple of short films that will hopefully be out soon, and I’m releasing a lot of dark ambient/dungeon synth type stuff over at my Bandcamp page.

Aside from that, I have an album coming out for my sorta throwback Rainbow/Uriah Heep worship-type of project King Gorm at the end of July. Behind all of that I have a fairly experimental synth-pop/electronic project called Yaga-Shura that I’m periodically releasing stuff for. That’s the only project I’ve got right now where I’ll listen to stuff I made and think to myself, “How did I make that sound?” or “How did I make time to make that sound?” Lots of fine detail work and sequencing of hardware.

Francis Roberts Guitars

2. In your last Gear & Loathing feature, you showed us your silver High Spirit Strat. It’s been awhile since then: why/how has it remained your #1 after all this time? Is there a challenger perhaps?

No challenger really. On the new Old Man Wizard album, we did some takes with my other guitars but in the final edits I only ended up using takes where I played the High Spirit one. I play better on it and it sounds better. Same deal with the upcoming King Gorm album and the Yaga-Shura tracks that have guitar in them. I play a lot of guitars that feel like toys, even when they play and sound great. The guitars Connor from High Spirit builds feel more like high quality tools. I actually almost bought a second one so I could have a backup at gigs in case I changed a string, but I can’t really afford to (because of reasons that will become obvious in the next question).

Francis Roberts Synths

3. I’m gonna need all the details on this synth rig. When/how/why did you get the Mellotron M4000D and the Model D? What are you uses for both? Favorite settings or sounds?

I’ve owned a ton of synths at this point and none of them ever sounded good enough. I probably spent the better part of a year trying to find a synth that could sound like a Model D without costing as much as a Model D, and, well, there aren’t any. I sold all of them within a year of buying them. Not even a Moog Voyager will do it (but those do come really close and are better at other things). I’ve tried the Behringer clones and they’ll sound pretty close if you have twice as much time to dial them in, but if you put them side by side with a Moog, they give you the feeling that you’re going to push them off the table before you get them to sound right. I also can’t get them to shine through a mix the same way. Maybe some other people can. If you’re reading this and you can, please buy me food with the money you saved! Anyway, the Model D ends up on almost every recording I make these days, and the sounds I’ve gotten from it have gotten me hired to do session work and film scores, and it’s actually well on its way to paying for itself, somehow.

The Mellotron is another story. I’ve known I needed a Mellotron for years, and went through a ton of Mellotron plugins and samples. They were great (and still are), and then I found out that this Swedish guy named Markus Resch bought the company and the original tapes and stuff and does a great job maintaining (and honoring) the legacy of the brand. [Check out his website here] He also makes digital sampling synths that use the Mellotron layout and samples the original sounds in a way that is pure magic. I emailed him and asked if he’d sell me one and he was super nice and told me about all the different models he has. I ended up getting his Micro version, loving it (it’s on a ton of my solo stuff, the first Yaga-Shura EP, and the King Gorm album). Then I found out that Markus’s M4000D model has the same type of keybed as an actual Mellotron, which has a sort of bizarre version of polyphonic aftertouch. It’s one of the most expressive instruments I’ve ever played, an absolute masterpiece. I decided to sell my Micro and shop around for an M4000D. I found a used one online and noticed the guy selling it was from San Diego. Small world. Anyway, I ended up giving him my Micro as part of the sale of his M4000D, and I think it made both of us feel a lot better about the transaction. You probably know him: Pall Jenkins from Three Mile Pilot and Black Heart Procession!

My go-to sounds on each instrument depends on the project. A Mellotron is basically an orchestra in a box, so you really have to think like an arranger when you use it. Obviously the famous sounds are the strings and flutes, but I find myself using the tubular bells, woodwinds, vibraphone, and celeste sounds quite a bit. I use the Moog for bass, leads, and sound effects. I usually create a sound specifically for each track I make. It feels a lot like you’re mixing as you go.

4. Have you ever wanted to get a more expansive (perhaps digital) synth that could combine both of those worlds? Or is there really nothing out that could accomplish that?

Well, the Mellotron technically is a digital sampling synth. If Markus wanted to make Mellotron sounds for me out of my favorite Moog patches, I’d probably use that for something, but I’m not rich or famous enough to bug him to do that. [laughs] I also regularly daydream about adding a Black Corporation Deckard’s Dream to my setup, since it’s one of the only great synths out there that could take advantage of the Mellotron keybed’s ability to send polyphonic aftertouch.

Hans Zimmer Moog Modular

(A young Hans Zimmer standing next to his Moog Modular system)

5. If you were to upgrade, or move on from either the Mellotron or the Moog, what do you think you would get?

I’ve seriously considered buying a Synthesizers.com modular system, but every time I think about it, I realize that I would still want the Moog. If cost weren’t an issue, I’d get a Hans Zimmer-style wall of Moog Modular. I also really like the Moog One.

And this probably sounds crazy, but if I had a ton of money, I’d get two or three more Mellotrons. The little ones stack nicely on the big ones, and the tape ones work well as keyboard stands and are capable of a few fun things the digital ones can’t do.

6. Does it worry you to haul around and set these up for shows? I’d be riddled with anxiety. Why not use emulations live via a laptop or MIDI?

I have really great cases for everything, and the whole rig can essentially be one trip from the car. As far as theft, well, that happens sometimes. If it happens, it happens, and worrying about it will only make me unhappy and less likely to play well. I just sorta go for it. And as far as the laptop thing goes, nothing against laptops, I’ve heard people get great sound from them, but, well, I haven’t been able to. I’m sure I could spend some time figuring it out, but my stuff always works and always sounds right, and none of it can run out of batteries. I also think it looks pretty cool and intimidating up on stage!

7. I know you’ve been pretty focused on your synth-based music lately, why do you think that is? Is it more challenging to write/create than in a typical band format, or easier?

I really haven’t been more focused on it; I’ve just been recording it. I guess enough people told me that it sounded nice when I was “just messing around,” so I started hitting the record button before I messed around, and then I started putting it up on Bandcamp. People haven’t stopped being nice to me about it so I’ll keep sharing it. It’s also way easier than writing for a band, because I can stop whenever I want or add as much as I want without having to wonder whether or not it’ll work live. I think I have something like five hours of synth music up on Bandcamp now, so I think people will understand if I leave out a song or two. [laughs]

8. I see that Strymon Deco hiding next to the Moog. What are you using it for and what does it add to your overall sound?

I just got that, so it’s not on any recordings yet. It’s completely incredible. I bought it because the demos reminded me of the J37 plugin from Waves, which I use on almost everything lately. The Deco did not disappoint me, and I’m hoping to add some of the fake tape magic to my live shows soon (probably really soon, I’m hoping to do another livestream set maybe next month). Finding out that there’s a pedal that does a decent job at the tape saturation and tape speed tricks thing was a dream come true, and Strymon did a great job with it.

Francis Roberts Pedal

9. I’ve never seen the Correct Sound Eclipse pedal, or the SoloDallas Storm: gimme a rundown on what each of them do and how you’re using them?

I use the Correct Sound as a preamp for bass, mostly, but I used it on guitar for the two Yaga-Shura tracks that have electric guitar. It’s supposed to make your amp sound like a Sunn Concert Lead, which is one of my favorite solid state amps. I borrowed one (the Sunn) from my friend Lewis a few years ago for the bass guitar parts in “Blame It All On Sorcery,” and then at some point I saw the Correct Sound on Reverb. It doesn’t sound exactly like the Sunn but I love it and I really love what it does to DI bass.

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SoloDallas is known for creating their Schaffer replica, which is a gain stage circuit used famously by like, everyone important in the late ’70s to the present. The Storm is sort of their entry-level version of it, and it sounds great (only slightly worse than the real deal, for something like a 10th of the cost). I found out about them when my friend started working for them. They’re based in San Diego! Anyway, people are starting to catch on to the fact that somebody is actually making a clone of this important piece of gear nerd history. If you don’t believe me, take a look at their artist roster. It’s kinda intimidating.

Francis Roberts DAW

10. I’ve never used Reaper and don’t know much about it. How does it stand up to other DAWs? Do you find it to be limited at all? Do you mix with Reaper, or have your music mixed and mastered elsewhere by someone else?

I switched from Pro Tools to Reaper because I hate paying for software updates and subscriptions. Every time I find myself wishing it would do something that Pro Tools did, I find out that it actually does. There are very few things it can’t do, and it’s become my favorite DAW by far. I’ve never felt limited by it. I mix with Reaper, I try to avoid mastering because I’m not great at it (but when I have to, I also do it in Reaper). I track in Reaper, I even do a lot of simple video editing with it. It’s incredibly easy to customize it to fit your workflow, and it plays nice with all the hardware I use. I even know some people who use it live in their laptop rigs.

11. Give me your review of the Behringer VC340! Haven’t heard much about those and I’m already intrigued by a vocoder synth that actually works well. You finding it useful?

Don’t buy it unless you know exactly what it does. I cannot stress this enough: It does nothing else. It’s really good at being a vocoder/string machine but it literally does nothing else. Anyway, I love it. I don’t use it a ton, but I was getting sick of trying to get the sound I wanted with software, and I’m not about to pay $5,000 for a Moog Vocoder (as much as I really really want to be able to afford to do that). I’m using it pretty sparsely on the new Old Man Wizard album, and it’s on one of the Yaga-Shura tracks so far. I’m planning to do a few Yaga-Shura tracks with a Daft Punk-style lead vocal, so that’ll probably be the first time you hear it front and center in any of my tracks. [Listen to it featured on the track below]

12. What’s the lunchbox preamp-lookin’ thing on your desk next to the Behringer? Compressor? Preamp? 

Oh that’s the preamp for my Chameleon Labs TS-2 microphone. It’s a really incredible large diaphragm condenser for the price. I usually just use it for lead vocals but sometimes I’ll mic a bass cab or an acoustic guitar with it.

Francis Roberts amp

13. That Valco amp is somethin’ else. I’ve seen you perform with different amps before though. Didn’t you use an old Marshall at some point? What has drawn you to the Valco?

I still have that Marshall (it’s a copy of a JTM45, so not Marshall brand but all new old stock parts and really high build quality) but I’ve never recorded with it. It’s really just too loud for anything but shows. The Valco is my recording amp because it does “loud” amp sounds at a much lower volume. I used to borrow my friend’s Supro for that sound but this one is even quieter so it’s easier to record with. All those old ’60s amps sound great when my friends Connor and Chris tell me what tubes to put in them.

14. If you could buy any piece of gear right now (money was no issue), what would you get and why?

Probably a Moog IIIP with a few of the sequencer compliments, a couple of Space Echos or Echorecs, a good Rhodes electric piano, and I’d also probably replace my entire recording setup with a no-computer setup. I think I’d still mix digitally on a computer, but I tend to get better results tracking when I don’t have that “that’s an easy edit in a DAW” bug whispering in my ear.

Francis Roberts Gong

15. I don’t see many gongs on Gear & Loathing, might be the first actually. Is a gong the secret ingredient to your music?

This also belongs to my friend Connor. It goes on a lot of my stuff. You can’t really put it anywhere, but it’s one of those things that can’t be replaced by anything. If you need a gong, you’ve gotta use a gong.

 

TONY GIDLUND / SHADES MCCOOL

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Shades McCool: Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

1. Tell me about your rig these days. What are you using?

I’ve made the Jazzmaster my primary guitar and demoted the SG to backup status. Now that I’m old, I want that note definition more than gnarly distortion and the tremolo system let’s me do a lot more tricks. Also, I’ve heard it said that P-90 pickups are the best for recording.

jazzmaster

Amp-wise, I’m using the Orange “Dual Terror” (Tiny Terror on one channel and a Dark Terror on the other) into an Avatar 2×12 and/or a Sovtek 4×12. It’s 30 watts but can go as low as 7.5, which I love. I can’t even imagine a scenario where I’d need 100 watts. There’s this constant battle between guitar players who think their tone doesn’t even get good until 3 and sound people who want them to turn down to half that. With a 30-watt amp, I’ve removed myself from that conversation. No amps were used on any of our recordings though. All plug-ins.

SG1

Effect-wise, I’ve got myself a tuner, EHX Mel9 Mellotron emulator, EHX Microsynth, EHX Ring Thing, Ibanez TS9DX, and a Boss DD-7 all velcro’d to an old red shelf. I went kinda nuts with pedal purchasing this year. The Ring Thing is probably the coolest because it does alien-sounding ring modulation stuff, octave/pitch effects, and more normal effects like vibrato and chorus. Crucially, it allows you to save nine settings.

Pedals

2. Tell me about the band: It started as a solo “hardcore karaoke act” and now it’s a full group, yea? Are all the Shades McCool songs, like, joke songs?

That is correct. As the legend goes, Ben Johnson aka Grammatical B was looking for an opening act. I had been going to Pants Karaoke a lot and signing up as this “character” that was not much except sunglasses and a standoffish attitude. I saw Ben’s Facebook post and was feeling very “say yes to everything” so I did and he was kind enough to indulge me. I put together a set of covers and a couple bits and just went for it. It was surprisingly well-received so I did that around town at non-traditional venues for about a year before assembling my backing band, The Bold Flavors. The best show of that era was playing on a friend’s lawn during the Rock & Roll Half Marathon.

Shades McCool & the Bold Flavors is basically a spoof of a rock band in the way that Stephen Colbert was of Bill O’Reilly. Each song is a vessel for a comedic premise, e.g. “Pretty Good Guy,” a list of non-sequiturs in a dating profile; “Custom Croutons,” a recipe that descends into madness; or “Inauguration Song,” a song written for Donald Trump to sing with The Beach Boys at his inauguration. So yeah, they’re all joke songs.

stack2

3. With “The San Diegan National Anthem” for example — how are you not getting sued by Toyota of Escondido, Pacific Nissan, etc?

I’ve actually been asked this a bit and I have a few thoughts. I am not getting sued because:

A) It’s a medley of several things that were FORCED into the public consciousness over the years. We’ve basically repurposed public works into a drastically different piece of art.

B) It has no negative impact on the brands. It gets people talking about those jingles/dealerships and in fact, it may hurt a brand to not be mentioned in the song. Cal Worthington keeps leaving me passive-aggressive voicemails.

C) When you read the actual lyrics, they’re not the same as in the jingles (“Bah Bay Curse Otto Group. Pear, he’s got it. Mas y niece on”) and parody is extremely well-protected. Furthermore, no reasonable person would mistake this for a real commercial. It’s too rad.

D) They love it.

gold leather strat

4. What’s the next piece(s) of gear you’d would like to add to your rig?

I’m always looking for a good synth pedal to get some big weird sounds. The Microsynth sounds amazing but it’s a little unreliable as far as triggering and what kind of sounds you’re going to get out of it. I’m eyeing the Earthquaker Bit Commander. I’ve also wanting to mess around with some kind of compressor pedal.

(When not in character as Shades McCool, I play bass in Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place and Goblin Cock. I just bought and returned an Ampeg SCR-DI preamp pedal, then bought the preamp-only version of it. I’m planning to get a Tronographic Rusty Box before the next time we play).

keyb

5. What’s coming up for the band?

We’re usually pretty slow writing songs because good premises are hard to come up with. We need a few more before we can record our full-length. We do have a new top secret song experience that I am very excited about. There are also a couple cool plans for “The San Diegan National Anthem.” The ultimate goal is to have it replace the regular National Anthem at local sporting events.

Shades McCool play the Music Box on July 20th with Pinback and Bit Maps.

IAN DE CERBO / IMD, GONJASUFI, HEZUS

IAN DE CERBO 3IAN DE CERBO 2IAN DE CERBO 1

1. What bands/groups do you currently play in?

Mostly studio work with Hezus and Gonjasufi. I have some other projects with Psychopop, Scatterbrain and a few others.

2. Do you remember the first piece of gear you purchased?

A beater drum kit for like $200. I still use a few pieces from it now but it’s mostly junk now or art.

3. What piece of equipment do you use most often?

Four track or tape deck. Keep it simple.

4. If you had enough resources, money, time, space, etc. what dream piece of gear would you own?

Probably a Mellotron, or EMS modular synth, or a nice mixing board something probably easily over $10K.

5. What upcoming projects should people look out for?

Gonjasufi remix on Warp Records; IMD BeatTape Vol. 1; and a Hezus release on Hit & Run out of LA; release with Scatterbrain; Gonjasufi live band.

Many thanks to J. Smith (of NBC SoundDiego) for this interview.

DAVE MATTHIES / THE GIFT MACHINE

The Gift Machine: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Bandcamp

1. Tell me about your current rig: for examples, brand(s)/makes/models? Best parts? Worst parts? Any funny/strange stories about how you came to use any of this stuff? 

I’m currently playing a early 2000 “Raw Power” Gibson Les Paul Standard equipped with a Fishman Triple Play MIDI pickup. I also have a custom Seymour Duncan SB pickup in the bridge position, which is cleaner sounding then the stock P-90, but I usually keep it turned up all the way in the middle position to shoot the gap between dirty and clean. From there, I run into an A/B switch with one output going into the new Electro-Harmonix Mel9 Mellotron Pedal into a little Vox keyboard amp (not pictured, new addition haha) and then the main guitar chain goes through an Electro-Harmonix B9 organ pedal, into a custom distortion pedal made by my friends Squarewave Industries in Seattle, then a Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Strymon Flint Tremolo/Reverb Pedal, an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi, Deluxe Memory Man, a EH Micro Pog octave pedal, then a Catalinbread Echorec delay, and sometimes an old Boss RC-20, depending on what’s in the set. This then goes into my 1970 Fender Super Reverb. I run a cable out of the external speaker jack of the Super Reverb into an early 2000’s 100 Watt solid state Fender Bassman. For the Fishman Triple Play MIDI pickup, it’s wirelessly connected to a laptop, which I route to a volume pedal and then to a little 20W Johnson tube amp.

The best part of this is it sounds really amazing and makes a lot a noise for one guy playing. The worst part is that it takes a bit to set up, but I’m getting it pretty dialed in!

The Gift Machine has been through a lot of lineups over the years, but when I originally started playing with my now-wife Andrea Gruber Matthies, it was just the two of us, so I started bringing in the POG and the chained bass amp to beef up the sound. A few years ago, we were playing as a 5-piece with Andrea on the drums, Dan Chambers on the guitar, Phil Benavides on bass, and Karl Blau on keyboards. Karl moved back to Washington state, Dan went away to college in San Francisco, and I work in Los Angeles a lot so we have had no time to get together and practice with Phil. We got used to making a lot of noise, but it’s just been Andrea and I again lately, so I had to get creative to fill up the space. Since our record Hard Facts Are Still Uncertain came out last year, I have written 30 songs, and being a two-piece also makes it lot quicker to put together new material. Once we get the new stuff down, I hope to bring some humans back into the mix.

2. Talk to me about this midi/synth pickup thingy you’ve got hooked up to your Les Paul – how does it work? What sounds do you use it for? Hard to hook up or put together?

My first acquisition in this direction was the Electro-Harmonix B9 organ pedal. You plug your guitar in, and it emulates 9 different organ sounds which you can mix in with your guitar tone. I was hoping that it would be like a fake keyboard player doubling my guitar parts. It’s OK, I still use it but somewhat subconsciously for sustain, but if you a play a full open chord on the guitar, it triggers every string that you are playing, so it can get a little toppy if you are doing a full strum. I thought that if I could figure out a way where only a few of the strings on the guitar triggered samples, it would be much more useful for what I was looking for.

Fishman started making the Triple Play pickup a few years ago. Basically it’s a little pickup that sits right in front of the bridge that has a little sensor for each string. The signal from the pickup is transferred wirelessly to a laptop where you can use it to trigger any sound you want! I have been using it mostly to trigger string, mellotron, and synth sounds, similar or the same as the type of stuff we use on our recordings. I can create a custom sound for each song in our set where only the guitar strings I want trigger the keyboard sounds. For example, I could be playing full chords on the guitar, but only the A string is triggering a cello sample. It’s fairly amazing, I can even load in custom sounds I’ve recorded, or layer multiple sounds, or switch between two different sounds mid-song. It’s a whole crazy area of research…I use a volume pedal to bring it in and out.

Though the manual and website say it will work on a Les Paul, there was not enough room between the pickguard and the bridge so I had to get in there with a razor blade and do a custom hack job on the pickguard to make it work. It also raised the action slightly so I had to bring it in and have the guitar reset as that kind of thing is not my forte. I asked around before I bought it at some local shops and no one was willing to take it on, as it’s a relatively new kind of setup. Worth the bloody knuckles and pain and suffering at this point…

3. What song of yours do you feel is the best portrayal of your particular sound/style/gear?

We are recording a new record that features this setup and I am really excited about it, but nothing has been released so far. There are a few tracks off our last record that feature the chained bass amp and POG octave pedal that Andrea and I used to do in our version 1.0 two-piece. The song “Muddy Water” is a good example.

4. What’s the one “holy grail” piece of equipment you’d buy if money was no object and why?

I am also a recording geek and have a solid home studio where we record most of our stuff and I also do overdubs sessions with bands I am producing. I could talk even longer about that stuff. I would have to say my personal holy grail would be the Fairchild 660 compressor. At $50,000 it deserves that designation, right? I really enjoy the Universal Audio plug-in version and, of course, love the sound on all the old Beatles records. You can just crush stuff and it still sounds really smooth and natural. I have dreams about finding this and other strange analog gear at thrift stores in mysterious towns. I think it’s going to happen one of these days…

5. What was the first piece of gear you bought and what are your thoughts on it now? Do you have still have it?

The first “real” piece of gear I bought (or more accurately my mother bought) was a 1977 Yamaha SG2000 guitar when I was about 13.  It was in the local music store in Mount Vernon, WA where I grew up, and, in a sea of very hair-metal oriented guitars, I picked it out because it looked like something George Harrison would play. Though it was a really expensive guitar when it was brand new, it was so incredibly out of style at this point that we got it for really cheap. As we were making the purchase, the guys behind the counter got really excited and went on to tell me a story that a roadie for the band Heart had been given the guitar by Nancy Wilson and then he sold it to them cheap because he needed the money. At that point, Heart was in the middle of their late ‘80s fame, and not knowing their “Barracuda” Seattle rock and roll history, it almost dissuaded me from getting the guitar at all! I did keep it and it was my main guitar for years until the frets got really worn down and one of the pickups became microphonic and I got the Les Paul I’m still playing today. I still have it, it lives at my parents house in Washington state. I had a little work done on it, but I’m afraid to get it re-fretted or too tweaked. I still play it when we tour up there and we don’t have room to bring all of our gear.

6. What do you have coming up that we should know about?

We are playing The Pour House in Oceanside with Mittens and Dirty Sidewalks on Friday, September 9th, and Soda Bar in San Diego on November 17th with our good friends from the Pacific Northwest, Karl Blau and LAKE. We are currently recording a new record that we hope to have out by the winter or early next year, but we will be doing a preliminary video or two this fall. We are also starting to book a European tour for next spring. I also just finished producing a great record for the North County San Diego band Sick Balloons which should be out in the next few months and I am also producing the next Trouble in the Wind record, which will come out sometime next year.