EBow Madness !!!

[D. Shelton]

Acoustica Alchemia .

Minimalist ,ambient , sonic ecstasy
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...?bandID=113986

The first one I posted (Acoustica Angelica) was a rough experiment by comparison. This one was the result of some careful cut/paste operations ,
and considered applications of delay/feedback . This is music for me ; I didn't know where I would be going when I got the EBow, or even after I recorded some lame noodlings , but this result has blown my little mind in new and wonderful ways.

Lowden S-32 (Rose/Sitka) , EBow , and SoundForge effects.
Seymour Duncan 'Woody' soundhole mic on one channel , and
a small diaphragm condenser mic close to the soundhole , on the other
channel. The mic channel recorded way lower than the pickup channel,
but a 6x increase of volume in 'Forge left me a good stereo mix .

[delaorden9]

I confess I had to google Ebow to be acquainted with it. I already knew it but didn't know it by the name. The experiment is interesting. Music is music in any possible form. Very good sounds. Relaxing.

[D. Shelton]

Originally Posted by delaorden9

I confess I had to google Ebow to be acquainted with it. I already knew it but didn't know it by the name. The experiment is interesting. Music is music in any possible form. Very good sounds. Relaxing.

Hi, and thanks, glad you like the sounds. That one is mostly about the sounds ;
the music is minimal , basically to give the sounds somewhere to go . The guitar recording session wasn't even close to being music ; just mostly random, in-key notes, experimenting with the EBow and a few plucked bass notes . Musical structure was created by copy-and-pasting.

Leaves some pretty interesting possibilities open for the future. I'd mostly heard EBow on Bill Nelson recordings (with electric guitars), and wondered what I could do with one on an acoustic . I am intrigued

[D. Shelton]

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[D. Shelton]

Dredging up the original EBow Madness thread (hadn't used Google in a while ... makes me think of a (last week tonight with) John Oliver bit where he goes a little something like " and you'll know that anyone using Yahoo Search has had a stroke and forgotten the word 'Google' ..." ... funny guy , him !).


A lot of the early EBow noodles sound ... awful , but I expect many the current ones will too in another year or two. There's something worthwhile about them all when I'm doing them , mostly to do with creating immersive minimalist soundscapes with just me and a little guitar playing , with the help of pedals , now.

Current fave setup is Norman B-20 folk guitar, Fishman AG-125 undersaddle pickup, Baggs single -coil soundhole pickup , Pod 2.0 direct box (with onboard fx) , TCE Nova delay, flanger , phaser , maybe some fx tweaking in SoundForge.

Anyhoozles, the recent ones I like enough to upload are done with this setup .
'Anuket's Melody' , 'Lightbells', 'The Final Veils', 'In the Sonic Continuum' , 'Weightless' . All have warts , being spontaneous , single stereo track improvs , as much about not playing wrong notes as having any real licks to play, and mostly about the energy of the EBow .

Awaiting the WOND , another sustainer device , which will let me do more normal playing . So, enjoy some noise

[Riakstonic]

Very cool , reminds me of Micheal Manring . Your getting sone great sounds . I have to admit I never considered using an ebow on acoutic . But I will now lol
Very enjoyable listen

[D. Shelton]

Originally Posted by Riakstonic

Very cool , reminds me of Micheal Manring . Your getting sone great sounds . I have to admit I never considered using an ebow on acoutic . But I will now lol
Very enjoyable listen

That's a stretch, because Manring is at several magnitudes of higher sophistication than my humble noodlings . Says a lot more about the wonders
discoverable via EBow than about me, in my (not all that humble) opinion

Watching this once did make me go out and see firsthand how a bass responded to an EBow, but those things are HUGE ! Too big for my
little fingers . This vid gets quite subtly amazing after about 5:00 or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx1RccwlF5g

I dunno....I know I'm doing some cool, creative stuff, but more as a sonic experimentor than a musician .

ps: it was the undersaddle pickup that really opened up the sound spectrum with acoustic and EBow . The Baggs soundhole unit was very , very nice on the Lowden (now gone) , but the Fishman sent the Norman into sonic paradise .

More to come ....

[D. Shelton]

These ones always sound great right after I do them, and many disappoint before long, but I think these latest 3 are pretty sweet. I wasn't even sure what I'd recorded earlier this month , and sometimes the editing yields dull rocks, but it seems like I've stumbled onto some rather shiny ones this time.

'Formless Waters', 'ITERU', and 'Anuket's Dreams' (the latter replacing previous 'Anuket' pieces) . I'm actually amazed at the tones coming from my humble Norman B-20 . Behold the beauty of the EBow once more

I hope some of you enjoy the sounds

[Riakstonic]

Originally Posted by D. Shelton

That's a stretch, because Manring is at several magnitudes of higher sophistication than my humble noodlings . Says a lot more about the wonders
discoverable via EBow than about me, in my (not all that humble) opinion

Watching this once did make me go out and see firsthand how a bass responded to an EBow, but those things are HUGE ! Too big for my
little fingers . This vid gets quite subtly amazing after about 5:00 or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx1RccwlF5g

I dunno....I know I'm doing some cool, creative stuff, but more as a sonic experimentor than a musician .

ps: it was the undersaddle pickup that really opened up the sound spectrum with acoustic and EBow . The Baggs soundhole unit was very , very nice on the Lowden (now gone) , but the Fishman sent the Norman into sonic paradise .

More to come ....

You blended the musician side well experimentor . I prefer outside the box music , creativity freely expressed if you stay at it you'll get better right ? I'm never happy with my music and some times get Hulk mad but I keep going haha but yeah Manring is what it reminds me of of coarse so yeah ya got the touch
When's you next tune ?

[D. Shelton]

Aloha, Riakstonik . Next one up is probably in the can , waiting for me to
edit it into something tolerable . This is fun . Way back , a year ago (and prior) when I was only playing solo acoustic, I only did about 10 tunes in almost 15 years. Now, there are about 20 that I think are good, all done this year . System tweak and a different electric guitar coming in soon, so I should have new material to edit later this year . My guitar playing suffers but I have to keep pushing the sound barriers

The new realms of sound are so inviting and interesting . I always loved some out-there electric guitar music, but never wanted to play, because I figured people would always be way, way better , from me having started doing music later in life. But now , there's no way I can stop exploring, and since I like listening to what's coming out, there's every reason to continue . I feel like I have stumbled into an original area of creativity , to some extent, and that's very appealing

[Riakstonic]

Always someone better but never anyone like you

[D. Shelton]

Originally Posted by Riakstonic

Always someone better but never anyone like you

"Always lots way better, but few as strange" is more accurate, but .....
tomato/tomahto

[Riakstonic]

Haha... 😜🍻