Question and Answer

I'd like to first say that The Roots of Coincidence is not only my favorite song off of Imaginary Day, it is also the song that got me involved in your music. I heard the song somewhere (I don't quite remember) and didn't know who it was. I later heard my Uncle playing some of your stuff on the stereo and decided that Roots was probably you (the lead guitar style gave it away). Well, since that time, I have gone on a musical journey, mostly centralizing around my own guitar playing. I started with alternative, moved to classic rock, blues, and then, at the advice of my uncle (and a desire for deeper music), I bought Imaginary Day, which is now my favorite album in the world. Now to my question: What did you use to get the slightly distorted sound on your guitar in the song. Was it a fuzzbox, amp distortion, or a clean sound at a high level?

hi brian,

thanks alot, and i am really glad you got turned on to our music. that sound is a combination of 4 elements all coming from the same guitar at the same time via different types of pickups and signal paths. the basic guitar sound is fed through a 2101 tube preamp with a very subltle amount of distortion which is coming out of an amp in a room. i also mixed in a very little bit of the dry direct sound from that same pickup off a di box. (the guitar was the roland 303 with only the bridge pickup on by the way). the third part of the sound comes from the hex gk-1 pickup being sent to the vg-8 with a patch that is so convoluted that i couldn't even begin to describe it. and the fourth part of the sound is the same gk-1 pickup (split by a roland box that allows you to trigger two units from a single pickup source) triggering an axon midi module in their box that had a somewhat usable tenor sax sample - not unlike the thing i used to do with the synclavier (all over song x for instance).

and, yes, it was all pretty loud.

glad you enjoyed it!

best from pat