Instruments

Instruments & Equipment

On this page I'll shed a little light on the instruments and equipment used to produce
ALL BY MYSELF. This is not a page strictly for you technoids out there 'cause
I'm certainly NOT one! However some of you may be curious about this sort of
thing and this page is for you.

What I Play

I play all the major POP instruments. You know… Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, and
Drums.
I don't own any "premium" instruments. Musical instruments are meant to be
played, and if I had some of those "collectibles" I'd probably leave them in the
closet, and they'd never get used!

My Axes

There are four guitars in my arsenal: A 1970 something black Gibson Les Paul
(which is my favorite!) A red Epiphone Stratocaster copy (which has the
FUNK). A Fender Bullet Strat, Black (that I put a Carvin pick-up in). And an
Ovation Balladeer acoustic/electric (mid depth bowl).
For Bass I have the old trusty 1978 Fender Precision.

Keys

There was only one keyboard used and that was a Korg N-264, which has a built
in 16 track sequencer allowing you to record directly to it.
The Microphone was an ElectroVoice dynamic. I've since bought a Marshall
condenser Mic with phantom power that you will hear on Volume II , "STILL BY
MYSELF".

Mixer

The mixer was just a small Mackie 1202, an older one, and not the VLZ model.

Digital Recorder

And now for the HUB of it all: That powerful and damnable little box the Roland
VS 880-ex. Powerful? Yes. Damnable? Yes! Only because for me learning how to
use it and the Korg N-264 was harder than writing the songs and playing them!

Process

My approach to recording is pretty simple and straightforward. This is it.
I patch the Roland and the Korg together via MIDI with the Roland being the
Master and the Korg the slave.(And don't tell me I'm not being politically correct!)
The L/R of the Korg go into 5&6 of the Mackie. I plug my guitar into my
RockMan by Tom Sholz of the band Boston (I was at Aerosmiths'
WHEREHOUSE in Waltham, Mass. when Tom and the boys did their showcase
for the record company execs!) and its output either goes into inputs 7/8 of the
Mackie, or various inputs of the VS-880 ex.(I've since gotten a Line 6 POD). The
master outputs of the Mackie go to inputs 1/2 of the VS- 880 ex which are
designated as STEREO IN.

Whew! So much for hookin' everything up. Next, when I start to record I usually
lay down a scratch Bass & Drum track on the Korg. If I'm using the Fender then I
plug directly into the Roland. I like to keep the signal as direct as possible. Then I
go back to the drum track on the Korg and refine it to 95%. I usually have a pretty
good idea of the arrangement in my head before I start. Now that the drums are
done I've got something I can rock with. So… Re-do the bass 95%. Add rhythm
guitars, lead guitar, vocals, keyboard fills and solos, sing the harmony, Mix, Master,
then go back and fix EVERYTHING!

That's about it. If you need more info or have questions about how a specific song
was recorded, contact me via email at: les@lestension.com 'cause I'm sure I've
already put the non-technoids to sleep!