This evening I drove to the beginning of the on-ramp of my upcoming recording project. The studio upgrade is nearly in place; only the Sound Toys Native Effects bundle remains and the package shipped Monday so I'm expecting it any day. The evening work was a dry run of the new Make Noise Studios in full creative mode.

I put together a quick sketch using only the white fretless guitar and a JC-120 amp / Boss CS-1 model on the POD X3 Pro. The sketch consists of three tracks:

• Track 1 is an RC-50 loop with two complementary lines. The Air Chorus plug-in is on the main track, which is routed to three auxiliary effects tracks. The Delay track consists of Air Dynamic Delay followed by Air Kill EQ blocking the highs, providing for an analog delay-like roll off. The Sub Oct track consists of the Recti-Fi plug-in set to Sub-Kit mode followed by Air Chorus creating a bass line. The Reverb track is D-Verb set to a large room.
• Track 2 is a backwards RC-50 loop played with an eBow. Plug-ins include Air Chorus, Air Vintage Filter in low pass mode, and TAL Dub II in Reso Delay mode, providing an analog synth kind of feel. This track is also routed to the Delay track and Reverb track.
• Track 3 is a melody line routed through Air Spring Reverb and the DB-33 rotary speaker. This track is also routed to the Reverb track.

The result is a three minute slowly evolving ambient piece of music with different tonal layers.

I dig the juxtaposition of traditional and severely manipulated guitar tones and will reflect more on this subject in an upcoming post. I should be able to process the tracks through the Sound Toys Native Effects by the weekend. Over the next few days I'll route the tracks through the Kaoss Pad, POD Farm / POD X3, and SP-303 to experiment with outboard gear manipulation. Sonic hues and tints, as it were.

Although the session was a creative experiment with new and updated tools, it was an experiment conducted with music in mind. I am pleased with the music that made itself available. The essence of tonight's work is strong enough to find its way to something more substantial. And perhaps that something more substantial awaits me at the end of the on-ramp.