Ambient Guitar Rig

[Mystical Sun]

It is raining today and I got into the mood to create some ambient guitar sounds.
What is your favorite effects rig?

The one I came up with today is:

giant hall reverb 100% -> ping pong delay set to half notes with 50% feedback -> roland space echo

[Jazzcomputer.org]

There's a very interesting thread on cocteautwinsforums.com where that kind of sound is discussed, and even Robin Guthrie himself talks about his setup :

http://www.cocteautwinsforums.com/archive/index.php5/t-570.html

On my own, I still wonder if the best is to put the reverb before the delay or the opposite :).

Yves.

[John Koch-Northrup]

Mine would be more of an "ambient bass rig"... :-)

I like my bass going into my Boss ME-8B multi-effect and then into the mixer - and having my Korg SDD-1200 dual delay on one aux send and Alesis Wedge reverb on the the 2nd aux send. The returns from both effects going back into new channels (not the aux returns). The Boss is an older unit but has a few solid patches - I tend to use a tiny touch of compression and I love the flanger on it.

Anyway - for soundscape stuff on bass - I like to have the dual delay feed back on itself and use the mixer to start the feedback going and control it - the same with the reverb. With full control over how much of the sound is coming through - and able to feed the different effects back into each other with the aux sends - some mighty crazy stuff can occur... I tend towards more subtle controlled stuff as opposed to all out 'noise' stuff. I'm constantly riding the knobs and sliders - or the foot pedal on the ME-8B - between playing notes.

I also have a Lexicon Vortex which does some lovely stuff - and I'll swap in different configurations for what I'm feeling at the time... of course - sometimes it's nice to just play bass... :-)

I haven't really messed much with the bass through my synthesizers.com analog modular yet - that's coming one of these days.

Everything sounds a lot better if I run it all through my Ampeg rig and mic it - but admittedly - most of the time I play through headphones.

[Seren]

I tend to put mine through delays on Korg D16, different timings and across the stereo field, then through TCM3000 reverb - set at a maximum level for a deep wash.

Sometimes I use phaser or flanger on some of the korg effects, then add a final effect of modulated delay before the TCM3000

[Mystical Sun]

diatonis said:

One thing is to get one of those Roland G-20 MIDI Interfaces and use keyboards along with your guitar. Sometimes even using guitar samples gets some interesting textures. Koto, Harp, and Lute along with a volume pedal add some depth.

Nothing wrong with running a reverb->reverb :-)

Also the GI-20 records the pitch of your strings so you can use altered tuning. Create some chords you probably wouldn't think of playing a keyboard.

Alas I sold my GK3A system and went with a Starr Labs Ztar Z7-S MIDI guitar. It's an amazing piece of gear. Being trained on guitar, keyboards have always been trial and error for me. Now with a Ztar I can hold my own with my MIDI synths. Well worth the investment.