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I remember getting my
Vortex- bringing it home and noodling away on guitar for hours while
experimenting with all the sounds- at the end it was very unsatisfying
musically- the "all dressed up for space travel but nowhere to go"
syndrome- I found myself enamored with the box but doing nothing
musically- Well, a few weeks later I had a coffee house show and brought the
Vortex along- there was 1 patch I wanted to use on a song which had a very crazy
effect- so at the start of a slow song I used the effect just before the first
verse and faded it out and it was great! The rest of the song was clean and the
effect was in balance with the piece- I found that the way for me to use
effects was only in addition to an already good piece of music- the effect in
and of itself is really quite empty creatively speaking- its like that purple
flanger or phaser pedal most people have at some point in their career but never
use it- too much is overkill- but put in just the right places it can be great-
I just found it so great to finally use this crazy Vortex in a way that added to
and complimented my music- trying to build music on an effect can be done I
suppose, I just wouldn't advise it!
To end, we had a long
related dicussion on the John McLaughlin mailing list earlier this year- it
seems best to go to an effect when you find yourself wanting it first
(generally) so the effect is used out of inspiration, not desparation-
This happened a lot in
the 60's and 70's- people had concepts for sounds (Miles a great deal I hear)
and went looking for them even to the point of having them made from scratch-
inspiration- now we find ourselves in a time where anyone from anywhere can go
and buy just about every last effect on the planet for chump change-
(basically!) so instead of a ring modulator being a rare item as it used to be,
now you can have one and 100 other effects for a few hundred dollars- not a bad
thing but of course there will be those who just may be using the effect as a
"crutch" every so often-
Clifford
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