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Stage
Gear I get lucky
sometimes, with house PAs, when the tech knows the gear, and
the room is balanced, and damped; then there are those other
gigs, when the presenters produce a key to the room they'd
been told has the sound gear, and "It's all really good
stuff." I've been
recording live these days, and thus am carrying fine studio
mics: a Rode Classic, a mysterious little Crown condenser, a
C1000S, and an old Neumann KM84. These go to a Mackie 1604,
insert out to a blackface Adat, then out of the Adat to an
array of DIs to the house; I get a rich signal, and thus so
does the house, with no noise. After that, it's up to the
sound tech. Sound people, in a multi-performer gig,
please write your channel settings down. (You would be
surprised at how many folks don't. "No Problem, I'll
remember it all, man". Yeah sure.)
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Guitars My Martin D-28, a marvelous
old road warrior circa 1951 w/ a 1973 neck, brass nut,
Schaler speedball pegs, has 2 discreet pickups: a
Fishmann Matrix (without a preamp, just a battery in the
guitar), and a still-in-beta string return pickup
with a passive DI wherein resides a fabulous Jensen
transformer. I hang this guitar on a four inch wide strap
with soft leather padding (the only padding that doesn't eat
or litter my shirts); living in a colourful Calton
case --------------------- A 1979 Larrivée
Presentation, cutaway, with all the add-ons as the D-28
listed above. -------------------- An Ed Dick 5-string acoustic
bass, w/ a high C instead of low B, spruce top and maple
back and sides, single cutaway, built by sound sculptor
Edward V. Dick , has a 5 string Fishmann bass pickup with an
active jack, quite a thin neck for the load it bears, and
resides in an oversize blue Calton case. ------------------ Guitars A Gibson Les Paul, circa 1952,
(incredibly heavy but what sustain) with the old
single-coil, soap-bar pickups. Someone painted it black, I
have added gold hardware, and as well have a vintage gold
Bigsby that when installed will return to the original
trapeze-tailpiece bridge suspension ------------------ A 1977 Fender Jazz bass, made
fretless and with a Stars-Guitars pre-amp/bright boost and
maple slips in the old fret grooves (my cheats). Other
Hardware A 1958 Ampeg B-15 Porta Flex
bass amp, with a generic, sedate 15 inch, unfortunately
without the little bolt on trolley it originally had (Oh my
aging back!!). --------------------- A Galleon Krueger MBE bass
amp, very tweak able pre-amp, not bad for acoustic guitar at
low levels, way-big sound for one 12" speaker, and
light!! --------------------- A 1973 Mesa Boogie guitar amp
in a koa wood box, light cane on front, 60/100 switch,
graphic eq and a JBL 12"; not great with the
acoustic. -------------------- Other
Hardware A Roland GS-50 Digital Guitar
Processor multi effects unit, designed for electrics, thus a
bit over the top for acoustic; it's sent through 2 DIs to
the house, and through some stage amp. I feed this signal
with the Fishmann pickup. (I
mix this unit in the front-of-house about 9 Db lower than
the string return pickup, so that the effects are always
ghosting behind a much stronger, cleaner signal.) ------------------- A Mackie 1202 VLZ, a small
mixer with the excellent pre-amps that all Mackie boards
sport; I mix my various guitar signals through this for
specific gigs. It ------------------------ A 1991 Ford Aerostar Eddie
Bauer 4 wheel drive vanette for schlepping all this and
myself from gig to gig.
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Studio Gear:
pretty basic fare 2 black-face (16 bit) ADATs,
MOTU's Performer sequencer software and a Mac 3400c
PowerBook w/ 80 Mg, 240 Mz, only a 3 gig HD, mixed on a
Mackie 1604 with the add-on 10 preamp strip, with a Mackie
1202 for studio headphone system. Neumann KM 84 condenser mic, 2
Shure 58s and a Shure 57 I have a small stable of
processors, including a Yamaha TZ-81 sound module, a DX-7
keyboard, a Roland PMA-5 palm-top sequencer, a Yamaha DX-100
controller, a Yamaha SPX-90 effects processor, and 2 stereo
31-band graphic equalizers, a Yamaha and an Ashley ,
3 playback systems: Bose
Panarrays with the 502 bass bin, a pair of Boston Acoustic
monitors, and two scrappy old Auratones. I rent mics, DAT recorders and
other processors that the day may require. ------------------
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Classic
Collection:
CD only A "Best Of" up until 1988,
songs chosen by Valdy, released by A&M, now distributed
by Universal Music Canada and Joe Radio. and an
acoustic version of the hit Play Me a Rock 'n' Roll Song,
this track live from Massey Hall. 18 tracks in all, it
includes Valdy's first string quartette arrangement ever on
Whirl and Twirl and Swirl (circa 1972). VALDY - CLASSIC COLLECTION,
A&M, CD 9147 1. Peter & Lou, 2.
Rock 'n' Roll Song, 3.
A Good Song, 4.
Dirty Old Man, 5.
Yes I Can, 6. The One You
Love, 7. Hot
Rocks, 8. Simple
Life, 9. Leaving
Ain't the Only Way to Go, 10. Weathered
Hands, 11. Whirl
& Twirl & Swirl, 12.
Easy Money, 13. Sonny's Dream, 14. Renaissance,
15. Hometown Band,
16. I'd Rather Be,
17. Landscapes, 18. Chocolate
Goodnight.
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SmorgasBard:
CD
only This collection contains
previously unreleased masters from an eleven year period.
There's such a wide assortment of styles here, I called it a
dog's breakfast, to which my wife Kathleen replied "It's a
smorgasbord." She quickly changed that to
SmorgasBard. The fare includes a rare duet on Double
Solitaire with Senator Tommy Banks. This disc was
recorded and mixed with Greg Pauker at Saltspring's
Sculpture Sound (http://www.sculptorsystems.com)
It is available from Festival Distributing (http://www.festival.bc.ca)
and 1 800 Joe Radio ( 1-800-563-7234 ) VALDY - SMORGAS BARD,
Rack-On-Tour, ROT101 1. Stay For The
Fire, 2. Scruffy
Dudes, 3. She's In
Love With The Boy, 4. Wedding Walt's /
Amore, 5. Roll Man
Roll, 6. Hockey
Night In Canada, 7. Get a Haircut
Dad, 8. Peace of
Mind, 9. Double
Solitaire, 10. Daddy's
Shadow, 11. Speed
of the Sound of Loneliness, 12.
Silent Passage.
Valdy teams up with Gary
Fjellgaard to bring this charming collection of well written songs to
market on Stony Plain Records. Warner Music Canada distributes this
CD. Recorded in Edmonton and on Saltspring Island, it includes Tried
and True, Islanders, Goodness Knows, Boys of Rhythm, Heartbroken
Hero, the title track Contenders, and an acclaimed version of the
late Roger Miller's classic King Of The Road.
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Check out
Gary
Fjellaard's
site at http://www.fjellgaard.bc.ca
Valdy's
Kids' Record CD: This wonderful collection of
songs has legs; it sells briskly year after year, delighting
kids 2 to 10, and sequenced so as to be non-irritating to
(most) parents. Bayview Community School Choir
in Vancouver added their voices to this collection of
encouraging and entertaining songs, which includes Daddy's
Okay, Workin' On The Railroad, and an original take on
Quartermaster's Store. No
More Cassettes !!
Viva Valdy: Live at Last - a 2 CD package
w/ lyric booklet In stores, "Viva
Valdy" - ROT 22152. You can order by
phone (800) JOE RADIO, 9>5 EST. Ordering online is a mere
click away >>>
Viva
Valdy: Live at Last
Heart
at Work: Here is a brilliant sounding
CD that has fallen off the planet. Lush production from 3
great producers (Bill Henderson, Bill Buckingham and Dan
Donahue) provides a textured context for Link In A Chain,
First Time Around, Hey Hey Mama, Shining Times, Valdy's
moving plea When Peace Came To The Valley, and more.
Regretfully, this CD is not
currently available, but stay tuned....
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