I am proud to anounce that I am currently working on the sound design and score for the latest film from Jonathan Stewart of DeFusion films. The film is entitled Bringing In The Sheaves, and is the story of a visually impared man. This fact makes the sound design challenge even more interesting, as we try to highlight this disabilty through the use of sound.

Status : Post- production

I am proud to announce that I am the recpient of a Steve Vai Sponsored Scholarship to study via their online program at the prestigious Berklee School of Music. Pieces submitted were from my latest 11:53 Album and some recent film work! I am totally thirlled and over the moon and can’t wait to get started with the first module in Orchestration!!

Peace

Neil =@)

The waiting is over! 11:53 is finally completed and produced. So far the reception has been fantastic, and I am really pleased. So watch out for your copy in the post!

I will be uploading some tracks to the website soon, and you will be able to purchase tracks from an online store also very soon!!

Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible, and it won’t take so long for the next one!!

Peace

Neil =@)

I have the fanastic artwork for my new CD sitting on my hard drive as we speak. I would like to thank Akos Appel (link to come) for all this hard work on getting this done for me!! It is exactly what I was looking for!! CD’s will be off to the pressing plant this week, so watch this space!!

After experimenting with different set-ups over many many years, I think I have tried most things from Pedals, to different amp combinations to a full rack set-up. I would say it has been an organic process and none of these systems, so far, has ever provided me with what I was looking for 100%. Other considerations I have had are due to regular gigging, and the fact that I am now getting fed up of carrying large amps and tons of gear up and downstairs at all hours of the day and night.

Recently, I went for the all in one Line 6 Flextone III XL 2 x 12 and FBV Shortboard foot-controller (I have to say the amp was HEAVY!), and whilst it provided me with the all in one solution I was looking for, I could just not get the tone I was looking for out of it. I know there is the endless debate about tubes etc, but yes to me there is something about cranking up a tube amp and the responsiveness it provides. I find the amp-modellers too sterile. So it was back to the drawing board. I love my Marshall JMP-1 and Marshall EL34 50-50 to bits, but as I mentioned, taking a 4 unit rack (with TC-Electronics G-major and Behringer FCB-1010 foot-controller) and Marshall 1936 2 x 12 cab, floor switch and pedals was just getting a bit much, I knew there had to be an easier, lighter, and smaller solution. Enter the Tech 21 – Trademark 60!

I have been using the Trademark 10 and Sansamp GT2 for many many years, and think they are great in the studio (and the Trademark 10 can hold it’s own at most rehearsals!), but obvsiously it is a bit small for a gig. So last year I picked up the Trademark 60 after getting rid of the Line 6, and I haven’t looked back. I have written a full review on the Trademark 60, click here for details. It is an amazing amplifier, and does have 90% of the sounds I am looking for (doesn’t do metal metal to well….but then again I am playing less of that these days!), so I am very content! Needless to say this has meant I have gone back to using floor pedals with it (not that many mind!), having sold my Line 6 DL-4 Delay and DM-4 Distortion pedals this year, because once again they just didn’t do it for me, I have found I have returned to my old Boss pedals and I am really enjoying the experience! I think I have been too caught up in the programmable world, and really now enjoy having no presets….just turning the controls to suit what I want.

Currently my set-up goes as follows….

Ibanez/Strat –> Pedal Board consisting of……

-> Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah -> Boss BD-2 Blues Driver -> Boss SD-2 Super Overdrive -> Boss MT-2 Metal Zone -> Boss GE-7 Graphic Equaliser -> Boss CH-2 Super Chorus -> MXR Phase 90 -> Boss DD-7 Delay (Plus Tap Tempo) -> Boss LS-2 Line Selector ->

Band Rig
A – Trademark 60 Amp
B – Boss TU-12H Tuner

Looping Rig

A – Behringer Reverb Pedal ->Roger Linn Aderalinn III -> Boss RC-50 Looper -> Trademark 60 Amp
B – Boss TU-12H Tuner

Pictures coming soon!

The new CD has finally been mastered, and the artwork for the cover is currently being produced. Hopefully, 11:53 will be ready in the next couple of weeks. Here is a little taster of the thoughts behind the concepty

11:53 Story

Waking up…..11:53 am, I am in a daydream, my life has lost its meaning…an office….a clone, dead inside. The machine is taking over…I am interfaced with a terminal, arranging electrons in an infinite series of 1’s and 0’s……no better than a battery hen, turning out endless reports, documents,…..which never get used…..work longer, work harder than the next person, it will be good for you…..’sleep is for losers’, life outside the machine, an ‘endless loop in perpetuity’….your neighbour has more than you, works harder, it should be your dream too. The machine is the dream maker, it tells me what my dreams are, it sells me my dreams back to me……Any thing is possible in the machine, except everything is out of reach as the dream is never fulfilled, the more you have the more you need. The machine thinks for me, tells me what to think, it draws me away from humanity, it sucks away my life blood…it tells those around me what to think of me and what I should think of them. It is 11:53, the sun casts a band of brilliant light into the cubical….a golden ray where dust particles dance in the void. A second, a nano second, it stops, the machine is gone. I experience life, I want more I am numb, my dead soul is awoken, I am scared. The electromagnetic spectrum is visible……How can I leave the machine? My heart races then slows, the light gets more intense, I see colours amongst the mono-chromatic background of my life. I reach out, I am overcome with sensuality….my inner core is about to overload with realisation….I see the machine, its claws in too deep….how do I escape? If it was my last moment, would I choose the light or the machine? Will this be my finest hour?

As mentioned in the previous post, 11:53 is nearly ready. I had to make some additional mix changes and I am now waiting for the mastering to be completed. So I thought it was time to post a list of all the song titles, there are quite a few (32 in fact!)…..and here they are….

11:53 – The Awakening
12:53 – Finality
13:53 – Core Overload
14:53 – If it was your last…
15:53 – My Finest Hour
16:53 – This World
17:03 – Slipping into Unconsciousness
17:13 – Dramatic Entry
18:53 – Embarking
19:53 – Can’t Say Goodbye
20:53 – Working Template
21:53 – A New Start
22:53 – Tinitus
23:53 – X-ray
00:53 – Abandon
01:53 – Work In Progress
02:17 – Sunday afternoon
02:53 – A War
03:53 – Epistemic Reality
04:53 – Day broken
05:53 – Lost in Hope
06:21 – Gamma Ray
06:53 – I am Scared
07:13 – Life in the Electromagnetic Spectrum
07:53 – Is this Joy?
08:26 – Is time stopping
08:53 – Move Your….
09:53 – Crushing (Colour Is Blind)
10:53 – Coming back to reality
11:51 – The Return of Me
11:52 – This is Strange
11:53 – Spatial Awareness

Watch this space for a few taster tracks coming soon

I hold my hands up, I love delay, it is a huge part of my ’sound’. After struggling for many years with the Line6 DL-4 Delay Modeler Pedal Guitar Effect Pedal
Line 6 DL-4 Delay Modeller and never really liking it, I finally succumb and brought theBoss DD-7 Digital Delay Pedal
Boss DD-7 Digital Delay
I have been looking for an all in one solution for many years now, as I feel myself becoming lazier and less willing to carry tons of gear to gigs and rehearsals. I always get excited by what Line-6 have to offer and as a result purchased the Flextone III and pedalboard. What with all the amp and effect modelling it was the perfect solution, but I am always disappointed. I know tone is a subjective measurement, but these digital amps, whilst making my life so much easier just don’t cut it.

I just feel it is hard to beat those little stomp boxes, yes you can’t store presents and they take up loads of room and you have run power to them etc etc, but they do sound great, and the DD-7 is no exception.

Here are some of the features…

• Expanded delay time, up to 6.4 seconds
• Modulation Delay mode offers natural, chorus-type sounds
• Analog Delay mode models the classic warm BOSS DM-2 analog delay sound
• Tap tempo controllable via external footswitch
• Delay time, feedback, and effect level can be controlled via external Expression pedal (sold separately)
• Up to 40 seconds of recording for sound on sound (Hold mode)

For detail specifications check out the Boss Website Boss DD-7.

I am particularly impressed with the clarity of the tone from the pedal, it is to my ears clearer and not muddy like the Line 6. I am particularly impressed with with the Analogue mode, it produces that nice slightly inconsistent warm delay sound. I also like the hold mode, which can be used as a basic sound-on-sound looper. Whilst it does not have the functionality of the DL-4 (separate playback controls and reverse etc) it is a lot of fun, and if I wanted some exotic I would pick up the Boss RC-50 Loop Station Guitar Effect Pedal
;Boss RC-50 or RC-20XL (watch this space!).

All in all a great sounding delay pedal that hits all the right notes!! Great!!

Neil Spencer Bruce is a multi-instrumental musician, composer and highly qualified Audio Engineer living in the UK, and has been involved with gigging, audio production and design for the last 20 years. Neil specialises in Sound Design and Composition for Film, Computer Games and Television. Neil founded and runs his own audio production companySyncrosound.

Neil also writes and produces his unique brand of “cinematic guitar”music under the name of Light B4 Sound.

Neil has numerous qualifications to his name, including an MSc in Signal Processing (University of Surrey), Dip (Mus) in Music (The Open University), B.Eng (Hons) in Electroacoustics from (Univerisity of Salford) and Diploma in Media Composition (Film Institute of L.A.). Neil is currently involved as a researcher on the Positive Soundscape Project at the University of Salford.

To read more …..click here