H&C from a Non-Owners POV-Session with Martin Cilia
May 3, 2016 19:17:50 GMT
Jono, chris68, and 1 more like this
Post by sixchannel on May 3, 2016 19:17:50 GMT
Before I start - No sycophancy. Here's the thing - I am not the owner or user of an H&C echo unit, having my beloved but geriatric and increasingly dodgy Zoom2000EFTP and Q2EFTP as recording and gigging units. Indeed I couldn't see what all fuss was about. As far as I was concerned, unless you had a genuine original and reliable Meazzi (is that an oxymoron?) Roland etc of the era , the Q2 and Q20 sounded as good as you could get, so why all this effort and palaver? An echo unit is an echo unit- right? Wrong! And the price might seem high to some until you remember that not so long ago we were paying similar for old Q20EFTPs.
It took a trip to the other side of the world (Sydney, Australia) and a session with Martin Cilia to change my mind. Back in the day, The Shadows basically produced their famous 'sound' thus - Guitar - echo - amp (ok with maybe a bit of studio post production). Thats it. Nowadays there is a plethora of pickups, strings and pedals available vst's, plug ins, echo units costing up to £3000, amps, amp sims, recording, mixing and mastering systems and yet we strive, often unsuccessfully still, to get it. For sure when Martin tours, he uses many and varied Boss type pedals and a U rack some 4 feet tall full of modules, including I noticed an old Quad GT - er just in case! But that Mental As Anything music needs all that kit for its widely diverse Set.
But back in his studio, its a different story. Martin has the new H&C echo unit. He uses it professionally. We sat there for ages, trading Shadows tunes, using either his white 54 Strat or his 58 FR Strat (both totally original). The "chain" (lol) was simply Strat - H&C - 1964 AC30/6TB and out poured " that sound". For recording he simply mics up the Vox direct to the console. AFAICT he has modified none of the patches - "why would I?". For his Surf and Rock guitar he prefers to wow and flutter to be Off but maybe I persuaded him, even as an amateur p!ayer, that the w&f at 3 oclock is the 'magic bullet' for Shadows tunes.
Having continuously used a Zoom2000EFTP and latterly a Q2EFTP and nothing else over the years, right up to the day before we left for Oz, the "difference" hit me between the eyes. Hopefully you'll know what I mean when I say that, when you play you feel you've got the tone and playing style pretty well covered but there is that certain something missing. The H&C has found it. The patches allocated to various Shads tunes sound right on the money tonewise and echo pattern wise but there is so more to it than just copying an echo pattern. It's been done - got the tee-shirt. There's a whole lot more going on in there than just the "dit-de-dit-de-dit". When you play (example) Wonderful Land, the whole sound is alive and vibrant. The muted sections have a depth and clarity and that lovely almost subliminal "wobble" that "that sound" is. Dial up the Peace Pipe patch or Shadoogie, Savage, Dance On etc etc, and the Hard One to get to sound right (IMO), Apache and its right there. Superb.
Those who know me, also know that I tend to play a lot of Hank solo, or non-Shads tunes, even, Shock Horror! - from Surf Rock to Teddy Bears Picnic and the patch selection on the H&C never let me down. I found P26 for example just perfect for The Shadows later material and Hanks later solo tunes. I even left the W&F on 3 oclock when playing some of Martins own Surf tunes - and told him so. We had some jolly banter about it and decided that it was "personal taste" lol!
Martin, like me wants something that is essentially "plug and play". Personally I can't be doing with all this stuff that requires in-depth computer knowledge before you can even install and use it successfully, (Life is too short), or the latest Microshaft Windows etc. It maybe Heresy but I want to shape my sound, more or less as I want it before it goes into my ancient recording software. Martin seems to be successfully recording this way too.
I came away knowing for sure that when I am in the market for a new echo unit (when my old echo unit finally conks out) I will be looking to replace it with the H&C. Its a first class bit of kit, comes complete with "that echo" at no extra cost and has, so far, proved 100% reliable in Martin's hands, or rather, foot.
It took a trip to the other side of the world (Sydney, Australia) and a session with Martin Cilia to change my mind. Back in the day, The Shadows basically produced their famous 'sound' thus - Guitar - echo - amp (ok with maybe a bit of studio post production). Thats it. Nowadays there is a plethora of pickups, strings and pedals available vst's, plug ins, echo units costing up to £3000, amps, amp sims, recording, mixing and mastering systems and yet we strive, often unsuccessfully still, to get it. For sure when Martin tours, he uses many and varied Boss type pedals and a U rack some 4 feet tall full of modules, including I noticed an old Quad GT - er just in case! But that Mental As Anything music needs all that kit for its widely diverse Set.
But back in his studio, its a different story. Martin has the new H&C echo unit. He uses it professionally. We sat there for ages, trading Shadows tunes, using either his white 54 Strat or his 58 FR Strat (both totally original). The "chain" (lol) was simply Strat - H&C - 1964 AC30/6TB and out poured " that sound". For recording he simply mics up the Vox direct to the console. AFAICT he has modified none of the patches - "why would I?". For his Surf and Rock guitar he prefers to wow and flutter to be Off but maybe I persuaded him, even as an amateur p!ayer, that the w&f at 3 oclock is the 'magic bullet' for Shadows tunes.
Having continuously used a Zoom2000EFTP and latterly a Q2EFTP and nothing else over the years, right up to the day before we left for Oz, the "difference" hit me between the eyes. Hopefully you'll know what I mean when I say that, when you play you feel you've got the tone and playing style pretty well covered but there is that certain something missing. The H&C has found it. The patches allocated to various Shads tunes sound right on the money tonewise and echo pattern wise but there is so more to it than just copying an echo pattern. It's been done - got the tee-shirt. There's a whole lot more going on in there than just the "dit-de-dit-de-dit". When you play (example) Wonderful Land, the whole sound is alive and vibrant. The muted sections have a depth and clarity and that lovely almost subliminal "wobble" that "that sound" is. Dial up the Peace Pipe patch or Shadoogie, Savage, Dance On etc etc, and the Hard One to get to sound right (IMO), Apache and its right there. Superb.
Those who know me, also know that I tend to play a lot of Hank solo, or non-Shads tunes, even, Shock Horror! - from Surf Rock to Teddy Bears Picnic and the patch selection on the H&C never let me down. I found P26 for example just perfect for The Shadows later material and Hanks later solo tunes. I even left the W&F on 3 oclock when playing some of Martins own Surf tunes - and told him so. We had some jolly banter about it and decided that it was "personal taste" lol!
Martin, like me wants something that is essentially "plug and play". Personally I can't be doing with all this stuff that requires in-depth computer knowledge before you can even install and use it successfully, (Life is too short), or the latest Microshaft Windows etc. It maybe Heresy but I want to shape my sound, more or less as I want it before it goes into my ancient recording software. Martin seems to be successfully recording this way too.
I came away knowing for sure that when I am in the market for a new echo unit (when my old echo unit finally conks out) I will be looking to replace it with the H&C. Its a first class bit of kit, comes complete with "that echo" at no extra cost and has, so far, proved 100% reliable in Martin's hands, or rather, foot.
