Scott Henderson Discussion

[Thanasis]

Hi Scott, a couple questions for the namesake track.

What sound did you use for the "answer" to the melody at the beginning? Talking about that spacey "quack" that has a strange ambience to it. Sounds great!

Also the kind of layers at around 1:15. The kind of ringing harmonics. I thing I've heard it somewhere on Vibe Station as well but I can't remember on which track. This is great too.

Also, for the Havona type intro ** edited: 1:51** (Sus VS bass notes....I'll call it the "All aboard" moment for reference) did you add the E note for the second chord which I would dare to assume that is Bsus or do you play the whole passage on the inside strings and let the open E ring?

Also, right after the All aboard moment those harmonics sound great and unusual. Is it the alligator clips or something?

Thanks!

[Scott Henderson]

Hi Thanasis, I can answer a few of your questions correctly I think, but the other ones (and I'm not making fun of you) remind me of that movie Galaxy Quest, where a fan of the actor playing the starship captain asks something like "in episode 245, you set your phaser on stun by turning the knob to the right, but in episode 87, you set your phaser to stun by turning the knob to the left. Why?" Of course the actor has no idea what the guy is talking about.

So, that "quack" is just a clean chord with the Soundtoys plug-in Phase Mistress. The plug-in is in time with the music, but it's modulation engine runs separately from the DAW, so it's very unpredictable. I had to bounce a bunch of plug-in performances and pick the one I liked the best, and it made that quacky midrange frequency on that particular chord. The chords at 1:15, same thing - there are no harmonics, just clean chords with Phase Mistress, another guitar part playing high notes with volume swells, and the lead guitar playing the melodies.

There's no B sus in the intro so I'll need a time for that question. I don't hear an open E ringing anywhere.

I'll also need a time for the last question because I don't hear harmonics. I think you're just hearing the odd frequencies generated by Phase Mistress - they get pretty whacky sounding.

[Thanasis]

Thanks Scott,
Sorry about the other questions, I'm typing on a phone and editing the text somehow removed the time reference. My bad!

For the Bsus I meant the one at 1:51 the same one that is on All aboard. I assumed it was a sus chord being treated Havona style. I thought I could hear an E note in there. But I may as well be very wrong.

As for the harmonics, right after that, at around 1:55.

Hope it makes more sense now. Need to wait for the charts so I can make less false assumptions.

[Scott Henderson]

Oh, those harmonics! That's a weird story - those are from the composition sequence and they're some kind of fluke because I tried to do it again and I couldn't figure out how it happened. I must've hit a string in exactly the right place or something, so I just kept it, even though it was recorded with a Korg PX5-D.

Yes that chord at 1:51 is a B 13sus, but there's no open E. It just a really simple 1357 root voicing of A MA7 with B in the bass played with the thumb.

[Thanasis]

I was gonna say, those harmonics sound unbelievable.

Thanks again, my apologies for confusing you at first. It really is a drag on the phone because the cursor keeps jumping around and adding words where they shouldn't be. It may be that the board is not too mobile-friendly. Getting lost in translation on top of that and all sense is lost. Haven't watched Galaxy Quest, but the reference was hilarious

[fusion58]

[Scott Henderson]

I like when the aliens are learning that Earth TV isn't real - when Gilligan's Island is mentioned, one of them says "Oh, those poor people!."

The film is such a great roast of Star Trek, all the way down to the redshirts who get killed off in every episode. Tony Shalhoub has a great line where instead of quoting Mr. Scott's "I'm givin' it all she's got", he goes into a nerdy speech that had me on the floor. Great movie!

[peter_heijnen]

The story goes that Allan Holdsworth was in a hotel lobby once standing close to William Shatners luggage. Shatner thought Allan was the bellboy and asked him if he could bring his luggage to his room. Allan being a huge Trek fan didn't hesitate a second and carried Shatners stuff to his room.