Comments on: Show 75 – Homemade Effects and Demos

By: jimbag

jimbag — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:51:52 +0000

I love the DIY approach; I’m forced to do it largely due to budget constraints like most, but I end up amusing myself more with the experiments. In one case, I wanted the guitar amp to be separated from the drums etc so I laid a tiny practice amp on it’s back, on the bottom shelf in an old fridge, lined the inside of the fridge with ceiling tile and positioned a 57 at the top pointing down to the speaker, about 18″ up. With the fridge door sealed, the compartment turned the crappy little amp into a monster. I guess the slight dampening of the ceiling tile and the way the air was trapped in there had something to do with it. I think this was the moment that opened my eyes to recording techniques.
I make music for fun with friends, so this way of messing with stuff is right up my alley, I’ll try the Leslie method sometime, thanks!

By: Stone Throwing Youths

Stone Throwing Youths — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:13:05 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-xzoL1fApk

Don’t think there’s any excuse for someone not to try making one of these for 50 bucks or so!

By: Jesse Zoller

Jesse Zoller — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:02:17 +0000

Great effect Neil. You should try blending it with the original sound.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:24:33 +0000

That is another great example of DIY effects. I have been thinking about getting some piezo transducer pickups to play with for a while now. Just one more think on my list. Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us. Now I have to build a plate reverb!

By: Neil

Neil — Mon, 10 May 2010 23:49:28 +0000

Good show! I might have to try that homemade reverb in the stairwell at work.

To throw another one in, I tried making a sort of plate reverb at home. I used a piezo transducer from Edmund’s scientific (6 for $1.50!), which I taped to a baking pan and hung from a mic stand with a rubber band. I actually tested it out by just playing acoustic guitar/singing directly into the pan (terrible improv’d song linked below), but I’ll probably be using it via monitors in the near future. I don’t like the sound on vocals (too many weird resonances), but it sounds kinda cool on acoustic.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2998392/singing%20into%20a%20cookie%20sheet.mp3