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| Bem-vindo! | Welcome! | Tervetuloa! | Bienvenue! | Willkomen! | Bienvenido! | Benvenuta! | Welkom! | Välkommen! | Velkomin! |
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Instruments & Gear
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This section is about what I use to make my sound. It's not up-to-date, since I haven't bought any recent equipment. Nevertheless, it is what I consider the best in terms of quality / price.
| Type | Name | Photo | Description |
| Guitar | Washburn N2 Nuno Bettencourt Model |
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It features Floyd Rose bridge, maple body and neck, and two humbuckers - a Bill Lawrence at the bridge and a Washburn 621 at neck position (I switched this one with a Seymour Duncan '59). It doesn't have tone controls at all, but has a great, balanced sound. If you play it clear, has a distinguished personality, a great sustain, and has a unique 'voice'. Distorted, shows its other side, a powerful soul, and a clear, razor-sharp response.Put it all togheter, with one of the slimmer neck you'll ever see, and here's to you, the N2, designed by Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme.
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| Amplifier | Crate 160GXL |
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This guitar amplifier has 160 Watt of power, which basically means that at low volume levels, it's loud as hell. To play live it's fabulous, but it has one flaw - it's a bit noisy and has spring reverb... :P
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| Bass | Ibanez SoundGear SR300DX |
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It's a 4-stringer with sunburst finish, agathis body, medium high frets, the pickups are DX-P and DX-J (from factory), it has an equaliser inside (Phat EQ) and uses chrome hardware. All in all, it's an Ibanez, which means it's damn good! |
| Amplifier | Fender FP-15 |
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The simplest amplifier there is for electric bass guitar. It has a 3-band equaliser and that's basically it. It's just for practise. Usually I connect the bass directly to the mixing console (sometimes through the multi effects pedal). |
| Effects Pedal | Zoom GFX-707 |
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This is a multi-effects pedal which means that it applies different, various effects to an electric guitar signal (at the same time or not), like Chorus, Reverb, Flanger, Wah, Distortions and Overdrives, Acoustic Simulator, etc. It's a cheap, but very good device and you can spend hours just playing with it. Every guitarrist should have one. There are many on the market from different brands. Nowadays this one is getting obsolete (GFX 707-II is already in stores), but still does the trick. I use it for bass and voice too, although there is equipment available for that kind of function. |
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Amp Simulator |
Behringer V-Amp 2 |
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This little blue toy allows players to get rid of the use of mikes to capture those "noisy" amplifiers. It simulates every kind of amp (and speaker) there is out there, from the classic to the ultra-modern ones. All you have to do is connect your guitar to its Input and the Output to the sound board on your pc. It's that simple. :) |
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Effects Pedal (compressor) |
Marshall ED-1 "Edward The Compressor" |
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This little friend has my name (Ed) but that's hardly the reason I bought it. Compression is a particular effect, because the least you notice it, the better. A sound compressor's function is to make every note sound equal in volume, which means that if you're playing a guitar solo or doing a bass line every note you play will have the same volume, even if you play each one louder or quieter than the previous one. It also "boosts" the sound of your guitar, so that it cuts in the overall mix, making it sound "stronger" and clearer, if well configured. It works splendidly with acoustic usage. In other words, it's essencial for a professional and even semi-profissional sound.
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| Digital Piano | Roland HP 147 Re |
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This is a very nice instrument, because it has 99% piano sound, it's cheaper, it's smaller (although it is a piece of furniture) and it can do pipe organ, electric piano and clapsichord with also 99% sound imitation. I'm not a very good piano player, but with some practise I can basically do what I intend to.
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| Synthesiser | Roland E-16 |
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A synthesiser's function is to reproduce the sound of several instruments, whether they're stringed, metals, etc (in this case, by playing through a keyboard). This model is no longer made, but I think it's very effective to its purpose and has some very nice sounds.
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| Mixing Console | Behringer MX802A |
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Behringer is one brand that I enjoy particularly because they produce high quality devices and sell them for a dime. This mixing console is a perfect example of that. It has 8 channels (4 mono and 4 stereo), a 3-band equalizer, Aux Inputs, etc. Basically it's even more than I need. I use it to make the connection to my PC. Everything goes through this box before it reaches my PC sound board (Sound Blaster Live). It's very useful to control inputs volume, connect XLR balanced microphones, etc. |
| Multitrack Recording | Cakewalk Sonar 2.0 |
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This application is dedicated to multitrack recording, which means to record every instrument on "tracks" and then edit them, changing each track's volume, controlling the pan (L/R), placing a recording in an exact spot in the music, etc. Bottom line is, without this tool, home recording would be pratically impossible. Sonar 2.0 is recent, there were others before it from Cakewalk (Pro Audio 7.0 e 9.0, Sonar 1.0). Whoever makes music at home owes pretty much to this company... |
| Loop Sequencer | Fruity Loops 3 |
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Fruity Loops has been improving a lot at each version. What this tool allows you to do is basically to use samples (like drumkit sounds - snare, cymbals, kick... ou even pianos and basses) to create loops (repetitions) of patterns, like for example, drum beats. The chances are neverending, we can create entire songs just by using this application (without playing anything live), with a little knowledge of music and imagination. I believe most dance music hits are made with tools like these. As soon as you learn how to use it, you'll care for nothing else ... :)
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| Mastering | Steinberg Wavelab |
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When you record an audio signal to your pc from an outside source, he transforms it into a Wave file (.wav). With this Steinberg tool, we can edit pratically everything in that file: raise the pitch, add effects, cut, copy and paste determined sections, etc. It's like going to the root of the sound and mould as we please from there. Very nice!
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