Guitar Gear Forum

Hey fellas! Been a while! Haven't been on forums much since moving to Denver a year ago but I try to check in every now and again cause I love you gabbers. Miss being as active as I used to be.

Anyways, I got my second album under the moniker, Gerald Fjord, coming out late November. The majority of it is made on modular synths with samples and some live instrumentation like a guest saxophone player on 4 of the 8 tracks. I thought it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of you fine musically inclined gentlemen especially since you probably don't listen to this type of music much if at all. Besides all that, this forum taught me a lot of what I know and utilize on this album (although on a different instrument) so just wanted to say thanks too!

The album is not out yet so this is a private pre-release link that I'm sharing below. Would appreciate you not sharing or posting it anywhere else. Take a listen and let me know what you think!

https://soundcloud.com/user-186471430/s ... se/s-oryVC

RUINER!!!!!

I'll give your tunes a listen to, tonight.

BTW, I still listen to Otta regularly... the album you recommended by Sólstafir. Great album!

I'm 5 songs in. I love it. Excellent work! Nice and melodic. I LOVE the sax.

This is really unique in a good way. I hope it pushes through and gets used on something.

ajaxlepinski wrote:RUINER!!!!!

I'll give your tunes a listen to, tonight.

BTW, I still listen to Otta regularly... the album you recommended by Sólstafir. Great album!

Thanks Ajax, looking forward to hearing what you think. Yeah that Sólstafir is great, haven't listened to it in about a year but I'll have to go give it a listen again!

BroSlinger wrote:I'm 5 songs in. I love it. Excellent work! Nice and melodic. I LOVE the sax.

This is really unique in a good way. I hope it pushes through and gets used on something.

Thanks Gene! I was hoping you would. I love hearing the word "unique" to describe it because I can find some things similar in the genre but not really... and yeah, the saxophone really changed the dynamic of those songs and even the album as a whole. I've always wanted to incorporate sax and I found this guy in Dallas that wanted to work with me. He runs his sax through a bunch of chase bliss and other pedals and it fits perfectly IMO

Sooo I haven't listened to the whole thing but 3:53 on Signals is metal AF tho.

Pretty awesome stuff and no I do not typically listen to this music genre.

Listening to this I feel like you are really coming in to your own with this project. Significant strides are clearly being made. I feel like this has the potential to get you noticed.

Excellent work. I genuinely dig this.

Up to Smaller.....dig the tape stop in the intro, that's great. Also, who's doing the vocals here?

So far digging this a lot man, nice work!

Will listen to when I'm back home tonight.

Maddnotez wrote:Sooo I haven't listened to the whole thing but 3:53 on Signals is metal AF tho.

Pretty awesome stuff and no I do not typically listen to this music genre.

Thanks man, appreciate you taking the time to listen!

Ostinato Rubato wrote:Listening to this I feel like you are really coming in to your own with this project. Significant strides are clearly being made. I feel like this has the potential to get you noticed.

Excellent work. I genuinely dig this.

Thanks man, definitely more proud of this than anything I've ever done musically. A lot of emphasis on composition and arrangement this time around and after around 3 years with modular synths I think I'm really finding my way with them and developing a somewhat unique sound especially within modular synths. Learned a lot on the mixing side of things this time too.... hell, I didn't even know what tilt EQ was before this album and now I don't know how I lived without it.

Steinmetzify wrote:Up to Smaller.....dig the tape stop in the intro, that's great. Also, who's doing the vocals here?

So far digging this a lot man, nice work!

Thanks! All that tape slowing and speeding up throughout the whole song is the Strymon Magneto.... probably the best delay ever... but it's modular. The girl singing is a girl from Ireland who puts out sample packs of her voice and I turned it into a song.

GuitarBilly wrote:Will listen to when I'm back home tonight.

Thanks!

Ruiner wrote:

Ostinato Rubato wrote:Listening to this I feel like you are really coming in to your own with this project. Significant strides are clearly being made. I feel like this has the potential to get you noticed.

Excellent work. I genuinely dig this.

Thanks man, definitely more proud of this than anything I've ever done musically. A lot of emphasis on composition and arrangement this time around and after around 3 years with modular synths I think I'm really finding my way with them and developing a somewhat unique sound especially within modular synths. Learned a lot on the mixing side of things this time too.... hell, I didn't even know what tilt EQ was before this album and now I don't know how I lived without it.

Are you using sidechain compression to duck certain elements behind others that you want to stand out more?

It's techno sin to not put sidechain compression on virtually everything, FYI.

Ostinato Rubato wrote:

Ruiner wrote:

Ostinato Rubato wrote:Listening to this I feel like you are really coming in to your own with this project. Significant strides are clearly being made. I feel like this has the potential to get you noticed.

Excellent work. I genuinely dig this.

Thanks man, definitely more proud of this than anything I've ever done musically. A lot of emphasis on composition and arrangement this time around and after around 3 years with modular synths I think I'm really finding my way with them and developing a somewhat unique sound especially within modular synths. Learned a lot on the mixing side of things this time too.... hell, I didn't even know what tilt EQ was before this album and now I don't know how I lived without it.

Are you using sidechain compression to duck certain elements behind others that you want to stand out more?

It's techno sin to not put sidechain compression on virtually everything, FYI.

Good thing my music is not techno......

I've only recently started playing with this... not just with the typical "duck everything when the kick hits" but in much more creative use of reverbs, delays and other effects. I have a compressor module that has a side chain input and have been playing with it there... haven't used it on VSTs.

Album artwork is done too!

Really dug Smaller and Isbiltur - glad to hear some guitar in there!

I've been listening to Buddah Bar compilations recently and one of the local college stations plays similar music.
Your songs are way more creative and imaginative. Two thumbs up!

I just glanced around on it- cool stuff! Marked for later so I can phase out with it.

Ruiner wrote:

Ostinato Rubato wrote:

Ruiner wrote:

Ostinato Rubato wrote:Listening to this I feel like you are really coming in to your own with this project. Significant strides are clearly being made. I feel like this has the potential to get you noticed.

Excellent work. I genuinely dig this.

Thanks man, definitely more proud of this than anything I've ever done musically. A lot of emphasis on composition and arrangement this time around and after around 3 years with modular synths I think I'm really finding my way with them and developing a somewhat unique sound especially within modular synths. Learned a lot on the mixing side of things this time too.... hell, I didn't even know what tilt EQ was before this album and now I don't know how I lived without it.

Are you using sidechain compression to duck certain elements behind others that you want to stand out more?

It's techno sin to not put sidechain compression on virtually everything, FYI.

Good thing my music is not techno......

I've only recently started playing with this... not just with the typical "duck everything when the kick hits" but in much more creative use of reverbs, delays and other effects. I have a compressor module that has a side chain input and have been playing with it there... haven't used it on VSTs.

It’s all “techno” to me. Pump up the jam hommie.

But yeah I didn’t mean duck everything behind the kick, but yeah carefully using sidechain compression to sculpt space for key elements that get muddied by others in similar frequency range is such a useful tool. I even use it lightly for rock music.

ajaxlepinski wrote:Really dug Smaller and Isbiltur - glad to hear some guitar in there!

I've been listening to Buddah Bar compilations recently and one of the local college stations plays similar music.
Your songs are way more creative and imaginative. Two thumbs up!

Thanks Ajax! Glad you dig it!

crankyrayhanky wrote:I just glanced around on it- cool stuff! Marked for later so I can phase out with it.

Thanks for listening!

Ostinato Rubato wrote:
It’s all “techno” to me. Pump up the jam hommie.

But yeah I didn’t mean duck everything behind the kick, but yeah carefully using sidechain compression to sculpt space for key elements that get muddied by others in similar frequency range is such a useful tool. I even use it lightly for rock music.

I know I know, we get it, you took the Deadmau5 Master Class online.... jeez....

Armin Van Buren's too.

Finally listened to I on my drive to DC lady night. Really like it. Good soundtrack for a late night drive Kimmi liked it too.
Why the pseudonym btw?

GuitarBilly wrote:Finally listened to I on my drive to DC lady night. Really like it. Good soundtrack for a late night drive Kimmi liked it too.
Why the pseudonym btw?

Thanks Billy, glad you liked it!

As for the name, just needed an artist name for this project and came up with a play on Gerald Ford changing it to Fjord because I like the imagery of the fjords in Norway with this kind of music.

Oh who did the female vocals on the 4th track? (I think it was 4th, going by memory now).

GuitarBilly wrote:Oh who did the female vocals on the 4th track? (I think it was 4th, going by memory now).

Yes, track 4 is “Smaller”. The singer is from Ireland. She puts out vocal sample packs and I just used a bunch of them to create a full song with her singing on it.

That's interesting! Sounds like an actual vocal track! I would've never guessed it was a collage of samples!

GuitarBilly wrote:That's interesting! Sounds like an actual vocal track! I would've never guessed it was a collage of samples!

Yeah, it took a while to make it work like that but that was the intention so glad it came across!

TILT EQ?!?!?!

I just noticed that you mentioned this. First time hearing about Tilt EQ for me.
Going to have to do some Googling!

Good seeing you here Ruiner! Just started listening. Will report back. Sax is always a welcome addition