Reborn Blog - Indie Band from York UK

Reborn will gig in 2009 if it kills me!

2008-08-29T02:28:00.000-07:00

I was going though all the recorded material for Reborn. And you know what? Most of it is flipping awesome. Easily our best material ever, and no one is getting to hear it. Well, we had planned for the last 18months that we would be gigging in 2009, but we also planned to have finished and released tacks by the end of '08, which so far is looking unlikely!

So what's the problem? Well, it's a logistical problem in part, also a free-time problem, and a motivational one! We've got plenty of tracks on the go, but none finished (as in, mixed and mastered) as it's only once every blue moon we're all in the same place long enough for the magic to happen.

So my new years resolution (yes, I know it's only August) is to get the band gigging as soon as possible in 2009. I think a couple of acoustic sets would go down well too, and the new material will adapt well to acoustic.

So what can you expect? Well, alot more of the same! Techno-Grunge still abounds, but we've grown up a bit, and the music is a little more skilled and deeper. Since our new equipment is working so well, you can expect more live electronica happening too. If we can make it work technically, we may also get ourselves a live drummer to compliment the electronic drum machine and chopped drumloops which characterise our sound. As there's live bass guitar and piano thrown into the new songs too (yes piano, I shit you not) you can also expect alot more shuffling around on stage and frustrated/confused sound engineers. It's gonna be wild!

I know we've been saying all this for over a year, but really now it's serious. We just can't let this stuff go unheard. So get subscribed to the blog (or book mark this page) and keep watching for updates.

Keep on moving ;-)

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Reborn's Studio Amp Mixer

2008-08-15T02:38:00.000-07:00

I've had this mixer since my Rave Generation days, it's served me well. It's very long in the tooth now. The turntable and both tape decks are screwed. It's missing two fader knobs, the DJ/STUDIO/HIFI switch is crackly and the speaker sockets are really intermittant.

Sadly now, the front phono sockets are faulty, so I can only get an input using the 1/4" jacks, which requires use of the "trim" pre-amp which causes alot of distortion.

But, I can forgive all that as it's 23 years old. I can't belive this puppy was £299 back in 1985, I dread to think what that is in 2008 money!

Anway, here's the ad, sit back and enjoy !

Live Jamming with Traktor, Access Virus and RM1x

2008-08-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

This could be a sign of things to come. We had a pretty good jam with all the gear running at once. Sadly BPM synch between Traktor and Cubase SX doesn't seem to be possible.

The problem is that Steinberg decided to ditch the "sync to midi clock" feature after VST5. Which is total madness. That means that Cubase has to be the master unless you can supply MTC. Now none of our outboard gear supports output of MTC, so we're stuffed!

The choices are to either go back to Cubase VST/32 V5.1r3 or get Ableton Live. Seeming as we have 3 legit copies of VST, I think I'll just install that on the laptop instead!

Congratulations to Steinberg on fucking up Cubase again! I also hear that the latest version of Cubase, Version 4 (no I don't understand the numbering either) has ditched support for Direct X plug-ins. It wasn't made public till after the release either. What a spark of genius! That's right, your £3000 worth of DX plugs won't work anymore. Even more reason to stay on SX, or by the looks of things, roll back to VST !!

Guitar legends you may never hear of.

2008-08-13T07:25:00.001-07:00

I've come across some really gifted guitar players in my time, there's loads out there and sadly many of them won't ever get the fame and recognition of Slash, Clapton, Cobain and the like.

Once such artist and friend of the band is Martin Ledger of the Bogus Brothers. I've seen the guy play, and he ticks all the boxes of being a total guitar genius, including the learning of more obscure strings instruments like the mandolin (which he mastered in a matter of months). I suspect if he saw what I'd written here, he'd probably be a little embarrassed. But this is my blog, so he's just gonna have to take the compliment :-P

Anyway, my point is that even he was impressed with a video clip I sent him of Pat Metheny. Who is one of those guitarists I'm reffering to who most people will probably have never heard of. Certainly in the UK it's even more unlikely as he's the wrong colour and can't rap, unlike Dizzee Rascal who is untalented and as previously declared; a total cock.

This guy Pat not only mastered other stringed instruments, but bored with mastering that challenge decided to invent his own! It's a 42 (count them) stringed guitar, named the Pikasso. Although to call it a guitar is a bit ambiguous as it's more like a guitar, bass, sitar and harp all rolled into one.

Here’s a clip of the guy in action with his multi-stringed guitar.

New Toy! Access Virus Classic.

2008-07-21T01:23:00.000-07:00

As fans will know, Reborn are all about fusing synth/electronica with traditional rock guitar. Something quite commonplace now, but back in '99 when we started, it was unheard of. Choosing the right equipment is paramount, and we've had a fair amount of gear. Our staple synth for some time was the Yamaha CS2X, but this soon departed to be replaced by some rather tastey virtual synths. A brief u-turn resulted in the addition of a Yamaha RM1X, which while good fun, hasn't been all the CS2X has been. I've been experimenting with a few virtual synths, but nothing really comes close to a real synth in the studio. The old CS2X was a wavetable synth, so not really a true "analogue" synth. This was a bit of a disappointment when Walker and I started to get into the details with the CS2X, and is part of the reason why we weren't too upset to see it go. That said, full blown analogue synths can be quite a handfull. So some moderation is required!After some (alot) of deliberation. I decided to get a decent analogue/virtual analogue synth. This means you functionally get an analogue synth, but you have presets and memory to save your patches. I read a few reviews, and checked out Harmony Central, and it seems the best by far are the Virus synths from Access. These take the form of a desktop/rack module, or a small 2 octave keyboard, or a full size keyboard.

Functionally, the Virus range has changed very little since it's inception. There have been a few base versions, namely the Virus A, Virus B, Virus C and latest is the Virus TI. The TI is the first to show signs of real innovation since the Virus A, and now features direct Synth to Sequencer interaction via a VSTi. They call this "Total Integration". This is pretty damn clever and means you have the best of both worlds, a hardware synth which uses no CPU, but a VSTi meaning it's easier to mess with settings and record changes on-screen.

All that said, the TI is just too damn expensive, so I set about finding a second hand Virus. While on my travels I also considered the likes of the Korg Triton, Alesis Andromeda and Novation Supernova. But after hearing some audio clips of each synth, and checking the specs. It seems the Virus is much more geared towards that "Reborn" sound.

I finally found a rather crisp and clean Virus Classic for sale. The Classic is essentially a re-release of the Virus B with a different paint-job. If you shop around you can get these from as little as £250 for a scruffy one, or £450 for a clean example like this. That's one hell of a saving over the original RRP of £999.

I'm still waiting for delivery, but will be posting up some audio clips as soon as I can get my grubby hands on it!

Finally! Some new music which is GOOD!

2008-02-12T12:10:00.000-08:00

Possibly some of the best ideas to come out of the UK music scene for a long time!

What happens when you mix rock roots with drum and bass? PENDULUM!

Have a listen and see for yourself. This is Pendulum's latest single "Granite".

Oh, and the video is pretty good too!

Nirvana – Still as influential as ever

2007-11-08T05:35:00.000-08:00

It was refreshing to hear Zane Lowe’s masterpiece show the other night featuring Nirvana’s Nevermind. This was the album that changed my life back in 1991 and to listen to many of today’s bands and artists talking about Nirvana including Dave Grohl was very interesting. It proves what a true masterpiece the album was and how it is probably responsible for influencing a lot of the music we have had since, and even to this day.
You can listen again at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/zanelowe/masterpieces_nirvana.shtml

Good work!

Korn – The best band this decade?

2007-11-08T03:36:00.000-08:00

To put forward my case I’ll start from the very beginning, over 12 years ago. Korn’s debut studio album was released, rather un-creatively titled Korn. With their career officially off the mark and out into hands of the masses and with tracks such as the timeless Blind and quirky Shoots and Ladders its fair to assume fans had high hopes.

I can only guess that most fans over the following five years had just about written off the band before the second studio album release Life is peachy. Oddly their third album Issues came in the same month, however I personally think this was a blessing because Life is peachy is by far their worst album, I have favourite tracks off all of their albums except this one, and with Issues concealing some of Korn’s darkest and most intense tracks it probably saved their ass.

Now we are taken into the new millennium and in 2002 their forth album Follow the Leader hits the market. This would be the first Korn album I picked up and bought, it was this album that I discovered the band and would never look back.
The first four tracks to this album are just pure and simply awesome and still sound fresh and original to this day. It would be hard to believe that the album as a whole could progress after such a solid beginning but with experimental rap offerings with the help from the likes of IceCude, Hip Hop bass line teasers, mean guitar riffs and the truly brilliant dynamic vocals from Jonathan Davis the album is a master peace.

With the band on a creative roll, later the same year their fifth album Untouchables came along. Interestingly I struggled with this one but it featured a handful of accessible tracks, Here to Stay getting commercial radio play and featuring on World Wrestling. It wouldn’t be for a few years later that I realised one of my favourite Korn tracks of all time was on this album, maybe a hint that they were ahead of their time.

2003 brought there sixth Studio album, admittedly at the time I was suspicious of what to expect after my disappointment with the previous but ultimately overwhelmed and relived. Take a look in the Mirror is probably their best, most solid album, track after track of heavy guitar riffs and vocal hooks. It’s dark, mean and kicks ass. Right Now, Here it comes again and Deep Inside are just a few to mention but there isn’t a bad track on the album and features Did my time, the title sound track to Tomb raider 2 plus a bonus track, a Metallica cover!

Korn had proved to me that they stood the test of time, after playing Take a look in the mirror to death it made it irresistible to listen to all their older albums and revive that (now officially self proclaimed) Korn fan.

In 2005 we had a Greatest Hits album and Seventh Studio album See you on the other side contained a few treats and some bonus dance mixes that would rival any super star DJ. And in 2005 a couple Live, rare and unplugged offerings suggesting the band had had their day, but a respectable one at that.

2007: And then…..I here that Korn have done MTV Unplugged and soon after released their eighth studio album. Admittedly the thought of Korn doing Unplugged made me very nervous. But, sticking to there philosophy of trying out ideas I was nicely surprised they’d pulled some of it off. Kicking off with a Latin version of Blind and introducing a couple of guests including Amy Lee and some Japanese Drummers, there are some really nice moments.

Their new album however, again not the most creatively titled untitled contains some of the most genius tracks I think I ever heard. Bitch we got a problem using exceptionally cool synthesized licks, Evolution sticking to Korn’s trade mark power choruses and verses packed full of rhythm, the album gets of to a winning start.
And then it comes to the track Hold On. Now let’s get one thing clear, I am a fan of music from a massive array of genres. I know music is ultimately down to taste but I like to think I have a pretty good idea. Taking into consideration Korn’s career, and thier moments of pure brilliants, one would think they had peaked along time ago.

Hold on is probably the one most single peace of pure and utter genius I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. With a couple of clicks of the drum sticks the trade mark Korn sound pours through the speakers and without any nonsense in kicks the punchy verse riff soaked with rhythm. Naturally the vocal melody perfection from Jonathan Davis completes the beginning. The Chorus has the head nodding appeal that even the Churchill dog would applauded. Into the second verse and in sneaks some random experimental analogue noises. Korn have somehow reinvented them selves yet without loosing their sound. This track is fresh, dynamic, perfection and pure fucking genius. And I dare say, the band has truly peaked.

It maybe unfair to single out a band as being the best but is Korn the best band of this decade? With eight studios albums under there belt, each containing experimentation, creativity and not a guitar solo in sight. Maybe not, but they sure as hell are one of them.

The Best Techno Artists (Who you may never know)

2007-10-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

I’ve being following a recording label for over eighteen months now, which has opened up a whole new little world of techno artists that most people would never know about. I know that I wouldn’t have discovered them myself if it wasn’t for total chance while on a trip to Berlin early 2006. I can’t help but to be always on the look out for new and interesting music (its in my blood), so when I heard some ‘refreshingly awesome techno’ thumping out of the impressive PA system, in some cool and edgy bar deep in Berlin, I couldn’t resist inquiring.

Thanks to the wonderful internet I was able to pay a small fee and download the Album back in the UK, and obviously find out exactly who was involved.

The label Audiomatique (http://www.audiomatique.com/) and the key artists involved being Martinez, Trentemoller and (since discovered) Jeff Bennett of Pokerflat Recordings (http://www.pokerflat-recordings.com/).
If you’re interested in discovering some alternative techno music then search for the following tracks as a starter and take it from there:

Physical Fraction - Trentmoller

Prana - Trentmoller

Twilight - Martinez

Have Fun!

Propellerhead Reason 4 - Upgrade Fiasco

2007-09-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

Well, after several days messing around transferring our licences over to the new Propshop account, it then turns out that we can't upgrade our copy of Reason. Not becuase it's the older Version 1. But because it's an "NFR" version. These are versions which are shipped out to journalists, traders and bands/producers to help promote the software, and this is what we have been using for the last 6 years. We've been very impressed with Reason, and it's proved usefull on many occasions, but we've never felt the need to upgrade till now.

The new version of Reason has a new modular synth, a groove mixer and more interestingly for us (since we ditched the CS2X) , an arpeggiator! So it's quite upsetting to find that even through we're prepared to fork out for the upgrade, Propellerhead won't permit us to do so. We can however, if we wish, pay full price for the full version (some 400EU!). Sadly, this it way out of our budget for software. And it does lead me to think that it's actually alot of money for any band, so that basically means it's marketed for the full time musos and producers who can get the software for free!

Nice move Propellerhead! You just earned yourself £0 from all bands like us. Surely it would make more sense to have some kind of banner exchange? Or promotional contract where bands using the software get discounts in exchange for wearing Propellerhead t-shirts on stage? That's just two ideas off the top of my head, so surely there must be another option?

But that would be sensible now wouldn't it. So, no new toys for Reborn. Will just stick with Version1 thanks very much.

Griff's Telecaster Pics

2007-09-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

OK, so I though I should some pics of the actual guitar rather than just some generic pics off t'interweb. What you're looking at here is a Squire Fat Telecaster, with a Seymour Duncan HotRails in the bridge, and a 59 Model in the neck.

The strings currently fitted are 10-52 Fender Stainless "350". But normally I sue Ernie Ball "Skinny Top Heavy Bottom" which are the same size, but a bit easier on the frets. The Fenders sound great but are a bit abbrasive on the poor fret wire. I've also stopped using the Fender strings on the Jag-Stang as you could actually see the wear!

Also worthy of note is the saddles. When I first started gigging with this guitar, it would break strings with regularity. It was a constant source of frustration, and often the reason why you would see my playing the Ja-Stang a the end of a gig. (and also why you would often see the Telecaster flying accross the stage).

I soon realised that the strings were snapping at the saddle, so I had them filed and grooved by a luthier. It didn't help much, so after a bit of investigation I came accross the Graph Tech saddles. Now, not only do these things look cool (being black graphite) they self lubricate and in theory, microscopically mould to the string. The end result is that I haven't broken a single string since I fitted them. They're also really comfy for blocking.

Another modification I've made is to the switchgear. As I rarely switch pups, but regularly alter the tone and volume, I switch the plate around. It also means it's alot harder to accidently switch pickups when you're jumping around the stage. It's an idea I saw and blatently robbed from the Fender Custom Classic Telecaster. Now that I've got better pickup balance I might well reverse the plate again...we shall see!

The final mod (which was actually the first) was to change the jack socket. It's a real weakspot on the Telecaster. The normal/vintage jack is held in place by a flexed piece of steel which pushes against the sides of the cavity. It's a rubbish design becuase if you stand on your guitar cable, it will sometimes pull the socket right out, and there's no way in hell it will go back in the middle of a gig, it's screwdrivers and pliers time! So a quick visit to Stewmac, a couple of days on a DHL plane and I had a nice new Electrosocket. This is a machine lathed piece of aluminium which is screwed in place. There's no moving it now!

End result of all these things is a Telecaster which is a real workhorse. It's robust, reliable and sounds better than any off the shelf Fender.

Erics Guitars - Fret Buzz

2007-09-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

I decided to use the power of the web to learn about eliminating the fret buzz that my jag-Stang seems to have picked up over the last few years.

This is pretty educational and useful to any guitarist who wants to set up their own guitar (rather than pay some half stone guitar tech to do it)

It's pretty funny too. FRET BUZZZZ !!

Courtesy of Erics Guitars

Drifting Video Clip

2007-09-19T04:29:00.001-07:00

I found this while looking for drifting video clips on my other blog. It's of a piece called Drifting (presumably).

What can I say, this guy is seriously gifted.

Telecaster - Replacement Bridge Pickup

2007-09-19T02:21:00.000-07:00

Following on from my previous post. That's been the setup pretty much since 2002 till now, but I've always been unhappy with the bridge pickup since fitting the Duncan 59. It's a common situation and not entirely unexpected. Many people recommened changing both pickups at once, otherwise the guitar can become unbalanced. And this is exactly what happened. Setting my sound up for the neck pup,I found that when switching over to the stock bridge pickup, the sound was thin, quiet and totally useless. Conversely, when setting up for the bridge pickup, I found that switching to the humbucker made the sound thick and wooly, and distorting in all the wrong places (mainly the bass range).

As a result, I've pretty much been using just the neck pickup all the time, but recently I've been craving some lighter tones from the bridge, so I made the decision to finally get the bridge pickup replaced.

Again, I wanted to stick with Seymour Duncan. There are many choices of direct replacement. Including stacked single coils, as well as single coil sized humbuckers. Outside of that, you can replace the bridge plate with one from somwhere like StewMac (Stewart Macdonald) which accepts a full size humbucker.

I didn't fancy routing out the guitar, and I knew I wanted a humbucker, so this gave me two choices. The Little '59 or the Hot Rails.

The Little 59, as the name suggests, is again based around the PAF pickup, but in a single coil sized package. It has to be said, it looks pretty damn cool! It's attraction was that it should pair off nicely with the existing 59 in the neck, and still keep some of the original telecaster twang. It was very higly recommeneded on the Telecaster Forum and on Harmony Central.

It's a little known fact that for a couple of years, Kurt Cobain actually played a Telecaster at most of his concerts, and his Tele was fitted with a Hotrails. So this was natrually my second option.

The reviews for the hotrails were not so favourable. Many people say it was too harsh and you loose the telecaster sound, this put me off to start with, but I soon started to think that I actually didn't care about loosing the telecaster sound, and was it really a good idea to have a similar pickup in the neck (Lil 59)? The more I thought about it, the more I realised that keeping some dynamics in the setup would be a good idea, so I bought the hotrails.

What can I say? What a great idea what was! I have a lovely clean sound from the neck, which responds well to crunchy overdrive, and I've got a totally shred-tastic ceramic humbucker in the bridge. With some rectifier style overdrive, this thing sounds like death! I LOVE IT!

The total unforseen bonus is the combined setting, when both the neck and bridge pups are selected, you get the most fanstastic clean sound, which turns into a Stevie Ray Vaughan type sound with a bit of overdrive. I'm absoloutly over the moon.

This cheapy Tele is fast becoming my preferred guitar !

Telecaster - Replacement Neck Pickup

2007-09-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

I've been playing my Candy Apple Red Telecaster for about 5 years now, and it's had a few modifications along the way.

It started life as an off-the-shelf Squire Fat Telecaster. It was resonably priced and ideal as a stage workhorse which I wouldn't be too bothered about damaging. However the stock pickups soon started to show their weaknesses.

Being a "Fat" Telecaster, this guitar came preloaded with a full size humbucker in the neck position, this gave a really warm sound, and most importantly, it responded well to overdrive and distortion, but I soon started to detect the muddiness and set out to find a new pickup.

I did shop around for a bit, but I quickly decided it just HAD to be a Seymour Duncan pickup. but which one? Well to be fair, being in the neck position, I wasn't spoiled for choice and following some recommendations and reviews, I settled for the '59 Model Humbucker. This is modelled around the PAF pickup found in the original Gibson Les Paul and SG. It's got a really great sound when clean and chugs along nicely when I stomp on my Guv'Nor II distortion pedal.

Welcome to our Blog!

2007-09-19T01:17:00.000-07:00

Well, we thought it was about time we started a blog to keep you all up to date on band activities, recordings, gigs and suchlike.