Curious if anyone knows the specifics of how Belew created the various animal sounds on his first few solo albums. Some real creative playing.

Besides the standard birds using a slide way up high on the E string, today I figured out a way to do something like a whale moan. Start with a mid distortion tone and a flanger. Using a slide, pick a note on the low E string and slowly move the slide up the neck while bringing the volume up from 0 (either with a pedal or the knob). Kill the note with the volume knob.

If anyone knows any others, please post them.

There is a fantastic video (remember VHS?) called Adrian Belew - Electronic Guitar. It goes through all his effects, his Roland Guitar Synth rig and he even goes through how he makes animal sounds.

I bought one off ebay for $15 back in 2001, so I'm sure you can find one somewhere. This will answer all your questions I'm sure. I believe it's from 1983, by the way.

Roger

tremolo lounge recording
www.tremolo.com

the curtain society
www.curtainsociety.com

Thanks for the tip, Rodgre. I'll keep my eyes open on EBay.

I do remember seeing that video in a store before.

I pretty much know what FX he used back in the "Lone Rhino" days, I just don't know the specific recipies he used for any given tone.

This video goes through a lot of his tricks and some of the riffs he was doing in those days with King Crimson and his solo stuff. Shows you how he does Elephants, Insects, Whales, Seagulls.... If you want me to explain something specific, I'll try to recall what he did.

Roger

tremolo lounge recording
www.tremolo.com

the curtain society
www.curtainsociety.com

Thanks for the offer, Rodgre. I'll need to get my mitts on another copy of "Lone Rhino" and "Desire.." and "Twang Bar King" to get some ideas. If I get some specific ones in mind, I might take you up on that.

I think in my mind I've got an idea on the elephant...similar to the whale, except with a fuzzier distortion, and play the notes farther up the neck.

I remember a TV interview with Rich Little years ago, and he discussed how he comes up with the voices. He said he relates them to being similar in some way to a voice he already knows...then adjusts inflection and stuff to match.

well, the elephant trick, which is probably similar to a rhino.... Roll your volume down, hit a bunch of harmonics on different frets (you want to make a cluster of notes that really don't sound good together) and bend your floating wang bar down, and while rolling the volume back up, pull the bar up past normal pitch.

Another way he would do a similar sound was to just grab a cluster of notes that weren't harmonious and just bend them all together while rolling the volume up.

he used a volume pedal a lot I believe.

He would use things like flangers set for no modultation (or electric mistresses switched to filter matrix) for a metallic tone. He liked Big Muffs, Foxx Tone Machines, a bunch of Electro Harmonix stuff, and most of the time, a Dynacomp was on.

He had a wacky old Electro Harmonix Guitar Synth (not the microsynth) that would just bleep and bloop on it's own because it didn't track very well, and that would make some cool noises.

He also had the microsynth, and got a lot of use out of the GR-300. This video also demonstrates a fretless Roland G-505 which does some cool tricks.

Roger

tremolo lounge recording
www.tremolo.com

the curtain society
www.curtainsociety.com

Very interesting, thanks for the info.

Yeah, I figured a compressor to squash notes, fuzz, and lots of subtle flange....coupled with trem and volume stuff.

I know for some stuff, he also manipulates the controls on FX while playing to get some strange effects.

I'm thinking of recording something wacky for giggles....sorta "Rhino" era Belew, mixed with some recent Jeff Beckish things.