New YouTube videos!

Good day one and all...

So here it is, my first post with an actual bit of musical content, huzzah! I've just uploaded 3 videos to my YouTube channel for the eyes and ears of the viewing public.

They are examples of my work on live looping that I've been working on for a little while. Using Ambiloop:

Ambiloop with my custom skin.

It's a free piece of kit you can download online if you search for it, supporting 8 individually controllable tracks that can be overlayed, multiplied, divided and edited on the fly to an almost infinite degree and a fully customisable interface, this means you can map every control to a keystroke or MIDI action. Pretty good for homebrew gear only a few megs in size!

The nice effects are courtesy of the pedalboard I put together for live performances. While there are still some teething troubles with the live side of things, controlled environments like my studio are a great place to mess around without foldback interference!

I'm running the pedals from an FX send of a smaller floor mounted desk to keep the mic level up and not interfere with the clean signal.

The first incarnation of the board. It's a lot tidier now...and blacker.

 For delay I use a Boss DD-7 with tap tempo pedal sporting variable delay times of up to 60 seconds that can be infinitely overlayed for a cheap loop effect, analogue tape delay, modulation and reverse delay effects too.

Envelope filter wah comes from an Electro Harmonix Q-Tron which is a major feedback hazard, but is great when you get the drive and Q settings right.

Lastly, and my personal favourite is the Electro Harmonix POG. It's an octaver that spits out the octave above and below your actual note as well as the note itself. Their volumes are all independantly adjustable, allowing you to pull out your own note from the mix and just give out booming bass or screaming high notes! Hard to find on the high street and quite expensive, but worth every penny.

Once again, check out the videos on my YouTube channel and see what you think. It's still early days and once I get more comfortable with the interface and all the instrument swapping things should be a bit slicker.


Good night.

Dan.

#1

So, first post and all....

DHC is just about up and running and I saw a blog as a the best way to add some dynamic online content to the business and keep track of progress. Dan Hillman Creative is a little idea of mine started this year to help me bring together my design and music into one big lovely chunk of media creativity. It's like Ben and Jerry's ice cream with all the different yummy things making up an even yummier whole, but instead of stuffing mouths I'll be gently prodding the eyes and ears of anyone foolish enough to venture further.


I have several interesting projects underway and I hope to be able to share them soon. On the art front, I have been improving my work on vector graphics due to their versatile nature and clean look that I hope will take my design in some new directions, allowing the use of hand drawing and scanning.  It gives you a far more personal edge when getting creative, but lovers of trees would probably prefer it if I shelled out on a tablet interface instead!


The music side of things sees some new ideas for my album that hopefully won't take too long to flourish into some more of the same chilled-out loveliness already available to hear here. Also I'm tweaking 4 dirty tracks for the funk band to get stuck into and with any luck you may hear them if you're out and about in Plymouth or the surrounding areas in the coming months. As well as trying to set up a few small projects, (unnamed as of yet,) I have been enjoyed playing with myself (tee hee hee) in some live looping sessions at our studio. What began as an excuse to test out and get to grips with my live FX rig I use with the sax at gigs suddenly became a bit of an addiction last week and once I finish synching the audio with the video I can post up the results of the first few tries.


Anyway, I'll leave it there as too much writing without much shiny media will probably bore net junkies and artsy types to tears, but if you can bear to wait, it might just be worthwhile...



Dan H.