🎬 Revisited: Closer

Since I became a regular, I got twice as much leave as NSFs and I have much lesser chances to take it as I'll be attending courses more frequently. So today I finally took my first leave. I wanted to take today to rest and prepare for the upcoming Grace Retreat starting tomorrow, but somehow I just can't let a day go to waste like that.

Today's recording is a revisit to one of my favourites that I have previously covered before. Presenting my lead guitar cover of Hillsong's Closer! Recorded with my Fender Standard Ash Telecaster and my Line 6 Helix!

Over a year ago, I covered this song with my Squier Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster. I used pedals like the Boss OS-2, Boss DD-5 and Ibanez TS-9 for that video. Till date, those pedals are no more and even the word "pedals" are beginning to disappear from my life. My tone has changed tremendously and I can't believe how good it sounds today.

Effects used today is just the Line 6 Helix alone. Yeap, that sweet juicy tone all came from one device. I modified WT's DLX + JTM45 patch and filtered out the necessary ones needed for my video. Main effect models include the Timmy, Klon and TSW808 as drives, with a quarter and dotted 8th delay and some always-on reverb. Amps used include a Fender Deluxe Reverb and Marshall JTM45, linked to a 4x12 Cali V30 cab.

There are only 3 snapshots used for the entire song: Intro/Riff, Chorus and Bridge. The riff part is made of a high mix dotted 8th delay with some lead drive (Timmy and TS808). Chorus is lead tone but with a quarter delay instead of dotted 8th. Bridge is just clean tone with the dotted 8th. Simple usage, a very interesting song!

Compared to this video from over a year ago, do you think I have improved?

I wanted to run the Helix as my audio interface, but my headphone cable wasn't long enough to stretch from the floor, meaning I cannot monitor my live sound or the music. If I put the Helix on the table, how can I change the effects mid-song?

Enter the Focusrite 2i4. I am so happy that despite tons of people saying the Helix is enough for recording purposes, I still kept the 2i4 around. Today everything went exactly as planned. I used the 2i4 as the audio interface instead, running my Helix 1/4 output into channel 1 and my iPad's audio output to channel 2. In Ableton, I set it to only record channel 1, filtering out the guitar parts from the music running into the 2i4.

With this setup, I can effectively monitor both my guitar and the music through the 2i4 into my headphones, but selectively record only the guitar parts in Ableton. So cool!

Now for a little side content as usual, just last week, I sold off my Analogman Prince of Tone. I really really like the sounds coming out of it. But the top-mounted jacks makes things super difficult for me since my patch cables are all flatheads. It is so troublesome that I generally prefer pedals with side-mounted jacks. Sold it off for $240 to a fellow NS man.

Now about the Helix, I begin to realise my addiction to downloading patches into my Helix, especially since it can store hundreds of patches. The DLX + JTM45 patch is still my favourite. Good one Worship Tutorials! Will talk more about the Helix in the next few posts! What an amazing piece of technology!

Edwin Ang
7th June 2018