Reality check: I’ve had a Dark Fire for close to a year now. Admittedly, the first one was a prototype that wasn’t as refined as the production model, but it had the individual string outputs—one of my favorite Dark Fire features. So you might think that by now I would have pretty much figured things out, but that’s not the case; it seems almost every time I pick up Dark Fire I stumble upon something I hadn’t thought of before. So, this blog entry is going to be about a technique, “hex summing,” which uses the hex outputs to create a better sound from a single guitar amp.

Most of the time, when I use Dark Fire’s hex outputs it’s to create splits or layers, or get sounds I couldn’t get any other way. But, there’s another use for the hex outs, which is to make amp sim programs sound absolutely wonderful: Smooth, creamy, and organic rather than digital and spikey. Here’s how.

THE TONE EFFECT

You’re probably all familiar with what happens when you’re feeding distortion with a guitar and you pull back on the tone control for a bassier sound. Filtering out the highs keeps them from getting distorted, which if unfiltered would generate harsh, ultra-high frequency harmonics. By restricting the sound to the fundamental tone, the harmonics generated by any distortion are sweeter.

The only problem is that a guitar’s tone control is pretty imprecise. It might take too much away from the high strings, or conversely, leave the lower strings too bright. What’s more, the tone control will interact with whatever impedance it’s seeing. As a result, your sound might change depending on whether you’re feeding an amp directly, or going through a chain of effects.

THE TRICK: FILTERING EACH STRING

With Dark Fire, it’s possible to use filters to “tune” each string so they produce only their basic, fundamental frequencies. You can then mix the individual outputs into an amp simulator like Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig, and end up with a sound that’s totally different than feeding a standard guitar output into an amp sim.

This screen shot shows the basic patch used for each string, with Guitar Rig 3 as the processor and Ableton Live 7 Gibson Studio Edition as the host. It’s quite simple: After the input stage, there’s a Noise Reduction module to keep any hiss out of the sound, a Pro Filter lowpass filter to take off the highs, a Compressor to even out the dynamics a bit, and then the output stage. The only real difference among patches for individual strings is in the Pro Filter settings, which range from about 800Hz for the low E to about 2.7kHz for the high E. Tweak the Pro Filter cutoff for the “roundest” sound when you solo each string.

Note that with Ableton Live Lite, you’re limited to six instances of Guitar Rig. As I needed to reserve one instance for the Aux Return, the high E uses Ableton’s EQ Eight plug-in for the filtering, along with the Ableton compressor.

The screen shot shows the EQ and compressor settings. Note that only one filter stage is enabled—a lowpass filter, which approximates the response of the Pro Filter.

After programming each string, you need to sum them together. In this example, I’ve assigned the send of each channel to pre-fader, and sent the sends to Aux Return 1.

Here’s the signal processing chain for Aux Return 1. It goes through an Ableton Compressor to restrict the dynamic range, Guitar Rig for the amp sound, Ableton EQ Eight to “master” the final sound, then dumps the EQ out into the main bus. I could also have mixed each channel into the main bus, but then I’d be stuck with putting Guitar Rig in the main bus, which would have processed any other channels I might want to add (like drums or bass).

Now let’s take a look at the amp sound, as shown in the above screen shot. This splits the guitar signal into two paths; both have a Cat distortion, cabinet/mic combination, and reverb. The main differences between the splits are the two different reverb types, and also, each uses a different cabinet and mic. The two cabinets are spread to right and left in the stereo field. A noise reduction module follows the mixed signal, and finally, there’s a delay line to add a bit of ambience.

If this patch looks interesting, then check out the set off 44 signature hex patches you can download at http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-USA/Dark-Fire/Software.aspx (and don’t forget to download the PDF manual, which has important information on how to get the most out of these patches). They illustrate all kinds of ways to generate intriguing, original sounds with Dark Fire.

Fig. 1 (click image for larger view): This Live project is where I recorded guitar improvisations for about 45 minutes. The project is simplicity itself: one track for each RIP channel, and one drum loop as a tempo reference. On playback, the loop brace isolates a measure or two to decide whether the loop is a “keeper” or not.

Fig. 2 (click image for larger view) : The huge file has now been reduced to a collection of potential loops. Each loop then gets exported as audio so it can be imported back into Live or other DAWs.

Fig. 3 (click image for larger view):: The finished version of Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love,” after doing a hard rock arrangement in Cakewalk Sonar. The heart of the song is one guitar track, one drum track, and one vocal track. There’s an additional percussion track, doubled guitar in a couple sections, and additional vocal harmony tracks. Despite the limited number of tracks, that’s really all it needs.

It’s hard to understand how much Dark Fire can change the way you approach music and guitar playing unless you’ve not only played with it, but used it on a day-to-day basis. It’s like the onion analogy – peel away a layer, and there’s another one right behind it.

This blog entry is exciting for me to write because Dark Fire has opened up a new way of recording that I really like a lot, and is quite inspiring. But first, a little backstory.

PRECURSOR: THE EV2 PROJECT

When Gibson’s Digital Les Paul was introduced, I immediately saw its potential, and it became the foundation of a duo act with me and Brian Hardgroove from Public Enemy (detailed in the EV2 blog at http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Blogs/CraigAnderton/CraigAndertonOfEV2/). To summarize, I processed the DLP’s individual hex outs so that the bottom three strings had octave dividers to give solid bass sounds, the top four were bused to a chorus for a clean rhythm sound, and the magnetic pickups went to a DigiTech GNX3000 multieffects for leads. So, even though it was just the two of us, it sounded like a full band (especially because my vocals were going through a DigiTech VL2 to generate harmonies).

But the important aspect of all this was the ability to improvise freely. I never had to worry if the bass player or keyboardist could follow along; as long as Brian and I were in the groove, I could go anywhere – take an extra long solo, modulate keys, even segue into a different song. There were no issues with backing tracks – it was all live, spontaneous, and very liberating.

Unfortunately, Brian needed to move back to New York, which has since limited our live performance options (however, EV2 will continue as a studio project via long-distance collaboration). Nonetheless once I’d had the kind of playing experience EV2 offered, I couldn’t go back to how I played before. Even while working on solo projects, I wanted to maintain that digital guitar/drums duo feel, with the freedom to play in a looser, more improvisational way. But how could I do that without someone else? That’s where the Dark Fire/Ableton Live/NI Guitar Rig trio of tech tools came into play.

SOLO RECORDING THAT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE SOLO RECORDING

The first step in this process is to open Ableton Live with the RIP connected, and load a Dark Fire hex patch (version 1.0 of the 44 best hex patches I’ve programmed so far are available on the Dark Fire site at http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Les-Paul/Gibson-USA/DarkFire/Software.aspx as a free download; however, check back periodically as I anticipate posting newer patches as they develop). Choose an inspiring patch that makes you want to play! I usually go for a split with bass on the low strings and lead on the high strings to make the loops more “self-contained.”

Next, I delve into my library of drum loops and come up with a pattern that works for the kind of mood I’m in, and is of the appropriate tempo. My go-to loops for this were recorded by Nashville drummer extraordinaire Greg Morrow for Discrete Drums, as his style is not that different from Brian’s. Once Brian finishes his studio, he’s going to record some loops for me but until then, Greg’s stuff is great. (Side note: The idea of recording loops to replace oneself is something I’ve done before. I play “techno guitar” over in Germany with bands like Air Liquide and Dr. Walker’s various projects, but couldn’t exactly commute to all the gigs. So, I created loops of the type of playing I did so the loops could be loaded into an MPC and they’d have a “virtual Craig” onstage. Those loops ended up becoming the AdrenaLinn Guitars sample library that was part of M-Audio’s Pro Session series of sample libraries.)

The next step is to load the drum loop into Ableton Live and start recording (Fig. 1). I typically record for 45 minutes or so, getting deep into the groove and improvising to my heart’s content. Of course, not everything I play works; there are lots of times where I’m reaching for what to play next and don’t quite get there, but there are also sections that, between the inspiration provided by the Dark Fire sounds and the drum loops, really capture some useful musical ideas and playing. This is key, because the process of playing and improvising for long stretches of time produces a fair amount of “nuggets.” The next step is to “mine” them.

Eventually I stop recording, then start playback and listen for sections where the guitar playing really comes together. To do this I set Live’s loop brace for one or two measures, and slide it along the timeline while auditioning various sections. If something sounds cool, I let it loop to confirm it actually works as a loop. If it does, I select it and drag it to join a collection loops, while deleting the unused sections of music before and after it (Fig. 2).

After I’ve mined the performance for the good parts, I do an audio export for each loop (without the drums – just the guitar). This doesn’t mean it actually gets looped in the final arrangement; it may be a relatively long section that ends up being a verse or other song component. But, the ability to loop is there if needed.

ARRANGEMENT TIME

At this point, I close Live and open Cakewalk Sonar, set it to approximately the same project tempo as Live, and start bringing in the loops I just recorded to create an arrangement. This is also where the drum part gets fleshed out (either by adding more loops for different song sections, or recording drum parts in real time) and I start recording other parts, like vocals.

Couldn’t this all be done within Live, without the need for Sonar? Absolutely. But over the years, I’ve customized Sonar heavily to fit my needs when doing linear-style recording, and I also have Sonar’s V-700C hardware controller with moving faders. So, Sonar is a very comfortable environment for working on song arrangements, and as I’m equally adept with Sonar and Live, there’s no problem bouncing back and forth between the two programs.

The end result is that the music has a live kind of “feel” because the guitar loops had a level of spontaneity and improvisation that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. For example, the first time I tried this technique, I was fooling around with the guitar hook from Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love” while setting levels. It had almost nothing to do with the original song in terms of feel, because the guitar sound was set to “stun” (heavy hex distortion), and the drums were more like a heavy, John Bonham type of sound than the light touch of the original song. But I liked it. So I started playing the chords for the verse and chorus, and also did some chord substitutions that grew out of just playing around. Eventually, there was enough material to do a hard rock arrangement of the song. I brought the guitar loops into Sonar, added the drums, laid down the vocals, and kept the sound sparse – just Dark Fire, drums, and vocals (no other bass or keys – see Fig. 3).

I’m working on another tune using this technique (an original composition this time) and I must say, I’m really enjoying this method of working. While it’s not quite the same thing as sitting in a rehearsal space with Brian and jamming, it’s the next best thing – and something that I really couldn’t do without the Dark Fire/Guitar Rig3/Live combination.

Bonus Files: Sonar users, click here to download free Dark Fire track icons – one for each string, one for the magnetic pickup channel (PU), one for the piezo pickup channel (PZ), and one plain, with no labels.

Sorry I’ve been gone for a while…sometimes life gets in the way. But I have to say that as I use Dark Fire more and more, I become increasingly aware that it gives a whole new set of possibilities for guitar. In some ways, I see its relationship to guitar as the relationship synthesizers have with pianos – pianos didn’t become any less cool after synths appeared, but thanks to the synth, keyboard players had a whole new sonic palette.

Which brings us to GearFest, Sweetwater’s annual open-to-the-public event that features seminars, workshops, gear tents, a flea market, and lots of exhibitors showing off cool stuff. For GearFest 09, EQ magazine wanted to sponsor my doing a seminar on amp sims in the Sweetwater Performance Theater (Fig. 1), and of course, how could I say no?


Fig. 1: Part of the seminar included techniques for “mastering” the amp sim sound with EQ to create a smoother, creamier tone. Photo Credit: J. Perry.
 

Actually, the airlines almost said “no” instead. I was slated to arrive in Fort Wayne, Indiana (where Sweetwater is located) the night before, so I could make sure all the elements were in place for a successful seminar and that if I needed anything else, I could run out the next day before the show and take care of it. But I had two layovers – Denver and Minneapolis. The flight out of Denver kept getting delayed, and delayed, and delayed…finally, I called Sweetwater’s Editorial Director, Mitch Gallagher, and asked him what cities were within driving distance of Fort Wayne, figuring I could fly in and rent a car.

But everything was booked or disrupted by the weather, so the only way I could get to Fort Wayne was to take the last flight out to Chicago, then get another flight out in the morning to Fort Wayne. To make matters worse, I had to check my Dark Fire for part of the haul. That alone was pretty scary (I’ll spare you the suspense: It survived with nary a problem). And just to add an incredibly surreal touch, when I got off the Chicago flight well after midnight, I ran into a camera crew from the local ABC affiliate. They were interviewing former Illinois Governor Rob Blogojevich and his wife Patti, who was returning from being in a reality TV show. You can’t make this stuff up.

To make a long story short (it’s been long enough so far!), I ended up in Fort Wayne around noon, after about four hours’ sleep, with my seminar slated for a 1PM start time. I rushed over and started setting up. All looked good until…I was getting weird, spiky noises on my Vista laptop from the Dark  Fire’s magnetic pickup outs. This was on my PC Audio Labs Rok Box notebook, which has always been solid as a rock. What the ?!? Fortunately Mitch had all the needed software on his MacBook Pro except for the RIP console, so I copied that over with my programs and everything was fine – I started about five minutes late, but given the circumstances, that wasn’t too bad.

As it turned out – and let this be a lesson to you about updating without testing! – I had just updated to Vista 64-bit Service Pack 2 before leaving, as I’d heard it had optimized a lot of audio-related issues. However, the update turned on the background services, indexing, and other CPU-consuming stuff that had been turned off to make my computer a lean, mean audio machine. Once I figured that out, as soon as I got back home I re-tweaked my laptop and all was well again.

Anyway, using Dark Fire with Ableton Live and Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig is a perfect way to demonstrate what amp sims and high-tech guitar can do. I used my 44 signature hex patches that should be posted to the Dark Fire site soon, and it was very interesting to see everyone’s reaction as I played the guitar equivalent of splits and layers, as well as some fun effects like tape style flanging and hex distortion pads (Fig. 2).

 

Fig. 2: Dark Fire in action. The hex patches (with Live serving as a host program for live performance) were definitely the ones that interested the crowd the most. Photo Credit: J. Perry

I was a little surprised that 72 people attended, especially during a work day, because I had thought of the whole high-tech guitar thing as a bit of a niche. Not so. There was a lot of interest among not just the people who attended, but countless others watching the streamed seminar over the internet. As one person said to me when he left, “You’ve completely changed my mind about amp sims.” I think part of the interest was I didn’t spend much time trying to sound like a synthesizer, or like a conventional guitar for that matter. I mostly used patches that created new types of sounds - clearly “guitaristic” in nature, but not something people had heard before.

And I also made a mental note of one more application for robot tuning: I’ve always felt it was great for the studio as well as live, but it’s also wonderful for seminars, because there’s no “dead air” when you tune your guitar – and besides, the audience loves seeing those tuners turn when you do.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. In the process of preparing for the seminar, I also found a new type of recording technique that’s especially well-suited to Dark Fire – but we’ve covered enough for now, so that will be the subject of the next entry.

[Note: As I write this, it’s just been announced that Les Paul passed away. His impact on the world of guitar, music, and recording is incalculable, and I offer my deepest condolences to his family, friends, associates, and fans, If it wasn’t for him and Bob Moog, I doubt my life would have taken the path it did. Rest in piece, Les.]

A lot has happened since the last blog entry. I’ve been sort of holding off doing any writing because as you all know, Dark Fire production was suspended.  Although I’ve kept using the original Dark Fire (it’s still the only guitar that does what it does), I also knew that Gibson was working on a variety of tweaks for future versions and (I believe) as retrofits for existing owners.

Well, I’m holding in my hands the production prototype of Dark Fire that will be the basis of the next production run. The biggest difference for me is that the overall noise level from the piezo pickup is much quieter. That’s nice in and of itself, but in terms of sound programming, it gives a lot more latitude on the hex patches as it’s possible to use tons of distortion without having an overly noisy sound. In fact, I’ve been reworking all the “signature hex patches” to take advantage of the Dark Fire’s better electronics. The revised versions, which you can load into Ableton Live, will be available on the Dark Fire site when the re-launch occurs.

With the clean sounds, it’s sort of like a film has been removed; with distorted sounds, the noise is low enough that it’s easy to get rid of it with Guitar Rig 3’s Noise Reduction module. Depending on the patch, I typically use a Noise Reduction Threshold setting of –20 to –45.

Another aspect of the lower noise is that with distorted sounds, the noise is no longer part of the sound’s fabric. Previously any noise was masked with high-gain settings, so it wasn’t that big of a deal; but now the noise has been lowered enough to change the piezo tone, and for the better.  From what I understand, there have also been changes in the RIP that affect the multiplexing of the hex outs. For whatever reason the piezo sound is smoother, in a way I’d describe as “more liquid.”

The RIP has some added features too. It’s been optimized for multi-core operation (a good thing, because multi-core computers are becoming more common for musical applications), and lets you choose whether to charge the guitar from the RIP immediately, never, or after five minutes of inactivity. It also has a Live/Hex mode option. I’m still figuring it out, but I think in Live mode you’re charging Dark Fire through the line that normally carries the hex audio; so you can play through the pickups all night without having to worry about the battery running out of juice. However, I often have the Dark Fire running in hex mode for extended periods of time while developing patches, and it does at least a couple hours easily without recharging.

Overall, Gibson has done several little fixes — making sure the MCK has the right feel, adjusting the taper of the piezo/magnetic control in the pickup, etc. I’m sure Gibson would have preferred to incorporate these changes from the beginning, but I think the more important point here is that they did what they said they’d do. While it has surely been frustrating for those who placed orders for Dark Fire and have been waiting for months, those who could afford to be patient will be rewarded with a better guitar than was promised originally.

By the way, I’ve been working a lot with the hex option and have come to the conclusion that where it really shines is rhythm parts, because these parts have lots of strings playing at once. With lead lines, I prefer using the magnetic pickups and running them through particular Guitar Rig 3 programs because you’re usually playing only one string at a time anyway.

The other thing I’ve been experimenting with is “splits,” like putting the pickups through a crunchy amp sound, the bottom two strings each through their own octave divider for a massive bass sound, and busing the top three strings through the aux send, processed with a languid lead sound with delay. Following are the patches I used to do this.

The screen shot on the left shows the octave divider sound used on the bottom two strings. Note the extreme bass boost with the Shelving Equalizer; this precedes the Oktaver, and conditions the string for the most reliable triggering. The shot on the right shows the amp sound that’s applied to the magnetic pickups.

This shows the lead sound used on the top three strings. Applying the Noise Reduction module right after the input makes the piezo sound dead quiet; the Stomp Compressor gives sustain, and Mezone supplies distortion. Taking off some highs with the Equalizer “warms up” the sound, while the Delay Man adds lots of delay for the lead effect.

Doing Dark Fire sound design is a lot easier with the improved electronics, because the revised version has what’s good about Dark Fire while optimizing the areas that needed improvement. I’m impressed, and really having fun — which is the most important part!

I'm back in Berlin for a few days to visit friends and check out some new technology. Luck was with me, because I showed up just as Chris Adams and Tony from Tronical were testing out a prototype of an acoustic guitar with the PowerTune Robot tuning—the same technology made famous in the Gibson Robot Guitar and Dark Fire guitar.

It was just a prototype, and I couldn't really nail down an answer as to when it would be available, how much it would cost, and so on. In fact, I'm not really sure I'm supposed to be posting this, but if not, someone from Gibson will take it down...so if it's not here tomorrow, you'll know what happened.
 

The two main driving forces behind Robot tuning technology: Chris Adams of Tronical (left) and Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz.

The first thing you notice about the guitar is an MCK-type knob, as found on the Dark Fire.
 

The installation inside the guitar was quite unobtrusive; the only obvious giveaway is the MCK knob, which selects different tunings and displays the tuning status.

I could see a magnetic pickup in the “neck” position and there's a Piezo underneath the bridge. A stereo jack carries both outs on a stereo cable, like the Dark Fire. There are three three banks of tuning, but the inventors are toying with the idea of adding yet another bank, as alternate tunings are so popular with acoustic guitars...although too much of a good thing can indeed be too much, so that decision remains to be made.
 

The servo-motor controlled Powerheads are much smaller and lighter than the ones on the first Robot guitar.

The main difference compared to the final version is that the current time to get in tune is considerably slower than Dark Fire.. Apparently, there are several optimizations that are needed prior to making a production prototype. Still, everyone who played the guitar was definitely surprised at how well it was working.
 

Ulf Zick of the Gibson artist relations center in Berlin checks out the Robot acoustic guitar. In the background, Milo Street of Echo Electronics is figuring out something esoteric involving high-tech hardware. Or maybe he's just checking his email.

I must admit that when I came to Berlin, the last thing I expected to see was a Robot acoustic guitar. But life is full of surprises, eh? Meanwhile, as a bonus, I snuck in a video camera and did a little video showing the Robot tuning in action and Chris Adams playing guitar...fun stuff!

 

 

Well, it seems like the final pieces of the Dark Fire puzzle are coming together. First it was the guitar, then the software, then the RIP interface; and now, I’ve had my first chance to drive a piece of Roland synth gear with the RIP’s hex output.

In case you’re not aware of it, the RIP has an output on the back that provides individual outputs for each string, and is compatible with AXON and Roland guitar-to-MIDI converters. It’s the connector labeled hex in the following picture.

Well, actually it’s almost compatible; the signal coming out of Dark Fire is stronger than what these kinds of devices usually expect. So, the guys at Echo Electronics did some analysis and figured that adding a simple resistor voltage divider to reduce the output voltage a bit would insure full compatibility.

I got a call from Milo at Echo, asking if I wanted to try out a prototype cable that included the resistors. I said sure, because I have an old Yamaha G-50 guitar-to-MIDI converter. However, in an email exchange about the testing procedure, Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz pointed out that unlike later devices (like the AXON), the Yamaha interface was designed without taking piezo pickups into account. As a result, he cautioned me not to waste my time on something that in all likelihood would not work.

However, I also have a Roland VG-8 (from the original production run—it’s an antique!) whose sounds I’ve used in several applications, including for source material in my “Electronic Guitars” expansion pack for Cakewalk’s Rapture software synthesizer. The VG-8 was a modeling device for guitar that took advantage of the hex output from the Roland GK-6 “divided” pickup, which was originally designed for guitar-to-MIDI conversion. The VG-8 has since been supplanted by the VG-88, but no matter; although the VG-8’s sound is no longer state-of-the-art, it has its own funky charm.

Nonetheless, I have to admit that since the Digital Les Paul came out, the VG-8 just kind of sat on the shelf because for hex sounds, I really couldn’t beat the Digital Les Paul going through amp sims like Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig, IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube, Waves GTR, etc. Anyway, I dusted off the VG-8 to see if it would work with the RIP’s hex output.

I was initially taken aback that things worked “out of the box”—I plugged the RIP into the VG-8, plugged headphones into the VG-8, played some notes on Dark Fire, and it worked! (Admit it—when was the last time you used a combination of high-tech gear that worked like it was supposed to the first time you tried it?) I did, however, notice a bit of distortion and “harmonic jumping,” so I thought I’d investigate further.

As it turns out, the VG-8 allows setting sensitivity individually for each string. With the GK-6 pickup that I normally used, I had set the string sensitivities between 80 and 100 (out of 100) to produce optimal results. The RIP is much “hotter,” but also more even in its response. Dialing back the sensitivity settings to 50, with the high E at 40, worked well. In fact, it worked really well; with most VG-8 patches, I far preferred the Dark Fire piezo pickup sound to that of the GK-6. There was more “snap” and “presence,” and I also felt the piezo did a better job reproducing transients. On some of the patches with real heavy distortion, the piezo was a bit too bright; but trimming the VG-8’s treble control took care of that.

Once again, Dark Fire threw me a curve: When I became involved with this project, that last thing I expected was to use Dark Fire to breathe new life into a box that I’d basically shelved a couple years ago—yet that’s exactly what happened. The extra dimension that the piezo pickup added to the VG-8 made it sound more contemporary and more defined overall, compared to using the old GK-6 hex pickup.

There’s something ironic about the fact that the very latest high-tech guitar brought an older, and often forgotten, unit into the present…but I’m sure that’s not the last pleasant surprise I’ll be getting from Dark Fire.

One of my first stops at NAMM was the Gibson booth; as soon as you walked in, there were five “stations” set up, each with a Dark Fire, laptop, software, and headphones. There’s something about getting to sit down at a trade show and just play guitar, and I took full advantage of the situation! And also, it felt like I was “home”…playing Dark Fire takes me back to being in my studio, coming up with patches, writing new songs, and just plain having a good time. 
 

Jon Chappell from Harmony Central was with me, and got a chance to play Dark Fire. He too was very impressed, and I got to show him some of the less obvious features. He put on the headphones, and immediately got lost in the music. Knowing that Dark Fire was in good hands, I went to my next set of appointments.

Then came Friday, and the Dark Fire Community meeting. It was held in the Gibson bus, which was parked just up the street from the convention center. There were four Dark Fire owners, some dealers, many members from the design team (Tronical, Echo Electronics, Ableton, Native Instruments), and Gibson’s CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz. In fact, here’s a photo with Gage Shinoda, a proud Dark Fire owner, and Henry. 

Steve Conrad (Elantric) was there, of course, which you already knew if you followed his thread about the party in the Dark Fire forum. Here he’s getting his guitar autographed by Chris Adams, the head of Tronical. 

Here’s another shot from inside the bus, with Steve in the extreme left, Chris and Antonio from Tronical (standing), and me sitting down with a Dark Fire. 

Next, here’s a picture of Chris Adams testing out his latest invention: A “beautiful people attractor” spray. Apparently it works! But seriously … that’s Dave Amato (from REO Speedwagon) and his girlfriend on the left, with Chris Adams and his wife Gwen on the right. 

The best thing about the meeting was that it was a chance to talk about the future of Dark Fire and the wish list Steve had compiled, as well as the opportunity to re-connect with those working on the project. And, Dark Fire owners got to meet the people behind the technology.

I didn’t know whether Henry would be able to make it to the meeting; obviously, he’s pretty busy at NAMM shows. But he made the time, which was a good thing. After all those months sweating deadlines, troubleshooting circuits, and testing the guitar, I’m sure it did him good to see people who use and love the guitar—it helps restore perspective as to what this is all about. One thing I learned at the meeting was that the Dark Fire saga is not yet finished; there are additional improvements and ideas floating around. In fact, I asked Henry if he was interested in my coming up with more Dark Fire-specific programs, and he seemed taken aback that I would even wonder if he wanted more programs. This is all very encouraging, because as much as I like Dark Fire, I know it can be taken further—and I know I can take it further, too.

Well, I’m going to go back to playing Dark Fire for a bit. I’ll report back on whatever I learn about Dark Fire that’s new and interesting in the days and weeks to come.
 

It hardly seems possible that less than two months ago, I was in Germany visiting Ableton, Native Instruments, and Tronical—so much has happened since then. Dark Fire was launched on December 15, and shortly thereafter, the first Dark Fires made it out into the world. A few weeks later came NAMM, which basically takes over my life for a month. This time, though, there was a Dark Fire community meeting at NAMM, and while I had no idea how many people were going to come, I was definitely looking forward to it. I knew that at least Steve Conrad from the Dark Fire forum would be there, and having corresponded with him about Dark Fire, wanted to meet him in person—this guy has his act together. I’ll round up some photos of the party for the next blog post.

Of course, Dark Fire has now taken on a life of its own. There have been a few bumps along the way, because of various technical issues in the production process. Frankly, I wasn’t surprised; the Dark Fire project is ambitious not just because of the guitar, but because of the additional computer interface and software. As soon as you have so many elements, matters become more complex because they all have to work together.

It was interesting being “on the inside” during all this, as it was obvious from the various emails flying back and forth that the company was relentless about tracking down and exterminating any remaining bugs. I appreciated that customer satisfaction was constantly hammered on as the top priority; not all companies exhibit the same level of concern that I saw. As just one example, the names of the RIP outputs didn’t translate properly in Sonar, so out came another version of the driver that took that into account. Or, Tronical wasn’t happy with the flow of controlling the Chameleon Tone options, so they reworked how the control functioned. A way was implemented to update guitar firmware through the RIP itself, and to charge the battery when Dark Fire wasn’t being played. Some of these changes weren’t part of the original spec, but resulted from someone saying “Hey, you know what else we can do…”

To me, though, these are just fixes that inevitably happen when moving from a “version 1.0” to a “version 1.1” product. I’ve been playing Dark Fire a lot, and the more I play it, the more I’ve come to appreciate what it can do. In particular, the combination of Dark Fire’s hex outs, going into Ableton Live hosting six instances of Guitar Rig 3, is a revelation. So far I’ve been confined to doing this in the studio, but I’m itching to get this out onstage. People will be blown away…or at least, they will be after I explain I’m not using backing tracks!

Well the last day in Germany, so we're pretty much cleaning up loose ends. The Gibson Entertainment Relations office has open wi-fi, so it's time to hit the email.

My day started with Gerhard Behles of Ableton. He was sick, and had sent me an email the night before basically saying "don't show up, but if you don't reply, I'll come to the office." Well, I didn't see the email so we did ended up having breakfast. He felt better the next day and I never caught what he caught, so all was well.

We discussed many different future subjects that looked beyond Dark Fire, but as that falls under the "cone of silence," I won't say anything.

After Ableton, I meandered over to the Gibson office in Berlin. I took my time, and along with hitting the local Saturn (sort of like a German Best Buy) and picking up a few CDs I couldn't get in the states, I snapped a bunch of photos on the way over. So, enjoy the next 8 pix - I don't know the significance of any of the landmarks, but I figured they'd be a nice break from all the tech shots.

I said in a previous entry I'd take some more pictures of the guitars in the ER offices, so here they are. For starters, here's a mint version of the Digital Les Paul.

You gotta love this 12-string/6-string SG double-neck. I was extremely sad to realize I could not hide it under my coat as I walked out.

Check out this wall of Flying Vs ...

Here's Lucille.

... And here's her headstock.

Of course, there's an infamous Reverse V.

And since Brian Hardgroove is a Steinberger bass fan, I took a picture of this Steinberger guitar.

Speaking of Brian, he Skyped us at the ER offices about getting ahold of some esoteric part that holds his bass strap ... he may not have a mean bone in his body, but straps would disagree with that assessment. He's a very physical player.

Patrick Arp from Native Instruments came over to work out some final details about the presets with Brian Espinoza, and I started work on some of the templates for Ableton Live Lite 7 Gibson studio Edition. But I realized that with a seven AM flight, I needed to get up around 4AM and an early dinner was in order. So that's exactly what happened, followed by packing.

And that's enough for today. For the next entry, I'll be back in the USA ... let's see what happens next!

Today, all the pieces came together for Dark Fire, and I have to say, I was blown away. Not as in “impressed,” or thinking “that’s cool,” but seriously blown away. This is like no other guitar I’ve heard or played. In fact, it’s like no guitar I’ve imagined.

Yeah, I know, “don’t believe the hype.” And frankly, I don’t expect anyone to believe me because this is something you don’t really “get” until you’re holding it in your hands and dialing in sounds. I can write all day, but it’s not the same thing as experiencing it. In fact, I’d go so far as to say this isn’t just a guitar you play, it’s a guitar you experience.

My first view of the nearly-finished Dark Fire, hooked up not to life support equipment but test gear.

Here’s a closer look.

Brian Espinosa and I got up bright and early to take the train to Hamburg to see Chris Adams, the guy behind the Tronical tuning system.

Trains in Germany are fast, convenient, and relatively inexpensive. The station master apologizes if it’s two minutes late.

Milo and Matt from Echo were there as well, having left the U.S. on Thanksgiving but they were still in Hamburg, continuing to tweak various elements.

Milo and Brian going over scheduling issues. With the launch getting ever-closer, prioritizing was becoming more crucial than ever.

Brian and Matt discussing the parametric EQ with Milo.

Matt’s checking out some final tweaks to the RIP. He and Milo had to extend their stay, only to find out there was a convention and all the hotels in Hamburg were booked—so they slept on the floor in the Tronical offices.

As to Chris Adams, the first thing you need to understand about him is that he is insane – totally and completely out of his mind. But spend enough time talking to him, and you start to think that maybe he’s the one who’s sane, and it’s everyone else that’s nuts. A friend of mine described Chris as “like a drug” and I know what he means: When Chris walks into a room, reality changes temporarily. I mention this only because after visiting Tronical, it became obvious there’s a lot more of him in Dark Fire than just the second-generation Robot tuning. As Chris said, “If someone tells you something is impossible, it is possible.”

Brian and Chris going over the second-generation Robot tuning options, and deciding on the best way to present the concept to end users.

Chris is using the MCK to change tunings and pickups.

Chris explaining why the tuning system is so much faster than the original Robot technology.

It’s hard to know where to start, so I’ll start with the first thing that surprised me: The piezo pickup sound. I didn’t realize it had a precedent, in that the original Robot guitar included a piezo pickup because that’s what provided the signal for the robot tuning technology. However, it never appeared as audio.

Dark Fire’s pickup switch has an ingenious construction where the toggle itself rotates to mix the piezo sound in with the magnetic pickups. I thought that was pretty cool, so I asked Chris to play just the piezo sound. But clearly, there was a language barrier or something because he didn’t; that was obvious because the sound was big, not thin like most piezos. So I politely asked him again to mix in the piezo sound only, no magnetic pickups.

“Yes, that’s the piezo sound.” No, I meant, I wanted to hear only the piezo sound. “Yes, that is only the piezo sound.”

I must have had a totally baffled look on my face, because he then started to explain to me what was going on: He had designed a very different way of using piezos as a transducer. The way these pickups work is that piezo crystals generate a voltage when stressed, such as having a metal string vibrate against the crystal. Chris found a way to increase the energy transferred to the piezo crystal from the string. As a result, more voltage was produced, and the sound was really fat and big.

You can see the large plates under the strings at the bridge.

The ability to blend the sound between the piezo pickups and the magnetic pickups in any proportion gave a huge variety of tones. The two magnetic pickups are a Burstbucker and  P90, and of course, you have the usual ability to switch between them with the pickup switch. But…

This is where the MCK (Master Control Knob) comes into play. There’s a complex system of relays that allows switching the pickups and coils in various combinations—coil tap, series, parallel, etc. The relays don’t alter the tone the way that other types of electronic switches might, and interestingly, the relays latch to your chosen position on power-down. In fact, should the battery lose its charge, you can choose the default relay setting.

Dark Fire has (I think) 9 main preset sounds, but that’s not really representative of reality because of how much you can modify those with the various pickup switching and piezo mixing options. From what I understand a RIP firmware update will allow creating and loading your own custom setups from a computer, with the concept being that it kind of “syncs” like an iPod: You can create a whole library of sounds, then choose a particular subset to load into Dark Fire.

The MCK has a display that not only relates to the Robot tuning, but also indicates which sound is selected, the pickup arrangement, and much more. And it looks really cool, too.

Disclaimer: I think most of these facts about numbers of sounds and such are correct, but there are still several days until the launch and they keep adding features, so…who knows. Suffice it to say that out of the box, there are a huge number of sonic options. You can get the iconic Les Paul sounds, but Dark Fire can also do sounds associated with guitars like Strats and Telees, as well as sounds of other guitars. This isn’t modeling; it’s just that particular combinations of pickups and equalization can get those types of sounds. Uncanny, and very analog.

As to the internal battery, I asked long it maintained its charge. That depends on how many times you use the tuner, and Chris didn’t have hard figures, but he said it would last at least for a “Grateful Dead-type set.” But the other thing is that if you use Dark Fire with the RIP interface, which is definitely something you could do on stage, it charges the battery so no worries there. Ever-wary about the infamous “iPod” issue (e.g., when the battery becomes old enough that it can’t hold its charge, you can’t replace it easily yourself), I asked what the situation was with the Dark Fire battery and Chris assured me it was user-replaceable.

Now, about the new Robot tuners. They’re smaller, lighter, and much faster than the original ones.

On the left is the old tuner, and on the right, the new one used in Dark Fire. Note how the body of the new tuner is much smaller (and lighter), while the tuning knob itself is bigger and easier to turn. Unlike the older model, the tuning knob doesn’t have to be disengaged to use it.

Furthermore, they tune all six strings simultaneously; the original robot technology tuned them three at a time. In fact, because the tuning is so much faster, Dark Fire has an option not to mute the strings during the tuning process and it sounded like a pedal steel as the notes changed. I’m not sure of the exact number of onboard tunings, but it’s a lot.

A close-up of the tuners on the headstock. They’re far less obtrusive than the older models but from what I understand, original Robot guitar owners will eventually be able to upgrade to the new technology.

At one point Milo chased me down and said “We need a Quick Start card to pack with the RIP today so it can be sent to Taiwan.” So, I sat down and did just that.

I also thought about the huge number of sounds and suggested having a downloadable “browser” of the sounds and tunings so people could listen to the various options, rather than go through all possible switching combinations (“Wow, I like that fourth tuning! I think I’ll call it up…”). They loved the idea, so I guess I have one more thing to do.

But there was also a problem: The RIP that I was supposed to take back to the US to do presets got kidnapped by Echo because they wanted another one for testing. So which was more important—me doing presets that could be downloaded anyway, or a working RIP for final testing? Well, I guess I answered my own question.

Chris took us on a bit of a factory tour. They have machines for making their own injection molded parts, as well as machining tools and the like. It’s not something I was expecting to see in a quaint part of Hamburg, but there it was. Here are four shots of various machines used in manufacturing the Robot tuners, as well as a bin of injection-molded parts.

The first of four factory shots.

Here’s the bin of injection-molded parts, made at Tronical.

Finally, I got to hear some of the equalized sounds. The parametric equalizer is pretty compact, but also, very versatile.

A Dark Fire with a prototype parametric EQ board mounted on the back.

We also checked whether Echo could install a VST plug-ins folder as part of the RIP installation; Matt did some quick research and found an article online from Sound on Sound magazine that talked about the VST plug-in protocol. He felt it wouldn’t be a problem, so we had backup just in case it was true that neither Guitar Rig nor Live installed a VST plug-ins folder.

Uh…are these blog posts getting longer, or what? Although there were a ton of other details, we’ll skip that for now. We went back to the train station so we could make it back to Berlin at a reasonable hour.

In Europe, train stations are almost like malls with all kinds of shops and food. This is the Hamburg station.

And after all it is the Christmas season, so there were plenty of decorations. These strings of lights were too cool-looking to resist.

We got back to Berlin, and I talked to Brian Hardgroove from Public Enemy: He’d have tickets for me and Brian Espinosa at the PE gig. When we got there, Chuck D announced they were going to play the breakthrough CD “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”…and they did. It rocked. Totally. And it was especially significant: When they first came to Berlin in 1987, the wall was still up. And now, as we left the Postbahnhof venue, we saw what remains of the wall directly in front of us—now powerless to keep the people of Berlin apart.

There’s still one day to go. But I had finally had a chance to see a close-to-finished Dark Fire up close and personal, and it went way beyond my expectations. I mean WAY beyond. This is a guitar that actually lives up to the hype, and it has the potential to be a real game-changer. No, scratch that; if anything, the hype understates the significance of this guitar. Having spent many years in the music industry, I’m somewhat jaded—but it’s impossible to be jaded when you hold Dark Fire in your hand.
 

After two days of basically collecting data and weighing options, we were starting to reach the finalizing phase for the software. It seems very likely we’ll be able to fit the RIP installer, the Mac and Windows versions of Guitar Rig 3, the Mac and Windows versions of Ableton Live and the Ableton Live content all on one hybrid, cross-platform DVD. When we first thought about how to package the Digital Supplement Pack, we really didn’t want to have separate packages for Windows and Mac — it seemed more fitting (and elegant) to have one guitar and one software package. “One disc to rule them all …”

Also, we finalized the amount of content from Ableton, and I was very happy to find there would be about 268MB—almost 7,000 files. Cool!

Some of the Ableton Library has been expanded in Windows Explorer so you can get an idea of what’s included. The right pane shows the various folders of clips; folders of samples are shown toward the bottom of the left pane.

The Ableton Live Gibson Studio Edition also includes 16 tracks — again something that adds serious value. Between that and Guitar Rig 3’s extensive library of presets, this means that Dark Fire owners won’t be getting a “teaser” package, but serious software and enough content to be able to have backing tracks and make complete songs. I feel very good about this: Between the generosity of the companies, Gibson’s clout, and (I’ll admit) a little personal lobbying, we now had a solid software package.

But then we were thrown a curve: Dealing with VST plug-ins on Windows. With the Mac, there’s already a place to install AU plug-ins, and of course, Guitar Rig 3 is available in an AU version for the Mac as well as VST for the PC. But, there’s no standard place on a PC to put a VST plug-ins folder. Usually, if there are any Steinberg products installed, they install a VST plug-in folder and other programs find it and install in there. But what if it was a “virgin” computer? What if there weren’t any Steinberg programs on it?

We did a little testing and found that Ableton Live didn’t install a VST plug-ins folder, nor did Guitar Rig 3. Furthermore, with Live you have to choose a VST plug-ins folder and then activate it, and with Guitar Rig, during installation you have to specify the VST plug-ins folder in which you wanted the plug-in installed. This was a drag, because with Live, we had gotten it down to where after opening the program, you only had to do one click and hit the space bar to start recording. We were really pleased about that, but now we had to deal with the VST issue.

After much back and forth with Brian Espinosa and Jesse from Ableton, the idea came up that maybe the installer for the RIP could install a VST folder. That would simplify things somewhat, as it could be specified for Live and Guitar Rig during installation. But could Echo, the RIP’s designers, be able to do that? Well, we’ll find out tomorrow when we meet with them in Hamburg.

We then went to Gibson’s ER (Entertainment Relations) Berlin offices to introduce them to some of the people from Ableton, as well as to see how preparations were going for the press event to be held there on the 15th to introduce Dark Fire. I was just expecting some offices, but it was a beautiful suite of rooms, with a mouth-watering display of guitars, as well as products from Gibson’s other lines (Baldwin, Slingerland, Wurlitzer, etc.). I figured the ER offices would just be some desks and chairs. Wrong — just check out the pictures.

Here’s the reception area for the ER offices.

Wouldn’t you like to go to an office every day that has a grand piano sitting  in the middle of the room?

This is the stage area where the media has been invited to see Dark Fire’s debut on December 15th. Bumblefoot, from Guns ‘n’ Roses, is flying out from New York to demo the guitar.

There are walls of classic and new Gibson guitars.

Ulf Zick, Entertainment Relations Professional of the Berlin office—and a great host, to say the least.

Another guitar wall. I’m going to try to go back on Friday and get some shots of individual guitars.

Wurlitzer is one of Gibson’s many brands, and this is quite a jukebox.

In a way the ER is like Gibson’s “ambassador,” and Ulf and Alex, who run the place, have put together an extremely congenial home for press and artist events. I was very, very impressed both by the facilities and the hospitality.

And then, an unexpected treat: As the offices were closing down for the day. Ulf mentioned that he had extra tickets for a UEFA cup soccer (or as the Europeans call it, football) match that night between Heurtha and Turkey, and would I like to come? Of course! It was being held at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin—the one where Jesse Owens embarrassed Hitler big-time. The place was not only filled with history, but about 75,000 screaming fans; and if you think a rock concert is loud, this is LOUD. We had great seats and access to a VIP lounge, with great food and of course, German beer. The game ran late and the traffic getting out of there was pretty serious; I didn’t get to sleep until about 1:30, and had to get up at 6:30 the next morning to make the train to Hamburg. But it was worth it.

A soccer match in Europe is a cross between a sporting event and something approaching a religious revival meeting.

And there was another unexpected treat: Public Enemy was playing in Berlin on Thursday. Their bassist Brian Hardgroove is a great friend as well as a helluva musician and a Gibson artist, so I called and left a message about whether Brian Espinosa and I could get tickets, and maybe get together afterwards because he was staying at a hotel a couple blocks away. He called back while I was at the game (like I was going to hear the phone ring, right?) and left a message saying he was in Manchester England, but would be arriving in Berlin and we’d talk tomorrow.

Me and Brian on DiamondVision at a festival gig. Yes, that’s right—I’m playing the Gibson Digital Guitar.

But now, it’s time to go to sleep. I’m not a big fan of running on 4-6 hours sleep, which has been the story since leaving New Mexico. But hey, it’s only for a week, and we’re being very productive. At least when I fall into the hotel bed at night, it’s with the knowledge that we accomplished a lot each day. And this time, I got to see a great soccer match too (by the way, Turkey beat Berlin 1-0).

Until tomorrow …
 

First of all, last night after dinner we walked to the tram station so we could return to the hotel, and went past the historic Brandenburg Gate — so of course, I took a picture. Incidentally, Brian Espinosa and I either walk to get around town or take public transportation, which is excellent and convenient. We never have to wait for more than a few minutes for a bus, subway or tram.

Here’s the Brandenburg gate, at night in the rain.

Tomorrow we return to Ableton; today we visited Native Instruments. We expected a short meeting, but ended up hammering out a lot of details. With Native Instruments contributing Guitar Rig 3 to the Dark Fire package, one order of business was figuring out who was going to do the Guitar Rig 3 presets for what’s now being called the “Digital Supplement Pack” (Ableton Live, the RIP interface, and Guitar Rig 3). We sat down with Patrick Arp, Director of NI’s Guitar Division, and André Estermann, the Guitar Division’s Product Manager.

Patrick Arp of Native Instruments, captured during a rare moment when he wasn’t smiling.

I’d met Patrick before at NAMM, and although (unlike me!) he never got heavily into Gibson’s Digital Les Paul, he was very excited about Dark Fire—in particular the Chameleon Tone Technology aspect, but also the second generation Robot tuning.

NI has a strong sound development team, and so we decided that NI would tweak Guitar Rig 3 presets for the standard magnetic pickup sounds, and I’d handle the presets for the piezo pickup along with the ones for the hex string setups. That suited me just fine, as I’d already done so much work with the digital guitar I had a repertoire of useful hex processing-based presets. As to the piezo sounds, it would be a challenge to try and get some “acoustic”-type sounds, so that definitely interested me.

At that point Brian started getting nervous about what I needed to get done before the launch. But I reassured him that having worked with both Guitar Rig and Ableton Live for years, as well as logging so many hours with the Digital Les Paul, I had a head start that someone just encountering these technologies for the first time wouldn’t have. I think he felt a little less concerned after that …

The rest of the meeting consisted mostly of technical issues, such as the best way to handle installation, the pros and cons of downloading the programs vs. providing them on a DVD (I’m hoping for the DVD, because we can include more content), scheduling, print manuals, when Dark Fire guitars would be shipped to Native Instruments, and the like. It seemed that every question raised another question, but eventually we got a handle on the situation and started setting target dates. I must say, this whole project has been a real education to me about exactly what’s involved in launching a technologically-advanced project on a tight schedule—especially one where there’s no margin for error.

Before leaving, I was able to take some pictures of NI’s facilities, which sprawl over several floors of several buildings. Unfortunately a lot of the company was off limits, because they’re hard at work on products to be introduced at NAMM, and they didn’t want anything to leak out. Still, this should give you an idea of the place.

Like Ableton, NI follows the “European office high-tech company standard” of open space, lots of white to bring light in, and spaciousness — no cubicles here. In general, I get the feeling that European companies tend to treat their employees more like people than “assets.”

NI’s DJ division is a big part of the company, which might come as a surprise to those who know the company mostly from their virtual instruments. Here are just a few of the awards they’ve received for their DJ gear.

This shows a sort of ad hoc “history of Native Instruments,” as expressed by product boxes stacked on top of a wall.

NI’s conference room is for more than just show: Every week or so, they do an extensive video conference with their Los Angeles office.

NI tests their software with a ton of gear, and here’s a sampling. Gibson’s Brian Espinosa is on the left, and NI’s Florian Grote (who handles press relations) is on the right.

In addition to the informal box display, there’s a more official one in the reception area. Hmmm, maybe I should do something similar for the various albums and CDs I’ve done over the years.

I’m beginning to think that the first thing a German software company buys is an espresso machine — then they worry about putting out products. Okay, not really, but I must say NI makes a great cup of cappuccino. In case the music software business ever collapses, NI and Ableton should open a coffee shop.

Walking back to the hotel from NI, we saw the infamous Berlin wall. Berlin is separately naturally into east and west by a river, and the wall was next to the river — basically, East Berlin was cut off from the west by a wall and a moat.

The Berlin wall, as viewed across the river from West Berlin. Note the graffitti.

A closeup of the wall. It was thinner and not as tall as I expected, but back in the day, fear and constant surveillance added to its effectiveness. Even today, there’s still something very creepy about it—even though only small fragments remain.

Last night, we saw a place where the wall had been, with crosses commemorating some who died trying to escape from east to west. Visiting Berlin today, it’s hard to imagine that not all that long ago, machine guns, barbed wire, and the wall were a part of everyday life. Those days are gone, and today Berlin is not only a vibrant metropolis, but has become one of the hippest places in Germany. And I must say, despite the tough schedule and the considerable amount of work to be done, this is a fascinating place to be.
 

Today is the first of two days devoted to Ableton, and I’ll be spending them with Jesse Terry from Ableton and Brian Espinosa from Gibson. The main objective is to specify the ideal program to accompany Dark Fire, then see how close we can come to that ideal.

For example, we were hoping there could be an automatic installation routine that would install both Ableton Live Gibson Edition and Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig 3 with a single mouse click. However, between the different ways that Microsoft and Apple go about installation, not to mention copy protection issues and how to handle the situation if one program gets updated before the other, it seemed like this would be difficult to pull off.

However, we were luckier when it came to the actual program itself. There are many possible ways to make Live less intimidating to those just getting into recording software, as well as more adaptable to Dark Fire’s advanced output options (standard magnetic pickups, piezo pickup and individual string outputs). We figured out default settings that would be as “friendly” as possible, and decided that rather than expose all of Live’s advanced features, we’d have it open up to a fairly standard linear DAW view so those who weren’t familiar with the program could get up and running right away. Of course, the advanced features would still be there for advanced users, or for beginners who wanted to move on to more complex projects.

The big news for Brian was that we were able to try out an early production model of the RIP interface box, which we can tell you worked perfectly! It can’t be bus-powered (because it also charges the battery while playing) but comes with a really cool little international adapter with plugs that cover any electrical system in the known universe. We also tested out the control panel software – again, no problems. Here are the some photos:
 

The front of the RIP has a jack for the guitar, and another for headphones, along with a volume control. And in case you’re wondering how Gibson manages to send signals from the standard pickups, the piezo and the six individual string outputs down a stereo TRS-type cable, we’ll talk about that in a future installment of this blog. Rest assured, it’s pretty clever.
 

From left to right, you see the AC adapter jack, FireWire port, hex pickup output for driving Axon and Roland guitar-to-MIDI converters (really!) and the two stereo line output jacks.
 

The RIP is quite compact. For a size comparison, here it is next to an iPhone.
 

We did see a potential tweak, though: Each interface output is numbered, but when using the individual string outputs the actual string number was referenced to the output number, which didn’t correspond. That could prove confusing, so we decided to check with Echo about changing the nomenclature of the control panel (conveniently, the two main designers for the Dark Fire project were in Hamburg tweaking the hex pickup output). A better way to do is (maybe) would be to say “A string” instead of “String 2,” which would eliminate the ambiguity of whether “String 2” means the second-highest or – as it is in this case – the second-lowest string. Small considerations like this can be very important when someone is trying something out for the first time.

There were lots of details that needed to be covered: What if the programs were being installed on a Windows computer that didn’t have a folder for VST plug-ins? Would Guitar Rig create it upon installation? Would Ableton recognize it, or would it have to be specified? What’s a good default value for the sample buffer? Should we trade off safety for more latency, or try to keep the latency as low as possible? How much content would need to be generated, and how much would we need to create? What about instructional videos? At the risk of boring everyone reading this, we won’t get into all these questions. But suffice to say there are many details that require serious consideration.

There was, however, a very pleasant surprise. We loaded up six instances of Guitar Rig 3 with pretty complex patches into a Core Duo-based MacBook Pro running Live and it ran smoothly with a 192 sample buffer. That meant a total latency (input + output) of about 15 milliseconds, which feels like real time. (Note that many DAWs list only the input or output latency; Ableton Live gives “honest” readings. Most DAWs should have listed the latency as 7.5ms.)

In any event, 1ms is about the same as moving 1 foot away from a speaker, so the total delay for a complex patch on a mid-grade computer is about the same delay you’d experience by being 15 feet away from your amp.

Well, that’s enough for today, especially because I’m writing this during a break and we still have a lot to go over. Meanwhile, here’s a photo gallery of Monday at Ableton.
 

In the reception area is a display with all the versions of Live that have appeared over the years, starting from Version 1 (called a “Sequencing Instrument) all the way to the latest, Ableton Live 7 Suite.
 

Here’s the reception area. The entire Ableton complex is very open and spacious, and as the company has expanded so has their space in the building.
 

Dennis DeSantis handles documentation for Ableton. The company’s manuals have always been well-received, so he must be doing something right!
 

Daniel Büttner is in charge of sound development for Ableton. They generate a lot of content in-house, but also rely on third-party developers.
 

Here’s Claudia Wiedner of Ableton’s marketing and communications department. She’s always at trade shows, coordinating meetings and setting up interviews.
 

Here’s the customer care department. And no, it’s not outsourced to phone operators half a continent away.
 

And here’s the secret ingredient to Ableton’s success: The industrial-strength, nuclear-powered espresso machine. The coffee is indeed excellent.

Well, that sort of caught me by surprise … in my world, going away for a week with a week’s notice is like turning around a supertanker on a dime because I’m always dealing with my Editor-in-Chief role at Harmony Central, being Executive Editor at EQ, and handling deadlines for magazines – made all the more difficult because EQ’s editor had just left to take a dream-come-true job outside the music industry (good luck, Matt, you’ll be missed!).

But at this point, I was getting more than intrigued. I was fascinated (and getting educated) by the process. I also understood that I was being counted on to help make the software bundle as “guitarist-friendly” as possible. And I liked the idea of visiting NI, Ableton, and Tronical, having never been to their companies. I also appreciated the fact that what Gibson really wanted from me was not to act as a traditional consultant, but instead, as a guitar player being given an option to have input into a guitar that was truly turning the corner from “electric” to “electronic.” They encouraged me to speak my mind, be objective, and call it like I see it – even for this blog, they didn’t want to exercise any editorial control. How cool is that?

Fortunately, I was already ahead on my deadlines for EQ, Keyboard, and Sound on Sound; and ever-mindful of Harmony Central, I received permission to bring my video camera and do some interviews, factory tours, and the like – in other words, something that could benefit the Harmony Central community too.

But then it turned into a triple-purpose trip – “Hey Craig, can you do a blog of what it’s like being on the inside of this project?” Uh … well … sure, okay. I got nothing else to do anyway (!) … and I could get some great material for the blog while in Germany. Hey, maybe if I get my work done on time I can go clubbing some night and report on that – I hear Berlin is the current techno hotbed in Europe, and that’s my kind of music. It might give me some great ideas for presets, too …

Henry sent out an email soliciting opinions for a recording application to bundle with Dark Fire. My first thought was that it needed to be cross-platform, which ruled out options like Sonar, Digital Performer, etc. Pro Tools LE was out because it needed its own hardware.

I came up with three main recommendations, and after some back-and-forth discussion, it was decided that a Gibson-specific version of Ableton Live would be a good fit – partly because it’s a great program, but also, partly because it seemed to have the same kind of “paradigm-breaking” vibe as Dark Fire. Having worked with Live since its introduction, I introduced Gibson to Ableton, and the next thing I knew, there was an email saying a deal had been struck to include a custom version of Live with Dark Fire.

This was really getting interesting.

And at this point, I felt like a skateboarder who had grabbed on to the back of a Lamborghini to get a ride, because the pace picked up dramatically: What did I think of the features in the custom version? What about creating templates that would be Dark Fire-ready, both with and without Guitar Rig? What about producing some content for the custom version? How about Quick Starts for the interface, Guitar Rig, and Live? Could I confirm interface installation on XP, Vista, and Mac? Would I look over a press release from a magazine editor’s standpoint?

Oh yes, and could I go to Germany next week for seven days to finalize the software bundle with Ableton and Native Instruments? And see Tronical while I’m there?

Henry had a vision of Dark Fire being not just a guitar, but a complete package that would be useable like a standard guitar, and also be computer-friendly. To that end, he had approached Native Instruments about bundling Guitar Rig 3 (the full version, not a “lite” version) with the guitar so that guitarists would have even more tonal options.

If you haven’t worked with Guitar Rig 3, it’s an amazing piece of amp/effects simulation software that has been continuously updated and improved since its introduction several years ago. It has a ton of amp models and effects, but also, has some really cool tricks up its sleeve – like built-in digital recorders so you can record what you’re doing, or play back material through the effects. That’s great for when you want to tweak a guitar sound: Just record your riff, loop it, and play it back while you tweak the controls.

Guitar Rig 3 also has very cool modulation options, like step sequencing that provides AdrenaLinn-type sequenced effects, and nifty routing tools – you can split the guitar into parallel branches, as well as split based on frequency, like putting delays on only the highs. The idea of combining Guitar Rig 3 with Dark Fire made a lot of sense, to say the least. As someone who’s been using Guitar Rig since it was in beta, I probably had more expertise with the software than anyone else at Gibson, so one of my tasks would be to design Dark Fire-specific presets that take full advantage of what Guitar Rig has to offer. This isn’t as easy as it sounds: There have to be separate presets for magnetic pickups only, piezo only, a blend of the two, and presets optimized for the individual string outputs. That’s a lot, and I needed to wrap my head around not just creating the presets, but making them sound great out of the box – no tweaking necessary – and organizing them in a way that made sense.

But Guitar Rig isn’t just for stand-alone applications; it’s a plug-in for a host. And I hadn’t heard anything about a host … yet …

At first, I really kind of wondered why Gibson wanted me involved. There were long email strings about production issues, marketing plans, etc.; all of it seemed right on target, and my involvement was pretty much limited to “uh … looks good to me.” In fact, at one point I was about ready to send an email saying “Hey, you guys seem to have it together, so there’s no real point in having me consult. Good luck with the guitar, it looks really cool.” It’s not like I don’t have plenty of other things I could be doing! Fortunately, I got distracted and didn’t send it.

I might add that I was surprised at how well-oiled a machine was being put into place. Generally, music industry companies are fairly laid-back in their approach, but here there was massive coordination going on among multiple teams – Gibson’s in-house marketing and PR people, those responsible for designing and manufacturing the guitar itself, product launch events, Echo Electronics in California who were handling the interface, and Tronical in Hamburg, who were hard at work updating the tuning system but also had the responsibility of making the hex pickup fly.

The speed with which the team worked was also a surprise. With a launch date of December 15, there was no margin for error, and any wasted time on pursuing things that didn’t work would throw a serious monkey wrench into the machine. It definitely had the potential to be a real pressure-cooker situation, but I have to say people were on top of things – there was a “yes we can” type of attitude that was intense and purposeful. I kept checking my email for progress reports, and there was a nearly constant flow of updates and queries.

And then I found out why Gibson wanted me involved …

So now it’s time to get as much possible done before the trip starts. Let’s see, current passport, enough Euros to last me until I get to a bank, bring the melatonin, try to get a window seat on the flight …

I have no illusions that a very difficult task lies ahead. The software package is supposed to be “brain-dead simple,” and allow someone to get up and running in five minutes. Well, sometimes it seems like it takes five minutes just for my computer to boot up! And we have no control over how Microsoft and Apple implement their operating system for things like installation. The package has to work with Mac and Windows (XP and Vista), so I have to test on at least three computers, and everything has to be obvious enough that even a technophobic guitarist wouldn’t feel out of place. And those templates … they need to cover musicians who like rock, jazz, country, dance, fusion, chill … and they need to be convincing. And the Quick Starts have no room for error; there can’t be anything that discourages a guitarist from partaking of what Live and Guitar Rig have to offer. Yes, much to do … thankfully, the people at the various German partners lean toward the brainiac end of the scale, so I have a pretty sterling safety net.

In the immortal words of Bill and Ted, this is turning into a most excellent adventure …

One of the goals for Dark Fire was to increase the possible tones compared to a standard guitar, but without going the modeling route. This is a very “analog” guitar, even the individual outputs occur through analog multiplexing rather than some kind of digital conversion process.

The Chameleon Tone Technology consists of two four-band EQ chips within the guitar, which have presets for particular guitar sounds, but in theory users will be able to program their own sounds as well. I’m very aware of the power of good EQ to change guitar sounds; when I was doing session work with one guitar and the producer wanted the sound of a different guitar, I could often get the desired sound simply by choosing the right pickup combinations and EQ. Although I had yet to work with the Chameleon technology, the reports coming in from the developers were encouraging in terms of being able to nail iconic tones. But of course, what really interested me was being able to create my own.

Dark Fire originally went by the name Robot II and I figured that’s what it was: an updated Robot guitar. I knew that Tronical, the company behind the Robot technology, was working on a second-generation version. But after a lengthy conversion, it became obvious that Robot II was only a small piece of the puzzle. The new guitar would have individual outputs like the Digital Guitar, using a clever analog multiplexing scheme and a piezo hex pickup. But this would also be in addition to magnetic pickups.

Another part of the package would be an interface box, called RIP (Robot Interface Pack). Overall, you could get nine outputs from the guitar: The straight magnetic pickup sound, the piezo sound, the six individual outputs, and surprisingly, there’s an output connector on the back of the interface that’s compatible with Roland’s guitar synth products. This was definitely getting interesting.

And if it had stopped there, that would have been cool. But then I found out about the Chameleon Tone Technology.

Well you never know what’s going to happen when you check your email. 

First, a little background: I’m way into guitars, and way into tech (check my bio). Gibson really caught my attention a couple years ago with their Digital Guitar, which became the centerpiece of my act with Public Enemy’s Brian Hardgrove, called EV2. You can find out how I used it on my blog detailing our first festival gig using the Digital Guitar.

Then came the Robot Guitar. Like many people, at first I thought it was for people who couldn’t tune a guitar, but Gibson was insistent that I check it out because they thought I’d appreciate it. Well, I was wrong … first of all, the ability to do alternate tunings is unreal, but also, I record a lot of sample libraries and the guitar’s tuning has to be perfect. Without the Robot Guitar, I spent more time tuning than playing; with the Robot Guitar, my recording workflow improved 200%. Very cool.

So when I got an email from Henry Juszkiewicz, Gibson’s CEO, asking if I was interested in getting involved in a new high-tech guitar product, I was intrigued. He wanted to know if I was available to do some consulting, and I assumed this would be like what I do for a lot of companies: They pay for a couple hours of my time, and I give them some ideas about marketing, or make sure the documentation is okay, and then move on.

Wrong again …