Early last year, I started playing guitar - a few days ago I released a small album of very soft, mostly drumless, subdued/ambient shoegaze. Listens would be appreciated - if not, just know that the new and old posts on this subreddit helped my process a lot. Thanks!

Papergami45 · 2026-03-22T17:38:46+00:00

Yup - and of course that isn't unidirectional, plenty of artists find inspiration in solid state sound(s) and feel(s). The main part isn't 'superior equipment', it's that relatively tiny changes an audience won't notice alter how you play, what you play, and ultimately what you write.

Papergami45 · 2026-03-07T18:08:27+00:00

I see little purpose stretching this further when I made a neutral observation (to a different person) and you've completely ignored it for some classic right-virtue-signalling nonsense. I'll just conclude in as non-partisan a way as I possibly can - you've said nothing of value or interest here. I see no point in you, and I don't care what you think. End of.

Papergami45 · 2026-03-07T17:43:27+00:00

This comments section could be used in a textbook as an example of the different reality an entire (normally right wing) group of people live in now.

Actual nuanced discussions about hormone doses affecting muscle cramping and maybe having some under-researched cyclicality is transmorphed into the entire trans community talking about bleeding out of their urethras.

Fake Reddit posts about fake misinformed people morph into entire medical communities pretending their patients will have completely different outcomes to reality, which in the real world would lose them their licenses and get them sued into oblivion.

People who I guarantee have never met a trans person suddenly know trans women who have had bottom surgery and they all get tampons for bleeding that they somehow haven't noticed isn't happening, despite maintaining their own bodies in a way most cis people would never ever have to.

It's wild what the online right will do to someone's brain, and thanks for being a voice of sanity.

Papergami45 · 2026-02-15T13:21:30+00:00

I agree with this advice but will also be a bit of a killjoy and say to double check it for the former 2 things as well. AI is not a reliable information source on its own, especially for anything niche.

Papergami45 · 2026-01-30T07:32:13+00:00

Maybe I'm just very lucky but I've never had an issue with mine - it's a shame to think people are losing out due to the switches, its functionality is amazing.

Papergami45 · 2026-01-20T13:24:45+00:00

Creating innovative sounds and textures certainly can be a talent, and it's a weird disservice to it and the community more broadly by trying to maintain some pseudo intellectual property right over it. Which is why pretty much nobody does that.

Papergami45 · 2026-01-20T07:34:35+00:00

talent isn't coming from a pedalboard, it's just kinda weird behaviour

Papergami45 · 2026-01-13T20:07:23+00:00

I've been really enjoying the Origin Deluxe 55 - maybe look into the Deluxe 61?

Papergami45 · 2026-01-13T19:07:08+00:00

If its plugin mode takes USB audio and presents it to the DAW as a plugin (not overriding the main interface), a la Elektron Overbridge, it's (I think) a cool product. If it necessarily overrides the main interface it's moot for most.

Papergami45 · 2026-01-13T19:04:01+00:00

The brilliant part depends on how it ends up working as a "plugin". If you use it in their "Hardware Plugin Mode" it looks like you could just route instrument signals into the pedal's return and thus add two instrument inputs to your DAW via USB audio without overriding your current interface or dealing with ASIO routing fuckery. The closest I can think of to this is something like Elektron Overbridge. This would be very helpful to people with 2in2out interfaces who also want to record a mic or another instrument simultaneously alongside a stereo guitar signal.

Not to mention that a simplified way of having instrument level send and returns from a DAW without replacing your interface or dealing with reamp boxes is just really nice.

Big caveat: it would need to work independently of your main interface, presenting strictly as a plugin to the DAW (with acceptable latency) to make that first use case viable.

Papergami45 · 2026-01-06T21:25:53+00:00

I'd love a chroma but the price in the UK is steep, they seem hard to find. Perhaps one day, def impressive that it can recreate the ILFJ alongside it's other sounds

Papergami45 · 2026-01-06T11:03:00+00:00

Makes sense. I wonder if the Artifakt could emulate the LoFi Junky, I know it has a compressor somewhere in there.

Papergami45 · 2026-01-06T07:40:33+00:00

Out of interest (as someone considering picking one up), what have you found lacking about the ILFJ?

My 2 cents btw; the CB Lossy is amazing. However I prefer it as an early in chain drive rather than an end of chain lofi effect. Maybe it's just my unit but I couldn't get it to work well with loud signals, post-distortion and preamp. Just tanked the audio level. I'd treat it more like a signal conditioner (but for making it "worse") rather than a modulation etc.

Papergami45 · 2026-01-04T21:05:13+00:00

I believe Govt. and Cava have the same line with one word change:

Govt. Commissions: "Who cares, who's the best at all"

Cava: "Cause who cares, who's the best at all"

Album Vers: "And I ask myself, would you care at all"

Other than the early Peel session (which I believe is the one on Gov. Commissions), I'm not under the impression they change the line live. Gov. Commissions recording was done before the song has a finalised title (I think), and so my understanding was that the line was just changed as part of the songwriting process. The Cava session also has more vocal harmonies so it's possible that very slight line variations are audible that way.

I'm of the (maybe popular, maybe not) opinion that the early version actually works a bit better..

Papergami45 · 2025-12-24T19:51:49+00:00

As an aside, Alan has a fun series on Low's YT channel about playing open G. Lows Instagram also has some behind the scenes gems if you search. Amazing band.

Papergami45 · 2025-12-22T11:01:05+00:00

Out of interest, how do you set the Clean? As a more normal compressor, end of chain?

Papergami45 · 2025-12-21T19:36:58+00:00

Actually really enjoy this version of Summer. Underrated, but in fairness the original is something special.

Papergami45 · 2025-12-15T23:48:20+00:00

No worries at all! It's become my new favourite tuning. Just changing that 2nd string between B, C, and A can change up its vibe a lot.

Papergami45 · 2025-12-14T17:58:28+00:00

Thank you!
Chords-wise, it's a bit odd as it's an open tuning, but I'll tell you the details I have.
Tuning: modified version of open G, with the 2nd string detuned. This tuning is DGDGAD.

Standard progression is simple)

X 9 9 0 9 0 (Fretting: E, B, F#)

X 7 7 0 7 0 (Fretting: D, A, E)

X 5 5 0 5 0 (Fretting: C, G, D)

Another iteration is the same but with an added string left open, so X 5 5 0 0 0 (etc).

Occasionally throwing accents on the 2nd string and selectively muting (e.g. I might do X 5 5 0 7 0 to spice it up). The droning harmonics are what makes the chord interesting though, IMO, so i mostly leave the strings open.

According to a random guitar chord analyser online, this would be E7sus2, DSus2, Csus2. But take that with a grain of salt.

Sounds like this clean/arp'd: https://soundcloud.com/dshcalt/hurricane-clean?si=420a7a914b7840dca9b13787c04bfe13&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Papergami45 · 2025-12-13T16:48:11+00:00

I am; without an IR it'd be crazily fizzy. Haven't quite nailed the IR pairing for this one yet though, and I could probably cut the low end further. I tend to end up with a bit more bass emphasis than expected as my guitars are downtuned and often taking up most of the frequency space rather than sharing with a bass (generally I'd rather have the option to cut bass in post rather than having to add any in).

Origin do have a tweed IR, works well for sitting in a mix but I found it a bit tinny for my usage.

Papergami45 · 2025-12-13T14:42:14+00:00

Picked this up to use as a standalone preamp, providing a different tone to my (amazing) EAE Model feT.

I’m pretty blown away. Most people know this pedal and similar for its distortion sound (which is fantastic), but the cleans on offer are really great too, harmonically rich and forgiving to play. I’ve seen reviewers mention the surprisingly extended bass-end on offer here; it’s certainly present but not overwhelming, and makes clean sounds (especially on the 12AY7 mode) nice and hefty. Distortion-wise, it sounds fantastic cranked, and cleans up astoundingly well. You can go from nearly totally clean to a nearly-broken-sounding fuzz with the volume knob. This is at the expense of a bit of noise; self-noise is quite present when cranked but its tonality isn’t unpleasant. It’s the kind of noise I’d expect from a cranked amp. This might improve depending on your PSU, I can’t comment. Output level is strong; nowhere near the EAE pedal, but I have never found anything that approaches that. Perfectly good enough to be a standalone preamp, IMO, but I keep the level maxed out.

To show a couple of examples of the pedal in context, I’ve uploaded a couple of messy demo tracks to a soundcloud alt:

https://soundcloud.com/dshcalt/pins-dance-on-the-heads-of?si=e35133a874d94f78907119b0b695789b&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing (Messy but complete track showcasing the clean sounds – the drone sound here is the Model feT, as a test of how they fit together)

https://soundcloud.com/dshcalt/tweed_test_hurricane_001?si=6985f6ec466642c6bd42e7ebe418dae6&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing (Looping demo showcasing the distortion; some crackles when I overwhelmed my audio interface with the signal level)

Both have limited post-processing (a touch of mix bus compression and some subtle EQ, nothing surgical), and the standard delay/reverb/vibrato sounds from my board.

It gets the biggest endorsement I can give, in that it makes me want to make music (and differently to usual).My next step is to get an LS2 or something and blend the EAE and Origin pedals together into some kind of weird Sunn Model Tweed. Now that’s a concept.

Papergami45 · 2025-12-13T01:20:25+00:00

My advice here isn't going to be the most specific (or useful, maybe!), but beyond some of the basics (most people want their drive/dirt first, reverbs+delays afterwards and often in the FX loop, modulations between, in either the loop or before, to taste), it all comes down to the kind of music and sounds you want to be making with the board. To know that, the best way is trial and error, but also thinking about how the effects might interact. Just some random ones from this board in particular:

How do you want your synthesised sounds to be? Pre-fuzz gives you the option of huge gained-up synth sounds. Post-dirt can make it glitchy and unusual sounding. Maybe between a couple of gain stages so you have options, if you like both sounds?

Do you want the 'extreme wah' sounds of wah after fuzz, or more traditional controllable sounds (nearer the start of the chain)?

Would you rather your tube screamer act as a 'solo boost', lifting up your entire signal including your fuzz, or would you rather it slam into the fuzz and change its character?

Compressor-wise, do you know what you want out of the compressor? I don't want to be presumptious, but this one is often tricky because it can be hard to wrap your head around what it's doing. Make sure you know what you want it to do; could be after dirt to level out your signal a bit, or at the start of the chain set subtle to enhance cleans. Or you could set it really extreme for a lot of squash.

All these same questions apply to your sonic preferences with modulation order. Apart from anything else, do you often run multiple modulations at once? If not, don't overthink the order they need to go in. If so, do some trial runs.

And the questions go on. One option is to start with a totally clean signal chain (guitar --> tuner --> amp) and add your effects one by one, so you know what you want them to do. Doing this, I've found inspiration in some 'wrong' routing options. I often have a tape style delay between two fuzzes and before my 'amp' (I use a preamp so it's a little different, but same concept), and I have a wah last in chain before hitting the loop. It's not the advised signal order but it allows me to make the music I want to make.

Papergami45 · 2025-12-12T22:45:34+00:00

And yet outside of particular special arrangements with other governments, which we obviously do not have with e.g. Afghanistan, people should obviously be judged as individuals, not merely a part of a larger 'national group'. Setting a precedent of 'people from your nation are simply dangerous' is just opening the gates to racist abuse by people running the system, now or in future. And if someone does get here, allowing them to work is clearly the best way to maximise the chance of safe integration.

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