muted tones

january 05

this entry is from january 05. click here for more information about the curator, and to hear the finished work.

“Finger-painting with Feedback”

january 24th, 2005

This photo of my viola is a vaguely poetic visual representation of my love for the sound of feedback, which relates to my piece of music… hardly “muted tones” - but hey…

Feedback: The return of a portion of the output , or processed portion of the output, of a (usually active) device to the input .

————————————————————————-

Quoting George Kourounis from a web-search on the subject:

The sound of a piercing, overdriven guitar on the brink of feeding back into a chaotic, sonic assault is music to many peoples ears. To some, it means early eviction from their apartment and disturbing the peace charges. Nevertheless, recording electric guitar feedback can be a challenging endeavour due to the unique nature of the sound source.

The usual method of obtaining feedback from an electric guitar is to position the player in close proximity to their amplifier and turn it up to 11. The sound from the amp is loud enough to enter the guitar and gets amplified again, exiting the amp’s speakers and causing a feedback loop. It is often difficult for the guitarist to control the feedback because he/she has to find the exact spot to aim the guitar in order to get a rich, useable feedback tone without causing screeching howling.

————————————————————————-
(personally, I like the screeching howling, too)

A related tangent: I’m watching the Jim Jarmusch documentary about Neil Young and Crazy Horse, called “Year of the Horse” - Neil is a master of feedback… the kind I love.

 

comments:

1 2 3 4 5