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Hot
Steel Blues
Gear List
Acoustic Guitars: Martin 000-28 (spruce/rosewood),
1920's Weissenborn lap slide w/Everly strings (Koa wood), Gibson
B25 upright slide w/DeArmond pickup (mahogany), Laguna L-29 S (spruce/rosewood)
Electric Guitars: Fender Duo Sonic, Fender Stratocaster (amplified
through Fender Bassman tube amp chained through Fender Sidekick
solid state amp).
Mics: AKG 414 and Equitek E-200 configured in a variety of stereo
x/y configurations and routed through an ART Dual MP tube preamp.
All tracks were recorded onto the PARIS digital multitrack system,
edited on a Digidesign system, and transferred to the Roland S760
sampler for looping. All transfers were digital.
* Terry Robb appears courtesy of Burnside Records, Portland, Oregon
Producer's Notes
As a follow-up to the success of our original
Fingerstyles collection, it seemed appropriate to tackle a different
style of guitar playing. Blues seemed the perfect choice for two
reasons. First, I wanted something edgier to contrast with the gentle,
folksy character of Fingerstyles, and second, I had been looking
for an opportunity to work with another world-class guitarist from
the great Northwest. After recording Terry Robb on a music-for-television
project, I knew he was the right man for the job.
The end result of Hot Steel Blues is virtually a self-contained
history of blues guitar - with a little Rock 'N' Roll thrown in.
This collection is a valuable reference resource for me, as well
as an excellent compositional tool. And I think you'll agree that
the brilliance of Terry's performances is undeniable. If you like
his playing, why not pick up a couple of his records! Check out
his discography later in this booklet.
I hope you enjoy this collection. Have fun creating the most gutsy
and realistic sequenced guitar pieces in the business!
- Dan Portis-Cathers
* We refer to Middle C as C4. On your sampler, Middle C may be C3.
About the Artist
Terry Robb is considered one of the top acoustic blues guitarists
in the country. He resides in the Pacific Northwest and divides
his time between performing, producing and directing an educational
center, the prestigious Northwest School of Acoustic Guitar.
His personal style is founded on a strong knowledge of traditional
blues. He has toured with Steve Miller, Buddy Guy, John Fahey and
the Acoustic Guitar Summit. Recent credits include performances
on Late Nite with Conan O'Brien and a song on the motion picture
The Horse Whisperer. The Cascade Blues Association has awarded Mr.
Robb their coveted "Muddy Award" an amazing nine times,
and has made him a two-time Hall of Fame member.
Terry Robb Discography
As Solo Artist: Acoustic Blues Trio (Burnside); Stop This World
(Burnside); Jelly Behind the Sun (House); Next Window (House); Hit
It and Guit It, with Curtis Salgado (Lucky); Bethlehem Star (Oregon
Catholic Press); Acoustic Guitar Summit (Accent on Music)
As Producer and Guest Artist: Let Go, John Fahey (Varrick); Rain
Forest, John Fahey (Varrick); Time God Causality, John Fahey (Shanachie);
Old Girlfriends and Other Horrible Memories, John Fahey (Varrick);
Christmas Guitar Vol. 1&2, John Fahey (Varrick); The John Fahey
Christmas Album, John Fahey (Varrick); Return to the Repressed,
John Fahey Anthology (Rhino); BackWater Blues, Sheila Wilcoxson
(Burnside); Runnin‚ & Ramblin‚, Bill Rhoades and Alan
Hager (Burnside); Paul Brasch (Burnside); Ten Years of the Blues,
Cascade Hall of Fame CD (CBA); Winter Piano, Patrick Loomis (Oregon
Catholic Press)
Terry Robb currently records for Burnside Records in Portland, Oregon,
(503) 231-8943.
About the Producer
Dan Portis-Cathers recently moved to Nashville and operates his
studio on the famous Music Row. He continues to compose and produce
for film and television and to write songs with other members of
the Music City community. He was a producer of Spectrasonics' Heart
of Africa sample library and producer of ILIO's Fingerstyles
(out of print). To learn more, visit his web site at www.deepseamusic.com.
Organization
As with Fingerstyles, Hot Steel Blues features compositional elements
that can be mixed and matched in a multitude of ways, while maintaining
the character and all the nuances of live performances. In this
collection, the elements are divided into three categories:
Patterns
Looped riffs in one to several keys mapped from C4 to B4*
Melodies
Melodic lines, occasionally looped, mapped from C5 upward
Endings
Same as patterns, but with an ending cadence, mapped from C3 to
B3
These elements can be loaded as complete
menu programs, or "compositions," or can be loaded and
processed individually. There are a few cases where elements from
different compositions will work together because they share the
same keys and tempos. In addition, some melodies within a composition
can be used with more than one pattern. Try experimenting by layering
one melody over both the I and IV chords. The melodies in this project
are more improvisatory in nature than on Fingerstyles, which is
why I have included more of them.
The material on this CD and CD-ROM is organized by key and tempo
(slowest to fastest). In addition, the Audio-CD track list at the
back of this book lists each "composition" and an accompanying
description to facilitate your search for a piece/pieces with the
appropriate content. The outermost level of programming includes
the key in the title (e.g. "Slow Blues A"). At the next
level we have indicated the tempos (e.g. "60:Slow Blues"
means the patterns are played at 60 BPM). Each Pattern has a name
derived from the parent composition, but it is also assigned a Roman
numeral to indicate its harmonic function in context with the composition
it accompanies. (e.g. "GRA:pattern IV" indicates the pattern
uses a IV chord in the key of the composition – in this case,
the key of "G"). Thus the loop would be a C chord pattern,
or at least something that functions like a IV chord in the key
of G.
Pieces with the same tempo and key should play together fine unless
the meters are different or they swing differently. Some initial
attacks on patterns are different from others so you may have to
shift their beginning times, but looped patterns with identical
tempos have exactly the same loop length (usually within sample
accuracy) and should lock up.
Memory
Compositions vary in memory requirements from 4 megabytes to 32.
In many cases you may want to load an entire composition, including
all patterns, melodies and endings. These will appear on one keyboard
setting in the groupings called "menu" (e.g. "Low
Down Menu"). If you want to conserve memory and do not need
all parts of the composition, try loading only what you do need.
For example, if you only need the patterns from the composition
"Jimmy Reed," load "Jimmy Pattern" found at
the patch or program level. Often this will save you considerable
sampler memory.
Stereo Placement
All guitar performances were recorded in stereo. There are no mono
files. The menu programs (which contain all the parts of a particular
composition on one keyboard setting) and the audio CD have been
adjusted so that melodies appear slightly to the right in the stereo
field and everything else appears slightly left (approximately 10:00
and 2:00). This allows for instant performance of a track with pleasing
separation and clarity in the stereo field. The other keyboard setups
on the CD-ROM (patterns, melodies, endings) are programmed so that
their signals appear essentially balanced left and right. You will
need to adjust the stereo imaging on your sampler or mixer if you
want something other than centered.
Notes for CD-ROM Users
If you're new to using CD-ROMs in your sampler, congratulations,
and rest assured that it's very simple to do. Once you've used CD-ROMs,
you won't go back! All you need is a dedicated CD-ROM drive for
your sampler, preferably 4X or higher, and a SCSI cable. (It's best
not to use your computer's internal CD-ROM drive with a hardware
sampler.) Refer to your sampler owner's manual for details on connecting
your equipment. You must also make sure your CD-ROM drive is compatible
with your sampler. Most manufacturers provide a list of compatible
drives on their web sites or via fax, or check out ILIO's web site
for more details: www.ilio.com.
As a rule, we recommend you have at least 32 megabytes of RAM installed
in your sampler. These days, the majority of CD-ROM titles youl
buy will have 32 meg programs which you won't want to miss.
CD-ROM users also receive the audio version, convenient for Speed
Referencing. Simply play this disc in your standard CD player to
quickly audition the selections before accessing the programs off
the CD-ROM.
Akai and Emu Users
Please refer to the listing below for the contents of both ROM discs.
This collection has been tested successfully on an Emu EOS samplers.
Refer to your owners manual for tips on loading Akai volumes. Akai
S3000XL, S2000 and S5000/S6000 users can access the pre-configured
multis by entering Multi mode after loading a volume.
Software Sampler Users
The Akai CD-ROM version will work well on most software samplers
like the Emagic EXS-24, BitHeadz Unity DS-1 and Nemesys Gigasampler.
It goes without saying that it's best to optimize your computer
with as much RAM as possible and to make sure you have the latest
software updates for your system.
Roland Users
This disc was optimized for use on a 32 megabyte S-760 and will
work on the newest Roland samplers, including the XV-5080. It may
be used with the S-750 and S-770 series samplers, but due to the
sizes of some volumes and performances, it may be necessary for
you to load individual patches instead of complete performances.
Please refer to the listing below for the contents of this disc.
Kurzweil Users
Please refer to the enclosed separate directory for a contents listing
and for specific information about this volume.
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