Thalagyrt » Music

Early Christmas

James — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:25:28 +0000

Christmas came early this year in the form of 2007 Limited Edition Music Man John Petrucci 7-string guitar. This is honestly the most beautiful guitar I’ve ever played, and the sound is just spectacular, especially with the piezo pickups mixed in with a clean ambient sound. It plays like a dream, the action is so low that my fingers can just glide right across the fretboard.

Evolve

James — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:00:26 +0000

I’ve started work again on a solo album of sorts that I was doing years ago… Planning on finishing the whole thing sooner or later. Figured I might as well post a snippet of what’s being worked on. The idea is to eventually turn into a 40 minute long instrumental, who knows when it’ll be finished though.

Vetta II – Continued

James — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:03:07 +0000

So my Vetta II arrived about 10 days ago and I’ve had some time to play with it. This thing is pretty intense. It takes a lot of tweaking to get to sound great, but I’m definitely happy to do that tweaking. I don’t know why so many people think this thing sounds thin or lacks warmth, because the tones I’ve created with it are definitely neither of the two! It’s a totally different approach from just plugging into an amp and tweaking some knobs, but once you know it you can do some incredible stuff.

I have my Line 6 4×12 cabinet coming in tomorrow, which will complete the Vetta II rig! I’m excited as hell to get this all set up. I’m going to be running the cabinet stereo, which will expand the effects range a bit. I know a 4×12 doesn’t work all that well as a single stereo cab, but this is pretty much all gonna be miced up anyway. I also have mic clips and booms that will mount directly on the cabinet and hold my two Audix I5s right in place where I want them in front of the left and right speakers respectively. Woo!

Vetta II

James — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 04:26:48 +0000

My Vetta II finally shipped today. I’m pretty excited to get this thing and play with it. I’ll be posting some clips and pictures once it arrives! Should be Saturday, but we’ll see. Might be earlier if I’m lucky!

Finished Rig

James — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 01:50:08 +0000

I finally seem to have finished my guitar rig! I’ll probably change a few things over time, but it’s good to have a complete rig.

Top to bottom:

Monster Pro-2500
Marshall JMP-1 Tube Preamp
T.C. Electronic G-Major
Peavey Classic 50/50 Poweramp

Below is a picture of the isolation cab. Pretty sweet deal, close it up and it’s very sound proof. Cuts the noise you hear outside in over half, so I can really crank my poweramp up. It also eliminates almost all exterior noise from the recording, so I get high quality recordings out of it.

Dream Theater: SCORE!

James — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 05:00:19 +0000

I flew up to New York city this weekend for the Dream Theater show at Radio City Music Hall. It was the most incredible show I’ve seen. The crowd was completely into the show, everyone was singing along, and the three hour set was incredible.

Set List

First Set

The Root of All Evil
I Walk Beside You
Another Won
The Afterlife
Under a Glass Moon
Innocence Faded
Raise the Knife
The Spirit Carries On

Second Set, with the Octavarium Orchestra

Overture
About to Crash
War Inside My Head
The Test That Stumped Them All
Goodnight Kiss
Solitary Shell
About to Crash (Reprise)
Losing Time
Vacant
Answer Lies Within
Sacrificed Sons
Octavarium

Encore

Metropolis Pt. I: The Miracle and The Sleeper

That’s right. They played Six Degrees from start to finish. With an orchestra. It’ll be out on DVD sometime later this year, so I can say “I WAS THERE!” to everyone who buys it!