Hendrik Meurkens is one of our favorite jazz harmonica players, so we were delighted when we got this message from him:

My new CD JUNITY, an album very different from the previous Brazilian-tinged releases, has been out for a couple of months and received great reviews and very strong airplay. JUNITY is a duo-project with the Russian-born, New York-based pianist, composer and arranger Misha Tsiganov.

The album features two settings – duo (harmonica/piano) and quartet (plus bass & drums, played by Oleg Osenkov and Willard Dyson). Arranged by Misha, the repertoire includes two Beatles songs, a Monk tune, some originals, a Jobim tune, an Etude by Scriabin, and more. The music is best described as Modern Chamber Music, and here the lyrical side of the harmonica comes to full shine. But we also feature some up-tempo tunes, most notably Misha’s arrangement of Pent-up House.

Hey! We’re in. Look for the album on iTunes and CD Baby.

Here’s a video to keep you busy while you’re checking out the stores.

Digitech’s RP360 and RP360XP have been on the market for about six months now. The box still sounds great, and the software still sucks.

Digitech’s doing a very nice job on the hardware side with its products. There’s no doubt in my mind that the RP devices deliver better sounds and more value for money than any competing devices in their price range, or even than the higher-priced gear offered by Line6 among others.

However, Digitech continues to underinvest in their software, which is a critical–repeat, critical–part of the package for professional users. Which, of course, raises the question: is Digitech’s strategy about building overengineered products for amateurs, or pro-quality gear for pros?

The RP360XP: when will Digitech get its software act together?

We’ll leave that question for someone else to answer. In the meantime, here are the software improvements Digitech needs to make RIGHT NOW:

1) Change Nexus to allow drag-and-drop configuration of patch locations for the RP360/360XP. This functionality is present in Xedit for every RP device from the RP150 on–but not for the 360 or 360XP. Professionals absolutely–absolutely– require the ability to reconfigure user memory quickly and easily in order to build song- and gig-specific setups.

2) Offer tools to enable conversion of patches configured for the RP355 and lower models to RP500/1000/360/360XP formats. Once upon a time, Digitech offered a tool to convert patches between RP150/250/350 formats. Then they stopped; didn’t even update the program to cover the 155/255/355. What the f—? Listen up, Digi-guys. This is important for your sales. Once I’ve put in hundreds of hours to build customized sounds for my RP, if I don’t have an easy way to convert those patches to a newer model, I have a positive disincentive to buy that newer model, because if I do, I have to start all over. You want people to buy the new stuff? Make it easier for them to bring the old stuff they like along.

I’ve said before that Digitech doesn’t seem to realize that they’re really in the software business now. Here’s what software companies know: you don’t strand users of your legacy products when you create the next version, because that creates an incentive for said users to abandon your company and its products entirely in favor of some other vendor offering new, shiny objects. You make it easy for your legacy users to bring their data along with them to your next product version, because doing so makes it far more likely that they will in fact take that step.

When will Digitech figure that out? I dunno. It should’ve happened already. I can’t explain why this perfectly obvious stuff–stuff which is really not very difficult–seems to be so hard for them. Maybe they need to hire a couple of guys in a garage to make it happen. My guess is that there are lots of garages out there in Salt Lake City; surely they can find one with a couple of nerds inside, looking for a project? I recommend that they start driving around and checking that out right now.

Some of my readers know that I have a career as an analyst at Gartner, Inc., the world’s largest IT advisory services company. We just held our flagship conference, Symposium/IT Expo, in Orlando, FL, where I delivered the keynote presentation to an audience of about 12,500, live and via broadcast.

I was asked at this conference to deliver a 1/2 hour harmonica performance to an audience of Chief Information officers (CIOs). I did so on Wednesday, where I performed a short (20 minutes) set of solo compositions and arrangements that included Little Walter’s “Too late,” Ben Tucker’s “Comin’ Home Baby”, the traditional american cowboy song “Billy the Kid,” and my own compositions “Big 17,” “New Country Stomp,” and “Widow’s Walk,” all of which are included in my solo CDs “The Act of Being Free in One Act” and “The Second Act of Free Being”.

In the last third of this performance, I used something that I heard at Sacramento SPAH a few years ago, when someone handed out harmonicas to a crowd of kids; I remember to this day the amazing sound, like a giant, organic pipe organ, that the kids produced just by breathing in and out on their instruments more or less together. Gartner’s Events team bought about 50 harmonicas (Suzuki Folkmasters) in the key of C, and we handed them out to the CIOs at the performance. I told them to breathe in and out (and bend their knees so as not to fall over when their systems oxygenated), and then I played a simple line over the top. It sounded as expected–big and cool–and the CIOs loved it. I ended the show by signing everyone’s new harmonicas with a Sharpie. The whole thing was filmed, and I’ll advise if and when video is available for viewing.

We’re repeating this performance at our Gartner Symposium events in Brazil (late October) and Barcelona (early November), so any CIOs reading this attending either of those events should be sure to show up, ready to listen and play. I expect the Brazilian CIOs in particular to tear it up, given the general (high) level of musicality in Brazil. And, of course, I hope to connect with Wim Dijkgraaf, the terrific harmonica player and composer, in Sao Paolo. (It occurs to me that we might even be able to arrange for a duet during the performance there–wouldn’t that be something to remember! I better get on the phone to Wim right now…)

I’ve had a few requests recently for the harmonica keys and tunings that I used to record the pieces on my CDs “The Act of Being Free in One Act” and “The Second Act of Free Being.” So here, for your pondering pleasure, is a download PDF that lays it all out.

Please note that the specific keys I used for many of these pieces were a matter of convenience: I needed the tuning, and I happened to have a harp in good working order on hand that fit it. In other words, the tunings are absolutely non-negotiable, but the keys can be adjusted to suit what’s available (keeping in mind that you want to be somewhere near the range of the original; if I recorded it on a G harp it’s probably not going to work all that well on an F harp, and vice versa). I’m more likely nowadays to play “Peppermint Life” on a C harp than on the Db harp that I apparently used on the day it was recorded, and more likely to use an F harp than an E for “Winter Sun at Nobska,” but neither substitution is a big deal.

The various tunings I reference on the PDF are almost all available off the shelf from various manufacturers: country tuning (draw 5 reed raised 1/2 step), natural minor, melody maker, standard Richter, and harmonic minor. The exception is the Dorian minor, which gives you a Dorian mode in 2nd position. You make a Dorian minor by tuning the draw 3 and 7 reeds on a standard Richter 1/2 step down. (Or you can combine the draw plate from a Lee Oskar Natural Minor in G with the blow plate from a Lee Oskar standard tuning in C; the root tone is actually the same in both cases, but Lee names the natural minor harps after the key in 2nd position, not 1st.)

Beyond getting the right tunings in your hands, the hard part on many of these pieces is playing melodies from both sides of your mouth at once. The next thing to consider is the breathing, which requires some pretty steady rollin’ from your lungs on occasion. What can I say? Practice, man, practice.

That’s the lot. Enjoy. Let me know if you add one or more of these pieces to your repertoire.

Click here to download PDF of Richard Hunter’s solo repertoire with keys and harp types

Jack Bruce has died at the age of 71.

I heard Bruce for the first time when I was 13 years old, at which point in time Cream released “Fresh Cream,” their first LP. Bruce’s harmonica work on that and subsequent Cream releases was something I listened to carefully, over and over. The first extended solo harmonica performances I ever heard were the live and studio versions of Bruce’s showpiece “Train Time,” which he performed as a showstopper at Cream concerts, and which I performed in my fashion on a number of occasions; it was a simple and powerful piece that never failed to get the audience up and clapping.

Bruce was the only bass player Cream ever had, and he was lead singer on most of their songs. He could sing a psychedelic lyric like “In a white room, with black curtains, is a station” with perfect aplomb (as he does in this video, filmed at Cream’s reunion concert in 2005). His bass work could be rock solid, or could dance around Clapton’s guitar, as it does on Cream’s live recording of “Crossroads” that’s undoubtedly engraved note-for-note on many people’s minds, including mine.

After Cream, Bruce did some hard-rockin’ work with Leslie West in the band West, Bruce, & Laing. I lost track of him after that, but I saw a video of him a few years ago in which he and Clapton, playing at home, did a brilliant duet on “Cat’s Cradle,” a staple of Cream’s repertoire; it was the first time they’d played together in over 30 years, and it sounded fresh as a daisy.

RIP Jack Bruce.

I did a session earlier this week with Brian Keane, a composer/producer I’ve worked with on a number of occasions, for a TV movie titled “Keepers of the Streak”, which is about four photographers in their 70s/80s who’ve photographed every Superbowl from the start. (The premise is basically an excuse to run a Superbowl greatest-hits highlight reel for 90 minutes.) The basic style of the music is modern country, which means country twang with a lot of rock influence, and the harmonica work for this session accordingly had a lot of amped-up blues-rock stuff in it.

I brought my Digitech RP360XP to this session along with 4 mics: the Audix Fireball, Shure 545SD with Greg Heumann Bulletizer on it, Bottle o’ Blues, and Shaker Madcat. The sound I ran on the RP360XP for everything (except the stuff that went through one of the studio’s large diaphragm condensor mics straight to the board for an acoustic sound) was my GA40 patch from my latest patch set for the Digitech RP360/360XP, which features a Gibson GA40 amp model paired with a 12″ GA40 cabinet model plus a slapback delay. This patch, which sounds like a Champ amp with more hair on its chest, has become my go-to patch for amped-up performances.

Left to right: Shure 545SD with Bulletizer, Fireball with inline volume control, Bottle o’ Blues

We tried all of the mics I brought with me and quickly settled on the 545SD, which gave us a big tone with a lot of room for articulation. (The BoB was just too hairy, and the Fireball just a little too polite.) Most of the harp parts were in B minor, and I used an E dorian minor harmonica (3 and 7 draw reeds tuned down 1/2 step) on most of the material. One or two of the harp parts were in Bb minor, and the producer wanted to hear them in a lower range, so I used a low Eb harp, bending the draw 3 reed down a half-step, to play those. I also used a G harp in 5th position (tonic note = blow 2) when the producer wanted a low range for the B minor material. (I wished I’d brought a low E with me, but I didn’t, so there you go. That’s why I bring tons of harps to every session; it always seems like there’s something on the agenda that needs a harp I haven’t used in 10 years.)

The session was a lot of fun, and when the movie comes out you can check out the harp work, which is prominent throughout. In the meantime, let me note again that the RP devices work just fine with plenty of different mics. Different mics make different sounds with an RP, just as they would with a tube amp. And that’s fine, because changing the mic is a relatively inexpensive way to get a different sound. All four of the mics I brought to this session put together cost less than $450; at that rate, it’s a lot cheaper to change out the mic than to get another amp. (Easier to carry to a session, too.)

There was a recent discussion on Harp-L of FX, which I found revealing of all sorts of things. It’s chronicled here, and be warned: gotta lotta words. (The boldface emphases I put on certain lines in that discussion were added by me, and were not present in the initial conversation. However, I thought it a good idea to break up all that text once in a while, and highlighting some of the big messages seems like a good way to do it.)

I started it out with this:

One thing I know for sure: whenever anybody says “FX do some very cool things,” a lot of people can be counted on to say “I sound just fine without ‘em.”

To me that’s missing the point. Of course harp without FX sounds fine. (See the widget for my solo CDs at the end of this post.) So does guitar. And keys. And all the other instruments where the players are lots more adventurous with their sounds than harp players. And getting a lot more work, too, as a rule.

Clarinet without FX sounds fine, too. At one time it was a very prominent instrument in the popular music of its day–that is, the 1930s-40s. The records made in those days still sound great, but they don’t sound much like what the public is paying to listen to now. I can’t recall the last time I heard a band in any–I repeat, any–style featuring clarinet. Why not? It still sounds fine. But it doesn’t sound like now.

I would prefer not to see the instrument I have loved for close to 50 years go the way of the clarinet. To that end, I intend to keep pushing the boundaries of the instrument itself and the gear I use to make it loud and proud. I won’t accept limits on the sounds I can make with a harmonica, anymore than I would with any other instrument. If I need to add something to the sound to make it bigger/wider/wilder/wierder, I will. If I played the clarinet, I’d damn sure be running that through a pitch shifter, a delay, and a wah-wah too, not because clarinet doesn’t sound good, but because I have no intention of getting left behind while everyone else in the world gets to make the sounds of modern music.

Of course, some people just don’t much like modern music. There’s no argument there; what you like is what you like. But I’d rather try to redefine it on my terms than pretend it’s not there.

FYI, I played today to an audience in Sao Paolo, Brazil, with chromatic jazz harmonica virtuoso Wim Dijkgraaf. Both of us played acoustic harp–me a Lee Oskar Natural Minor, Wim a Hohner CX12–through the same mic on “Comin’ Home Baby.” It was great; I’ll see about posting my recording of it to my website later this week. (Note Nov. 1 2014: the recording is now available here.) That said, Wim told me he picked up a Digitech RP355, and I’m sending him my patchset right after I write this message. He doesn’t need an RP to sound good. He wants an RP so he can sound different when he wants to. Is that a problem? Not for me.

I got a number of replies to this post, some pointing out that clarinet players are actually very prominent in certain bands, many of them playing in Europe, most of them playing in various traditional (usually acoustic) styles. Thanks all for bringing that to my attention.

What? There’s More?

Then Rick Davis, who promotes Mission Harp Amps from the store on his site and makes and sells a small harp amp based on a Mission design–who obviously has a dog in this hunt–came in with this one:
> So, you want to save the harmonica by making it sound like a clarinet? Or
> a trumpet? Or a Hammond B3? I’m not sure that is a good plan, or even a
> necessary one.
>
> When you use processors or effects to make a harp sound like a trumpet, for
> example, it doesn’t work. It does not sound like a trumpet; its sounds
> like what it is: A processed harmonica. It is usually not a sound I like.
> it sounds flanged and phased and EQ’d and compressed and octaved and
> filtered. If it is well played I will admire the musicianship in spite of
> the sound, but I can’t help but ask myself “Why?”

I suppose that if I was the owner of a shop that makes traditional tube harp amps that cost, at the low end, about 2-3 times what it costs to buy an RP360XP plus my patchset, and more than an RP360XP and a Peavey KB2 keyboard amp plus my patch set combined, I might have doubts about less-expensive but much-more-powerful alternatives to traditional amps too.

Anyway, here’s my reply to Rick and the list:

First, I have no illusions that I’m going to “save the harmonica.” I’m trying to make the world occupied by harmonica players a better place than it was when I found it, “better” meaning that harmonica players have more extensive technical, conceptual, and sound-shaping tools and skills when I go than when I arrived, and more cool stuff to listen to.

Second, the point above is an obvious distortion of my comments. Nowhere did I say that the goal was to make the harmonica sound like a trumpet, or a clarinet, or a B3. I used the clarinet as an example of an instrument whose time has largely come and gone, to which other list members responded with examples of current bands using it. That settled, the point is to be able to extend the range of sounds available to the instrument. By the way, if you read this list regularly, you know that the ability to emulate a B3–or more specifically, the rotating speaker (Leslie) sound that we all associate with a B3–is something desired strongly by many members of this list; the rotary speaker patches I put together are probably the most popular in my patch sets after the basic amped-up stuff.

Writing off electronics for the harmonica is in effect writing off everything that electric guitarists have had more or less to themselves for the last (nearly) 50 years. The point isn’t to sound like Jimi Hendrix, the point is to be able to make good use of the tools available to us. in any case, Jimi Hendrix didn’t attempt to sound like a trumpet or a clarinet. He wanted to sound different from anything anybody had ever heard. So do I.

The comment that
>A processed harmonica… is usually not a sound I like.
> it sounds flanged and phased and EQ’d and compressed and octaved and
> filtered.
is unintentionally ironic. If you run a microphone into a tube amp, you’re using a processor, because the tube amp itself is a signal processor by definition. You’re certainly compressing the signal, because tube amps add compression by design, usually increasing as gain and/or volume is cranked up. Almost every harp player I know that relies on a tube amp uses the onboard EQ–usually low, mid, and high, in order of decreasing emphasis in the EQ–heavily. (In other words, a harp run through a tube amp is a “processed harmonica.”) That leaves flanging, phasing, octaving, and filtering (which typically means either an auto-wah or a wah-wah, unless you meant additional EQ, because of course EQ is a type of filter).

In other words, you dislike all the “new” stuff–the sounds that became prominent in rock, pop, electronica, etc. starting in the 1980s, i.e. about 35 years ago. I could just as easily argue that “acoustic” harp players have good reason to dislike tube amps, because they corrupt the pure sound of a harmonica. Which they surely do, but it’s a corruption we all like, isn’t it? Human ears like distortion. Human ears like lots of other stuff too.

About 35 years: that’s how long it’s been since many players tried anything fundamentally new in their rigs. Meanwhile, the evolving musical landscape is going steadily more electronic, which is fine for harp players, because we can use those tools too.

Also by the way, you make and sell traditional-style harp amps, the Mission amps, right? I suppose that business reflects your taste in harp sounds, which of course is all to the good. We’ll see which view prevails. I’m pretty sure that history is going my way.

Wrapping it up

I made a mistake in my post, of course; Rick doesn’t own Mission Harp Amps; he manufactures and sells an amp based on one of their designs. My apologies for the inaccuracy. No apologies for the attitude.

Want to check out the sounds that are causing all the controversy? You can access plenty of samples of the sounds in my patch set for Digitech RP here.

And just in case anyone doubts that I know how to play a harmonica without a signal processor between me and the audience, just check out my solo harmonica CDs at CDBaby. I don’t have to use FX to make music; I just like to.

I’ve known Dutch-born harmonica virtuoso and composer Wim Dijkgraaf since the late 1990s. Wim now lives in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and I joined up with him there at Gartner’s Symposium ITXPO conference to perform this duet on Ben Tucker’s “Comin Home Baby” in front of an audience of Chief Information Officers, mostly from Brazil.

Wim is playing a Hohner CX12 chromatic in this performance, and I’m playing a Lee Oskar Natural Minor diatonic in G in second position, i.e. in G minor. We’re both playing into the same microphone, and I recorded the performance as it was played with a Zoom H4 recorder, using the Zoom’s built-in mics, with the Zoom placed about 18 inches from the PA speaker and roughly on the same level. Zero effects were used by either of us. The recording quality is decent, meaning that you can hear some of the room noise, but the harps come through clearly.

It was a pleasure to play with Wim again, and the performance was a lot of fun. Enjoy.

Comin Home Baby featuring Wim Dijkgraaf and Richard Hunter, recorded live in performance 29 October 2014

I recorded a solo version of this piece for my first CD, “The Act of Being Free in One Act.” It’s a very nice performance on a CD filled with remarkable compositions and performances. You can buy the CD (and my second solo recording, “The Second Act of Free Being”) at CDBaby if you’re so inclined.

This performance was delivered live to an audience of Chief Information Officers, most of them Brazilian, at Gartner’s Brazil Symposium on October 29, 2014. I played into a Shure 58 mic, which was amplified via a small PA system (I don’t think the woofers were bigger than 8 inches, if that) with zero FX. It was recorded via the builtin microphones on my Zoom H4, and no post-processing was applied to the recording.

“Widow’s Walk” is one of my most complex and moving (in every sense of the word) compositions for diatonic harmonica, and this live performance of the piece shows the various lines and textures off well. It begins in first position on a G Natural Minor harmonica, i.e. in the key of C minor. Before it’s over, it’s toured G minor and Eb major as well. The textures include counter-melodies played out of both sides of the mouth at once, octaves, single notes, and block chords. The Natural Minor tuning makes almost any combination of notes sound good, so you can get a wide range of voicings and big sounds all over the instrument. The independent lines span intervals up to a minor 13th, with movement at both ends.

I work a lot with a looper, and some may assume that this piece is performed using looped or pre-recorded material, or that I overdubbed additional parts post-performance. In fact, everything in this performance is done with a single harmonica and a single player, playing in real time. There are no overdubs of any kind. This is harmonica solo, period.

The piece makes no overt references to the blues in terms of tone, timbre, and articulation; there are no bluesy bends, no hand wahs, no throat vibrato. But the blues is evident in some of the lines in the piece, as it is in just about all my work. Other influences include Bartok and Debussy. A “widow’s walk,” of course, is a structure built on top of a house to allow a woman to stand on the highest point available and look out to sea for a ship (the ship on which her man sailed, perhaps years earlier). You can hear the ocean in a number of places in this piece.

This recording was made in the same performance as my duet with Wim Dijkgraaf on Comin Home Baby. It was a pretty good day for harmonica.

Widow’s Walk Performed by Richard Hunter October 29 2014

“Widow’s Walk” is one of the many astounding works for harmonica solo included on my CD “The Second Act of Free Being,” which you can get at CDBaby.

Enjoy.

There are a few instruments–or roles, perhaps–that you hear in just about every band that’s playing anything related to roots or any popular style. Something is making a bass line. Something is percussively pounding out a rhythm. Something is playing chords or adding color above the bass and percussion–maybe more than one thing. Above all, someone is singing. And it’s that, not the limitations of the harmonica, that make it a non-foundational instrument–that is, not an instrument that must be present in any band.

If you play any kind of bass, drums, keyboards, or guitar, you’ve got a foundational instrument. Something’s got to play the role your instrument plays in the band. With modern electronics (like, of course, a Digitech RP device and my patch set), you can actually play any of those roles with a harmonica or two (or seventy-five, if you want to play a lot of different stuff–you need some pretty specific instruments to fill certain roles on certain songs). What you can’t do with a harmonica is sing at the same time.

The mouth can sing AND play, just not both at once

In modern popular music–including most genres that are popular enough to support more than a few artists, not just “pop” music–the human voice dominates. If you play bass, guitar, keys, or drums, you can sing while you play, because it’s your hands and feet that do the playing, not your mouth and your lungs.

But if the harp player sings, you’ll only hear the harp between vocals. That’s not foundational–not something that’s present almost all the time (in almost every musical context, in one form or another). If you’re not foundational, you’re a luxury.

I suppose that the looper is the device that solves the problem, but it introduces other problems. With a looper, a harmonica player can create a foundation and sing over it. That solves the problem of putting the harp in the foundation. However, it makes it harder to play with others; a lot of musicians find it difficult to stay in sync with a loop. If you have a full band playing to a loop, everybody needs a click feed to stay in sync, so the setup gets more complex. And a looper isn’t native to traditional styles, just about by definition.

That’s my JamMan Stereo looper–the blue box at center-right.

Another option is to find a band that wants the harp in the foundation, and never mind the singing. That’s the story of Magic Dick with the J. Geils band. He didn’t have to sing with the band; the rest of them had that covered. His first great contribution was to put the harp right into the rhythm section. It’s possible now, with non-standard tunings and various FX, to go well beyond what was possible with a traditional amped rig in 1971. In other words, the harp can now take on an even wider range of roles in the band, moving deeper into the various roles in the rhythm section (and farther in front on the lead). Assuming that said harp is not in the hands of a person whose primary role is singing.

Anyway, harp players have a big choice to make. They can sing more and put the instrument down more frequently, or they can play more and be more integral to the sound of the band. Not a simple choice; great opportunities on both sides. Time to be awesome, I guess, one way or the other. Or both. I’m reminded that Little Walter had plenty of instrumentals in his repertoire. So perhaps the key is in fact to embrace the limitation. We can do everything–just not all at once.

I found out today that I’m listed as #28 on “The Top 100 Harmonica Players To Ever Walk The Planet” at harmonica.com. Seriously. See for yourself.

I’m glad to be in the company of the kind of people that populate this list, and it made my day to see myself on it. If you want to browse the whole list a little more easily than you can via the link above, try this one.

If you’re interested in the music that impressed the folks who vote at harmonica.com, check out my CDs at CDBaby.

Every year around Christmas we re-publish our piece on choosing your first harp amp (and the rest of your amped setup). It’s that time again, folks. Click here to get the straight story on how to set yourself up to play harp, loud.

One wickedly cool setup: a Digitech RP, a keyboard amp, and my patch set for Digitech RP

Digitech RP360XP

Peavey KB/A 100 keyboard amp

I love Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics. I tuned in to a broadcast of the Springsteen tribute concert on PBS recently and saw this absolutely mind-blowing guitar solo by Tom Morello, who’s done a lot of great work with Rage Against the Machine, on Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”

Harp players–especially players armed with a Digitech RP and one of my patch sets–can learn a lot from this solo. (So can any other musician.) In a few minutes, Morello shows you a massive range of sounds you can make with an electric guitar and a pedal or two, and some of it translates to harmonica (harmonica with FX, anyway) practically verbatim. Check out the section where he’s playing straight quarter-notes, pushing down on the wah-wah on the attack of every note. Check out the section where he pushes the wah pedal to the floor and leaves it there, giving the guitar an angels-on-high singing quality.

Check out everything, man. It’s an epic solo, easily one of the greatest and most profound I’ve ever heard, and time spent studying it will surely reward the student.

I’m in Idaho as I write this, and my rig in Idaho consists of a Digitech RP355, an Audix Fireball, and a Peavey KB2 amp. I was jamming on that rig a day or so ago, and I remembered that the RP355 has a looper. It’s not much of a looper–it only has 20 seconds of loop time, and the ergonomics aren’t tops–but it does what it does, and I used it to make the piece you hear below.

Digitech RP355–not Digitech’s latest, but it still sounds great

There are four layers in this loop. The first is a beatboxed percussion part; the second is a double-octave-down bass part; the third is a tenor sax-ish lick that fills out the low midrange; and finally, a patch that’s designed to emulate a slide guitar, with a lot of distortion, and a whammy effect that drops the pitch by a whole step under footpedal control.

This basic configuration of sounds–beatboxed percussion, low bass, tenor sax, and some kind of lead and/or midrange ryhthm or pad–works very well for a wide range of loops, and I’m gradually developing a repertoire for it. Check out this loop, and stay tuned for more.

“Funky RP355 Loop”by Richard Hunter, copyright 2014, all rights reserved

The piece attached to this post is a segment from a performance I put together using the Digitech RP355 loaded with my patch set for Digitech RP, plus the RP355’s builtin looper. The sounds include beatboxed percussion (run through a patch with heavy vibrato and delay), a double octave down patch with a wah wah set to low-pass the frequencies, a tenor sax octave-down patch, and a kind of psycho organ patch with heavy vibrato (the same one I beatboxed through, if I recall). All the sounds were created by me, and in most cases are versions of the patches in my patch set for Digitech RP that I customized for a particular song.

The Canned Heat version of “On the Road Again” that features Al Wilson on harmonica is a great classic from every point of view. I think it’s pointless to recreate it, but this arrangement borrows the spare, sombre tone of the original. The harmonica is a Big River harp tuned to a Dorian Minor scale (3 and 7 draw reeds lowered 1/2 step) in second position (G minor, in this case; the original key of the harp is C). Wilson used a harp with the draw 7 reed lowered 1/2 step, and I think it was a great choice, which I why I use it too. (Note: since this piece was published, I’ve been advised that Wilson tuned the draw 6 reed up half a step, as opposed to lowering the draw 7 reed 1/2 step. Either approach yields the desired effect to a point. Tuning the draw 6 reed up offers less in terms of harmonization opportunities than tuning the draw 7 reed down.)

In performance, I build these lines from the bottom up: beatbox, bass, tenor. It’s a big sound. Like I said in my previous post about jamming some funk on the RP355, I intend to do more of this.

You can hear a dog howling along with the music near the end. Dogs seem to find harmonica very howl-worthy. I don’t know if they’re enjoying it or not. I’m enjoying it, and that’s sufficient justification. The dog can always leave the room if she likes.

On the Road Again Richard Hunter, harmonicas and vocals

Here are a couple of new cuts from the same sessions that produced “On the Road Again” and the funky loop jam. “Dawn Like Thunder” is a slow, peaceful piece with some beautiful counterpoint. The patch I use to play it has an LFO modulating pitch–basically, flipping back and forth rapidly between a note and the octave below–with the level of the LFO, i.e. the volume of the effect, under expression pedal control. “Heavy Rock LFO” starts with a very hard-edged line played with the same patch as “Dawn Like Thunder,” and it’s soon joined by even hard-edged stuff.

Enjoy.

Dawn Like Thunder composed and performed by Richard Hunter. Copyright 2014 Richard Hunter. all rights reserved

Heavy Rock LFO composed and performed by Richard Hunter. Copyright 2014 Richard Hunter. all rights reserved

I noticed something interesting in the last few days. First, the price of new Digitech RP255s has dropped to about $100. That’s a pretty good deal on a pretty capable device. Second, RP355s are listed as discontinued at Sweetwater, Musicians Friend, etc. etc. Put it together, and you’ve got to ask: is Digitech quietly phasing out the RP355?

It may just be that Digitech has figured out that there’s not much reason for anyone to buy an RP355 when the RP360XP is priced the same and is in general a better device. On the other hand, I don’t see remaindered RP355s going anywhere for 50% off, which is what usually happens when Digitech replaces a device or a line of devices with something new. Maybe Digitech figured out how to avoid building up excess inventory to dump, which is a good thing for them.

RP355 at bottom right, RP255 at lower middle

As per the recordings using the RP355 that I’ve posted in the last few days, the RP355 is still a very nice device that makes lots of great sounds. (Something that sounds good doesn’t sound less good a few years later just because time has passed. Human ears know what they like, and they tend to keep liking it.) I wouldn’t hesitate to take an RP355 to a stage or studio anywhere; Digitech’s latest or not, nobody is ever going to tell you that the sounds that come out of an RP355 aren’t good enough. However, a world in which Digitech offers RP255s for $100 and RP360XPs for twice that amount, and no RP355 in the middle, is a pretty good world for harp players. Used RP355s in good to great condition are easily found on guitarcenter.com for $100 and down, so anyone who wants an RP355 can still get one for at least a few years to come. But if it was me–and following the logic that I suppose Digitech is following–I’d buy the RP360XP, which sounds a little bit better than the RP355, has a nice set of additional features and amp/FX models, is a better device for onstage performance, and costs just a little bit more.

Digitech RP360XP: great sounds in a small box for a very reasonable price

And of course, whichever of these RPs you eventually decide to use, we’ve got your sounds for you, right here.

With the new possibility that Digitech will retire the RP355, it’s important to ask again whether it’s better to get an RP355 or an RP360XP. Here’s my current thinking on the topic.

The 360XP has more of everything: more amp and FX models, more real-time control, more storage for user patches, more processing in the code that modifies the signal. It sounds bigger and bolder than the 355, and it cuts through a band better. Given that the RP355 and the RP360XP retail at the same price, all of these more factors are meaningful.

RP360XP setup during soundcheck in Milan with Lowlands

The 360XP is definitely more stage-worthy. I’ve had problems with myself and others hitting the wrong switches on the RP355 at the wrong time; once a guitarist stood on the 355 long enough to start the looper, which was a real drag, not to mention hard to identify as the source of the ensuing problem. The 360XP’s footswitches are also far more accurate and positive than the ones on the 355, which really makes a difference with quick patch changes and looping.

We can also expect further development by Digitech where the 360XP is concerned, meaning more and better software support, operating systems, etc., which we won’t with the RP355. I have to admit that I’m devoting the bulk of my sound development time to the 360XP too, because that’s the future, especially if the 355 is now a legacy device.

Digitech RP355

The only area in which RP355s beat an RP360XP is price, and that’s not an apples to apples comparison. If the 355 isn’t available at retail, which it currently appears not to be, then the only place to get it is the used market. We can’t really compare the price of a used RP355 to the price of a new RP360XP; however, it appears right now that used RP360XPs in excellent condition are selling for $149 plus shipping, while used RP355s are selling for about $100 plus shipping. It’s up to you whether saving $50 on a one-time purchase is a better deal than getting a lot more sound for the money.

Summary: I’d only buy the 355 if money is very tight and you get at least 50% off used (i.e. you buy for $100 or less) in good to great condition. If possible, I would save up for the RP360XP, used or new. Notice that I refer always to the 360XP, the one with the expression pedal. I think the expression pedal is a must-have feature.

The 355 has one, of course. And if you end up with a 355, I wouldn’t cry about it. The thing delivers a very nice collection of sounds right away when you load it with my patch set, and I’d gig with it tomorrow without a qualm. I’d just make sure to keep all the guitarists back at least a few feet.

This recording of a performance by Larry Adler at the first World Harmonica Championship in 1987 just became available on YouTube. Adler is accompanied by a pianist (at whose expense he makes a joke at the beginning of the performance; Adler’s reputation for narcissism was well-deserved). It’s as close to naked as most concert virtuosi get, and it’s well worth hearing.

Larry Adler-City Center NYC 1947-photo William Gottlieb

The performance–recorded about 40 years after this photo of Adler was taken–shows off Adler’s considerable strengths and weaknesses as a musician. In the former category, there’s his sound. Adler had a ravishing tone, and he was able to pull off a very wide range of tones and timbres on the chromatic harmonica. On the other hand, there’s his improvising. As Toots Thielemans said to me when I interviewed him in 1979, Adler was no jazz musician. Adler doesn’t seem to have a real concept of the improvised line; his solo here consists mainly of short, repeating phrases, harmonically unadventurous, that serve largely as a platform for his manipulations of tone. One might as well play to one’s strengths, I suppose, especially when the strengths are considerable. Did I mention that Adler has a ravishing tone? Does he ever.

Youtube doesn’t make this video available for embedding. You can play the YouTube video here.

I reported on this blog not long ago about a session I did for an ESPN movie called “Keepers of the Streak.” I spent Christmas in Idaho, and not long after I arrived there I got a call for a second session for this movie. The composer, Brian Keane, specifically asked if I could do acoustic tracks, and mentioned that he wanted something along the line of Toots Thielemans, meaning of course some cool-toned chromatic harp.

I keep a Digitech RP355 loaded with my patch set at my place in Idaho, along with a Peavey KB2 amp and a few other things. On this trip I’d also brought an Audix Fireball V mic, a CX12 chromatic in E (minor 6th below a standard 12-hole C chromatic), 18 assorted diatonics, and a looper (which was not needed for this session, but still). I also had my laptop, which runs Cakewalk Sonar X3 recording software. In general, I was sufficiently geared-up for the gig.

Brian sent me mp3s for the main and harp guide tracks for the two pieces he wanted me to play on. Usually Brian sends PDFs for the harp parts, too, but this time he suggested that I just learn the parts from the guide tracks. I loaded the mp3s into Sonar, and all was ready.

“Keepers of the Streak” as it looked on Sonar X3 during recording

The Mic: Audix Fireball V

The real question in “can you do acoustic tracks?” is “how good does your room sound?” Fortunately, with an Audix Fireball V, you can record very nice acoustic tracks without letting the room into the recording. Handholding the Fireball V sounds good, clear and present, with no proximity effect, and it’s a very nice solution to the problem of recording harmonica in a dodgy space.

The Audio Interface: Digitech RP355

For the audio interface I used the Digitech RP355, connected to the laptop via USB. The RP355 might have been used in other contexts to dramatically change the sound of the harp. On the initial sessions for “Keepers of the Streak,” I’d used an RP360XP running a patch I created called “GA40″ (in honor of the Gibson amp of the same name) to produce an amped-up harp tone. This time around, the composer wanted an acoustic sound. So I set up a patch on the RP355 called DIRREC (for “Direct Recording”) that used a direct amp model set to a level of 91, with a direct cabinet, no other FX. The Direct amp model essentially passes the signal straight through from the RP’s inputs to the outputs, with added (clean) gain if desired, so it’s perfect for recording an “acoustic” sound. Needless to say, it’s nice to have an FX device in the input chain that offers any harp sound from squeaky clean to massively distorted and effected on demand, and even nicer when you get all that plus a solid USB audio interface in the same box.

In initial testing I found that a little too much slide noise was coming from the CX12 in E that I used for the session, so I used EQ on the input channel of my recording software (SONAR X3) to take out the frequencies below 200 Hz, where I thought a lot of the noise was located. I also took the slide out of the CX12, washed it, wet it again, and put it back into the harp, which seemed to make things smoother and quieter.

The Idaho Kitchen Harp Recording Rig: laptop running Sonar X3, Audix Fireball mic, Digitech RP355

One of the pieces, a western swing 32-bar number with Rhythm changes on the bridge, was in the key of A, which on an E chromatic is the equivalent (in terms of the note layout) of F on a C chromatic. On a C chromatic the key of A involves 3 sharps as opposed to the one flat required on the E harp, and flats are generally easier on the chromatic. All that by way of saying that the E chromatic worked nicely on this piece (and it had better, since it was the only chromatic I had with me). The other piece was a somewhat free-rhythm blues riff in E minor, and I used two harps to play it: a Lee Oskar Melody Maker in G, and a Seydel Session Steel in A. I alternated the harps, using the Session Steel where the written part dictated a prominent C# that didn’t sound strong played as a bend on the Melody Maker. (When a note is really exposed, you’ve got to nail the pitch and the timbre precisely to make it work, and that’s too much work for me when I know the audience will have no idea whether it was played on one harp or fifty.) On this second piece, I concentrated on hitting the entrances with the guitar; the rhythm was loose, but the harp still sounded synced-up.

A Few Thoughts About Sessions On the Road

It’s not hard to cut good-sounding tracks on the road if you’ve got the right gear, and the “right gear” comes in a surprisingly compact package nowadays. I travel with a set of 18 diatonic harps, 1-2 chromatics, a Digitech RP loaded with one of my patch sets (if I don’t already have one at my destination), an Audix Fireball mic, various audio and USB cables, and a laptop running Sonar X3. The Sonar program is the most expensive item in the lot, and I could replace it for this purpose if I chose with the excellent freeware program Audacity, which offers plenty of flexibility in simple recording and overdubbing on multiple tracks, without all the cool MIDI, mixing, and mastering tools in Sonar (which generally aren’t needed if you’re cutting raw tracks, as opposed to mixing and mastering). As it happens, I’ve been using Sonar for years for composing and making demos, and I’d have it whether I had Audacity or not. I’m also very familiar with Sonar, and it’s as easy or easier for me to set up something simple like making tracks in Sonar as in Audacity.

In terms of capabilities I’d like to enhance, I’d like first to be able to bring more harps more often, because more harps = more flexibility in terms of how I approach my part on a tune, but harps in a road case take up lots of weight and space, and usually I do just fine with what I’ve got in the small case. (If not, I buy a harp to fill the gap with 24-hour delivery.) This setup fills a little less than half of a small suitcase that fits in an overhead rack on an airplane, meaning that in many cases I can travel with my gear and my personal effects in one bag.

The Audix mic and the Digitech RP do double duty in this rig. The mic captures the sound and excludes the room; the RP processes the sound and gets it into the computer. The whole rig is light, powerful, and trivially simple to set up and tear down. What a change from the days, not so long ago, when I routinely carried 35 pounds of gear in a separate suitcase!