It’s been a while since I last posted anything, and I just wanted to let everyone know that there’s plenty of interesting stuff in the pipeline!  To follow up on Rob Chapman and Eddie Kramer, we have a surprise guest guitarist, Adam Lee.  I won’t say too much about him just yet, but he’s been described as a modern Hendrix, with a heavy Carlos Santana and Steve Vai influence (could be interesting indeed).

Younee

We also have Younee, a singer song writer, from Korea.  Younee is currently touring several countries at the moment and has played with several top jazz musicians.  Younee’s main instrument is piano, played in a classical style, as well as Jazz.  Both genres are combined so well, I would almost go as far to say that she has created a truly unique style of music.  We’ll have some interesting footage and an interview with Younee shortly.

Muris Varajic

(Guitar Idol Finalist)

Muris has been a Guitar Idol finalist several times, and is currently putting his guitar skills to use, doing something completely different!  We’ll have a catch up with this amazing Bosnian guitarist, and find out what he has in store for us for the next Guitar Idol competition.

We hope to have all this great stuff uploaded ASAP!

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE OR CHECK BACK SOON!

]]> http://www.virtuosicsynergy.com/2009/11/coming-soon-the-modern-hendrix-adam-lee-and-more/feed/ 0 http://www.virtuosicsynergy.com/2009/10/rob-chapman-eddie-kramer-and-waves-at-the-strongroom-part-2/ http://www.virtuosicsynergy.com/2009/10/rob-chapman-eddie-kramer-and-waves-at-the-strongroom-part-2/#comments Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:22:09 +0000 geden http://www.virtuosicsynergy.com/?p=171

Eddie Kramer will be working with Rob Chapman aka “The Monkey Lord” on a video that will be shot in London as well as LA.  The video will feature Rob on guitar, and will include footage of him playing with his new ML-1 guitar, at NAMM.  Other companies that will be working with Rob include Marshall Amps, ICMP and many more!  Eddie has used his own plug-ins on Rob’s recordings (which should be available to you soon) and if they’re good enough for him, they should do the trick, or tricks for just about anyone.

After several minutes of scrutinising the ML-1, Eddie seemed impressed.  He even managed some 8 finger tapping…and he’s not even a guitarist!

Onto the review and demonstration of Eddie Kramer’s new Waves plug-ins!

They’re so easy to use that even guitarists can figure out how to make use of them, without having to rely purely on the presets.

The following video shows Eddie explaining how he would use the plug-ins, on a pre-recorded drum track.

The full collection includes plug-ins for guitar, bass, vocals and effects as well.  This package should give you everything you need, to make a band go from sounding like a sparkler that somebody left inside a piece of play dough, to the modern gods of rock…or jazz…etc.

The overall look and feel of this collection, resembles classic analogue equipment, whilst retaining the accuracy and clarity of digital.  How can you go wrong?!

10/10!

Hopefully we’ll be able to bring you some more in-depth knowledge from Eddie personally, when he’s back from NYC.

Watch this space!

Rob Chapman aka “The Monkey Lord”, was kind enough to invite me along to a Waves plug-in event at The Strongroom in Shoreditch.  Hosted by the legendary Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai, The Beatles) it was certainly going to be an educational night for anyone interested in sound engineering.

Prior to the presentation, Eddie sat down for a chat and a thorough inspection of Rob Chapman’s new brand of guitar, the ML-1.

The ML-1 is due for release very soon and will be retailing at £290.  A bargain considering what you get.  Featuring a reverse head stock, from a “Telecaster” and possibly a reversed reverse headstock (don’t ask) on the left handed models (if they’re released!).  The ML-1 is a good combination of a “Strat” and a “Les Paul.  You’d think that this idea has already been done many times by now, but the ML-1 does it in a more subtle way.  At first you’d think that the guitar was like any normal strat, but when you pick it up, you soon realise it feels more like a Gibson, or at least as heavy!  The guitar uses a humbucker in the bridge, a single-coil in the middle and the neck, giving a good balance between a heavy rock sound (ala Les Paul) to an exceptional clean tone (ala Strat).  The neck plays beautifully and is based on a strat neck, which should give it a familiar feel to those people that already have a Fender style guitar.  The build quality is perfect and the fretboard is made of real ebony, which has an infinity symbol on it.  The manufacturer’s have even engraved the Monkey Lord logo onto the neck plate.

Overall, for the money, this guitar is truly flawless and you certainly couldn’t go wrong with it.  It fills the gap of a certain price bracket.  Cheaper than an Epiphone “Les Paul” and something that’s a bit more adventurous than a Fender Squier.  The bonus will be, that you get the best of both worlds at an affordable price.  All the guitars and parts have been manufactured in China but come with Grover USA machine heads and Wilkinson trems.

Follow the link to Rob Chapman’s site to reserve your own ML-1 http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=tycFJlM2VKU75jMQhOc5Z0Q&hl=en

A very good friend of mine will be launching his new album soon.  When I say soon, I mean it could be anytime between now and the theoretical end of the universe.  The album is estimated to be released at the end of this year (in time for your Christmas stockings to be filled) but it might even happen sooner.

Back to the point!  His name is Kostas Alexakis, hailing from Corfu in Greece.  This is a spontaneous interview I did with him on MSN messenger.  The idea is to promote “Alex K” and his up and coming album and to give everyone an idea of what “Alex K” and his music is about.

VS: “When did you start playing the guitar?

Kostas: “It all started when My father bought me a guitar for my 16th birthday.  It was a Fender Squire, with a Floyd-Rose tremelo system.  I eventually sanded the whole thing down to the wood, by hand.”

VS:  ”What made you do that?!”

Kostas:  ”Because it was pink!”  (Camp laughter…kidding)
“I played that for a year, then wanted to sell it and quit guitar, but I sold it and got my white Ibanez RG 550, brand new!” (A guitar which is used on the album)

VS: “What made you want to quit the guitar?”

Kostas:  ”I wanted to buy something else, but to buy that something else, I had to sell my guitar to raise the funds for it.”

VS: “What made you decide to keep the guitar?”

Kostas: “My mother told me to keep the guitar, but I thought it would be okay if I bought another guitar with the money I made from the Squier.”

VS:  ”So it looks like you should be thanking your mother for your guitar playing, at this point?”

Kostas: “That’s for sure.”
“She motivates me, when it comes to music”

VS: How so?

Kostas: “If I’m down about being abroad and away from home, she’s always there to remind me of why I’m doing music. That it’s for my own good and my chances of a career are far greater in London etc.”

VS: “Okay, that’s always a good thing.”
“So what happened next in your life?”

Kostas: “I started a business degree.”

VS: “??????”

Kostas:  ”I know, it’s not what you would have thought, a Malmsteen, Vai and Satch obsessed guitarist doing a boring business degree.”
“I was driven by my parents to do it though. I still got through the degree without any problem’s, and I did more playing than ever.”
“I was doing a lot of transcribing at that time as well.”

Speaking of Malmsteen!  Now is a good time to show you just how much of an inlfuence Malmsteen was.  Kostas is playing on a borrowed Malmsteen strat and blasting over “Blue”

VS: “Looks like you managed to do music and educate yourself at university just fine then.”
“No excuses for other individuals wishing to do music and have a good education.”
“I’m guessing ACM came next?”

Kostas: “That’s right. I decided to audition for the Higher National Diploma at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, England.”
“It was a spontaneous thought really.  I just wanted to do something with music at that time.”

VS: “Would you say that, that was the first time you started to believe in yourself as a player?”

Kostas: “The only reason I started to believe in myself as a player, was because of the support I got from my guitar teacher and my friends.”
“Otherwise, yes, that was the first time I started to think I could do this for a living.”

VS: “I’m guessing you aced the audition at ACM?”

Kostas “The teacher’s at ACM really liked my playing and put me through for the HND without any hesitation.”

VS: “Sounds like a pretty good start.”
“Who inspired you the most at ACM?”

Kostas: “There were 3 players that inspired me the most.”
“Eric Roche, Pete Callard and Guthrie Govan.”

VS: “Eric Roche was an acoustic guitarist, how did you draw influence from him? Was it his playing or his personality?”

Kostas: “Both. Mainly what he had to say about music. He was very spiritual, and he taught me music theory of course”

VS: “Favourite bit of advice from Eric?”

Kostas: “Always try new things.”

VS: “Good advice!”
“Onto the next thing then. You finished the HND at distinction level and went on to do the degree.”
“What was the highlight of the degree for you?”

Kostas: “Meeting Paul Cornford and getting to demo some of his amps at trade shows.”
“That was when I was first getting into valve amps and “real tone”.”
“Jamie Humphries leant me his Harlequin 6 watt Cornford and I was hooked!”
“Otherwise I went on to finish the degree, which was during a very hectic period in my life.”

VS: “What have you been doing since the end of the degree?”

Kostas: “I moved to South-West London and started teaching from a music shop in Wimbledon.”
“I also played in various bands and put the idea of recording an album on hold.”
“I got together with a friend of mine (Jonathan Graham) and we started the band “The Unnamed Faces”  http://www.myspace.com/theunnamedfaces
“This, alongside my own project, is what I’ve been working on.”

VS: “So looks like we’ll have a singer/songwriter and a band to blog about soon?”

Kostas: “I hope so.”

VS: “What can you tell us about your debut album?”

Kostas: “I was thinking of calling it “Supernova”
“Because I’m planning on exploding onto the scene hahaha!”
“More because that word describes the way I output music though. SRV, Malmsteen, Vai, Satch and Timmons are all compressed into one small space and are unleashed as an explosion!”

Here’s a video of Kostas doing an amazing version of the famous Satch song “Summer Song”

VS: “You’ve also chosen a new artist name, so that people can identify you more easily. What made you decide to do that?”

Kostas: “Not many people can remember the name Kostas Alexakis very easily, or sometimes even pronounce it.  Most people stop after they say Kostas Alex…so I decided to just leave it as Alex, then put my first initial at the end.”

VS: “I guess when you pick up the guitar you become “Alex K”?” (Hands Kostas a virtual guitar)

Alex K:

http://www.myspace.com/kostasa

http://www.youtube.com/user/kotsadoros

The first video, is my “Shred This” competition entry, which has been featured on the “Truth in Shredding” website, by Laurie Monk. I’m using a Fender standard Stratocaster, running through “Guitar Rig 3″. I wasn’t able to record direct unfortunately, so I did the best I could with the video camera’s mic.

The second video is a cover of Tommy Emmanuels song “Lewis and Clark”.  Here I’m using a Taylor 315ce and a barking dog…

Tommy Emmanuel – Lewis and Clark by Chris Geden Shred This Competition Entry

In the following videos, I’ve taken some photo’s of my younger brother and my cat and added caption’s to them to create a short story.

The first video is done over the Blues Jam Tracks backing, which is freely available to download from their website at http://www.bluesjamtracks.com/

Guthrie Govan does an excellent take on this track and it’s more than worth checking out at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71izserFcek