Picking Andy Othling's Ambient Brain | It's Time to See your Pedalboard as a DAW
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- čas přidán 29. 01. 2020
- Finally got the chance to sit down with Andy Othling at NAMM20, so I could dig into his ambient DNA a little bit. We talked about his reverb philosophy, his recent love affair with filter pedals, parallel signal chains, how he visualises his board very much like a DAW, and how he approaches chord voicings and note choices.
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Guitar used:
Andy's Telecaster
Pedals used:
Death By Audio Evil Filter - thepedalzone.com/evil-filter/
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Dark Star - thepedalzone.com/dark-star/
Old Blood Noise Endeavors Signal Blender - thepedalzone.com/signal-blender/
Chase Bliss Audio Mood
Chase Bliss Audio Blooper
Chase Bliss Audio Generation Loss
CXM 1978 Reverb by Chase Bliss Audio and Meris
Electro-Harmonix POG2 - Hudba
this was great!
I'm so happy you wanted to take the time, man. Meant a lot to me. Thank you ❤🙏
I can’t tell you how many hours I spent watching your vids!!! You are a great inspiration!!! Thank you!!!
Andy is my ambient guitar hero. I used to mainly sing in my band. But now I have started playing ambient, still adding pedals to my collection. Andy brought peace to me. And thanks Pedal Zone for those brilliant pedal reviews. God bless you both.
You two need to jam and record it! Let's hear a collaboration!
you are awesome!
for those asking, here's my current pedalboard chain and whatnot:
keeley compressor pro
ehx pog2
ehx superego+
caroline somersault
old blood noise dark star
smallsound/bigsound mini
demedash t-120
strymon el capistan
old blood noise signal blender
|-- loop A: chase bliss blooper
|-- loop B: chase bliss mood + chase bliss/cooper generation loss
death by audio evil filter
line 6 echo park
neunaber immerse
Thank you so much, buddy! This is great. I guess the CXM 1978 Reverb took the place of the Immerse while at NAMM, right?
@@thepedalzone correct
@@AndyOthling I noticed you've got the Superego+ set to "auto" mode, nothing in the loop. Is that a big part of making the underlying pad for you? It seems it would be. Also, if you're running into a stereo setup, where do you split the signal? As always, keep up the good work!
Dude. You're name sounded so familiar! I started watching you when you first started making CZcams videos. It was prob 10 years ago. I was like 17 at the time. You inspired me SOOO much you are.one of my heros. Im so glad you found success man!. Amazing. Uou deserve it. Altho damn you to hell for turning me onto matchless amps lmao. As a young kid dreaming of matchless and vintage marshalls instead of line 6 sucked
Holy shit dude. I think it was 10 years ago when I stumbled on your page. I'm glad to see you getting more spotlight. I think we are about the same age so it's just funny to see you fully bearded now!
Stoked that I finally got to pick my ambient hero's brain a bit, and I gotta say Andy threw some real eye-openers at me. The way he has begun integrating filters, and parallel signal chaining in order to make his pedalboard almost as flexible as a DAW was just a revelation to me. Time to mess around with my own pedal order again, I guess :D Hope you enjoyed the talk, and that you learned something from it, just like I did.
Thanks for being awesome! And please consider liking the video, leaving a comment or sharing it with your ambient friends out there. Would mean the world to me.
ThePedalZone that must’ve been an awesome experience, congrats on getting to sit down with a hero. Id love to make it to NAMM someday. Great video as always!
I’d love to learn more about how to execute parallel signal chaining the way it was done and explained here.. I’d definitely watch a video on it if you were interested in creating one 🙂
Have fun at the NAMM playground!
Thank you so much Stefan! It's been so long since we got any ''tutorial'' or just explaining things from Andy. He is my musical hero too! He has evolved so much since many years, but it was harder to pick his brain because we got less information than when he was making Ambient Guitar Tutorials. A breath of fresh air! Thanks so much for doing this!
My pleasure, buddy! I'm happy you liked the video. Means a lot coming from you 🙏
@@thepedalzone This is sooo cool. Two guys who have taught me so much talking about a guy who taught them so much! You guys are the best. Vielen dank.
I'm glad you found such a nice, calm boy to teach us these skills.
He was the nicest and calmest boy I managed to find at NAMM
Man.
yet he’s powerful, normal and not illegal🤔🤪
The most cognizant boy
Q: Is this my two favorite guitarists in the same video?
A: yes it is
Q: Will I pee myself about it?
A: Probably yes.
I’m a fan of Andy and his pedalboard as well. Two killer musicians! 😊
Andy told me once at one of his shows about using a pre-reverb set to 100% to remove the attack instead of a volume pedal. Such a great tip!
Yeah, I use that trick constantly as well :)
I love doing this, I have the dark stae and the procession specifically for this drone trick. And yes, I got the idea from Andy (his video's) too.
What pedals are you guys using for this. I started with the procession, but the reverb level could not go as high as I wanted. I’ve been using the Alexander Sky Fi. It’s nice, but I’d like more control over decay and speed of rise.
I discovered this by accident, it's the leading reason why I have two delays and two reverbs.
I have never clicked on a video so fast in my life. Absolute heroes
Awwww, man! Great to hear you're stoked! ☺
We love your work, Stefan. Do. Not. Stop.
Thank you so much 🙏❤️
Joel was the physical manifestation of reverb in this video: lurking in the background, giving a vibe, then floating away.
😂😂😂 Well, reverb is one of my favorite effects and Joel is one of my favorite human beings. So I guess the two do have a lot in common 😊
It makes sense to see the pedalboard as a DAW. More and more VST synth players are answering to the dawless call and are moving to hardware. Controlling real knobs is vital at the end. When Andy is telling about his preference to control pedals with his hands, not his feet, I totally agree!!!
I just watched this again to remind me of how incredible NAMM was. Seems like a lifetime ago. I can't believe I was a couple of metres away from you two legends talking high end pedal stuff. ❤️
Doug, you're an absolute sweetheart. I can't believe I was a couple of metres away from one of the kindest and caring human beings out there. Wish we had gotten the chance to chat more than a quick hi at the Coffe & Riffs hang. We'll have to make up for that in the near future 😊
@@thepedalzone I'll drink to that! Looking forward to it. I love your Discord by the way, it's got a lovely friendly feel to it. Great people too.
What a display of ambient nerding out with my two heroes of ambient playing! Totally loved this interview!😁🤘🔥
Awwww, man! Thank you so much. It was a pleasure getting to talk to Andy. Such a good and knowledgable guy ☺
Favorite quotable moments:
"We're trying to bump up against too much and come back just a little."
"There's a lot of power in not being linear."
"I'm just learning to hold back."
"Sometimes you just gotta sit, and let the thing be for a second: slowing down, listening, being aware, communicating..."
"It's all about fitting in with what's happening- using as little as possible."
I'm thrilled there were so many takeaways in there for you. Very cool! 🙌
And being cognizant.
Possibly the best NAMM video ever
Oh wow! Thank you so much. NAMM is a horrible place to try to make videos, but I’m also pretty pleased with how this one turned out. Andy was a treat to talk to 🙏
@@thepedalzone It is such a contrast to the usual NAMM hype, noise and nonsense; I wish more coverage would follow your example.
Wow another guy rocking an echo park on his board in 2020! Cool to see.
Echo Park rules!
The idea for having two separate looper signal paths is kind of mindblowing. And the fact that he's using both a Blooper AND a Mood is fascinating. Really cool ideas.
Parallel signal chains is where it's at, man! So many cool use cases with that Signal Blender. But yeah, never thought about splitting two loopers. Makes so much sense.
So inspiring. Learnt so much from this
Awesome video! Fed super informative and helpful for me and inspiring. You two are wonderful.
I'm so stoked to hear you found the video so helpful, insightful and inspiring. Means a lot 🙏
One of the most interesting videos I have seen here recently. Thank you very much Andy and Stefan! 🙏
This is very inspiring; very cool ideas of sound-forming. 👍
Cheers, man! Really happy you enjoyed it and found it interesting and informative 🙏
This is honestly the best content that I've seen coming out of NAMM 2020. Thanks for doing this! Super inspiring!
Cheers, man! That's very very kind of you ❤
It’s like every question I wanted answered by Andy after watching his stuff. Thanks for this!
Oh, man! That’s so awesome to hear ❤️
The fastest 24 minutes of my life! Andy is such and inspiring guy!
Thank you for the video Stefan. :)
Very cool to hear you actually sat through it all. I've watched it so many times during the editing process, and I didn't get bored once either. Andy is just so good at explaining what he does. He's a treat to interview ☺👍
Damn nice to see you both together, awesome video, im sure ill be coming back to these a lot!
I'm really happy you liked, man. Thanks!
Always an interesting board of effects. Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure!
TWO OF MY FAV AMBIENT BOIS. This was super cool, thank you guys for doing this!! Love from Tucson
Awwwww, dude! Thank you ❤️
Brilliant video Stefan, what a pleasure to see two of my most inspirational CZcamsrs together discussing how they achieve their amazing soundscapes. I learned a lot from this. It confirmed some things I am doing but helped me with guidance in others. As someone transitioning from doing complex, multi-track solo recordings to a live ambient approach using effects and looping, I can really buy into Andy's (and your) philosophy. Many thanks for doing this.
Oh, man! I'm so thrilled to hear that you took so much with you from this talk. Makes it all worth it 😊
Great interview! For me Andy is in top of his game right now... Such a creative guy with an unique approach to ambient music
Totally agree! He only gets better and better. That’s what experience and awareness will do 😊👌
Great video! Amazing Andy and his music!
Happy you enjoyed it!
Andy is very cognizant.
I wish I was more cognizant. Then I would be able to explain the things I do as well as Andy
Thanks for this, Stefan!
My pleasure, man! I'm just happy to hear you enjoyed the talk 😊
two guitar and pedal nerd geniuses. this is awesome. super inspiring also! nice work stefan!
Awwwww, man! Thank you so much. Really happy you enjoyed the talk and found it interesting and inspiring 🙏
This was the collab we needed
I’m happy to hear that, man! 😊 It was fun and insightful to make.
Very interesting! Great vid!
Cheers, man! Happy you found it interesting.
Thats a great video, very inspired for my own playing. Thanks!
Nice! Really happy you found the chat inspiring. It was an eye-opening experience for me as well
Excellent
Thanks to you both
Cheers, man! Happy you enjoyed the talk 😊🙏
He's on another level. His view of the signal and his board is just stellar !
He's definitely reached a high level of sonic awareness. He knows exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it.
Great interview. I learned a lot.
That's awesome to hear. Was a treat getting to hang with Andy 😊
Impressive and informative! Amazing sounds! Great interview! :-)
Cheers, man! I’m super happy to hear you enjoyed the talk 😊🙏
Great video namesake! I guess Andy means that it's all about the spaces between the notes - and what movement and dynamics you can apply there to make things sound interesting and alive
The true magic always happens in between the notes 😊
Great stuff! Thanks
Happy you enjoyed it 😊
I didn't realize I needed more filter in my life... Thank you!
#TheMoreYouKnow 😊
That DBA Evil Filter is just killer and the smallsound/bigsound Mini is another must have one!
His use of the Evil Filter really blew me away. Such clever and useful implementation of a filter in your chain.
awesome !!! very interesting !!
Cheers, man! Happy you enjoyed it!
I got into the Ambient World because of Andy! He's amazing! Great stuff
Same here. I wouldn't be where I am musically without him. Happy you enjoyed the video 👍
Yeah...this was a great idea and exposition of the crazy, exponential possibilities of this kind of creativity. I love it, been tinkering in this way for decades, and I so understand everything being said here as delineating the conceptually elegant dimensions of what musicians can do these days. it does tax the mind in a most exhilarating way to explore in real time the immense possibilities of sound, much like I also do with synths back in the day; but I could never stray from guitar...still a great time to be alive 👽
Amazingly informative
I'm really happy to hear that. Great that you learned something new from it 😊
Awesome vid....
Thanks, buddy! Happy you enjoyed it ☺
Andy is a beast. Thanks for doing this guys.
Don't know if he's a beast. I've only seen him in his human form. But he's definitely the best! 😊 Happy you enjoyed the video!
Jeez dude, both of you guys look so happy. Such a cool interview - he has some really great ideas I’ve just never thought of before.
It was definitely a happy moment in time for me ☺ And yeah, Andy's pedalboard approach totally blew my mind as well. There's some things I need to reconsider now ☺
@@thepedalzone Not gonna lie... I immediately went to Reverb to look for a Dark Star reverb.
Doug Clark - Awesome, man! Dark Star rocks. I either use that or the OBNE Procession as first in chain reverb. Can’t go wrong with OBNE when it comes to inspiring textural reverbs 😊👍
@@thepedalzone I've never done a reverb first in my chain before. I'm definitely going to look into it, because that's the exact sound I have in my head :D
Very cool, sounds great!
Thanks, dude! Love your guitars ❤️❤️
@@thepedalzone thanks! keep up the great work!
Great interview
Thank you!
Andy is my ambient hero too. This board setup is amazing
Happy you enjoyed the video. Andy has inspired a lot of people. I'm happy he reached you too with his amazing music.
Second time watching this video. I keep learning more and more.
That's so awesome to hear ☺
I wish I knew about the filter thing years ago. It helps for more than just cleaning up signal chain but also with the amp's gain stages. I have a 5150ii head and using delays/reverbs with a hi-pass filter with the clean channel will keep it "clean" in that it stops it from breaking up. Never in a million years would I have expected that I could get a nice clean sound from a 5150 head.
Filters are so handy!
that was so awesome! i wanna leave work early and go home and play guitar! ( and i just might ;) thanks for the inspiration guys!
Awww, man! Super rad. So happy you found the video inspiring. Now go and play some guitar ❤
Love those guys
❤❤❤
This is an important video.
Awwww. Cheers, man! 🙏❤️
Super inspiring man.
Awesome to hear you were able to take away some new knowledge from the video 🙏
Hearing the people talking in the background just made the ambience even better.
Very cool video.
Natural ambience always enhances generated ambience 😊 Cheers, man. Happy you enjoyed it.
Awesome! Cheers :)
Happy you dig it!
Absolutely LOVED this. Would be awesome to know the signal chain to get a clearer understanding of how to incorporate the OBNE blender. Great work as always.
Happy you enjoyed it! Andy shared his entire signal chain in the comment section. You should be able to find it there 😊
Very cognizant my dude.
👍
This is a very helpful video. This stuff is not easy to do at Andy’s level - definitely not for me anyway. Thanks for posting this Stefan! I would love to see a chart of the signal chain.
Happy to hear you found the video helpful, because I totally agree, what Andy does is definitely not easy. It requires a lot of awareness, since things can easily get out of control when you start to stack that many pedals. Andy dropped a rundown of his entire signal chain in the comment section, so you can find that info there 😊👍
Andy is amazing. Stefan is the man though. Such a humble and unassuming dude.
Awwwwww. Thank you kindly, my man 🙏❤
Andy needs to partner with a pedal company to design a slow rising reverb specifically for this technique. They can call it The Othling.
Andy is helping out Chase Bliss a lot. He played a big part in what became MOOD.
Stefans look when Andy took the mic was really funny XD
He held his hand there for a second in like shock
@18:20 "You can have some happy accidents" -- Sounds like a Bob Ross quote there Andy ;P
Andy Othling - The Bob Ross of Ambient Music 😊
Nice board Andy !
Nice board indeed
Two cool bearded dudes... Super inspiring information from the CBD’s
CBD is sure to bring the chill inspiring vibes
Goddamn. Thank you!
And thank you dammit! 😊
7 years 7. Freaking. YEARS. I've finally got Andy's tutorial.
He has plenty of tutorials on his channel. That was what started the channel. Ambient Jams and tutorials. Have you checked those out? They inspired me a lot, and helped me make the musician I am today. I'm happy you're stoked about this video though, since it does cover a lot of new ground 😊
I've watched all his videos but the genius part is how Andy composes and made it more lively, I'm so inspired by him and become an "ambientist" but I can't catch him up. NOW I finally got a chance to know Andy's mind, THANK YOU Stefen for making this video.
Drink: every time you hear the word “cognizant” 🤘🏻😂
I think it’s a great word 💪 Cheers 🍻
ryan netterlund you’d be Wasted after 10min 😂😂😂
dang I was late to the joke
Hey, I'm curious if you would selling the chase bliss generation pedal. I've been looking for this pedal for quite some time? Just taking a chance asking in the universe lol
Where do you recommend placing the type of sampler/sustainer pedals (SuperEgo +, TC Electronic infinite sample sustainer,...) and loopers in the effects chain? Even within a parallel loop, but before reverbs and delays, between them, at the beginning of the chain...?
I would always place those very early in the chain. Typically first. Maybe after compressors, but that's it. You want to give those kind of pedals as clean and strong an input as possible, so they trigger naturally. If you place them after drive pedals for instance, then their trigger threshold will drastically change every time you turn on a dirt pedal, since the dirt pedals change your output and harmonic content. So that's something to keep in mind.
FILTERS 🤤
Interesting stuff about filters... Why no Condor on Andy’s board? I love the LPF on that thing...
Because he's using the Generation Loss now.
Wow! So cool to see you guys both together what a dream collab! I'll re-watch this multiple times to fully absorb all the wisdom, Thank you for the awesome demonstration, and what a neat setup love the amount of control you have over everything, and seems you have option paralysis well under control :) That Evil Filter looks totally amazing, I was unaware of it's existence :O
Btw I also recently realized how important the frequency and resonance knobs are on a filter, and I'm really digging a slow jet sounding like flanger after it. Messed around with the Hypnotized app, and I ran some synth pads with Infinite Pads through a Tone Corset compressor>Tube Zipper (2 channel tube distortion/envolope filter)->Soul Food->Deluxe Memory Man->Dynamic Flanger on Zoom g3x->Polara with hall reverb. By sweeping the frequency and resonance knobs on my Tube Zipper the flanger became an altered beast :) If anyone's interested in the sound I'm describing you can check it here : czcams.com/video/1D-M5E1POb8/video.html filter engaged at 3:40
I'm really happy the video provided you with new insight and information. Andy truly has a spectacular approach to sounds and sound design 😊
❤❤❤
🙏🙏🙏
I have 3 Reverbs, and 4 delays, but still want another reverb and delay!
Sounds like a great plan! I’m all for it 😊👍
@@thepedalzone Been seriously considering putting a Collider at the back of my chain. I have a Poly Digit, Zoia, Mercury7, Nemesis, Hedra, and SuperEgo+ currently (plus many other effects!), with a Zoom MS-70CDR on my dry board (I run wet/dry/wet).
czcams.com/video/Iz4AkFJdj_g/video.html
Hi! I was wondering what you make of the ventriss dual reverb?
Seems neat. Have only tried it briefly at NAMM. But its market popularity should speak volumes of its quality
@@thepedalzone Awesome! It was when you talked about stacking reverbs, I noticed the dual reverb can stack 2 together. And well it seems like a compact unit to do this with good sound. Still though, from watching vids theres something about all the reverb pedals you demo that are out of this world magical.
@@thepedalzone Hi and thanks for the feedback. That is awesome!
Anybody understand what he's talking about when he's explaining how the order of his loopers affects the final sound? His explanation starts at about 15:18
So, he's talking about why he's running some of his loopers in parallel via the Old Blood Noise Signal Blender (He has the CBA Mood in one loop, and the CBA Blooper in the other). He does this in order to keep them separate from each other, so they won't record each other. If you run loopers in series, then the looper placed after the second looper will naturally record everything that runs before it, but if you run them in parallel, then they won't interact with each other at all. That way he can record completely separate loops and textures on each looper, and bring them in and out of the mix when he wants. If you picture it like a track on a DAW, then a series chain would just be one long single track recording, where everything affects each other. But with a parallel signal looper, you can suddenly split the pedals you place in the loop into individual tracks, giving you multiple layered tracks in your figurative "DAW", which you can fade in and out of each other as you like. I don't know if this clarifies it, or makes you even more confused. But if you have further questions, then please don't hold back. I'll answer to the best of my abilities 😊
@@thepedalzone Thank you sir! So would it be accurate to say that 1) you're saying that the point of parallel loopers is to have the option to avoid "embedding" loops in your other loops and 2) Andy's point with single signal chain is that you need to loop first with the looper latest in the chain so it doesn't have to inherit any loops from loopers earlier in the chain? Thanks again for your feedback.
It must be cold at NAMM.
It wasn’t the warmest NAMM. Cold for L.A
2:35 get. that. book. So cool. At first I thought it was expensive and then I read it was imo underpriced.
100% agree! The work that went into that book is just staggering. I could not believe the pure quality I was holding in my hands when I got it. It's more than worth the price point. Knobs and Kim Bjorn don't half-ass anything, that's for sure 😊
@@thepedalzone And not just super high quality but insanely informative. All the "tips" listed throughout the book - had no idea you could feed stereo pedals into themselves, for instance. So well-done...
word of the day is cognizant
Go out there and use it, or you’ll loose it
A wild Spiralcaster appears @9:15
I hung out with Cohen quite a bit at NAMM. Such a humble and sweet human being 😊
🔝🔝❤❤
🙏🙏🙏🙏
OBNE Signal Blender. Duly noted.
Good! Good! 👍💪
I will never understand how someone would just have the best pedals in the market that would cost half a grand and then just have an Echo Park on the board, like why? He couldn't find anything better? Clearly budget is not an issue with a board like that! It's really fascinating to me.
Because the Echo Park is amazing. I don’t really see the problem you’re trying to paint here?
Awkward *Microphone* vibes intensify.
Very cool. Andy* just sold a bunch of Old Blood signal blenders. Count me for one of them.
Awkward??? I like having just one mic. Makes it more fun. Sorry if it made you feel uncomfortable.
And yeah, Andy’s use of the Signal Blender is awesome. I truly hope it opens peoples eyes to how useful that piece of kit can be.
my mic! not yours! ;-}
classic joal
Always waiting in the shadows, looking for that perfect moment to photo- and/or video bomb something 😂
Based on what Andy said about Mood and Blooper, it sounds like Knobs just ripped off the Mood & added an extra $150 to the price tag. The two products practically compete with themselves since you can't really use them together. I haven't seen much difference or interest in getting the Blooper over the Mood as they do look like the same product, with one rebranded & adding a few extra features.
I own both and can say they are completely different tools. And of course you can use them together, Andy just chooses to run them in parallel since that opens up worlds of new creative possibilities that a normal serial signal routing wouldn’t provide with them.
Andy is very cognizant of how beige his Tele is, and how tricky it can be to not have your ambient guitar sketches take on similar hues, values and chromas.It is wise to view those monster reverbs as two headed swords~(grasshoppers).
Grasshoppers??
@@thepedalzone My KUNG FU is obviously older than yours, apologies, Stefan.
@@markferguson3745 - No, I know what it means. Just found it a tiny bit patronizing in that context. I might have interpreted it wrong though.
@@thepedalzone No way, brother,- didn't mean it like that; just playing.Both of you are a breath of fresh.
Mark Ferguson - Awesome! Happy to hear I was wrong. I was also surprised, because you always bring the good vibes, Mark 😊 It’s probably because I’m down with the flu. My head is a bit weird these days. Have a great day, buddy. I’m happy you liked the video ❤️🙏
I feel like I should pick your brain... said Hannibal Lecter too.
Oooooookay
Screw guitar. I want to be a synth player when I grow up, dad.
Go for it, son! 🙌 🎸 🎹
I like the wool head cups they are wearing.
It must have been really cold out there.
Otherwise... Zzzzzzz
It was cold for LA, that's for sure. Sleep well!
Who calls intervals by their numbers? lol
A lot of people
jagrblood Nashville number system my dude
Who is this unknown guitar player?
His name is Andy 😂😂😂
Thousands of dollars worth of gear and they can't each have their own mic haha wtf