Below are links to MP3 files of music I have been a part of over the last decade. I have tried to pick a variety of styles that illustrate different types of effects and MIDI applied to electric violin.

A special thanks goes out to John Kuzmich for allowing me to contribute to his work of bringing modern string techniques into the mainstream of string player conciousness.

The most important thing for string players getting involved with effects is that they understand the effects device(s) as part of the overall instrument rather than an addition to their sound. A player must be able to "play the sound" rather than just playing "normally" with an effected sound, i.e. control their phrasing to match the rise and fall of a phaser or creating rythmically repeating phrases with a digital delay.

When providing clients with equipment I draw on my experience gained from session playing and touring to design a system that will match a players style, provide quality sound, be very durable and interface with studio and PA equipment with ease.

Often times I will design patches for a client that are optimized for electric violin, i.e. changing EQ settings in a heavy distortion patch that was designed for guitar to optimize the sound for electric violin. However I always urge players to educate themselves about various types of effects and how they contribute to the overall sound. Just as with playing any instrument a player must achieve a level of competency as to what the capabilities and limitations of an instrument are so that his imagination can work to create new ideas within a given set of limitations. Such is the case when using effects. Being able to understand what all of the effects do and how they effect overall sound is paramount to allowing the imagination to conceive of new sounds and then having the technical know how to create that sound.

Here is picture of me playing with my old band ALLSET at The Middle East in Boston.

ALLSET at The Middle East

Here are some examples of various sounds created on an electric violin.

In The Mist was recorded in a primitive basement studio in Boston. It is an excellent example of the use of a phaser.

Open Fields was recorded on an old analog machine in 1992 and is an excellent example of the use of MIDI in the middle section of the song.

Make A Break For It was recorded live from the board at Bill's Bar and is an example of using an autowah while comping with a chop technique as well as melodic work.

Sort of Latin is what it says...sort of a Latin tune...just done for fun on a PMA-5 and then overdubbed violin.

Vectorintersector incorporates much computer mutilated violin as background as well as some melodic work...a work in progress.

I hope that these examples provide some insight into a few types of sound that are available to the modern string player.

I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Please feel free to contact me.

Brad Slate
Sweetwater Sound
brad_slate@sweetwater.com
800.222.4700 x1326