Evan Miller - Transfigurations on Lap Steel Guitar

[Andy Volk]

Came across this on the net ...... hadn't heard of him or this record - apparently, released only on LP!

Evan Miller's Transfigurations on Lap Steel Guitar takes the instrument into Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois ambient soundscape territory. Only one of the preview cuts is recoginizable as a steel guitar. Nevertheless, kudos to Evan for trying something different. There are enough versions of Sleepwalk. Like it or hate it, experimental work is a good thing. That's what will keep the instrument growing and evolving.

http://www.juno.co.uk/artists/Evan+Miller/

[Doug Beaumier]

Only one of the preview cuts is recoginizable as a steel guitar.

That's the problem. Where's the steel? These sounds and noises could be made on any instrument, a keyboard, a computer, etc. Calling it a Lap Steel record is a bit of a stretch when the lap steel is merely used as a trigger to "play effects".

[Twayn Williams]

kudos to Evan for trying something different

+1

I've done similar things, usually on my strat with the occasional lap steel part. And believe me, the source of the sound generation is VERY important to the end result. Plug a keyboard, or a computer or whatever into the same effects chain and the result will sound completely different.

There is often a tendency by "traditional" musicians to think of the use of heavy effects as being "lazy" or that the user is a bad player and is trying to cover it up. And while occasionally this is true most often it is not. The use of effects of that nature are an art form themselves, and frequently requires great musicality.

[Asa Brosius]

I like that last point Twayn- sometimes I wonder whether a distinct forum section for 'new' or 'experimental' music might be a benefit, seeing how posts like this have in the past become a forum specifically for the 'traditional' vs 'non-traditional' debate.

Asa

[Doug Beaumier]

I have no problem with effects per se. In fact, I use five stomp boxes on gigs. My problem is with albums that say "Steel Guitar" on the cover, and there is no "steel guitar" on the album. ...just sound effects and noises that are mostly generated by devices other than a steel guitar. Why even bother playing a lap steel? "Players" like this are just using the lap steel as a Joystick to trigger a computer or excessive effects. Where's the Steel Guitar? Now let me tell you how I Really feel!

[Andy Volk]

I hear you, Doug and I had a similar reaction but overall, it's still better to get the steel out there than not.

[Doug Beaumier]

Yeah, I guess some steel is better than no steel.

[Gwyneth Morgan]

I actually think this goes a bit beyond using the steel as a trigger for other instruments. These tracks are about processing, and using the harmonic capabilities of the steel in an unconventional electroacoustic context. To my ear, I hear mostly steel guitar, performed and manipulated in a variety of ways, that produces some pretty distinctive timbral results.

[Twayn Williams]

Why even bother playing a lap steel? "Players" like this are just using the lap steel as a Joystick to trigger a computer or excessive effects. Where's the Steel Guitar?

Well, out of the 4 songs posted, I could clearly tell it was a steel guitar on 3 of them and there's a good possibility that if the other one was posted in it's entirety I'd hear the steel in that one as well.

You know, to a layman hearing a steel guitar, they usually think it's a keyboard. And to other musicians, they often can't tell the difference between a lap steel and a pedal steel. But to the person playing the instrument it makes all the difference in the world.

[Doug Beaumier]

You guys must have better ears than me! I hear very little, if any, steel guitar in the first "song", and No steel guitar in the second and third "songs". It sounds like noise that could have been generated by any electric guitar or keyboard or computer. The fourth one has some recognizable steel tones in it. If you like experimental electronic music you will probably like this. It's just not my cup of tea. I'd rather hear a Steel Guitar.

Andy, I'm beginning to think you post these kinds of threads just to get me fired up!

[Andy Volk]

Doug, it's not my intention to make anybody upset. I'm just an innocent sufferer of shareitis. If you send me a complete list of all your buttons, I'll promise to push only one per week.

[Stephen Calhoun]

Lap steel is a unique original sound source to process through an effects chain or run through a synthesizer.

Because effects can really do super stuff with any sound source it is quite possible to generate unusual end products with the unique tonal, sustain, sliding, tuning, qualities that a lap steel offers.

In the pure computer zone, it goes far beyond the conventions of pedals and boxes and racks. For one can program patches in MSP and Pluggo. Write novel presets in just about any software effect. Run source sounds through software synths or FFT processors such as Absynth or Spektral Delay or Luxonix 1310 or iXi or Norris-Spectral, (etc.++). Guitar Rig alone gives a sound designer a carnival to have fun in. Then bang it through the master output of your DAW.

I've been running both a krar and a lap through this stuff. Wild.