Re: effects for wind instruments

["Richard J. Roberts" <zeroohms@surfbest.net>]

Title: Re: effects for wind instruments

When he worked with Zappa, Ian Underwood was using a Maestro Sound System for Woodwinds, and a Maestro Universal Synthesizer. I had a Sound System for Woodwinds way back when. It processed the sinal sent from a piezo-electric pick-up, the only pick-up available for woodwinds in those days (this was years before transducer pick-ups were available). The piezo pick-up had to be drilled into the neck of your sax or into the barrel of your clarinet. The SSFW had several tone presets, some of which were one octave lower (bassoon was one of the lower octave settings). The Universal Synthesizer put a 1/4" mic type input through a series of effects such as active filters, an ADSR envelope, ring modulator, and more. 
I believe Underwood used both these devices extensively with soprano sax and clarinet and some flute on Zappa's Hot Rats.
-- 
Richard J. Roberts / ZERO OHMS


 
From: SoundFNR@aol.com
Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 13:38:19 EDT
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: effects for wind instruments

> and I
>  believe Ian Underwood also used one with Zappa
>  (I'm not sure if it's his solo or one of the
>  others on the Uncle Meat version of King Kong,
>  but one of them sounds like it has an octave
>  divider on it).

That's Bunk Gardiner's (beautiful) clarinet solo.
He and Ian Underwood both had the devices, which
involved some sort of attachment to the mouthpiece,
which had a lead going to the electronics.

andy