Archive for December 21st, 2008

If you’ve ever been to what we now refer to as a “classic” rock concert, I’m sure  you’ve seen the lead guitarist turn and face his wall ‘o amplification, standing in the sweet spot, to get what amounts to infinite sustain out of his guitar. Stand in just the right place, hit just the right note, and the amplifier will push enough air, just right, to keep the string vibrating forever…or at least as long as you have power going to the amp, and a guitarist willing to stand there doing nothing else. 

We professional musicians call this a feedback loop – where the sound we play triggers a what amounts to endless amounts of sustain. The problem with feedback loops is that eventually, they’re not very interesting, because there’s no fresh input. You’re just observing a perpetual motion machine of sound. 

Once upon a time, it was a novel thing to see a “real” product in a movie or TV show. Legions of art directors paid art monkeys dozens of dollars at a time to come up with fake packaging so that you’d never see your favorite sitcom star tacitly endorsing Wheaties or Corn Flakes to an unsuspecting audience. Not any more. Read the rest of this entry »