I’ll never forget my 13 or so years with my band Downhere. The friendships I made with my bandmates are lifelong, and it’s always a joy to see them again, to catch up whenever we can. The years we spent recording, traveling, and ministering together we're full of music, growth, adventure, creativity, ups and downs, and change. Since Downhere shut things down around 2013, one of the things I’ve missed has been playing the electric guitar. If you can believe it, I was the primary guitarist in Downhere, which is difficult even for me to fathom now, having shared the stage with many mind-blowing virtuosos in more recent years. I’m a decent rhythm player, but solos seriously intimidate me, as my fingers just move too slowly to play anything impressive. I’ve really gone back to my first instrument, the piano, and have found that I absolutely love the freedom of not being tied to an instrument on stage most of the time. Not to mention, my piano playing has come up drastically, out of necessity.
Meanwhile, though, my poor guitars, amps, and effects have literally been collecting dust for the last few years, while my fretting fingers atrophy, I’m a little ashamed to say.
So you can imagine how excited I was when IK Multimedia approached me with an opportunity to team up and showcase their new recording software, AmpliTube Brian May, which models the amps and effects Brian has used over the years. As I was initially scrolling through the list of sounds, I found myself grinning ear to ear out of surprise about the tones they chose to model. Of course you have your mainstays: “BoRap,” “Killer Queen,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” etc. But they’ve also gone much deeper with sounds like “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Now I’m Here,” “One Vision,” and even Brian’s live setups from the Magic Tour, and his most recent touring rig.
I’m having a blast pulling my guitars off the wall for the first time in quite a spell, and playing around with a different piece of the songs I’ve grown to love and know so well. And even though I don’t own a Brian May “Red Special” replica, I’m amazed at how well these sounds mesh with my trusty Tele.
This is actually a first for me - personally endorsing a product - and I wouldn’t recommend something to you unless I used it myself. I’m happy to be partnering with IK Multimedia, whose software I’ve been using for many years now. If you’re into recording guitar, AmpliTube Brian May could be a great addition to your tool kit, as it's become for me. It helps me think outside the box of what I normally default to, giving me a different starting place (that being one of the greatest innovators of the electric guitar of all time!), and the ability to tweak to my heart’s content, if I feel the need to.
Thanks to Dave Kerzner at IK Multimedia for asking me to be a part of this. I hope you’ll all enjoy the clips I’ve put together. Just having a little fun playing and singing in my studio, whether you play electric, or are just a Queen fan, I think you’ll dig it. I almost feel like a guitar player again!
To purchase AmpliTube Brian May, click the link below (which helps me out), and you’ll be taken to the purchase page directly.
Check it out here:
Thanks everyone!
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