Legendary engineer and musician Steve Albini has passed away due to a heart attack, according to staff at his Chicago recording studio, Electrical Audio.
Albini was a giant of alternative, independent, and underground rock music for more than three decades. He was celebrated for his abrasive guitar work for the noisy, boundary-pushing Chicago bands Big Black and Shellac, but he was best known for his engineering work on ’80s and ’90s alternative guitar music. He engineered records from Pixies and Nirvana that changed the soundscape of alt-rock, including Surfer Rosa and In Utero, as well as releases by PJ Harvey, Bush, Low, Jawbreaker, Neurosis, Veruca Salt, and countless more.
Albini’s work influenced a new generation of guitarists, who sought him out to build a noisy, raucous 2010s revival of indie-punk and prickly alt-rock. Records from Cloud Nothings, Screaming Females, METZ, Sunn O))), and Chicago’s own Meat Wave bore Albini’s sonic thumbprint: sharp, percussive guitars, pounding rhythm sections, and an aggressive, enormous guitar-forward mix, like a DIY perversion of the polished “Wall of Sound” technique. Last summer, we wrote about the stunning new record from Brooklyn black metal band Liturgy. Albini produced it.
Earlier this year, senior editor Nick Millevoi spoke with Albini for the cover of our April issue, where Albini talked in-depth about his engineering techniques, his gear selection, and how he attains his own guitar sounds. He and Shellac were preparing their first new record in ten years, To All Trains, which is scheduled to release May 17.
In honor of Steve Albini, listen to some loud, weird guitar music today.
Rhett and Zach end almost every episode of Dipped In Tone with a rig dip—where they discuss and rate a guitar, amp, and pedal setup submitted by a listener—but this time, they’re assembling and critiquing dream rigs of their own, on a budget.
Rhett and Zach end almost every episode of Dipped In Tone with a rig dip—where they discuss and rate a guitar, amp, and pedal setup submitted by a listener—but this time, they’re assembling and critiquing dream rigs of their own, on a budget.
They each get to brainstorm a $1000 rig followed by a $10,000 rig, using toys and prices found on Reverb. When you’ve only got 10 Benjamins to spend, what pieces of kit should you prioritize? Rhett throws most of his budget behind his guitar and amp head, with just a few bucks left for a bargain-bin cab and a couple cheap pedals, but Zach spreads his grand out fairly evenly, opting for affordable offerings from Epiphone and Vox for his base tone.
Things get spicy in the upper range. Rhett takes Zach to task over prioritizing a $1300 vintage TS-style pedal, but they both opt for high-dollar amps from the same manufacturer for their ten-grand stage setup.Who created the better rig at each price point? Which components did they fumble? And what would you do with each budget? Let us know in the comments.
Watch Tom Butwin demonstrate Keeley’s super versatile 4-in-1 overdrive pedal series: the Blues Disorder, Angry Orange, Super Rodent and Noble Screamer.
The newest pedals from Keeley Electronics each offer two independent effects featuring classic overdrive/distortion circuits. The effects are carefully paired together and allow you to mix-and-match their respective clipping sections (one hard clipping and one soft clipping) and tone sections. The Noble Screamer combines a Nobels ODR-1 (hard clip) and Ibanez Tube Screamer (soft clip). Angry Orange unites a mighty Big Muff (soft clip) and Boss DS-1 (hard clip). Blues Disorder pairs a Marshall Blues Breaker (soft clip) with a Fulltone OCD (hard clip). And the Super Rodent combines a Boss SD-1 (soft clip) with the venerable Rat pedal (hard clip). The fun really begins when you experiment with mashups: you can link the overdrive section from Circuit A with the tone section of circuit B, and vice versa. These “hyrbrid” modes offer unusual and unexpected delights. Suddenly you have four pedals in one.
Based in Oklahoma, industry icon Robert Keeley and his team have channeled 25-plus years of know-how into this 4-in-1 series…and they’re always working on new innovations. For more information visit robertkeeley.com.