More Evergrey XONE

Evergrey’s latest CD TORN pushes the limits of Progressive Power Metal to their newest extreme! The CD is a complete musical journey that takes time to fully digest. I have been listening it exclusively since it’s release.
I’m not listening to anything else for a while…It’s that great of a CD.


Evergrey has really been a huge influence on XONE. Evergrey’s music has influenced a few XONE songs and parts of XONE songs. Our latest song “Young Man’s Destiny” is an example of this. The whole song’s impetus came from our love of a few Evergrey songs such as “I’m Sorry” and “Blinded”. Every Evergrey song we’ve ever listened to has influenced us to write new material.

That is not to say that we TRY to make Evergrey-like songs.
We write a new song, and then reflect on it, and find that it was influenced by some artist we listened to recently. Most of our newest material has been influenced by Evergrey.
Our next 2 CDs will feature these songs.

If you haven’t already bought Evergrey’s latest CD TORN,
You are missing out on something huge. It is an amazing album!
The rhythmns are layered and complex.
The Guitar solos are melodic an poignant.
Best of all, the CD is Evergrey at their BEST!!!

The Evergrey XONE

Evergrey is undoubtedly my favorite band in the world. I anticipate their CD releases like a kid waiting for Christmas. I spent this summer waiting for Evergrey to release their latest CD TORN. It was a torturous wait, but well worth it. Evergrey’s new CD TORN is AWESOME!!!

I’ve spent every day since Sept 23, 2008 (TORN’s US Release Date) listening to this CD. It has been the same as every time Evergrey has released an album. It was that way in 2006 when they released Monday Morning Apocalypse.

The first time you listen to a new Evergrey CD, you always react to it like: “what the heck was that!?!”, hearing something that doesn’t necessarly sound brilliant.

Then the second time you listen to it, you react like: OK, I kind of understand what they’re doing here…”, hearing a little bit of the musical feel.

But the third time you listen to it, that new Evergrey CD changes your life!! You hear everything they are doing, catch the complex vibe, and fall in love with at least one song to start.

Then you begin to devour the entire CD slowly, as you listen to the songs more and more intently, following the lyrics, and being struck by how powerful ALL of the CD really is. Usually, all I listen to for the next 3 months is their latest CD. Period.

Evergrey’s albums are intense emotional, musical journeys that must be completely compartmentalized by the listener. By the time you are ready to move to another band recording, you have completely exhausted every single millimeter of the entire CD.

Like a fine wine. Evergrey is not LOVED on the first sip,
nor understood on the second,
but rather, AWAKENS YOUR ENTIRE SOUL on the third listen.


“…my Broken Wings can’t take me, through the Dark of Day…”
(Broken Wings-Evergrey-2008)

Vetta Channel Volume XONE

I recently began setting the Amp Model Channel Volume on my Vetta HD to 100%, and I’ve felt a major improvement in the sound of the models overall. The Vetta already sounded excellent to my ears. This new tweak has pushed it over the top!! The tone of XONE just got better...

I wish I could play with my Vetta HD(v2.5) every day.
Unfortunately it's only twice a week for XONE,
with the occasional Sunday Afternoon thrown in,
and some home, direct recording.
I tweak my Vetta HD with Line 6 Edit Software on a Laptop
connected by an M-Audio Uno cable to my Vetta,
17 feet across the room to really hear what my
Marshall 4x12 is projecting.

I make only Blended patches in my Vetta HD (v2.5)
at LIVE volume (95+db). (Amps panned to Center)
Both Amp 2 & 1 have a different Channel volume.
One amp model (Amp 2) usually carries the majority of the patch,
and thus has a higher Channel Volume.
When I first bought my Vetta in 2003,
I set my Amp 2 Channel volume to 50% (12 o'clock)
Amp 1 was somewhere around 25% (9 O'clock)

(I'm using percents because I tweak in Line 6 Edit
which has values denoted by percentage, 0-100%.
I’ll throw the clock face value in for amp knob tweakers)

I quickly changed my Channel volumes to
Amp 2 = 83% (3 o'clock)
Amp 1 = 40-60% (11 - 1 o'clock)
I have used these main setting since then.

This week, I tested out using Amp 2 = 100%
or "11" for you Nigel Tufnels out there
and Amp 1 = 50-85%

After testing this extensively, I am hearing that the Amp model at 100% has more balls, tubiness, mojo, etc... to it.

I know that in OS v1 Vetta, the Volume knob worked
in concert, with the Drive knob.
I also remember, that all changed with OS v2 Vetta.
I never worried about pushing the channel volume after v2.
I liked having some headroom,
and I use the COMP Gain to balance patch levels.

After making quite a few new patches last week,
and updating some “Tried And True” patches in my Vetta,
I believe that the Vetta's amp models,
when pushed to a 100% channel volume,
sound better to my ears.

I did have to lower my COMP Gain settings by 4db to compensate
for the overall patch Volume increase.
(I run the COMP at a Ratio of 1:0:1,
and use it to equalize my patch volumes).

I have been tweaking the 100% way now for the last 2 months,
and I still think that the amp has more
BALLS, MOJO, LIFE, TUBINESS…
with the Channel volume at 100%
for at least 1 amp model. (Remember, I blend 2 amps)

I’ve already re-tweaked all my old XONE patches
to this new Standard.
And I’m recording these tones right now,
as I finish the guitar parts for our 15 minute epic:
The Mastermind.
All of the patches for Mastermind are re-tweaked
and sounding better than ever.

Try it yourself with your patches,
and see if you feel the same way as I…

(The Mastermind is featured on our upcoming CD: The 4th Dimension)

XONE Studio Video

For the last 2 years, we have been working on our CD:
The 4th Dimension.
During the actual recording of the CD, we took over 9 hours of video.
The result of all this is our new music video: Beautiful One Day!!

Hopefully, the video shows that we
don't take ourselves too seriously.
The song was mixed in Sonar 7 PE.
The video includes ans un-mastered mix of the song.

We hope you like our latest video,
And we’re excited to tell you that we are already at work
on 4 more videos for the next CD: ELEMENTS.
It was shot in Mini-DV,
and was edited in Imovie and Sony Vegas.
Let us know what you think!

prog_metal_xone@hotmail.com

The Free Jam XONE

Free Jamming is an important part of the XONE experience.
It is a no-holds-barred arena to experiment, and create new soundscapes at 112db. Creating a spontaneous musical trance at that volume is a special thing, especially when you start cold at the beginning.


Well, XONE is cranking along here, finishing the Mastering of our upcoming CD: The 4th Dimension, so we’ve posted some new MP3s of some Free Jams that we did last year. We like to Free Jam to start rehearsal to loosen up before we get into working on our original songs. One of us will usually start the Jam and the others play to that. We definitely have gotten some great new musical ideas from our Free Jams. It is a lot of fun and we’ve been known to drag it on for 30 minutes or more. I (Will) definitely use the opportunity to try out new effects on my Line 6 Vetta HD (v2.5). Ted does the same with his Bass POD XT Pro. Jason cranks out tribal warfare with his Yamaha Kit! It is an essential part of being XONE!

You can hear these 2007 Free Jams at:
http://www.myspace.com/xonemusic

Let us know what you think!

XONE in Beats Per Minute Maps

Last January, I wrote a blog about how XONE’s music couldn’t be fit into nice, tight Beat Per Minute (BPM) maps. I wasn’t the only one who was convinced that trying to make complex BPM maps for each XONE song was not working. After about 8 months of trying, we completely let go of the idea of using a Dell laptop with 512MB of RAM to tap BPMs into Sonar 4 PE and make BPM maps.

Then, while I was on vacation in Florida in July, I bought a Guitar One magazine to read while I was lounging on a beautiful white sand beach. It was a special Prog Rock issue, that featured an article on John Petrucci. Petrucci is undoubtedly one of my favorite guitarists ever, so I couldn’t wait to read his interview. I was completely stunned, but also, totally invigorated to read this quote:

“…most of our listeners don’t realize this…when we’re recording, we need tempo and arrangement references at all times, because the songs are long and they constantly shift tempos and time signatures. So once a song is written, there’s this whole process of writing a click track (on our DAW), where we go through and map out every time signature, bar, tempo change, feel change, whether the accent within the click track changes…The click track can sometimes take a couple of days. But the good thing about it, is that once we’ve finished that and have it locked in, we’ve got a map of the song. And that’s a very important part of making the songs come out tight…” John Petrucci (Guitar One-June 2007 Issue)

This single paragraph got me to start
rethinking the idea of making BPM maps.
Luckily, Jason and I were now using Pro Tools in a Mac with 2GB of RAM, and that seemed to be the difference. We are now making BPM maps for every song on our third CD, and it is working like a charm!! It has completely freed all of us from any questions regarding correct tempo in any particular section of our songs. I have been laying down scratch guitar to the BPM maps so that Ted can practice and record his parts up in Portland.

So, basically, I’m saying what I wrote in January 2007 is WRONG,
and what John Petrucci was quoted as saying in June is CORRECT!
I am not fool enough to think I am more experienced than JP!
I knew as soon as I read the paragraph that we had to get back to it.
I am so glad that we did, as recording this third CD will be a lot of fun as a result,
And a way tighter album than we’ve ever produced before.

Thanks John Petrucci!!!!

A New Live Video XONE

Following a successful 2-man performance by XONE at La Conga in September, we’ve decided to post a video of one our songs from that night.

Three songs into our show, we inserted a Free Jam that we basically played out of nowhere, in the moment. Since we were just guitar and drums that night, Jason and I decided to keep the guitar parts simple and let the drums carry the tune.

I (Will) used the Jam to show off some of the cool features of my Line 6 Vetta HD Amplifier (Ver 2.50). I use all custom Vetta patches made by me for my particular setup/rig. NO Factory Patches Allowed!!!

I started off the Jam with a Clean tone using the Fender Bassman Head for the Low, Low-Mid part of the patch, and the Line 6 Super Clean for the HI-Mid, Hi part of the patch, then morphed that patch into a Rush-like flange. Then I switched to a Hi-Gain patch utilizing a Line 6 Big Bottom (Mesa Triple Rectifier into Rivera Los Lo Bottom cab) for the Low, Low-Mid part of the patch, and a Line 6 Spinal Puppet (Suped-up Marshall) for the HI-Mid, Hi part of the patch. I finished the Jam with a Synth tone that I’m really proud of.

Jason, of course, did his usual job of pumping out the excellent driving and accented beats, that he produces at will…well not directly at me…on the club’s house kit, which doesn’t sound as sweet as Jason’s own Yamaha kit!
But you can bang ‘em like crazy!

We had a lot of fun playing for everyone that night, especially Shaun Luera, from Sifa, who stood up at the stage during our flagrant exercise in creating a wall of sound!! Anyway, Here’s the video posted at You Tube:

XONE Free Jam at La Conga Video