Soren Reiff

February 7, 2013October 17, 2018

Pedalboards versus rack-setups part 2

This blogpost is the second in a series of three about pedalboards versus rack-setups

This blogpost details my pro’s concerning pedalboards versus rack-setups. The other day I wrote about the equipment I started out with and why I moved from amps and a pedalboard to a rack-setup.

The rack setup I ended up using for years live and on tv – and still often use in the studio, was built around a Mesa Boogie preamp, Mesa Boogie poweramp and a TC2290.

At first I used the Quad preamp, but after a year or so Boogie introduced the Triaxis preamp – a programmable tube preamp with 99 presets – it was made for my kind of work.

For years I had rack-comp’s, noise suppressors, phasers and other fun stuff in the loops of the 2290. I also had a Lexicon reverb, 2 TC M5000 reverbs and an Intellefex chorus, delay and reverb unit – all hooked up as auxillary fx’s in a programmable Akai line mixer.

Continue reading “Pedalboards versus rack-setups part 2”

February 1, 2013October 17, 2018

Pedalboards versus rack-setups

This blogpost is the first in a series of three about pedalboards versus rack-setups

At the moment I normally use a single amp and a rather fully fullpacked pedalboard, when I’m playing live. My rack stuff is mostly used in the studio. This blogpost is about my thoughts thru these changes and my pro’s and con’s concerning pedalboards versus rack-setups.

When I started playing in a band I had an electric guitar and borrowed my big brothers amp and a fuzz-face type overdrive from him – this worked fine for a long time.

My big brothers Gayatone Sustainer — When I started playing in a band a borrowed my big brothers Gayatone Sustainer

When I started to become a little more serious about my music and gear, I bought my own amp and started flirting with pedals. But still I had a very simple setup compared to the 20 unit stereo rig I later on used for years while I did tv-shows and sessions as a hired gun.

Continue reading “Pedalboards versus rack-setups”

January 7, 2013October 17, 2018

Studio Jams #47

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my first appearance on the TV-show “Studio Jams”, episode #34. Today I’ll write about my second Studio Jams experience – episode #47.

As I wrote in my first post about Studio Jams I was very happy to be invited to participate – and being invited back was an even bigger pleasure. So when Producer Tom Emmi asked me if I wanted to do a Swedish show, I agreed instantly.

Mattias Bylund, Jannik Jensen, Pontus Engborg, Tracy Silverman & Soren Reiff, outside Svenska Grammofon Studion, Gothenburg, Sweden

The musicians for Studio Jams #47

Tom told me that he would bring violin virtuoso Tracy Silverman, but wanted me to find the rest of the musicians. I hadn’t been living in Sweden for that long, so my network of Swedish musicians wasn’t that big. But I had connected to a Swedish drummer, Pontus Engborg on Myspace and Facebook. Pontus and I have a lot of friends in common from the L.A. scene.

Continue reading “Studio Jams #47”

December 10, 2012October 17, 2018

My first “Studio Jams”

The other day I shared a link on my Facebook profile to a track I did for the american tv-show “Studio Jams”. I’ve played in two full episodes of Studio Jams. This is the story about the first international version of the show I did – recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Several years ago I was contacted by TV-producer Tom Emmi – he was planning a trip to Europe and Scandinavia. Tom had heard about me through keyboard player David Garfield, and Tom wanted to invite me to participate in the first international version of the program Studio Jams.

He described the formular. I saw some samples from earlier Studio Jams and I was totally blown away – it’s some really great shows Tom is doing. Basically it’s a documentary about how musicians work and comunicate when they meet and jam without anything planed in advance. The episodes are shot in a recording studio, so you get the original sound from the instruments thru samples from the rehearsals, but also the recorded and mixed version of the final take of the jammed tune.

Soren_Reiff_Studiojams#34 — Soren Reiff in Studiojams #34

Continue reading “My first “Studio Jams””

November 28, 2012September 13, 2018

Why did I become a professional guitar player?

After writing about how thankful I am to be a musician, and how privileged I think I am to be able to live from my music, I think it might be logical to write about how this happened, and why I become a professional guitar player. Here’s a little story from the past …

Many years ago a young guitar player called me, and wanted to take private lessons from me – three hours a day, five days a week. The reason for this? He wanted to get all the gigs I had. I told him that it was a tough and intense schedule he asked for, but he was consistent. A couple of months later he showed up with his guitar a monday morning, ready to start. After the first day he was tired, after the second day he was very tired, after the third day he was exhausted … “couldn’t we just do something different the next day, like going to the tv-set where I worked and check out my rig or something?”. The fifth day he went back to the town he came for – had to reconsider his life and career plans.

A week later

He called me about a week later … “could I talk with him for a minute or two?”

Continue reading “Why did I become a professional guitar player?”