At-Home Tracking Tips: THE POTATO FILTER
By Sylvia Massy
(Tool, Prince)
Taken from Recording Unhinged –
Creative & Unconventional Music
Recording Techniques
1.@
Take a solid-state guitar amp
head-to-speaker set-up.
2.@ Cut the speaker cable that
runs between the head and
the speaker in half and sep-
arate the positive and nega-
tive sides.
3.@ Insert a potato on each side.
Now you have a po-
tato filter! This also
works well with hot
dogs and other food
items. The first time I
tried this was during
Mix with the Mas-
ters in spring 2016
in France. I made a quick diagram in
my notebook and we collectively set
out to make it work. The effect of the
potato filter is an attenuation with a
slight sweet high-shelf EQ.
“When I was a teenager in the late-‘90s, everybody
played guitar. The internet wasn’t as developed as it
is today and there wasn’t much to watch on TV and
there’s just so much basketball and soccer you can play
outside. Everybody just played music and it was very
competitive. It definitely helped my development on the
instrument. I wanted to be up there with the best of them.
There were only three or four bands and about 30 or 40
guitar players, so if you wanted to be in a band, you had to
be really good.”
Once in Montreal and The Damn Truth got started
(which includes Shemer’s partner, Lee-La Baum, on vo-
cals), their sound – which is reminiscent of Janis Joplin
fronting Led Zep if Jimi Hendrix took over the lead guitar
spot – didn’t quite fit in with the city’s indie sensibilities.
“When I started playing music in Montreal, it was that
whole indie-electro vibe. There wasn’t really a lot of guitar
music being played in the city. I found it very frustrating; it
was almost like a bad word to say ‘I like playing blues and
rock.’ Both Lee-La and myself used it to our advantage. If
I feel this way about not connecting to the scene, there’s
gotta be other people in the city who are like-minded.”
It was a bet that paid off. After paying for and produc-
ing their debut album themselves, The Damn Truth start-
ed garnering radio play, which led to tours across Canada
and overseas. Now, they’re firmly entrenched as Montre-
al’s go-to band when you need bluesy, dirty rock ’n roll.
Not that Shemer doesn’t have some lingering con-
nections to Israel. “I actually have a guitar that was built
in Israel by a company called Bunting, which is really
cool. These are a couple of guys I didn’t really know but
they approached me and said ‘We really love what you
guys do in The Damn Truth and would love to build you a
signature model.’ It took a bunch of months but eventu-
ally they invited me to come to the workshop after a Eu-
ropean tour. We hopped over to Israel and the guitar was
ready. It was just amazing, kind of like a rebirth.”
@
RABIN
NOTE: This does not work with tube amplifiers.
Pushing the Envelope with
SAM ERMELLINI
Pyramid Theorem
Go-To Live Rig:
•@ Gibson Les Paul Standard Guitar
•@ Gibson ES-335 Standard Guitar
•@ Ibanez 7-String Premium Guitar
•@ Fender Telecaster Guitar
•@ Suhr Guitar
•@ EVH 5150 Amp
•@ Morley Pro Series II Wah
•@ Line 6 HX Effects
•@ TC Electronic PolyTune 2
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 55