Welcome to Breakdown, an unofficial resource and discussion list about the innovative guitarist/producer Michael Brook. This site is infrequently updated, but contains a great deal of background info which will remain online. For up-to-date news and information, visit Michael Brook's official site and MySpace page.

Ultramarine

As recorded on Cobalt Blue, the guitar was plugged into a TC Electronics 2290 Digital Delay. Two individual delay lines are used in this song. The first is panned to the left only and is set to 333 milliseconds. The second one is panned to the right only and set to 666 milliseconds. The feedback on both delays is set to 45%. The level on both delays is set to be equally as loud as the dry guitar signal.

Play all notes and chords by tapping the strings right beside the bridge with the palm of your right hand in straight 8th notes at a tempo of 135 bpm. The end result is that the delay fills in the spaces between the 8thnotes creating the illusion that you are playing 16th notes. This effects creates many textured layers out of a single mono sound. Reverb is added when mixing to add a little space to the track but not too much or all the delays will get washed out and sound muddy.

The tune starts in E Major and modulates to B major for the chorus. There are lots of sus chords and some tricky-to-get harmonics at the 4th and 5th frets at the intro on the Cobalt Blue version.

-contributed by an anonymous recording engineer