The units from top to bottom ( but not in signal chain order):

• Alesis Quadraverb
• Washburn EQ
• TC Electronic G Major
• Yamaha DG 1000 preamp

First I go into the Yamaha DG 1000. This is purely a modelling preamp, with no effects. To my mind, it does a pretty good job of amp emulation, better I think than the Pod, which I think is about 70% of the way there. The DG 1000, I think, is about 90% of the way there. Mind you, it comes without any factory presets, which makes it less user friendly. The DG 1000 is the main thing you hear on the recording, apart from the direct sounds, the Music Man HD 130 and engineer Adam's Roland Jazz Chorus.

Next in the signal chain is the Alesis Quadraverb. This is a great unit, about 18 years old now. It has some great sounds, especially some absurdly long reverbs, for instance the intro to Cathedral and the middle part of Tenebrous. Most of the effects you hear on the album are this unit. For instance, the layered opening on TRB is all DG 1000 into Quadraverb.

Unfortunately this unit has a few drawbacks. The main one is that it has an alarming tendency to suddenly "spike" into overload. I'm certain that this represents a processor overrun rather than an audio peak, but it still gives audible clipping. It mostly happens when I go overboard with the effects, ie. most of the time. The result is that I run the input to this unit very low- in fact, I get worried if I see more than one LED lighting up, because I know that even two LEDs will suddenly become four, including the clip light. If you want to hear the result of this listen to the start of the middle section of "Tenebrous". Yes, there is clipping on the recording...shame, shame, shame.

The unit is also quite hissy, in fact it's the noisiest thing in my rig.

Other examples of the sound of this unit: the chorusy main sound on Cathedral, Listen To Cathedral.the main guitars on Tenebrous,Listen To Tenebrous. the flanging on Palisades, the big reverby guitar on the 4/4 guitar sections of Treeline,Listen To Treeline. etc etc.

Next in the signal chain is the TC Electronic G Major. Another great unit, which I got relatively recently, and so it didn't contribute as much to the sound of the recording. A few examples of where I used it...the huge swirl at the end of Treeline, the guitar solos on TRB, and, together with the Quadraverb, the chord at the end of Tenebrous.

The Washburn EQ you see isn't plugged in, and wasn't used on the recording. I should take it out of my rack. I'm so lazy.

In the studio, for particular sounds we plugged only into the units required, so as to preserve sound quality. So, for instance, if the TC wasn't used for a particular sound we came straight out of the Quadraverb. Most effects were added after the speakers, but some ran through the speakers. Don't ask me for too many details.