This Week’s Preset: Outrun the Sunlight and BigSky

Chicago’s Outrun the Sunlight takes us on a unique and masterful musical journey with the band’s most recent album Red Bird. Check out the tracks “Red Bird,” “The Pace of Glaciers,” and “Synergy” linked below and learn more about the BigSky settings used to create these lush and cinematic soundscapes.

“‘Red Bird’ is a love song, and very much depends on reverb in the second half,” Outrun the Sunlight’s co-founder Austin Peters tells us. “The Ebow lead is a special moment in the song that was derived from improvising, and always feels cathartic to play. I wanted to create a balanced reverb setting that worked with both the mid-range and the high-range frequencies, allowing the lead to soar even further than the notes themselves, which is how the ‘RedBird’ setting came about.”

Listen to Outrun the Sunlight’s “Red Bird”:

For the songs “Pace of Glaciers” and “Synergy” Peters created the “Glacier” setting, which served many purposes. “The 20sec decay with the heavy mix makes it a good tool for song transitions,” He explains. “I use it in ‘Synergy’ at the beginning to sit below the lead and create a pool for the lead to dip in and out of. I also use the ‘RedBird’ setting during the first distorted part of ‘Synergy,’ a part that was written to clash chaos and beauty, and I think the reverb adds to that juxtaposition.”

“Pace of Glaciers”:

“Synergy”:

Gear used:

• Kiesel SH7
• BigSky
• Omega 2×12
• GHS Boomers
• Matrix VB800
• Line 6 POD HD

Check out Outrun the Sunlight’s BigSky “Red Bird” and “Glaciers” settings below:

Outrun the Sunlight is the brain child of guitarists Austin Peters and Cody McCarty and was formed originally as a studio project in 2011. With the addition of drummer, Pedro Villegas, and bassist, Connor Grant in 2014 the project quickly became a full-fledged band and shifted to live performance. While Red Bird is Sunlight’s third studio release, it is the first time the entire band performed together on an album.

Outrun the Sunlight’s gear is pictured below.

What do you think?

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