This Week’s Preset: TimeLine – “Envelop Me” from Native Suns

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, guitarist Jason Mays gets huge, lush guitar sounds with the powerful alternative rock band Native Suns. TimeLine, blueSky, and Flint are a big part of his sound. Continue below to hear the new track “Envelop Me” from Native Suns, and check out the TimeLine, blueSky, and Flint settings Jason uses on the track. Jason takes it from here in his own words.

***I would like to thank the wonderful folks at Strymon for affording me such a amazing opportunity to not only let me do a “This Weeks Preset” but for making such amazing products that have helped so many musicians along their creative journey. THANK YOU!!***

The process of writing “Envelop Me” was such a pivotal experience for Native Suns as a band. This song breaks away from a lot of our traditional songwriting crafts, while still completely holding true to our sound. Personally, “Envelop Me” is important because it’s the most pedal-utilizing song I’ve had the opportunity to help orchestrate; putting to use all three Strymon pedals on my board: the TimeLine Delay, the blueSky Reverberator, and the Flint Tremolo/Reverb.

The TimeLine is, without a doubt, the most important pedal on my board. It’s paramount to my tone, and compensates for the majority of my delay overall. I heavily depend on this pedal both on tour and while in the studio. The TimeLine allows me to execute a lot of delay tones in the vein of Circa Survive, Explosions in the Sky, or Radiohead – which are all heavy influences on my music writing.

PRESET DETAILS:

The image below shows the knob settings and parameters for the TimeLine preset used in “Envelop Me” by Native Suns.

The blueSky is another staple in my pedal collection- as it’s really useful in coloring the delayed/ambient tones I use in “Envelop Me.” Truth be told, I’m slightly biased to this particular reverb pedal amongst others. The blueSky offers a lot of functionality that no other reverb pedals have- including the Favorite Feature. I often utilize this feature, in a live setting, when I have to change a reverb setting on the fly. I also rely on the blueSky for more drone-heavy parts in our music, or times when volume swells or tremolo picking can be utilized and I want to add to the overall atmospheric vibe. My most common uses for the blueSky are intended to help incorporate more post-rock elements into my band’s music- specifically similar to that of bands like Caspian, This Will Destroy You, or Sigur Rós.

The Flint is my “always on” reverb pedal. At times it’s blended quite faintly, and other times it’s heavily mixed. I’ll often stack my Flint with my blueSky to develop a very thick reverb tone when needed. I’m also very fond of this pedal’s tremolo capabilities. It’s my favorite tremolo pedal I have on my board. The Flint also serves to help create some really awesome synth-like sounds. The specific synth-like sound I’m talking about can be heard at the 2:15 mark of “Envelop Me.” This little trick with the Flint has allowed me to further [musically] blend the space that exists between guitars and keyboards in our band.

Check out the image below to see the Flint and blueSky settings used for the track “Envelop Me,” and then scroll down to hear the song.

Hear the song:

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