We thought that people might be interested in how we go about producing the music we make, so this page gives a little background and musical details to provide an insight into how we get the sounds that characterise Beyond Words. You can see some photos of the main instruments we use and have used here!

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Backing Tracks

In order to provide a better musical experience at gigs, Beyond Words use backing tracks which are recorded onto CD-R discs. As a result, no live drummer or keyboard player is ever used for any of the performances, which means the band can play in venues where a full band would be impractical. The backing tracks are now almost completely professional recordings produced by session players, since this gives us a more realistic feel, although we do still use an occasional track or two custom created by John or Bimal, using an excellent piece of software called Jammer Professional 6, which is produced by SoundTrek. In some cases, backing tracks have been created by playing the appropriate parts into Jammer Pro using a MIDI keyboard and MIDI sounds from the Yamaha XG sound set, which are then recorded and transferred to CD-Rs for use in the shows. There are a few songs which are performed without any backing tracks - just to show that we are actually real musicians! ;-)

Guitars
John and Bimal play guitars throughout the gigs. John's main guitar is a Gibson Epiphone Les Paul Standard; Bimal's main guitar is his Line 6 Variax 700, which he was introduced to by a brilliant guitarist called Gino, although he has used his beloved black Gibson Les Paul Custom for the majority of his performing career. Bimal sometimes uses a red Yamaha Fretless Longscale Bass or a Roland GR-20 Guitar Synthesiser which, together with the Variax 700, have opened up all kinds of exciting possibilities for the band! John plays his guitar through a Zoom 707 pedal, and Bimal uses a Zoom 506 for his bass, and a Zoom 505 with the GR-20. If you haven't come across Zoom before, we'd recommend checking out their full range of equipment here, as it is awesome and very good value for money! Bimal uses a Korg AX1500G multi-FX unit for his guitar, as well as a Heil HT-1 TalkBox for that unique sound in "Livin' On A Prayer"! They both now use Sennheiser freePORT wireless instrument systems, for greater freedom around the stage!
PA Gear
Beyond Words have their own PA system, based around a high quality Yamaha power amplifier, Peavey full range speakers, and Sennheiser radio microphones. The quality of sound is controlled using a Yamaha digital mixing desk, which ensures that everything always sounds crisp and clear. Virtually all of the band gear, as well as John's Les Paul Standard, Bimal's GR-20 and Variax 700, has been purchased from what used to be Sound Control but was Reverb in Birmingham, where we always received stunningly good deals as well as plenty of experience and knowledge! Sadly, the shop has ceased to exist, so we now tend to search online, often using Thomann!
Songs
If you would like to see exactly which songs we currently perform, we have put together a list here. Bear in mind that we currently have about another ten songs which we are in the process of rehearsing, prior to their being included in this list. We can also accomodate requests, provided we are given enough time to obtain/create any necessary backing tracks, and the time to rehearse the song(s) properly!