Freddie Veggie

Freddie Veggie 

aka

Mr. Dry Didge

Musician

The first thing I recognized about Freddie at Dubravko Lapaine’s Masterclass ‘20 was his absence. I was painfully reminded that he and Jan, another master of the craft, could not attend. It was a real pity because they are such excellent translators between the crazy expert stuff Dubravko does and the level I need. Well, I do not know if they would have reached low enough for me! Meanwhile, I got to know Freddie and he has already explained to me so many things, that I had forgotten to research his own musical avenue.

I have now corrected this. Unfortunately, there is no official release of any solo albums yet. But, there are dozens of titles on his youtube channel, documenting his journey as a solo musician as well a band member of the “Wergiftfresch” (toxic were-frogs) and their releases, e.g., “On a cold, sunny day”.

Specifically, there is a special series reflecting poignant aspects of playing. For example, there is the budget recordings, played on 40mm diameter PVC tubes of various lengths, recorded on a zoom H1 recorder (i.e., the epitome of “inexpensive”). They demonstrate what you can do with a PVC pipe – an astonishing discovery that explains why I do not play better even though I bought a really good instrument! Shame on me, I had to learn it this way…

One of the most specials things about Freddie is just interacting with him or his music forces one to dive into the instrument to develop a deeper understanding. Furthermore, nobody I know made such an independent art of dry didging – playing the didge – without a didge. While it seems it all started out as a joke, see his performance at the Lapaine Didgeridoo Masterclass 2019, Freddie seriously has taken dry didging to another level.

While listening to Dubravko Lapaine causes me pain, because I do not know how he produces the sounds on the tube – Freddie does the same to me without a tube! Check out the “Dry Didge Sample” below.

Another aspect I learn from Freddie is the way he not only plays rhythms but plays with rhythms, in the sense of constantly changing and adopting them and putting the own playing forward.

Producer

Finally, if there is a category of things I know even less about than about playing, it is producing. The whole area of selecting recording equipment, be it microphones, pre-amps, converters, Digital Audio Workstations, Plug-Ins, Sound-Processing, etc…

But this is where Martin’s knowledge excels. When he hears a recording, he innately differentiates the type of didge and the adeptness of the player from the quality of the production. He systematically breaks down the problems with recording equipment, digital and/or analog, microphone issues, feedback, and all the good, bad and ugly with the recording production.

This seems to be invaluable knowledge for someone with passion and wishing to hone their skills and excel to the next level.

He just started a walk-through of a “Budget Recording” and demonstrates the steps he took to get from the recorded sound to the published version at YouTube. He is also going into detail of the background knowledge that’s helpful to understand the what’s and why’s of each step: check out the playlist for “Kafka: The Process”.

Teacher

Ok, funny enough Martin does not describe himself as a teacher – but having learned so much from him – I would say he is a born teacher.

He will recognize this, too.

Sometime.