by ericdano
January 8, 2006 in Articles
Kottke.org has posted 50 Things to do with your iPod. A great list of, almost 50 things there. He missed How to get Google Maps on your iPod, plus there is a ton of Podcasts out there. I’ll be adding a section of Jazz/Sax related Podcasts soon.
by ericdano
June 4, 2005 in Articles
The NYT has an article entitled ‘Play It Again, Vladimir (via Computer)’ that discusses efforts to transform old recordings into new, computer played performances, by determining how the previous performer made the sounds and redoing it. Further efforts attempt to distill the ‘style’ of a performer and play other scores with the same style. As can be expected, musicologists argue over whether or not the new musical artifact is really ‘a performance’.
Next up, using the genes of dead artists to make current performers, like NSYNC and all those American Idol persons better.
Resurrecting Performers Via Computer Performance (58.7 KiB, 88 hits) by ericdano
May 25, 2005 in News
Two days ago Apple CEO Steve Jobs has announced that iTunes 4.9 will include integrated podcast support. The update will let users browse and download podcasts. This is big news.
What? You haven’t heard of Podcasting? It perhaps is the death of internet “radio”. It perhaps is the latest, greatest way to promote your band or tunes. Whatever it is, it’s going to be big. Podcastingnews is one sight that keeps track of what if going on. Another site, iPodder.org has a list of feeds one can get Podcasts for, including some Jazz ones.
What do you think? Is this going to be something of a hit? On demand content that is organized? Could you imagine subscribing to a Podcast from say KCSM and being able to download what they are playing? There are a lot of possibilities and issues to consider….
Update: 06/05 05:37 GMT by E :Here are some more Podcasting Sites:
by ericdano
December 19, 2003 in Articles
saxophobe60 writes “I have always struggled with reeds and how difficult they can be. About 8 years ago a good friend of mine turned me on to a book called “The Art of Saxophone Playing” by Larry Teal. In this book there are really great instructions and diagrams on reeds and how to properly prepare them and season them, as well as, customizing them with knife and sand paper. Suprisingly enough, it is not wise to pull a reed right out of the box and just play it. That is a sure fire way to decrease the life of the reed significantly.
Although the techniques discussed in the book require a great deal of practice and perserverence(you will destroy more reeds in the first few months than you will succeed) it is really worth it. At the end of the day I have been playing on the same GREAT reed for over 4 years now.
This doesn’t change the problematic and inconsistant nature of reeds and reed cane, but it does make the process more tolerable when you can have a decent performance reed for years at a time.”
I have this book and I don’t see where it explains how to season a reed. It describes how to pick a good reed, and how to customize it. My experiences in the last few years has been that the quality of reed has been great. I’m using Rico Jazz Select Reeds (Filed) on Alto and the same on Tenor (or Rico Plasticover ones). I’d say they generally all play great out of the box.
However, I don’t see how you can be playing on the SAME cane reed for over FOUR years……that just sounds plain nasty.
by ericdano
May 10, 2003 in Reviews
&Since I started recording my students, I have become fascinated with microphones. I never paid much attention to them before, they were the thing you needed close when in a recording session, or the thing you needed close during a gig.
It’s very interesting stuff to me how they work, and why they sound a certain way. I started off my “collection” with a Nady SCM1000 microphone, then progressed to a Shure 57, then a Shure Beta 57, then an AKG C1000, then a Sennheiser 421. All of them sound different. Not bad, but different.
The Nady was just too noisy (self noise), but I liked the detail it could capture. The Shure 57s sound ok, but they don’t seem to do justice to the overtones that one can get when playing saxophone. ..
The Beta 57 was a little better. The tighter pickup pattern (hypercardiod) was good, as bleed-over from the neighboring drum studio sometimes happens with a regular cardiod pattern. But the Beta 57 seems a little too unnatural sounding to me. The AKG C1000 captures a full spectrum (up to 20Khz. Shure 57s go to 16Khz I believe, and Betas go to 17Khz), but after using one for a couple of months, it seems to me to fall into the Beta 57 category. It doesn’t sound natural. Not that it sounds bad. None of the mics sound bad. They all do a great job capturing sound. The Nady would be excellent if it didn’t have such a high self noise issue (well, for $100, what do you expect?). It’s just that I wanted something that sounded like what I heard when we laid down a track.
Perhaps after doing a lot of student recordings, and recordings in “professional” studios, I was developing an ear for it. Anyhow, this quest brought me to a Sennheiser 421. It’s the mic that you see Lenny Pickett from Saturday Night Live use (I dunno about currently, but in the 90s he used it). Great sax mic, I think it does an excellent job capturing a sax sound. But, it seems to lack in the higher overtones. I mean, I’m one of those people who can hear those high pitched noises that like most everyone else cannot hear. In fact, there is a neighbor down the street who has this insect or animal repeller thing that I can hear when I drive by.
ANYHOW, back to the topic. Mics. So, my arsenal had grown to consist of Shure 57s, Beta 57s, AKGC1000s, a Nady SCM1000, and a Sennheiser 421. Generally, I’ve been using the Sennheiser on saxophone, and the AKGC1000s on flute and clarinet (mainly cause of the higher frequency pickups). But, I wanted more. Should I invest in a Neumann 87 which is the “studio standard” mic? That would be a huge investment, probably at least $2,000. I couldn’t justify it.
Which brings me to the AKG C414B-ULS. I have known about it, and it’s advertised as “the most well-known studio condenser microphone in the world”. Yeah yeah. Advertising. But, after watching a DVD about the making of the producers, and seeing that the mic used to record the 1st reed player was indeed an AKG C414 (at least it sure looks like one), I decided to investigate more. AKG sent me a multimedia CD called “AKG Mic Test”. On the CD there are tracks were they compare 5 mics on saxophone. The C414 is one of them, but it doesn’t sound the “best” to me compared to some of the others (C12VR and C451B). But I’m not sure if that is because of the mic “adding” something or not.
After some debating, and figuring out how much I owed the IRS this year, I decided to invest in an AKG C414B-ULS. Luckily AMS has this addicting 3 payment plan. The mic came, and I must say, it is what I was looking for. It sounds great on sax. I’d say better than my Sennheiser 421. It sounds great on flute, and on clarinet. The difference between the AKGC1000 and the 414 on flute is subtle but noticeable. I think the biggest difference is recording clarinet. I finally am happy with clarinet recordings using this mic.
Ok, to sum up, since this seems to have become a rather long rant and history session about Eric’s microphone experiences, the AKG C414B-ULS is a great mic. If you’re going to do some home/small studio recording, this would be a great investment. If you plan on recording flute, clarinet, and saxophone, this mic is the one. Yeah, other mics will work too. But if you want one mic that can do it all, I think I’ve found it. It’s the AKG C414B-ULS. Unless you want to spend $2,000+. Then you’d want a Neumann U87.
Update: 05/11 20:23 GMT by E :Oh, these “tests” were done on a Mac G4 cube with a MOTU 828. All the recordings were done at 48Khz. Yes, I can hear a difference between 44.1 and 48Khz.
by ericdano
March 14, 2003 in Articles
lukedude writes “I play bari and alto. My teacher has always told me that bari reeds should last about twice as long as alto reeds. After about 5 sessions of use my bari reeds get really warped. I use #3 traditional vandoren’s on bari and java’s on alto. Can anybody help fix my situation?”
Well, there is no fixed law on how long a reed will last. Some people’s saliva doesn’t break down a reed as fast as other people’s. And it depends on how much you play, etc, etc. Lots of variables. As for reeds getting warped, it happens. You could do a couple of things…..
The list goes on. This time of year my reeds get warped. Simply wetting them and allowing them to “warm up” makes them play fine.
by ericdano
January 12, 2003 in Articles
Digital Prosound is an interesting website that sometimes has articles worth reading.
The first is a brief but informative article about “Capsule Technology and Types“. A good read about what microphones are made of.
The second is about PreAmps. This again pertains to microphones. The general opinion in various books and articles I have read seems to be that the preamp really has more to do with how a recording (vocal or instrumental or whatever) sounds than the microphone. I’ve read A/B comparison articles that guys swear a Shure 57 ($79 mic) and a kick ass preamp sounds better than a $500+ microphone. This article is an excerpt Dan Richards forthcoming book “The Project Studio Handbook“.
The last article entitled “Now Hear This” is an interesting read about using sample rates higher than 44.1Khz to record and listen to music.
by ericdano
October 25, 2002 in Articles
When the CD was launched twenty years ago many people believed the format wouldn’t last. Audiophiles lamented the introduction of digital recordings, protesting that they did not capture the complete sound wave. Initially, CD players were expensive when compared with turntables of a comparative quality.
However the CD was a success, largely because it was more convenient and longer lasting than conventional vinyl records. The CD didn’t skip, it was easy to clean, and you didn’t have to worry about dust getting into the tracks or track wear. CD’s didn’t buckle when you left them on the back seat of your car on a sunny day. We didn’t have to back up our CD’s onto tape to ensure that the sound quality did not degrade over time.
One interesting item from the article:
"Billy Joel's 52nd Street was the first CD to go on sale in Japan. Six classical discs from the Philips/Decca/DG catalogue were released in Australia on day one. They cost $18, more than an average LP but a lot less than the super-vinyl LPs that the buffs were buying."
Funny that, 20 years ago, albums were at $18. Isn’t that what they still are?
by ericdano
September 28, 2001 in Articles
Anonymous Coward writes “Man, it took me a long time to find a good reed. I’m using Daniel’s these days. They’re really good, but I’m still looking of course.
I started with javas. Those were the first ones I played when I got off the student reeds. After about two years, I started looking around for better mouthpieces, and the search for reeds came soon after. I went from java to Rico Jazz, then back to java. I wasn’t REALLY happy with either, so I decided to stick with java and buy a new brand along with my box of java every time I ran out of reeds.”
When I found something better, I would buy those and a new brand when I ran out. So I went from java to Alexander Superial, to Alexander DC, and now Daniels. The Alexander reeds had the same kind of feel that I liked about Java and jazz, but a much, much better sound. Switching from the Superial to DC is really just a matter of taste. They’re both fine reeds. It’s been about four years now, but I’m really happy with Daniels, even though they taste a little bit like bleach because of the chemical treatment (a little known fact). But they’re very responsive, warm and dark. They were everything I liked about the DC cut, but when I go back to Alexander DC, I feel like they have a greater tendancy to kind of close up on me. Over the time, I’ve tried at least a dozen different brands or reeds/synthetics.
I’ve got two reeds left, and my next experimental box will be Zonda Supreme. Apparently they aren’t from the Var region of France like most $2.50+/per tenor reed brands, but from Argentina in the mountains. The wind apparently makes their fibers stronger, and vegetables are grown between the cane to give them more sunlight. Sounds kind of hippy-dippy but I’ll give ‘em a try.”
Interesting. I’ve pretty much settled on LaVoz Medium Hards for Alto and Tenor, Vandoren V12 #4′s on clarinet, and Vandoren Blue Box #3s or 3 1/2s. Though the soprano reeds/mouthpiece situation is kind of up in the air at the moment.
Please create an account to get started.
Loading ...
Recent Comments