Year: 2007

Pimped Out Studio

June 15, 2007October 29, 2012 ericdano No Comments

The idea, which I have had for years, was to have a digital studio where I didn’t go through reams of paper every year. I finally did it. Using an iMac, and it’s video spanning capabilities, I made a digital music stand. While the technology has been there, the costs were way too high. The costs for this was around $650+/-. $70 for the VESA Mount, $100 for the Conga stand, $300 for the monitor, $25 for the iMac video adapter, $120 for the USB foot pedal, and $6 for the plastic cover and connectors (Tap Plastics rocks). A year or two ago, this would have been a lot more. A year from now, it will be less. That’s technology for ya.

Pictures and more inside……

I have a lot of songs that I have done on Finale and on PDF, enough to fill a 3 inch binder. In fact, I have 5 such binders that I have tried to store copies of the songs so I wouldn’t need to print them out if I wanted to play them with a student. One problem with this system is finding songs. An Index? Well, I suppose, but it is a pain keeping it up to date, and flipping though a huge 3 inch binder is not fun. Plus, the Manhassette stand won’t keep raised with a full 3 inch binder on it. Then there are page turns. It was just a hassle.

Now, with the all digital setup, I can load a song up, display it on the other screen. Simple. No printing. If it is multiple pages, no problem, the 22″ monitor handles it with no problems. Three pages? That is where the foot peddle comes in. I have the X-Keys programmed (using iKey) to advance to the next page if I stomp on the right of the peddle, back a page if I stomp left, and in the center, it toggles one or two page mode. I can also do the same stuff using PDF files. So, anything I’ve scanned in I can view in the same way. It works very well so far.

The other thing is SmartMusic. It’s easier to use, though SmartMusic does not do two pages. Though it does seem to work alright if you flip the monitor around and put it into portrait mode.

Three Michael Brecker Things

June 7, 2007September 3, 2007 ericdano 2 Comments

In a previous story, I noted that Virtual Instruments Magazine was coming out with an article about Michael Brecker’s EWI/Logic environment. That article is now out in the June/July 07 issue. It is very insightful in how Michael Brecker approached technology and how he was able to take two 4 foot racks of gear and put it all on a Apple Powerbook. I almost want to get Apple’s Logic program and try it. Wonder if you can do that with Digital Performer…

iBrecker has a link to a video of interviews with the players from Michael Brecker’s last album (Herbie Hancock, etc). Sadly, no interviews with him, but you get to hear him playing, see studio shots, and even a little bit of him tinkering with his tenor between takes (looks like he had a full on repair case with him).

Update: 06/09 02:01 GMT by E :A intrepid reader, Dave Kiffer, from Alaska, informed me that Downbeat has an electronic readers poll. Go vote for Michael now! (Also updated the title of this article to reflect the three items)

News

SmartMusic 10

June 4, 2007December 5, 2007 ericdano No Comments

MakeMusic, after much hype, delay, and then more hype, has finally released SmartMusic 10 in April. This is really what the program should have been from the get go. There are a lot of great Concert Band, and String Orchestra music on the screen selections. There are a few Jazz Band ones as well. The program is Universal Binary for Macintosh, meaning it is really responsive.

The short review of this is to get it. If you can get it for the $25 a year subscription price, it is a huge value. There are tons of great tunes, exercises, and other things in there.

However, the promised “60 New Titles A Month” has not materialized as of yet. And there are some bugs need to be addressed….

The New Stuff

In the previous version of SmartMusic a lot of the arrangements were installed when you installed the program. Now, SmartMusic downloads what it needs. For people with fast internet connections, that is great. For people on Dialup….you have my sympathies. Though, on the flip side, once you have them, you don’t need to download them again.

This is also true of the Pro Audio backgrounds. One of the new features of SmartMusic 10 is the inclusion of professional background recordings. So, instead of a midi rendition of a Jazz piece, you now get a great sounding real version of the song. But…..you need to download it. For dialup users…..well, that could be a time consuming thing. Once you download them, the recordings seem to be stored in a SQLlite database as MP3s. I’ve tried out a lot of the Concert band and Jazz Ensemble ones. Very nice. Recording quality is excellent. You can also select whatever part you want to play. So, you can play Oboe parts, or Clarinet 2, or Bass Clarinet, or Drums. Very cool and fun stuff.

Music on the screen. The previous version of SmartMusic had a very limited amount of music on the screen. There were a dozen or so classical pieces, the Alfred Jazz stuff, Wynton Jazz stuff, and the exercises. SmartMusic 10 has a ton of music on the screen. ALL the pro audio selections have music on the screen.

There are some things to track student assignments and stuff. I really am not interested in that, so, I did not try it.

The Bad Stuff

First, content. MakeMusic is promising

Michael Brecker’s Logic Environment

April 21, 2007September 26, 2007 ericdano No Comments

iBrecker has a new article up about Michael Brecker’s last EWI/Computer setup. Basically, the advance of software allowed Michael to replace 2, five foot racks of tone modules with a Logic and Reason. Amazing stuff. Michael’s EWI/Computer setup is going to be profiled in an upcoming issue of Virtual Instruments magazine. Look for it.

Update: 04/23 00:06 GMT by E :Oops, forgot to put the link to the iBrecker article. Fixed.

Virtual Instruments Magazine has a link to the diagram of the Logic Environment.

Articles

New Michael Brecker Album

April 9, 2007October 3, 2007 ericdano No Comments

iBrecker.com has a link to a video teaser of an upcoming new album from Michael Brecker. Pilgrimage can also be pre-ordered via Amazon.com as well. Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, Jack DeJohnette, and John Patitucci. 30 second clips of all the tracks are available on the Amazon link.

Album is scheduled to be released on May 22nd. For all you Brecker fans, this is a must have.

News

SmartMusic 10 M.I.A.

March 25, 2007December 5, 2007 ericdano 4 Comments

For months, MakeMusic has been saying SmartMusic 10 is coming. The amount of hype they have been making is akin to Microsoft and it’s “new” Vista operating system. MakeMusic hasn’t even updated the current version of SmartMusic to handle files generated by Finale 2007 which was released way back in August. To create files, you need to have 2006 still installed on your computer.

The other day, I received a packet from MakeMusic. I was shocked. It looked like SmartMusic 10 had been release. Alas, it was not. Instead of spending money getting the stupid program out, they chose to spend quite a bit of money to continue the “hype” of the vaporware SmartMusic 10. This packet probably cost $10 to put together. Perhaps more.

Let us examine the contents of this “hype” package….

First

BMG “Jazz” Music Club

March 14, 2007August 26, 2007 ericdano 2 Comments

I am part of the BMG “Jazz” Music club. I very rarely buy things from them as they charge you up the *#?@#^& in shipping, and it ends up being not all that cheap. I tend to get most of my stuff off Amazon.com used.

Today, I received the BMG Early Spring 2007 Catalog. Not a SINGLE mention of Michael Brecker on it. Nada. They do have, on page 18, Michael’s “Wide Angles” Album. No promo box about him. Nothing. Instead, they are peddling yet another Coltrane album called Gold on page 19. On page 3 they have a big box with Mindi Abair. On page 9 they have Richard Elliot. On page 13 they have Marion Meadows. No Brecker. Not even an insert about it. One would think they could, in addition to Checks Unlimited insert, the Build the Ultimate DVD Collection insert, and the BMG Music store insert, they could have put in a Michael Brecker special or something. I might have actually have bought something from them then. It makes one wonder what they will do when Sonny Rollins or some other titan dies. Are they going to ignore the event and feature the likes of Mindi Abair instead?

I am disgusted with BMG now. I am writing them a nasty letter and canceling my account with them.

Update: 05/04 16:11 GMT by E :I got another BMG thing in the mail. They are featuring KENNY G? What the Hell? Amazing. The “Jazz” club featuring Kenny F@#*$*% G……

Reviews

Neff Music Approach Note Velocity Studies

February 23, 2007December 3, 2007 ericdano 2 Comments

Every month, I make it a point to buy new music. New music including books in addition to recorded media. I have quiet a backlog of things to review. So, first up are Approach Note Velocity Studies.

I’m not sure when I found these on the net, but Steve Neff’s Approach Note Velocity Studies are pretty darn neat. For $10, you get 90 some pages of great sounding chromatic lines that you can use on Major and Minor vamps. You can incorporate them into other chord progressions as well, such as blues, rhythm changes, etc. If you own the Joseph Viola Chord Studies book, these patterns are similar to those 16th note lines at the end of each chord study. I have also seen patterns like these called neighboring tones or approach tones in other books.

There are two volumes, Major and Minor. Both are great. Check them out.

Reviews

Michael Brecker Memorial

February 23, 2007October 3, 2007 ericdano 1 Comment

From a NYTimes article

"The memorial program for the saxophonist Michael Brecker that filled Town Hall on Tuesday night kept landing on the theme of generosity. Mr. Brecker died of leukemia on Jan. 13 at 57. During his illness he enlisted family members and friends in sending out a call for bone-marrow donors — not just for himself — that resulted in tens of thousands of donor registrations. His friends in jazz and pop music all implied that this wasn’t just an isolated case of conscientiousness."

Some interesting things mentioned are that Michael did drugs in the 70s (probably with 90% of the population as well), as well as some of the stories such as:

"Randy Brecker told a similar story, about one of the hundreds of recording sessions at which he had been hired to work alongside his brother. Michael, he said, came to work straight from the airport after a long flight, not having had time to read the music. He was asked by the producer to build a solo through a long two-chord vamp. One could see where this was going: Michael’s solo was of disturbingly high quality, and Randy was asked to take it from there."

For more Brecker stuff, check out Michael Brecker.com and a new fan site (which was supposed to be a Michael Brecker interactively supported site), iBrecker. iBrecker also has some more info about the Memorial Service.

News

Running Band in A Box Under Parallels

February 1, 2007December 5, 2007 ericdano No Comments

Ok, so we all know that the latest Macs all run Intel processors. You might have heard of an Apple Beta program called Boot Camp where you can get your Mac to boot up as a *shutter* Windows XP computer. You might also have heard of a program Parallels that lets you mitigate Windows to just a Window. Well, if you take the two programs, and add in Band in a Box 2007 for PC, you get a very functional program that runs pretty flawlessly.

Yes, Virginia, it works fine….

Ok, so, first off, you need to download Boot Camp, and get Microsoft Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2. Not Vista. Vista, as of right now, works fine in Boot Camp (IE: Dedicating the whole machine to it), but has a lot of issues with Parallels. Boot Camp is picky, and you need to have Service Pack 2.

Now, having

Articles

Michael Brecker dies at age 57

January 13, 2007May 16, 2008 ericdano 5 Comments

Sadly, this time around it is true. I had seen a couple of emails in various lists I subscribe to this morning, but someone finally gave me a link to the a news site that has the details.

"Michael Brecker, a versatile and highly influential tenor saxophonist who won 11 Grammys over a career that spanned more than three decades, died Saturday at age 57. Brecker died in a hospital in New York City of leukemia, according to his longtime friend and manager, Darryl Pitt. "

Truly, a great loss for jazz and the saxophone. Michael was a genius.

I remember first seeing him in the late 80s at the Shoreline Jazz festival. I had gone to see the group Spyro Gyra cause I thought they were great (hey, I was a high school noob). I was totally wrong. The Michael Brecker band, of which I knew nothing, was playing during the day, and I was amazed. He did his thing with the EWI where he would walk on stage, and play around with it for 15 minutes. Amazing stuff. I don’t remember staying for more than 3 Spryo Grya songs after hearing Brecker.

Soon after I heard him on Michael Frank’s song Dr. Sax. Wow! I was hooked. I got to meet him when he was the guest artist at my College. We talked about tech gadgets (Something about Palm Pilots and Maps as I remember). He was funny. During rehearsals, he was messing up (jet lag), and he’d make this face when he did it. I was laughing to whole time.

It’s a sad day.

Update: 01/14 19:28 GMT by E :The New York Times has a nice article about him today.

Update: 01/15 00:48 GMT by E :The Michael Brecker site now has word of his passing.

Update: 01/15 07:18 GMT by E :Someone posted a video on Youtube as a tribute. Nice montage. And of course, my favorite Steps Ahead song, Self Portrait

News