Month: March 2008

Best Recorded Big Band Albums

Posted on By ericdano 4 Comments on Best Recorded Big Band Albums

As frequent readers of Jazz-Sax.Com will know, I won a pretty awesome M-Audio package. I really did not have the “horse power” to use it until my G4 PowerMac decided to die. Followed by my G4 Cube (though that was probably more me messing around with it than it just dying on it’s own accord. IE: It was apart and being messed with). Anyhow, I invested in a new MacPro 2.88 Dual QuadCore computer. Whoa. Fast!

Anyhow, a big band I play in is in the process of recording a demo. We’ve had two concert recordings. The first, according to the engineer, didn’t come out so clean, and would require a lot of work. The second came out way better. I was able to obtain the ProTools session from the first recordings, and have been using ProTools M-Powered to clean it up and what not.

Now, the question is actually two questions. What is the best studio recording of a Big Band, and what is the best live recording of a big band? For the former, I’d have to say Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Albums are amazingly well done. For the latter, I think the one that sticks out in my mind is Frank Sinatra and Count Basie – Sinatra at the Sands.

Opinions?

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Kore Player

Posted on By ericdano 2 Comments on Kore Player

Native Instruments has released a FREE sound player. The Kore Player looks really cool. And the price is right (free), plus you can add in sound packs for a fairly reasonable price.

However….I downloaded, twice now, the Player for Mac OS X. It installs just fine, but it cannot find any of the sounds it installs. In fact, running it as a plug-in in Digital Performer or Logic Studio, it loads just fine. Doesn’t have any sounds available. And running it as a stand-alone player results in more of the same. It LOOKS like a great product…..but it doesn’t seem to work. I emailed Native Instruments almost a week ago, and have not heard anything back……they don’t support it unless you have one of the sound packs. Heck, I’m a registered user of 3 Native Instrument products…….at least they should have replied back as I was interested in perhaps adding the Kore Player to my Mac.

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Brain Scans and Music

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Brain Scans and Music

Unlike the other scientific article about music, this article is rather interesting….

In new findings, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders say they have located the region of the brain — the medial prefrontal cortex — that lights up when musicians improvise. It’s the same area we all use when we’re talking about ourselves — who we are, what makes us tick.

At the same time, he and a colleague found, improvising musicians turn off the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a portion of the brain linked to planning, careful actions and self-censoring.

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