Jazz-Sax, all things Jazz and Sax
Here is this week’s tune.
Blue by Eiffel 65 for Eb Instruments (70.4 KiB, 145 hits)
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Blue by Eiffel 65 for Bb Instruments (67.5 KiB, 78 hits)
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Strangely addicting song…..
Honey and the Bee by Owl City for Eb Instruments (77.1 KiB, 64 hits)
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Honey and the Bee by Owl City for Bb Instruments (76.8 KiB, 41 hits)
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This is kind of old, but it’s an awesome site (was cleaning out things I flagged in Google Reeder)
The MPV Hub is free educational resource for Mac users:
macProVideo.com, an online education company specializing in tutorial-videos for Mac users, has launched a new educational portal called The MPV Hub (http://www.macprovideo.com/hub/).
It’s a free resource developed for the Mac creative community. You can use the MPV Hub to find written articles about how to use software, short tutorial-video tips & tricks, interviews with industry experts, product reviews, and other article.
(Via MacMinute)
Just got this written out. Whew…..
Skyfall by Adele for Eb Instruments (90.8 KiB, 407 hits)
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Skyfall by Adele for Bb Instruments (93.1 KiB, 220 hits)
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Music Notation and Music Education Software News | MakeMusic, Inc.:
Minneapolis – November 12, 2012 – MakeMusic, Inc. (NASDAQ: MMUS) today announced the upcoming release of an iPad version of SmartMusic, the interactive practice software, in the spring of 2013. The app will be previewed to the public at the New York State School Music Association Winter Conference, November 29 – December 2, 2012, and The Midwest Clinic Annual Conference, December 19 – 22, 2012.
(Via www.makemusic.com)
MakeMusic should have this out in the Spring of 2012, not 2013. And hopefully it should run on ALL iPads (including the original) since Apple’s Garageband still runs on the original iPad (and it runs quite well actually).
For some reason, I really like this song. I think it is the music video….
We Are Never Getting Back Together by Taylor Swift for Eb Instruments (98.8 KiB, 149 hits)
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We Are Never Getting Back Together by Taylor Swift for Bb Instruments (108.0 KiB, 72 hits)
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Since leaving ProTools, I had to redo my default recording presets in Logic. Here is how I currently have it set up. First, I record everything at 96Khz. Why? Because I can. I think it sounds better too. More open maybe? I dunno.
Here is a picture of my channel setups. The first track is the track I am recording to (input 1). I have the output bussed to Aux 1 on Bus 27 (could be any bus, it doesn’t matter). This Aux will have all the plugins and EQ setting setup on it. So, if I do another track, I don’t have to recreate everything.
Read More “Recording Saxophone in Logic 9” »
Jim Snidero’s new site: jazzimprovisation.com:
Jim Snidero’s new site, jazzimprovisation.com, is now live. The site offers a variety of instructional videos on jazz improvisation, features top New York players, and uses cutting-edge technology.
(Via UNT Division of Jazz Studies)
Brillant!
Yes, there is/was a Forum on jazz-sax. Well, whatever was there is now been replaced.
Why?
I was using something called Simple:Press for WordPress. However, they are now a paid thing (they had been free for a long time) if you want the plugins and stuff. Plus, I never really liked how it worked and looked.
So I blew it up, and replaced it with BBPress. We will see how that goes.
Once Upon A Time…..there was a great site called EWI-EVI.com. There was a wealth of information on wind controllers and stuff. That site now seems dead. In fact, there seems little movement right now in the whole EWI sphere. Akai seems to have stopped with the software updates (not that it needs it) but things like the Vyzex Editor seem to work OK on the latest version of OS X, but the software itself has not had an update in 5 years…….yikes!
There is a project called ewitool which looks very nice, but it only works on Windows and Linux…….no Mac. It seems to be a better editor than Vyzex is/was……and at least it is getting updated more frequently.
Some other sites that are EWI related or focused:
Saxophonist John Isley has a site called ewilogic.com which is an excellent source of using Logic and an Akai EWI together. Some amazing environments (think Michael Brecker’s Logic setup), tutorials and more. HIGHLY recommend you check it out.
The other site to check out is EWI Reason Sounds which Chris Vollstadt has put together. Simply put…..it is amazing. If you play EWI (USB or the 4000S) you will want to buy Reason to use with it. He has tons of patches he has made, tutorials, tips, tricks……basically everything. Hands down, it is probably the best EWI related site I have seen.
Sadly though, that is about it. If anyone knows of some other resources for EWIs please feel free to post about it.
UPDATE: Oh, seems I missed a couple. Thanks to Bret for the heads up. Check out his Windcontroller links for some additional ones.
From Wall Street PR:
Avid Technology is a company specializing in video and audio production technology, specifically digital non-linear editing (NLE) systems, management and distribution services. While Emmy and Oscar winners and nominees almost invariably use the company’s systems, sales seem to be a problem that Avid can’t cut out of the picture.
Avid now envisions revenue of $125 million to $127 million, and a GAAP loss of $17 million to $19 million. Previous Street consensus was for revenue of $145.2 million and a profit of 14 cents a share. This announcement shocked investors in early trading hours, as this Q3 revenue range included $4 million of revenue from divested businesses, while ongoing businesses had revenue of $121 million to $123 million versus $143 million a year ago.
Basically, Avid, you screwed yourself by continuing to sell ProTools for too much. And, you waited way to long to allow ProTools to work on NON Avid hardware. Thus, you pretty much shut yourself out of the prosumer/consumer market. People can by Reason, Logic, Ableton, Sonar, Reaper, Digital Performer, and a host of other programs for a fraction of what you want for ProTools. And existing users……you want $499 for me to upgrade? Forgetaboutit!
Here is one off of Linkin Park’s latest album. No lyrics…..cause if you are listening to the lyrics on a Linkin Park song you are doing it wrong.
Roads Untraveled by Linkin Park for Eb Instruments (61.4 KiB, 86 hits)
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Roads Untraveled by Linkin Park for Bb Instruments (60.9 KiB, 62 hits)
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Last fall, I built a Hackintosh. “But why….Apple makes computers that are cheap right?” you say. Yes, they do. I was using a 2006 iMac for recording and driving two monitors for teaching (the other monitor is used to display music, smart music, etc). But, it had gotten slow. Real slow. I upgraded the drive, fresh OS installs. It didn’t help. The aging Core2Duo chip at 2 gigahertz just was not cutting it. Nor was being limited to 3 gigabytes of ram. The machine was fine for basic recording, but just was not cutting it anymore. Maybe cause I was spoiled at home having a 2008 MacPro.
So, I looked into getting a MacMini or another iMac for the studio. Except, I really liked having multiple drives in the case like my MacPro has. That computer is nearly silent. And fast. So, I had seen a couple of things on LifeHacker and other sites about building a Hackintosh. I originally was interested in a Hackintosh to power my Webserver (for Jazz-Sax) and to be used as a server for time machine backups and iTunes storage. But installing OS X on Atom CPUed computers seems a big issue after 10.5. Plus the little computer just wouldn’t perform as well.
Anyhow, after reading many of the posts there, I figured out that for a little less than $1K I could get a machine that performs about the same as my MacPro. Plus it could easily drive two monitors, and would have a ton of drive bays for storage.
So, threw caution to the wind, and bought the stuff to make the Hackintosh. It turns out it worked just fine. This was using 10.7 (Apple is now on 10.8). Dual monitors worked. Sound worked. Ethernet worked. Performance is as good if not better than my 2008 MacPro. USB Audio interface works fine. Logic runs flawlessly on it, as does Finale. Digital Performer 7.24 does not though, which is sad. I like Digital Performer. Supposedly getting a graphics card instead of using the built in HD3000 graphics would fix that problem. Maybe Digital Performer 8 doesn’t have this problem. I briefly used ProTools 10 as a trial to export projects I had done. Decided I didn’t want to play Avid’s huge upgrade price for ProTools to work on 10.7 (version 9 of ProTools did not work on it).
Things I have learned about running a hackintosh…..BACKUPS.
Generally, the Hackintosh is rock solid stable. I think I can count on one hand how many of unexplained crashes I have had on it in a year. And most all of them were on 10.7. Moving to 10.8 made things even more stable. BUT…..system updates are a crap shoot. Anytime Apple releases a system update for OS X, be it a security update or a .X version of the OS, you need to be careful. The update from 10.8.1 to 10.8.2 fried my Hackintosh. Resulted in it not booting. This is where you need to have a backup plan.
Since I wanted near Zero downtime, I decided to do a clone of my system drive to another drive. Then, if I do a system update, and it fails to boot, I can reboot into the clone drive and at least get through the day. Failing that, you can use the Unibeast USB drive you make when making a Hackintosh and simply reinstall the OS. Generally, ever single program you had installed and it’s data will be fine and you won’t lose anything. I’m going to say it’s a sure thing, but I had such a huge issue with 10.8.1 to 10.8.2 I ended up having to reinstall the OS several times on my main drive and I did not need to reinstall a single program. Logic 9 worked, Finale, SmartMusic, Sibelius…..no problems.
Second thing I learned…….get the hardware parts right.
On the TonyMacX86 there is a recommended build list of boards, chips, etc. Get one of those. Don’t think that you can get something similar, or close. Get what other people have successfully built a Hackintosh system with. I chose a Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 board. It offered enough video ports and other ports for me. There are plenty of other choices, but pick something they recommend there. I can’t tell you how many people get some no name board or pre-made computer and want help getting OS X on it. Running and building a Hackintosh is not for the faint of heart, but do yourself a huge favor and start off on the right foot. The choice of board is essential. The chip, memory, case, power supply…..not as essential.
Final Thoughts
I saved a TON of money building this. A MacPro is a great machine. I have one. But as of right now, Apple is sort of letting the line of computers languish. For those of us who want a ton of storage in the case, and the ability to have a ton of ram……a MacPro is the way to go. I would totally build another Hackintosh. In fact, probably a year from now I will depending if the current one gets slow (I don’t see this happening) or if there are Thunderbolt audio interfaces that seem to warrant me getting (probably not). If you are a little tech savvy, or are a quick study, you can easily get yourself a MacPro at a third the price with a little elbow grease.
I’ve been doing a project for several years now…..converting paper material to digital. I wrote about this a while ago, and the process still holds true for me. Since getting an iPad, and also since basically converting my teaching studio to being centered around electronic display.
So, in the process of going all “Digital”, you need to have some sort of “backup” plan. For years, I have been running a Infrant/Netgear NV+ to hold all my iTunes music and books. It worked great for many many years, but it is slow. It’s like 6 years+ old now. I recently purchased a Synology DS1512+ to replace it (the Netgear unit is now a RSync clone of the Synology that is stored off site). It works well. iTunes runs great on it and things are safe (RAID5). BUT….iTunes isn’t very good at all for managing PDFs.
Most everything I have is text searchable PDFs. Or text files. What I am looking for is a program to program like DevonThink that can keep track of all the PDFs and stuff, and you can search for text in the PDFs. BUT….I don’t want all the PDFs mashed into a single library file. Why? Cause I like having a play-along in iTunes that also has the book in a Playlist. If I had DevonThink handle all the PDFs, it would put them all into a Library file and I’d lose that ability.
I’ve looked into Yep, and that would be AWESOME for PDFs…..except it only works with Spotlight enabled drives. All the PDFs would have to be stored locally. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a NAS and RAID5. The other contender is iDocument, which is probably going to fit the bill. It is flexible in how it handles the PDFs, and doesn’t require you to keep them all in a single Library file (though you can), and doesn’t only work with a Spotlight drive.
Anyhow, it’s not a perfect solution, but it is getting there. Ideally, I’d love something like Evernote but that you can run locally without any of their limits in file sizes or bandwidth. Maybe Synology will come up with something for their units. They already have iOS/Android Apps that allow you to stream music or video from your NAS WHEREVER you are (home, on the go). It’s pretty darn cool. If they come up with something similar to Evernote for their Synology line…..that would be amazing.
