Author: ericdano

Polymath, musician, awesome.

Podcasting

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Podcasting

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:

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Keeping Track Of Your Stuff

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Keeping Track Of Your Stuff

Being a musician, one tends to gather a lot of “things”. CDs, books, magazine articles, posters, pictures, autographs, etc, etc, etc. How do you keep track of all them?

If you decided to “rip” all your CDs to a program like iTunes, then you have a nice, easy to use list of what you have. But what if you DO NOT or CAN NOT rip all your CDs. Like you don’t have the space, nor really want to have all your stuff on the computer? And what about books?

One answer on the Macintosh is Delicious Library. Using UPC codes found on most everything, it can easily catalog your “stuff”. However, there are some problems……

First, Delicious Library is not the only product out there that can look up and catalog items. Bookpedia, Media Collector, and probably a myriad of other programs on both the Mac and PC. Most all these use some sort of Database to look up the UPC or ISBN numbers off the book. Delicious Library uses Amazon.com to look them up. Some of the other programs can use other databases to look stuff up. Is it necessary? Perhaps…..

Delicious Library can use a bluetooth (ie: wireless) scanner to scan in UPC codes. This works GREAT. It’s very cool. And a HUGE time saver if you have a lot of “stuff” like I do. To scan 200 DVDs, it took about 15 minutes. To scan a couple hundred CDs (451), about 30 minutes. All wirelessly, all right to the computer. However….

Not everything has a UPC code. And not everything has a UPC code that can be found off Amazon.com. If you are part of BMG Jazz club you get CDs that don’t have a standard UPC code. It has some sort of BMG code on it. Resulting in a failed lookup on Amazon. But if it does have a UPC code, it works very very well. CDs I bought in the 90s work. Delicious Library finds it, adds the album art, and info to your collection. Easy.

Books are a mess. 9 times out of 10 the UPC code failed to find the book. However, ISBN numbers 9 times out of 10 WORKED. But you have to enter the ISBN number manually. That is a pain. But it works usually.

Hal Leonard sucks. Just 90% of the books I have from them, have their own custom UPC or they fail to be looked up properly. Shame on you Hal Leonard. If the book has an ISBN, it seems to work mostly. Oh…..and Warner Brothers. You guys are in the same boat. Get the UPCs happening.

Aebersold. Aebersold does not seem to have UPC codes at all. None of the books I own have a UPC. Books like “Around The Horn”, “The Augmented Jazz Scale”, etc have NOTHING. No ISBN, nada. I do think my latest purchase from Aebersold, Vol. 112 – Cole Porter has a UPC on it. It was not found on Amazon.

I’m not going to mention all the other pieces of Music I have that have nothing on it. All those classical Sonatas for Flute/Clarinet/Sax, etc. These are all manual entry things. Not fun.

For people with a lot of stuff that can be bar code read, programs like Delicious Library rock. However, if you have stuff that is NOT bar-coded nor have ISBN numbers, this program is pretty much useless for you. I think if this program could create a printable bar code and increment it, that would make the program 50 times more useable. Or even if it printed a UPC for items (like Books) where the UPC isn’t found. Then this program would be an elegant, functional organizer.

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Pro Tools M-Powered

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Pro Tools M-Powered

I came across this yesterday. You can now get Protools if you have M-Audio‘s line of interfaces. This is totally cool. 32 Audio tracks, and it ships with 30 plugins. Wow!Downside, it’s $350. Upside, cheapest M-Audio interface is about $99. Still, for the power of the software, this is a huge value. I’d still like to see Digidesign just offer the software for sale to use with any interface. There are so many excellent interfaces out there, including Mackie, MOTU, and Tascam. I think if Digidesign knocked the price of Protools LE down to $299 and have it work with any interface, they could have something going.

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M.I.P.A. Winners

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on M.I.P.A. Winners

mipa Musikmesse International Press Award 2005 posted its winners. Some of the highlights:

  • Best Innovative Product – Apple GarageBand
  • Best E-Drums – Roland TD-12 V-Drums
  • Sound Libraries – Apple Jam Pack (though I’ve heard Garritan Personal Orchestra, and it’s amazing)
  • Mixing Desk (Project Studio) – Yamaha DM-2000 (beat the Mackie Onyx 1640…interesting, though the Yamaha’s list price is $20K compared to about $1800 for the Onyx 1640)
  • Studio Microphone – AKG-C414 B-XLII
  • Recording Software – Cakewalk Sonar 4 (beating out Logic 7 and Ableton Live 4)
  • Recording I/O Devices – MOTU 828 MkII
  • Recording Hardware – Digidesign Protools HD (no surprise)
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Jazz Oboe – Yusef Lateef

Posted on By ericdano 2 Comments on Jazz Oboe – Yusef Lateef

yampol writes “As long as we’re talking about doubling on oboe, let’s talk about jazz oboe. The first player that comes to mind is the amazing multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, band-leader Yusef Lateef. His Eastern Sounds and Three Faces albums made a very strong impression on me. Check out the track “I’m Just a Lucky So and So” on the Three Faces album.

Anyone else have a favorite jazz oboist?

–Todd”

I don’t recommend the album with Bob Cooper and Bud Shank. They did an album that was jazz flute and jazz oboe. Bob Cooper played Oboe. I couldn’t bear it. I love Bob Cooper in Bob Florence’s band, and in solo albums, but his jazz Oboe….unbearable to me.

Update: 04/22 18:25 GMT by E :You know, I posted this story, and low and behold iTunes decided to put 2 of those Bob Cooper/Bud Shanks songs in my Random Selections Smart-Playlist. I still think Jazz Oboe is not cool. Hopefully someone can point me to something to change my opinion.

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Giant Steps – John Coltrane

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Here is a transcription of Giant Steps I did a LONG TIME AGO…

  Giant Steps - John Coltrane (Bb Tenor) (310.6 KiB, 333 hits)
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  Giant Steps - John Coltrane (Eb Alto) (72.8 KiB, 662 hits)
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Sheet Music

Evening with Don Menza

Posted on By ericdano 1 Comment on Evening with Don Menza

I got to spend some time with the great Don Menza tonight. It was very good. For those of you who don’t know of Don Menza, you need to sell your saxophone. Now!

01/24/2001 Updated a little more

Don Menza is a very gifted woodwind player who is probably most known for his stint with the Buddy Rich big band. But, Don Menza is deeper than that. Don is a very active in the music and teaching scene, and he is playing all over the world currently. In fact, he says he keeps a horn in the various locations he goes to rather than carrying a horn around….but that is another story.

Anyways, Don Menza had a stories about everything. I didn’t get to hear any of the famous Buddy Rich stories (or horror stories) because I got there a little late (maybe Rory could fill us in?). He retold a great story of seeing Charlie Parker playing live, with Strings. He said Charlie Parker’s sound was big, kinda like a tenor, and would fill the room. He said Charlie Parker’s play looked like he wasn’t play because his fingers were soo close to the keys. He also had a story of how Charlie Paker’s playing changed after playing 2nd Tenor in the Billy Eckstine band. He was playing second the Gene Ammons. Don insists that you can hear a trading of ideas between Gene and Charlie after that time.

Don Menza is insistant that the best saxophones ever made are Selmer Mark VI’s. He says that once Selmer stopped making them, they lost the art. Current saxophones being made have aspects of the Selmer Mark VI, but he says that nothing captures it.

Don is also insistant on mouthpieces. He doesn’t buy that “this mouthpiece will make me better” arguement. I remember seeing him in 1995 or 1994 at the IAJE in LA, and he did this demo of sounding the same on 3 different mouthpieces. The $500 special, the $100 middle of the roader, and the $5 special. It didn’t matter, he made them all the same. I think he now likes old Otto Links that he strips the rubber off of. We didn’t get into details about that.

Don’s also very passionate about his teaching. He’s very proud of a couple of student, especially this girl (and I can’t remember her name!). She was always something he’d talk about. He’s very proud of her.

I’ll probably remember something more later………

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