The MagPi Magazine Issue 119 has an interesting article about a Raspberry Pi project to put a reactive light system on your saxophone. Sadly, seems there is no SOURCE CODE for the pitch part…..
Light-up Your Saxophone
Category Archives: Articles
General Saxophone related articles, opinions, questions, etc, etc
FinaleScript to Format Page for iPad (2022 version)
A long time ago, back in 2017, I wrote a post on how to make a script using FinaleScript to format a page for an iPad. Seems like in the latest version of Finale (version 27) they changed the format somewhat. The script now should be this.
page layout tool
menu item "Page Layout/Page Margins/Edit Page Margins"
page margin top 0.3
page margin left 0.10069
page margin right 0.10069
page margin bottom 0.12153
select radio "all pages"
press "apply"
press command + "."
select first meas to the end
note spacing
unlock systems
Lucky Chops
If you haven’t checked out this band, do it. Now.
Sheet Of The Week – As It Was (Harry Styles)
Ok, I had some time to do some songs. Here is one of them.
As It Was by Harry Styles for Eb Instruments (101.6 KiB, 4 hits)
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As It Was by Harry Styles for Bb Instruments (101.0 KiB, 1 hits)
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Search for the best Pedal Accessory
There is a huge need for a simple, yet effective pedal that every sax player needs on their pedal board. That is a microphone preamp with FX loop. There are several out there, but saxophonists really need something more. What if they also play a wind synth but want to use their pedals with it?
The solution I found was using the Eventide Mixing Link. Except the problem with this is that you cannot separately adjust the gain on either input. So say your mic needs to be at 1 O’Clock, but the wind synth needs to be at 4 O’Clock? You’d have to adjust the levels, and hopefully remember to do it again when you switch again. And how do you mute the microphone? You can’t really (unless you get a passthrough on/off plug or something).
There is another pedal by Zorg called the HornFX Blow! While it looks great, it doesn’t have any sort of ability to address the problem.
Enter the Elite Acoustics EAE StompMix 4. This is a very interesting pedal that is also a mixer. It looks like it would totally allow you to have a stereo effects loop, stereo output, and two microphone/line inputs. Very interesting…….
What Is A Decibel?
You hear the term, dB. Decibel. But do you really know what it means? Here is a GREAT post about what it is.
The first thing to understand is that zero decibels does not mean silence. Instead, it refers to the quietest sound that humans can hear, which is roughly equivalent to the sound of a mosquito from ten feet away. All other decibel levels are multiples of this reference intensity.
ethanhein.com
Yet Another Sax “Enhancement”
There are a LOT of “sax enhancements” you can buy. Some, like ones made by Oleg, are great. I have used the Oleg palm key risers since the 2000s. Highly recommended. These type of enhancements fix a functional issue with the saxophone.
Then we get to that are…..well……..subjective. The weighted screws, the “tone tablets”, and the Klangbogens of the world. Do these work? I have no idea. Perhaps. I’m not really keen on blowing a lot of $$ to find out. Some of the theories on how they work seem rather suspect.
However, I did come across this tonight, and this actually makes a lot of sense to me. The Mr PS is a little half circle you put on at the TOP of your saxophone neck pipe. That little “dead” area before the cork starts. The area that essentially should be a small “gap”. You put either a metal one or a plastic one there, and then you have a transmission source from the vibrations of the mouthpiece to the rest of the horn. Now that actually makes a lot of sense to me.
Here are some videos about it here.
TGTools Updated for M1 Macs
TGTools, the essential plugin for Finale users, recently updated the plugin for Mac M1 chip support. Still love this program. Essential for anyone working with Finale.
Sheet Of The Week – BAM BAM (Camila Cabello)
Nice song by Camila Cabello.
BAM BAM by Camila Cabello for Eb Instruments (152.6 KiB, 12 hits)
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BAM BAM by Camila Cabello for Bb Instruments (149.3 KiB, 6 hits)
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Why the Olympic Fanfare and Theme is So Iconic
This is a great video. LOVE John Williams. He’s 90 now, and I hope he lives to 180.
Saxophone in an Acoustic Live Band Context
Interesting take on using effects pedals. A lot of guys are using that Intramic which is a little water resistant mic that you put IN the neck of the sax, but non-destructively. A lot of horns in the 70s, they drilled out a hole in the neck and put in a pickup.
Why you’d want that? Prevents feedback, and bleed from other instruments. You learn more about it here, and check out HornFX’s YouTube channel to see him use it.
Anyhow, I’m not sure I like this pedals used in this video. Not really my cup of tea, but it’s interesting none the less.
72 Homemade Instruments in 7 Minutes
Very cool but not practical instruments.
How Michael Brecker Reinvented the Concept of Jazz Hero
Found this article by Ted Gioia. A must read.
Tomorrow marks the 15th anniversary of Michael Brecker’s death at age 57. That gives me a good excuse to reassess his legacy. The release of Bill Milkowski’s new book on the saxophonist was another useful prod, providing me with additional information and insights.
I hope the essay below raises Brecker’s reputation a notch among critics—although it’s safe to say that saxophonists have long known what a formidable presence he was on the horn.
I note with regret that Brecker never got named a NEA Jazz Master, and only made it into the Downbeat Hall of Fame after his death, when readers (not critics) voted him in. Even today, you won’t find Brecker in the Jazz at Lincoln Center jazz hall of fame. None of his recordings are included among the hundreds honored by the Library of Congress in their National Recording Registry. And his name is conspicuously absent on many other honor rolls and ceremonial lists.
Why is Micheal not a NEA Jazz Master?? This is not right. I don’t think I knew much about him other than he played this ripping part on Michael Franks song “Dr. Sax”. This was back before the internet, and you had to BUY physical media to listen to stuff. I actually saw him perform at the Shoreline back in….1989(?) I think. He was NOT the headliner, that honor goes to Spyro Gyra, a band I did know and really liked. Also featured was the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. But it was really the Michael Brecker band that simply blew my mind. And he also did his thing when he would loop things on the EWI…..just amazing stuff. I think my friend and I left well before Spyro Gyra finished. We had already witnessed God-like talent and everything after that was….meh.
The Best Multi-Effects Pedal For Sax – Line6 HX Stomp
During COVID lockdown in 2020, I bought some music gear. Hey, it was “the end of the world” or whatever. I figured I had some time to learn some things and play with some stuff. One of the things I bought was a Line6 HX Stomp.
I can’t say enough things about this pedal. It works amazingly well. It sounds great. If you received some Holiday money and want to get into effects, I highly recommend it.
If you want a DEEP DIVE on this, and I have mentioned it before, but HornFX on Youtube has EXCELLENT VIDEOS on it. Like his channel is criminally under subscribed to and his HX Stomp videos have less than 200 views. WTF!!!
3-2-1 Backup Strategy
With the new year upon us, it is a good time to examine how you are protecting your “digital” assets. That being recordings, media, or whatever lives on your laptop, computer, iPad, phone or what have you. I think the article that really lays out how to effectively do this is one by backup service BackBlaze.
A 3-2-1 strategy means having at least three total copies of your data, two of which are local but on different mediums (read: devices), and at least one copy off-site. We’ll use “kitten.jpg” as an example for this scenario. Kitten.jpg lives on your computer at home; it was a picture that you took of your cat in 2012. That’s one copy of the data. You also have an external hard drive that you use for backing up your computer; if you’re on a Mac, you might be using it as a Time Machine drive (and Backblaze loves Time Machine). As part of its backup process, that external hard drive will back up kitten.jpg. That’s a second copy, on a different device or medium. In addition to that external hard drive, you also have an online backup solution. The online backup continuously scans your computer and uploads your data off-site to a data center. Kitten.jpg is included in this upload, and that becomes the third copy of your data.
So, read, and protect your stuff. As someone who has a “day job” dealing with tech issues, nothing saddens me more than hearing that “ALL MY STUFF WAS ON THAT”.