Category: Articles

Server Status

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Server Status

You might have noticed, but the Jazz-Sax.com server has been lagging the last couple of months. Why? More traffic and spammers. The site is powered by a little Ubuntu atom processor computer I bought about 5 years ago. It has 2 gigs of ram, and a SSD. It had been running pretty much flawlessly for the duration of it’s existence, up until about March or so of this year. That is when I noticed a HUGE increase in people trying to log in as “admin” on the site, or trying to inject WordPress with SQL attacks, or just trolling random directories and stuff.

The result is that the server has slowed to a crawl. Especially the MySQL database. I’ve done a lot of optimizations to Apache, and put in a bunch of anti-spam and other security measures. This has helped, but the site is still bogged down.

So, I’m going to throw this out there…..anyone have a beefier computer they want to donate? Something with maybe a intel i3 or something? Or maybe an older intel Mac Mini with lots of ram? Or even MONEY towards getting a better server? OR maybe someone wants to hook me up with a cheap hosting solution? OR anyone want to give me like a Synology DS411 or DS1513? 😉

There will also be some more posts soon. Been busy over the summer (amazingly)….

Articles

Doubling In Musicals

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Doubling In Musicals

Bret Pimentel has revamped his great resource page for what doubles are in what book for what musical (that makes sense right?)

A heck of a lot easier than figuring out what company owns it, then trying to find it on their webpage. And sometimes the company webpage isn’t quite up to date.

Anyhow, it’s a great resource to check if you get a call to play a musical to double check what instruments you will be needing.

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Logic X

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Logic X

Apple has finally released Logic Pro X. Rumors of its demise were not true. So what has changed?

First, there is no “upgrade price”. It’s $199 for this version of Logic regardless if you had the previous version or not. Now, even though it’s was just announced this morning, I have already read several blog posts (because everyone on the internet is an expert) complaining about this. I’d refer them to ProTools 11. New, it is $699, and the “upgrade price” is $599. SUCH A DEAL……not. $199 is reasonable for new version that has lots of new features.

Second, it’s fully 64bit. Logic 9 was 64bit, and that was released several years ago (3 or 4 I think?). It also requires the latest Mac OS X (10.8.4) and 4 gigs of ram. I don’t find these big deals at all. In the ProTools world, going to ProTools 11 is a huge deal as it breaks RTAS plugins. So in ProTools 11, ALL YOUR PLUGINS NEED TO BE UPDATED. In Logic X most all plugins have been updated to be 64bit. Logic drops support for 32bit plugins.

Third, Flex Pitch. That seems to be something that is now standard on all DAWs. Pseudo Melodyne like pitch editing. Something Digital Performer has had for years (I think it was first in version 6 or maybe 5….which ran on OS 9). It is a great tool to maybe fix a few little glitches in a recording, or even use it to do harmony parts.

Fourth, iPad Remote. Sadly, I can’t use the iPad remote because I still have an iPad 1 (original iPad) which can’t get iOS 6 or above. But the benefits of having it would be huge. So you can redesign your home studio (or studio), and not really be tethered to where the computer and recording hardware are. How cool is that?

There are also a lot of other interesting things, like a intelligent drummer thing that supposedly can groove to a tune you make. And more synths and guitar pedal/effects. Not really interested too much in those. I guess the mixer might have changed a little, it looks more ProTools like to me now.

In all, if you want to record, and have a Mac, get Logic. Period. I moved away from ProTools a few years ago, and I haven’t missed it at all. $199. Go. Download. Enjoy.

Oh, I found this little command line thing to figure out what plugins are 32bit or 64bit.
Here is the command to see the 64 bit plugins
/usr/bin/file /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* | grep “bundle x86_64”
Here is the command to see 32bit ones
/usr/bin/file /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* | grep “bundle i386”
And if you want to see REALLY OLD ONES
/usr/bin/file /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/*/Contents/MacOS/* | grep “bundle ppc”

All the plugins I have are 64bit. Probably cause Logic started supporting 64bit like 4 years ago.

Articles

Music Education Is In Crisis – Steve Wilson

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Music Education Is In Crisis – Steve Wilson

From AllAboutJazz.com:

“We are getting many students who are technically proficient— in many instances are amazingly proficient— and some of them with prodigious talent,” he explained. “But many of the students don’t have an understanding of why the rest of the world digs American music—because [audiences] connect with this central thing that is uniquely American, blues and swing. It is the DNA of our music. That lack of connection, lack of awareness, I say, is a real crisis.”

I agree. I think a lot of people are just playing a billion notes and crap. Way too many people are doing that.

Articles

Artiphon

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Artiphon

We live in an awesome age. We have little 4 inch devices that are more powerful than computers that were made less than 8 years ago. Now, there is this very interesting instrument, an Artiphon.
Artiphon

CNN had an article on it:

Is it a guitar? Is it a piano? Nope, it is a crazy iPhone-powered combination of both. Plus it has a built in bass, violin and drum machine to boot. The Artiphon Instrument 1 looks something like a medieval lute, but with a smart phone jammed into its belly.

In 2008 the Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition was established to showcase and recognize the invention of new musical instruments. Commenting on the Artiphon Instrument 1, Gil Weinberg, organizer of the competition and director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, said: “In general, I’m a big believer in using the capabilities of smart phones to power novel hardware. The ‘brain’ of such devices is already in your pocket, so why not use it?

Which got me to thinking….is it possible to take what I think is a severally crippled Akai USB EWI, and use an iPhone as the synth/controller? Hmmm…..

Articles

1 Million Pandora plays = $16.89

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on 1 Million Pandora plays = $16.89

From David Lowery:

As a songwriter Pandora paid me $16.89* for 1,159,000 play of “Low” last quarter. Less than I make from a single T-shirt sale. Okay that’s a slight exaggeration. That’s only the premium multi-color long sleeve shirts and that’s only at venues that don’t take commission. But still.

This is complete BULLSHIT. “Services” like Pandora need to die. Wonder how much money Pandora made for those ONE MILLION plays. I guarantee it’s way more than $16.89.

And, Pandora, instead of using it’s money to give more to the artists, is hiring a PR firm.

Pandora hires Qorvis consultant (as in Lobbying firm for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) for “Grassroots” campaign.

Good Job Pandora. I am deleting the iOS apps and removing you from my Roku.

Articles

Why Harry Connick Jr. Couldn’t Sit Idle During ‘Idol’

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Why Harry Connick Jr. Couldn’t Sit Idle During ‘Idol’

via NextAvenue.org:

“Not one of the contestants took Connick’s “Then” advice when they got on stage. Substance was thrown out the window for pyrotechnic vocal tricks. Angie sang Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me,” an ode to vulnerability, in full-power voice. She hardly came off as “a little lamb who’s lost in the wood,” as the lyric says. More like a John Deere tree cutter. ”
“Connick squirmed in his front-row seat during the “Then” performances. I haven’t seen such facial contortions since Linda Blair got anointed with holy water in The Exorcist.”

It goes on. But basically, it sums up the whole “American Idol” and the other singing things (like The Voice). Fluff. Crap. I can name TWO people who have done well winning American Idol, Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. That’s it. Hardly making an “Idol” out of the winners.

Articles

2013 NAMM Oddities

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Barry Wood has updated his NAMM Oddities page from this year’s NAMM show. NAMM is a trade show that happens around the beginning of the year for music related items.

Some saxophone related items are here:

Instrument Care Apparel. I guess this appeals to people? I think its a waste of money but whatever…

It’s BAAAACK. Yes, the Vibrato Plastic Saxophone had a NAMM display this year. Though I had a post of it way back in May of 2011, two years later they are finally at NAMM. Whoohoo. So another two or so years until there is an actual shipping product?

Not to be out done in the Polycarbonate playhouse, NUVO has a line of plastic flutes and clarinets. Joy to the world.

Articles

The Importance of Backups

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on The Importance of Backups

For several years now, I have been storing my digital assets on a RAID5 system. The first system was a box I build from old PC parts and a raid controller. It held a whopping 1 terabyte in storage. It was loud.

The second system was a ReadyNAS NV. This was a little shoebox size computer that held 4 drives. It worked remarkably well, even when I swapped out the original 250 gig drives with 1 terabyte drives (to make my total storage close to 3 terabytes). Great little unit, but it was slow (650mhz processor).

Last year I upgraded to a Synology DS1512. The first unit I got had a serious firmware issue, and they had to send me a new unit. It had been running flawlessly until about two weeks ago. Then, a drive failed….

No big deal. I had two drives fail on the readynas unit. You simply take up the disk, put in a new one, and it rebuilds itself…..no data lost. The synology unit should be the same. So, I proceeded to go on amazon and order a new drive…..then the improbable happened……a second drive failed.

Now, RAID5 is designed to handle one drive dying, not two. Technically, the drive didn’t completely die, the system map got screwed up somehow. Basically, the unit crashed miserably, and probably was not recoverable (didn’t even boot)

Luckily, over the summer, I got a two disk synology unit, and had been remotely syncing changes from the DS1512 to it. Plus I had also been using the readynas nv as a backup as well. So, I didn’t lose nearly 3 terabytes of songs, movies, books, and recordings.

Now, you probably don’t have a NAS. But you probably have a computer. You need to backup files now. Get a hard drive and use time machine on the Mac or whatever similar program exists for windows. Backup. Seriously consider getting a CrashPlan or similar service account.

You can never have too many backups.

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Indispensable Finale Tools

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Indispensable Finale Tools

I have been a LONG time user of Finale. Since…..geeze, Finale 2 something (I think I have the floppy disks it came on for my Mac Quadra 660AV). Since there seems to be a new influx of life into MakeMusic, it is time to revisit why it is such an awesome program compared to the competition. I mean, there are reasons like the endless flexibility the program allows you in inputing your music, tweaking the output, etc. No, what really sets it apart are the plugins.

The first plugin that is absolutely necessary for anyone who uses Finale is TGTools. I use this daily. It has so many useful features. It is well worth the price I paid for it.

The second set of plugins are from Jari Williamsson that are available on the FinaleTips.nu site. His latest plugin, JW Accidentals, is amazing. Have needed something like this for a long time.

So check them out. Finale is going places……Sibelius? No so much…..

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Google Shutting Down Reader

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Google Shutting Down Reader

One of the things I use A LOT on the internet is Google Reader. It is a way easy way to get feeds from a ton of sites in one place where you can view them all, and if you are interested click on them and go to the site and read more. I spend at least 30 minutes each morning going through my feeds and reading things I find interesting. Google Reader fetches all these and keeps them insync for me, so if I happen to use Reeder iOS app to read some of the NYT Arts articles, later when I am on the computer, it won’t show me those again. It has been a huge thing for me for a while now. Now Google is killing it off.

The internet was in an uproar about it. I was too. Damn Google.

Alternatives? So far I think NewsBlur is the top for me. I already paid for a year ($24). I also bought Fever, but for some reason it won’t import my exported Google Reader data. Fever sounds really great, and it would be my own private store of feeds, and I could use my favorite Apps (Reeder) to view the feeds. Hopefully my email to the creator of Fever gets a response.

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