Category: Articles

Finally a Good Sampled Saxophone Instrument?

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Finally a Good Sampled Saxophone Instrument?

We have all suffered the pain of listening to synthed or sampled saxophones. Some of them have sounds that kill at 50 paces. Some of them try to convince you they are real like an inept Politician trying to get reelected. All generally fail to sound like the real thing.

Enter SampleModeling’s new Tenor Saxophone instrument:
“We are proud to present the result of our collaboration with Stefano Lucato. Stefano was the developer, along with Dr. Giorgio Tommasini, of the Stradivari Violin and the Gofriller Cello.

Stefano Lucato & Samplemodeling created the next groundbreaking virtual instrument: the Tenor Saxophone! It´s extremely expressive, enjoyable, and intuitively playable – simply a real sample-modelled instrument!”

Cost….probably $240. Probably the best sampled saxophone I’ve heard, but……..you know……..it still……well……you know.

Articles, News

Live Jazz Concert Recordings

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Live Jazz Concert Recordings

Sometimes on the internet, you find some great sites. This is one such site. “You Are What You Hear” is a great site that has concert recordings from great artists such as Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, John Scofield……to name a very few. Well worth spending some time getting some of the recording here.

I think the best recording is the Michael Brecker : Montreal Jazz Festival 27.6.2001. Simply amazing.

Articles

Ralph Moore – Bye Bye Blackbird

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Ralph Moore – Bye Bye Blackbird

Another transcribed solo by Kenyon Carter. Ralph Moore playing Bye Bye Blackbird off the Album “Ralph Moore and Ray Brown – Moore Makes 4”

  Ralph Moore - Bye Bye Blackbird (49.9 KiB, 283 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file. Go register first.

Album iTunes link, Amazon link
Song iTunes link

Articles

Favorite Podcasts

Posted on By ericdano 2 Comments on Favorite Podcasts

iTunes is a great thing….not only for managing music, but for finding and getting Podcasts. Here are some of my picks.

These are the “Jazz” ones I have subscribed to. Anyone have any others they’d recommend?

I subscribe to XXX number of Podcasts

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Articles

MakeMusic To Charge For Finale Notepad 2009 Downgrade

Posted on By ericdano 6 Comments on MakeMusic To Charge For Finale Notepad 2009 Downgrade

MakeMusic announced today that they are going to be charging for Finale Notepad 2009, which for almost 8 years has been a free product.
“In the next few weeks we plan to release Finale NotePad 2009 with even more features, including an all new Expression Tool and the ability to import/export MusicXML files. It will continue to include free online support. At the same time we will begin charging $9.95 for the NotePad 2009 download.”

Ooo, Online support? XML importing? Wow. Sign me up. NOT.

Meanwhile, get Finale Notepad 2008 while you can. Finale 2009 is a downgrade. Staff Lists limited to 4 (used to be unlimited). Most of TGTools handy utilities do not work (Align/Move, which I use a lot) because of “new” Expression tool. *sigh*. Just avoid it. Unless they are going to be including Garritan sounds with it (hahahaha, yeah, right), $9.95 for their new expression tool and XML importing?

MakeMusic needs to cut down on the number of products it has. It has Finale, Finale Allegro, PrintMusic, Songwriter, Notepad and SmartMusic. Just keep Notepad free, drop Songwriter, drop the price of PrintMusic to $60, and drop Allegro to like $150. Simple.

Articles

Saxophones from Taiwan Aiming for the Pros

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Saxophones from Taiwan Aiming for the Pros

I came across this article at the NPR. It is about Taiwan saxophones.
“Just how Houli became the world’s unsung center of saxophone making is largely an accident of history. The story dates back to just after World War II. It stars a larger-than-life character named Chang Lien-cheng. He was a farmer’s son who abandoned the family land to become a painter and jazz musician, says a spokeswoman for his company: “No one during that time was actually playing any kinds of Western instruments. But he was fascinated by this instrument called saxophone.””

There is also a “Listen Now” for this article that is worth checking out, as it goes into more details than the written article.

Articles

iPhone/iPod Touch Music Applications

Posted on By ericdano 2 Comments on iPhone/iPod Touch Music Applications

Unless you have been living in a cave for the last week, you know that the new version of the iPhone is out. The iPhone 3G. The other thing that is out is new software for previous iPhone/iPod Touch owners. The new version of the system software supports applications. There are lots of games and stuff out. But there are TWO music ones that are worth a look.

The first one is Karajan Beginner. Theory trainer and stuff. There is a paid version of this as well which I imagine expands on the drills.

The second one is GuitarToolkit. Yes, it is more geared towards guitar players, but the tuner and the metronome are excellent. I thought it was a good $10 spend for a tuner and metronome, though it would be nice if you flipped the iPhone over, it would flip the tuner over. Perhaps the next version.

Articles, News

50 Tons Of Records Donated

Posted on By ericdano 1 Comment on 50 Tons Of Records Donated

CNN has an interesting article:
“The more than 200,000 records represented the entire inventory of “Records Revisited,” a landmark Manhattan store owned by Morton Savada, who died in February of lung cancer at age 85.

The collection, valued at $1 million, weighs 50 tons and represents more than a half-century of American music history.”

Wonder what gems one would find in there. Albums that aren’t produced anymore. That is one of the great things about going to an old used record store, finding that album that was only done on LP…….

Articles, News

The Lamest Product Ever

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on The Lamest Product Ever

I was watching Versus Network (cycling sundays….yeah), and I saw an ad for this thing called Guitar Idol. I thought Guitar Hero was stupid. This is a whole new level of stupid. Really. Singing in the car rates way higher than this. Singing in the bathroom rates higher. Watching American Idol rates higher.
Somehow, I feel the dumbing down of music is somewhat insulting.

Articles

Reed Prices…….WTF?!?

Posted on By ericdano 4 Comments on Reed Prices…….WTF?!?

So, I finally depleted my supply of reeds. I generally buy a couple of boxes. Last time I bought some from The Woodwind and the Brasswind. Not this time. They have this really deceptive thing going on. Example, Rico Plasticovered reeds for Tenor. For 3.5 (3 1/2) size, it’s $16.49 a box. But I use 3 size, and selecting that, the price jumps to $23 a box. WTF? Clarinet reeds have a similar thing going on.

When last I ordered reeds, back in August, the Rico Plasticovered were $15.95 a box from WWBW.

This last order of reeds went to USAReeds. They had good prices, and reasonable shipping. Anyone have a good source for reeds?

Articles

Bob Florence Memorial Tribute Concert – 6/15/2008

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Bob Florence Memorial Tribute Concert – 6/15/2008

This was send from Kim Richmond to the Finale list:
“This is to let you know about the Memorial Tribute concert to celebrate the life of the late composer/pianist Bob Florence.
WHAT: Bob Florence Tribute Memorial concert
WHEN: Sunday, June 15 (Fathers’ Day), 2008, 1 PM to 5 PM.
WHERE: CATALINAS Bar & Grill, 6725 WEST SUNSET BLVD, Hollywood, CA. telephone 323-466-2210
WHO: The Bob Florence Limited Edition big band, playing compositions and arrangements by Bob Florence; the Phil Norman Tentet playing music by Bob; a multi-media event about Bob’s life by his daughter Melanie, and various speakers.
All are invited. Parking in the adjoining garage.”

Articles

New Yorker’s 100 Essential Jazz Albums

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on New Yorker’s 100 Essential Jazz Albums

There seems to be a lot of these “lists” that magazines/newspapers/your mom are doing right now. Anyhow, the New Yorker published it’s “100 Essential Jazz Albums“. I think it is kind of bogus. No Herbie Hancock? At all? Nada? Eric Dolphy is in there twice, and Josh Redman is in there, but not Herbie?

Articles

Spare Room to Studio in 10 Minutes

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Spare Room to Studio in 10 Minutes

The SOS Forums had this interesting thread about a bloke who can turn his guest room into a studio in about 10 minutes.

My studio set up consists of a control room/office which is unusual in that it has no parallel surfaces, even a sloping roof. This room is loosely triangular being a maximum of 4.8m long and 4.5m deep. There’s a short 1.2m corridor (which I call the portal) that leads into a guest bedroom which is 3m by 2.7m.
Sometime ago I renovated the guest room so that I can convert it into a studio in around 10 minutes and I thought this might be interesting/useful.
The guest bedroom has a permanently installed double bed in it, but I’ve put it on hinges! It’s really easy to hinge the bed onto the wall

Pictures and other info with the original post.

Articles