Jazz-Sax.Com

The Bassic-Sax.info site had an interesting article about rampant counterfeit Selmer instruments being sold. The pictures are quite compelling and I can totally see how someone could be mislead. These look great…..if I didn’t know anything I would think these are legit.

Check out the article. I guess some sort of praise should be given to these counterfeiters in their work….too bad they don’t channel that work into making their own saxophone brands.

I play in several bands, and in these bands I use this mixer. It is amazing.

http://www.homerecordingweekly.com/2016/04/04/the-mackie-dl32r-digital-mixer-and-my-honest-review/

You know it…the metallic ball grille…..it’s legendary ability to be abused and still sound great. A mic that many of us have used for saxophone and countless vocalists use. The Shure SM58 (which is basically a SM57 with a different grille). It is celebrating its 50th birthday. Some interesting links about the history of the mic can be found below.

10 Things You Might Not Know About the SM58
Shure’s SM58 Anniversary site

I’m a little confused and slightly worried about the Roland product marketing for the Aerophone AE-10.

The absolute best video on the Roland site is this one. It sounds great, and Roland should do more of these.

But on the Roland site, they have this chump…who sounds terrible.

Come on Roland. You need to refocus now. Ditch the chump, and put more Alistair videos up for promoting the instrument. Videos I see of Alistair playing the AE-10 sound great. Fire everyone else and make him your guy associated with this instrument.

Roland has introduced a new Digital Wind Instrument. Awesome!

All the saxophone sounds you need in one instrument

Nothing beats the sound of your favorite acoustic sax, but sometimes its tone might not be quite right for the job at hand. Whatever scenario you’re playing in, the Roland Aerophone AE-10 has the onboard digital sax sounds you need. Choose from alto, tenor, soprano, and baritone sax types that all respond just like their acoustic counterparts to your playing dynamics and articulation, thanks to Roland’s advanced SuperNATURAL modeling technology. Alongside individual sounds, you can pull off a seamless performance with the Full Range feature, automatically switching between sax types by key range.

The NYT had an article about Steve Coleman:

“On Tuesday, to celebrate his 60th birthday, he begins a monthlong residency at Stone, in Manhattan’s East Village, playing almost every night with his longstanding quintet, Five Elements. It’s a throwback to a much earlier era, when the likes of John Coltrane or Thelonious Monk took over the stage at clubs like the Five Spot or the Half Note for a month or more to work out their next new things.”

There are several things wrong here. First, that Steve is turning 60. He doesn’t look or sound 60. Second is that New York doesn’t do things like that anymore. They don’t let a creative genius come out, play, and work out something new. There are TONS of great musicians in New York….why not rotate in people for a month at a time. Who wouldn’t go see Tom Harrell, Joe Lovano, or people we’ve never heard of play there, and work out arrangements and sounds? It could be a huge draw.

Personally, if Yoshi’s or some place did that I’d would go. Right now, Yoshi’s likes to over charge for their food and then ream you some more for drinks on top of the ticket price to see an act there. No thanks.

No sure how I missed this, but this is GENIUS. Jon Benjamin is best known for his voice work on Archer and Bob’s Burgers.

Lots of saxophonists use or have used effects boxes with their saxophone. Some my favorite recordings of the Brecker Brothers from the 70s where he uses and octavider and an envelope filter for those sounds hear on the recordings.

More modern saxophonists, like Jeff Coffin, are using a Q-Tron and a Line 6 M Series Effects pedal. Q-Tron gives you a great funky sound, and the Line 6 gives you a ton of options.

Dean Mongerio has a pretty sweet pedal setup I covered before. It is worth checking out.

But what else do people use? I see a lot of people using vocal effects pedals like the Boss VE-20, and TC-Helicon pedals. But there are tons of other pedals as well.

My current setup is a Q-Tron like Jeff Coffin, and a Eventide MixingLink which I love. The MixingLink allows we to blend the Q-Tron with my sax sound, and I can bypass the Q-Tron all together. That is helpful as my Q-Tron has no Redlight to tell me it is currently engaged. I am looking to add some sort of Harmonizer. If I had the $$$ I would get the Eventide Pitchfactor or a Eventide H9. Though the Boss VE-20 looks interesting…..

What effects pedals are you guys using?

Amazing…