Jazz-Sax, all things Jazz and Sax
Microphones are important. They capture our sound. They reinforce our sound in a live setting. But they also feed back and color our sound. In the 60s to early 80s, a lot of guys would drill a hole in the neck of their saxophone to put in an a neck microphone pickup. However, doing this…
Ok, fine, here it is. It’s annoying, but everyone seems to want it. It is played, in the game, by an Alto Sax. Enjoy.
The biggest issue for anyone who has an iPad and uses it for music is turning the pages. You can buy a myriad of them on Amazon. But, that is yet another thing to take to a gig. And what if you already have an effects pedal happening? It’s another thing on the floor, that…
Jim Schmidt has made some very interesting items over the years. Probably his most unique thing is the linear fingering system saxophones he created. He is also well known for his excellent pads that he makes. His latest creation are self leveling pads. Check it out.
I describe my previous pedal board setup here. A couple of months ago, I replaced the Nano POG with a TC Electronic HOF Mini. I found with the Eventide H9, having the Nano POG was sort of redundant. Plus, I have the Eventide H9 on bluetooth midi, allowing me to easily configure it to change patches when I…
Don Menza hands down was one of the most interesting saxophone players I have ever heard talk. Seeing his infamous “make any mouthpiece sound like whatever” clinic was mind blowing. He took a $400 mouthpiece, $100, and a cheap like $10 one, and made them all basically sound the same. Anyhow, this video is a…
A while ago, I did an article about using FinaleScript to format charts for an iPad. I’ve been working on some charts for a new group I might be playing with, and further added to my script to make the charts work on the iPad. page layout tool menu item “Page Layout/Page Margins/Edit Page Margins”…
On the heels of the last post, An Open Controller For Woodwind Instruments comes this from hackaday.com: MIDI has been around for longer than most of the readers of Hackaday, and you can get off my lawn. In spite of this, MIDI is still commonly used in nearly every single aspect of musical performance, and…
From Hackaday.com: Engineers, hackers, and makers can most certainly build a musical gadget of some kind. They’ll build synths, they’ll build aerophones, and they’ll take the idea of mercury delay line memory, two hydrophones, and a really long tube filled with water to build the most absurd delay in existence. One thing they can’t seem…
I’ve had a few pedalboard layouts now. The big issue I have had with the other setups is size, and transporting it. I started off with a Q-Tron on the board. But that got dropped off due to it feeding back a lot. Plus I could never tell if it was engaged or not. The…
There has been an interesting tool that has been sitting in my Amazon wishlist for a while. The BandTool BT-1. It is a multi-tool specifically for those who would need to fix a “band” type instrument. I carry a Leatherman Wave in my gig bag, and I have found it very useful. So why wouldn’t…
Several years ago I posted about 432 tuning. Bobby Owsinski had an article and a video about it today. Interesting stuff.
Some people think December is the best month. Christmas, etc. Some people think September when Apple events happen. Both are WRONG. The best time of the year is end of May when PG Music releases a new version of Band in a Box for Macintosh. This year they included a fancy keychain with the upgrade….
Managing your digital media in this age is rather daunting. A lot of people have ditched their iTunes libraries and gone to the subscription music service model. Some of us still have huge libraries of music. All those recordings you made in college, or those boot legs of various bands you got. Or teaching materials…
If you have read this site over the years, I have noted that my favorite mic is the AKG-C414. I have two of these microphones, a ULS model and an EB model. My favorite for saxophone is the EB model. It adds….how would I describe it…..a little more punch or personality than the ULS. The…