Tag: wtf

MusicReader For iPad

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on MusicReader For iPad

There are lots of very interesting Apps coming out for the iPad. One that has come out for musicians is MusicReader for the iPad. While the iPad App is free, the software to get files into the program costs anywhere from $59 to $99. Outrageous? Damn right. Seriously, this is highway robbery. A more reasonable solution would be maybe to charge $4.99 for the program and give the converter program out for free. But $59? You have to be kidding.

I’d stick to GoodReader, which is $.99 and request that the author of this GREAT program to add annotations, which would basically do what MusicReader does. I have scanned in or printed to PDF a number of things and you can read them easily in the GoodReader. For $0.99 rather than nearly $60…..

Articles, Reviews

Rock Band Network…..Saxophone Hero?

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Rock Band Network…..Saxophone Hero?

I’ve seen this around the net, even linked from SyFy.com. It’s kind of neat, but…..could we please have real notation? Also….why bother doing this in the first place? I mean, it’s one thing to play pop/rock songs on saxophone (which I have no qualms about doing), but I don’t really see this doing much for anyone….

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Want better Relative Pitch? There’s an App for that.

Posted on By ericdano 5 Comments on Want better Relative Pitch? There’s an App for that.

Yes, the iPhone/iTouch is amazing. 100,000+ Apps. A lot for free. There are a few diamonds in the ruff, and this one is looking like another find.

RelativePitch is an an iTouch/iPhone app that will drill you on intervals. There is a lite version of it as well. The interface is OK, but I have a few complaints about it. The application does not, at least in the lite version, allow you to vary the root note. Maybe the full version does this, I dunno. Second, the intervals are always UP, as in root then the note above. Down would be a great thing to have in this app as well. Perhaps the full version does it. It would be simple enough to add in an update.

The price? $7.99. Forget that. If the developer knocked it down to $1.99, maybe. You’d be better off searching the web for various free trainers, like http://www.trainear.com/. Hopefully someone will do a better version for the iTouch/iPhone soon. Or a cheaper version. $7.99. Come on people!

Articles

Electronically Modified Didgeridoo

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Kyle Evens made an electronically modified didgeridoo. While I too like my star wars type sounds, or those trippy sounds that you enjoy while fried out of your mind, the other application could be some sort of new effects processing for….oh, I dunno, saxophone or something? Though this thing looks like something out of a SciFi movie…..

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Eigenharp Alpha

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Eigenharp Alpha

alpha-bigI’m not really sure what to make of this. The Eigenharp Alpha.

“A professional level instrument which allows the musician to play and improvise using a limitless range of sounds with virtuoso skill. The unique design of the keys makes this the most expressive electronic musical instrument ever made. The Alpha can play and record loops, change scale and key, transpose, alter tempo, program beats, create arrangements, switch and layer multiple sounds, all while the musician is performing live on stage.
Available in a variety of finishes, it has 120 highly sensitive keys, 12 percussion keys, 2 strip controllers, a breath pipe and numerous pedal inputs. This gives almost endless possibilities for flexible keyboard layouts, fast instrument switching and expressive musical control. The comprehensive software system provides a wealth of musical performance features, including playback of its own native instruments, many common software plugins, soundfonts or midi instruments.

If you go to their YouTube page, they have some sort of private demo. On the one hand, it looks kinda cool with the sliding and stuff. But why add a breath thing to it? Why not just make the touch surface sensitive to how you touch it? And do we really want lame-o drum and bass lines like that? Really?

For 4K pounds ($7,000 US?) I’d expect something a little more cooler in the sounds department. It seems like this is a swiss-army knife of musical instruments. I mean, in the private demo, they had someone play GUITAR with them. Seriously? You mean this thing can’t do strumming like a guitar? Why not?

Interesting idea, but doomed to failure. They also have plans for a smaller version.

Create Digital Music has a link here and here for more information.

Articles, News

Free Laptop or iPod with an Instrument Purchase? Say What?

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Free Laptop or iPod with an Instrument Purchase? Say What?

I’m not too sure who came up with this at the Woodwind and the Brasswind. But seriously, is this the only way to sell instruments now? You have to give them an iPod or a Dell laptop? Why not just lower the prices? I know the markup on a lot of these, and it is HUGE. Why not cut the prices and make maybe 10% profit rather than 90%?

wwbwad

Articles

ASCAP Wants To Be Paid When Your Phone Rings

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on ASCAP Wants To Be Paid When Your Phone Rings

First, they went after the Girl Scouts to have them PAY for singing songs around a campfire. Now, ASCAP wants you to PAY for a public performance of a ring tone. Yes……my mind too hit the brick wall and splattered upon reading this too. Have we become THAT concerned with money? I think it is fair game to require people who are MAKING money performing an ASCAP song to be required to share some of the revenues. But Girl Scouts? Cell Phone “performances”? Seriously?

News

Dealing With Theft

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Dealing With Theft

I got an email last night from a friend who returned home to find that she had been robbed. Everything, TV, Laptop, kitty litter, and even the toilet paper. But the most prized thing, a bassoon, had been stolen as well.

Obviously, the police have been called. But what does a musician do when their money making tool gets snatched? Contacting all the neighboring music stores and pawn shops in the area is a priority. An instrument is something that is not really easy to get rid of for a thief. About 10 years ago a trumpet playing friend had his trumpets stolen out of his car which was at his house in his drive way (big truck in the back seat). They turned up about 2 weeks later at a music store. Another story…

Read More “Dealing With Theft” »

Articles

SmartMusic – FAIL!

Posted on By ericdano 2 Comments on SmartMusic – FAIL!

If you read the archives here, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with MakeMusic/SmartMusic (same company). Their products have a lot of potential, but I think the corporate environment there is messed up.

The current issue I have with MakeMusic is my SmartMusic renewal. About 2 years ago, you needed to have an Educators subscription to obtain a “code” to allow students to get a subscription for $25 a year. Fair enough. Then they came out with SmartMusic 11 and did away with the “code” thing, and offering educators access to their site to be able to track assignments, grades, send assignments, etc. Sounded good in theory, but it never worked right for me at all. And students never used it. So, why am I paying for it then? I simply want to be able to create some SmartMusic exercises for my students, and take advantage of the huge library they have for sightreading purposes.

So, this year, with money being a concern, I did initially renew my account, which was like $130. This was back in January. I’m pretty sure I gave them all the credit card info and what not. Then, the other week, I get an invoice from them saying that my account is overdue. What? Actually, this is to be expected. They pretty much do this every year I’ve had an account with them. I enter all the billing info and payment info online, and they proceed to lose it or misplace it or something. Upon reflection, I decided I wanted to just have a student subscription. Well, “Chris” from their SmartMusic support says that I do not qualify. What? I could set up a new account and order the software and stuff for $30, but since I had an educators account, they would not move me down to a student account even though I explicitly said I did not need all the “stuff” that the educators account had.

So, I cancelled the account. Stupid guys. You should offer SmartMusic for $30 to everyone, and if an educator wants to take advantage of your “services” (if you want to call it that…..I wouldn’t), then they can add on the extra to be able to track students, send assignments, hear recordings, etc, etc.

I really wish someone would buy MakeMusic, gut the management, and actually force them to start updating their products with more features and better user interfaces. Actually, I’d be happy if they just got rid of the management.

Articles

TIME: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect

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Time Magazine has an article about the abuse of AutoTune. Another reason why the “Pop” music industry sucks. It is a dangerous tool………obviously prone to abuse. And some “singers” would not have the stardom they have without it.

Or……..some people can use it to ingeniously mock

Of course, nothing sounds better than someone who doesn’t need any help

Articles, Videos

Shure 58……Better Than A Towel?

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Shure 58……Better Than A Towel?

Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, the thing to have as a towel.
“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

However, I think the Shure 58 might now rank higher than the Towel. This is NOT for the faint of heart.

Articles

Playing in Cold and Hot Environments

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Playing in Cold and Hot Environments

Sometimes, you need a video to show the obvious. This is one such video. Perhaps another such video will show that you shouldn’t maybe run over the neck of your saxophone with a car and expect it to sound the same?

Another obvious video is this one, playing slow to play fast. On this one, why film it outside with car noise and stuff?

You gotta love this YouTube-ish era we are in……..where people put up videos and you have to ask………why?

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