Good short video of how Auto-Tune works.
Year: 2009
So You Want To Be A Musician
From Noise Addicts:
The career path of a musician can be pretty difficult. I was reminded of this last weekend when visiting a favorite hangout which serves decent food, good drinks, and the occasional band. This night, the band was rather excellent, playing cover songs like “Free Bird” from southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. What made it a bit sad was the obvious talent of the band coupled with the low crowd attendance. One can imagine the possibilities of the band with the right opportunities and luck.
Most musicians probably do not have that planning session where they consider the benefits and downsides of their chosen career. Being that it can be a tought road, here are some things to consider before you decide to be a musician:
Digidesign Announces……..what?
Avid/Digidesign put this up:
“Apple has announced that they will begin shipping the new Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard 64-bit operating system in September 2009. Avid is working closely with Apple to deliver compatible, high-quality versions of Pro Tools® as soon as possible. Please check back periodically for updates on Avid’s Snow Leopard support status.”
For the record, when 10.5 (Leopard) came out, it took Digidesign about 8 months to get out ProTools “certified” for it. Though it sorta worked. However, I’m a little concerned with Digidesign, as they have had a lot of key people leave recently.
In other news, I’d imagine the Logic will work right from the get go. And it will be amazing (and updated). MOTU’s Digital Performer will probably work within the first week if not the same day. Digi is always the last one to the party…..
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH MAKEMUSIC
This is just insane. I was a SmartMusic user. It has value. I wanted to change my account type to the $30 a year. I wasn’t using all the “features” of the Educator account, and all the educators I know use the $30 account. So I tried to change it. They wouldn’t let me. I told them to cancel it.
Eric,
Actually, you should have cancelled it prior to it renewing, by allowing it to renew you agreed to pay the current year, per your license agreement. Payment needs to be received no later than 7/15/09 to avoid the possibility of being turned over to an outside collection agency.Linda Olson
Sr. Staff Accountant
MakeMusic, Inc.
952-906-3643
So, if you let your account lapse, they will threaten you to pay. Even send an invoice to a collection agency to collect if you do not pay. So all those $30 subscriptions, they will go after you. This is how they are making money. It is NOT by producing great notation products.
So, AVOID MakeMusic. This is just insane. DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO SMARTMUSIC. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM!
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?
HELL HAS FROZEN OVER – Band In A Box 2009 for MAC?!?!
I could NOT believe my eyes this morning. Band in a Box 2009 is FINALLY out for Macintosh. After being behind 7 versions (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2007.5, 2008, 2009), PG Music has LEAP FROGGED the Mac version to the latest Windows version.
Amazing. And to get it all up to date on a Mac is $159?!?! Say what? No…….really? I get ALL the features of the PC version? Even the “Direct-to-Disk” Audio Rendering? YES, you do Virginia.
So…….one of the most valuable teaching/learning Jazz/music software programs is now fully available on the Mac. GET IT NOW!
UPDATE: The download version is HUGE. Like, not quite as bad as downloading ProTools 8, but close. On first glance, it seems there are still things missing in the Mac version. There is no ear trainer (which is a cool feature), No Piano Roll window (edit: oops, it is in there, just not out in the open), practice window and the Soundtrack thing. These seem to be missing. Maybe in a maintenance version?
UPDATE: Ok, it is WAY BIGGER THAN PROTOOLS 8 WAS. Seriously, I have downloaded 10 gigs so far, and I’m on RealTracks 11-12, which is 3.2 Gigs (downloading). I still have 10 more parts to download……probably another 20 gigs?? Yikes!!!
Finale 2010
Not to be outdone by Sibelius, MakeMusic announced Finale 2010. Actually, lets reword that. Failing to incorporate any of the ideas presented in Sibelius 5, and failing to come up with anything new and interesting, MakeMusic announced Finale 2010.
Ok, so, what is new for the $99.95 pre-order price? Not much at all. They finally changed the way chords work in program. I can’t tell you when they last mucked with that, probably 10 years or more. It is not a revolutionary feature, but more of a “duh….it needed to be fixed” feature. Since the inception of the program you could not have chords in an empty measure. Now, Finale 2010 has a new “feature” that can do this. Blah Blah Blah.
What else? Well, you get a new font, more Garritan sounds, perhaps a working Aria player, hopefully fixed Percussion notation, Automatic Rehearsal Marks, and measure number controls. That last one really should be a “feature” but should have been fixed in Finale 2007. It is kind of like the version of Finale where they listed that Copyright symbol as a Feature. Those people from the middle states have humor don’t they?
In all, for $100……..worth it? The last version of Finale I updated to was 2007. It sort works on my 10.5 equipped Macs. Finale 2008 and 2009 TOGETHER had some interesting features I could have used, but not really. 2010 though……I dunno. I suppose two page editing, a better cursor, dynamic placement that is better, and chords that are better are noteworthy features to update to. Though MakeMusic wants $170 to upgrade me. Ha! Looks like Finale 2007 will be getting more use from me.
Michael Brecker at North Texas State 1984
The now dead iBrecker had the audio files for this clinic/jam session given by Michael Brecker in 1984. But Youtube has the VIDEO of them. Enjoy!
And check out the rest on Protocol66’s youtube page.
Sibelius 6
Sibelius 6 has just been announced. I’m not seeing much that makes me go “whoa” like when they put in Parts and Score linking. The noteworthy features I saw are:
- Magnetic Layout
- Version Comments
- ReWire support
- Store (though don’t they need to police it for copyright infringement?)
They also seem to have snagged some of Finale’s “features” like Sing in Music, Slurs, chords, putting dynamics in based on how hard you played. Go check it out.
Peterson Strobe Tuner For iPhone/iPod Touch
Have an iPhone or an iPod touch? Need a tuner? You NEED the Peterson Strobe Tuner for the iPhone/iPod Touch. I’ve tried many of the tuners available that are available for the iPhone/iTouch, free and paid. This one is worth the $10.
If you don’t know what a strobe tuner is, check out this wikipedia entry. I have had a Peterson Virtual Strobe tuner since 2001. It is annoying accurate, but not really something you can take out on a gig. It is large. And stuffing it into your gig bag isn’t really an option. I have mine mounted on my stand in my studio.
Back to the iTouch/iPhone version. Putting the two on a stand together, and trying to tune, both strobe tuners pretty much work the same. You try to get it to stop moving. The hardware version is a little more smooth in its motions, and iTouch/iPhone version is a tad jerky, but not really anything to complain about. In fact, the iTouch/iPhone version didn’t get confused as to what note I was playing. The hardware Strobe tuner sometimes things I’m tuning to an F when I’m really doing a concert D. I’ll see about making a little video showing them in action.
Bottom line. If you have an iTouch (second Generation) or an iPhone, the Strobe Tuner is well worth it.
10 out of 10. I’d say it is perfect.
UPDATE:My assistant Beaker (Matt) and I did a real simple little video of my original VS1 and the iPhone app. Enjoy
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…
Don’t Need No Stinking Percussionists!
Kinda cool I guess…
What Ever Happened to Eric Kloss?
I picked up an LP of Eric Kloss “Consciousness”. Wow. However, he seems to have disappeared. This is what I could dig up about him via Google
“One of the true child prodigies of the ‘60s, saxophonist Eric Kloss holds the distinction of having a record contract with Prestige Records at the ripe young age of 15. Blind, smart as a whip, and technically proficient at even this early stage in his career, Kloss went on to make some remarkable albums up through the early ‘70s and then disappeared into academia.
Like a lot of other jazz cerca 1969-70, there’s a definite rock influence both in the rhythms and in Corea’s use of the electric piano (he also plays acoustic). Consciousness! (tracks 6-10) was recorded in January 1970, and sounds a lot more like the intense Fillmore recordings. Pat Martino, who joins the band on guitar, is an explosive presence.
This is highly recommended to any fan of Corea, Holland, or DeJohnette as well as to anyone who likes the sound of late 60s post-bop jazz. And besides, you will never hear a funkier version of “Sunshine Superman” in your life.”
And Allmusic has a little more. But…….what happened to him? Is this another case of a John Klemmer type who was totally amazing then disappears off the planet?
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.
Super Mario Medley
Ok, I decided to put this up. It’s an arrangement of Super Mario music I did last year. It is cool. Perhaps even cooler than Tank! Damn it, it is. It is MARIO.
Scored for 5 saxes, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, guitar, piano, bass and drums. I make no promises on how good the guitar part is (my band does not have a guitar player).
Enjoy (donations are always welcome and an added incentive to put more stuff up!)
Super Mario Medley for Jazz Band (1.6 MiB, 1,207 hits)
You do not have permission to download this file. Go register first.
Look at all the downloads (41 as of 4/29). Not a single contribution. And people wonder why there isn’t more stuff up.