Food for thought.
Month: November 2012
A Double Sax Stand……for $5?
So, the Woodwind and the Brasswind had this insane thing on their website. $4.99 for a double stand (Alto/tenor). So, I bought one. And it came today. And it is GREAT!
The Ultimate Support double stand was a freaking steal. It is basically a knockoff of the Hamilton Double Saxophone stand. They look identical.
Anyhow, it seems they are out of them now, but it was a great deal. I’d watch their site to see if they offer another deal like that soon.
The Ultimate Case
I think I have seen the best case ever.
And David Freeman has a modified one for EWI. Awesome.
I’d love to have a one of these that fit Alto, flute, piccolo, clarinet, curved soprano, and oboe. Or one that was just for curved soprano, flute, piccolo, clarinet and oboe. It would be great if they had build your own case combinations.
UPDATE: I inquired about getting a case for alto, flute, curved soprano, clarinet and piccolo. Sadly, they do not have such a combination. To get such a case made, it would be $150 per additional instrument. So an extra $450 on top of the $450. Plus shipping. Plus tax. Ouch. considering the cases only cost $250 apiece…..that is a lot. It looks like a great case, but…..that is a lot of money for a case.
Site Slow for the Next Few Days….Due To Crashplan
Sorry guys and gals, but the site might be a little slow for the next few days? Why? Well, Crashplan has a amazing sale this weekend. A whole year of the Family version of it for $17. Well, it started off free supposedly, but then it was going up in price every two hours and when I got word of it Friday, it was at $17. Right now it is about $60 for a year of the family plan (up to 10 computers, unlimited data backup).
If you DON’T backup your computers, you should. Crashplan is PERFECT for this. It’s unobtrusive, and gives you another layer of protection in keeping your stuff safe (I can’t imagine losing all my Finale files……) in addition to your TimeMachine or whatever else you backup to. And even at $60 for a family plan, it is still a steal.
Crashplan works on Mac, Windows and Linux. Since the Jazz-Sax server is a Linux box, I can now finally backup the server files to the cloud. Whew. So, until the initial backup is done (about 2 days according to the program…..since it doesn’t use ALL the bandwidth I have), we might be a little slow for a while. Plus, my MacPro is also sending stuff to the cloud.
Sheet Of The Week – Blue (Eiffel 65)
Here is this week’s tune.
Blue by Eiffel 65 for Eb Instruments (70.4 KiB, 145 hits)
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Blue by Eiffel 65 for Bb Instruments (67.5 KiB, 77 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Honey and the Bee (Owl City)
Strangely addicting song…..
Honey and the Bee by Owl City for Eb Instruments (77.1 KiB, 64 hits)
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Honey and the Bee by Owl City for Bb Instruments (76.8 KiB, 41 hits)
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The MPV Hub is free educational resource for Mac users
This is kind of old, but it’s an awesome site (was cleaning out things I flagged in Google Reeder)
The MPV Hub is free educational resource for Mac users:
macProVideo.com, an online education company specializing in tutorial-videos for Mac users, has launched a new educational portal called The MPV Hub (http://www.macprovideo.com/hub/).
It’s a free resource developed for the Mac creative community. You can use the MPV Hub to find written articles about how to use software, short tutorial-video tips & tricks, interviews with industry experts, product reviews, and other article.
(Via MacMinute)
Sheet Of The Week (Bonus) – Skyfall (Adele)
Just got this written out. Whew…..
Skyfall by Adele for Eb Instruments (90.8 KiB, 407 hits)
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Skyfall by Adele for Bb Instruments (93.1 KiB, 219 hits)
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Music Notation and Music Education Software News | MakeMusic, Inc.
Music Notation and Music Education Software News | MakeMusic, Inc.:
Minneapolis – November 12, 2012 – MakeMusic, Inc. (NASDAQ: MMUS) today announced the upcoming release of an iPad version of SmartMusic, the interactive practice software, in the spring of 2013. The app will be previewed to the public at the New York State School Music Association Winter Conference, November 29 – December 2, 2012, and The Midwest Clinic Annual Conference, December 19 – 22, 2012.
(Via www.makemusic.com)
MakeMusic should have this out in the Spring of 2012, not 2013. And hopefully it should run on ALL iPads (including the original) since Apple’s Garageband still runs on the original iPad (and it runs quite well actually).
Sheet Of The Week – We Are Never Getting Back Together (Taylor Swift)
For some reason, I really like this song. I think it is the music video….
We Are Never Getting Back Together by Taylor Swift for Eb Instruments (98.8 KiB, 149 hits)
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We Are Never Getting Back Together by Taylor Swift for Bb Instruments (108.0 KiB, 72 hits)
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Recording Saxophone in Logic 9
Since leaving ProTools, I had to redo my default recording presets in Logic. Here is how I currently have it set up. First, I record everything at 96Khz. Why? Because I can. I think it sounds better too. More open maybe? I dunno.
Here is a picture of my channel setups. The first track is the track I am recording to (input 1). I have the output bussed to Aux 1 on Bus 27 (could be any bus, it doesn’t matter). This Aux will have all the plugins and EQ setting setup on it. So, if I do another track, I don’t have to recreate everything.
This Aux is also mono, keeping it similar to the source material. Also, this Aux is sending some of it’s signal to Aux 2, which is for reverb. You could add reverb on this aux strip, but a this is sort of a trick I learned while mixing a CD. You have both the source and the reverb separate.
Next, lets look at what plugins I have on the Aux strip….
Read More “Recording Saxophone in Logic 9” »
Jim Snidero’s new site: jazzimprovisation.com
Jim Snidero’s new site: jazzimprovisation.com:
Jim Snidero’s new site, jazzimprovisation.com, is now live. The site offers a variety of instructional videos on jazz improvisation, features top New York players, and uses cutting-edge technology.
(Via UNT Division of Jazz Studies)
Visual Thinking
Brillant!
Forum Changes
Yes, there is/was a Forum on jazz-sax. Well, whatever was there is now been replaced.
Why?
I was using something called Simple:Press for WordPress. However, they are now a paid thing (they had been free for a long time) if you want the plugins and stuff. Plus, I never really liked how it worked and looked.
So I blew it up, and replaced it with BBPress. We will see how that goes.
Where Are The EWI Sites?
Once Upon A Time…..there was a great site called EWI-EVI.com. There was a wealth of information on wind controllers and stuff. That site now seems dead. In fact, there seems little movement right now in the whole EWI sphere. Akai seems to have stopped with the software updates (not that it needs it) but things like the Vyzex Editor seem to work OK on the latest version of OS X, but the software itself has not had an update in 5 years…….yikes!
There is a project called ewitool which looks very nice, but it only works on Windows and Linux…….no Mac. It seems to be a better editor than Vyzex is/was……and at least it is getting updated more frequently.
Some other sites that are EWI related or focused:
Saxophonist John Isley has a site called ewilogic.com which is an excellent source of using Logic and an Akai EWI together. Some amazing environments (think Michael Brecker’s Logic setup), tutorials and more. HIGHLY recommend you check it out.
The other site to check out is EWI Reason Sounds which Chris Vollstadt has put together. Simply put…..it is amazing. If you play EWI (USB or the 4000S) you will want to buy Reason to use with it. He has tons of patches he has made, tutorials, tips, tricks……basically everything. Hands down, it is probably the best EWI related site I have seen.
Sadly though, that is about it. If anyone knows of some other resources for EWIs please feel free to post about it.
UPDATE: Oh, seems I missed a couple. Thanks to Bret for the heads up. Check out his Windcontroller links for some additional ones.