Notes_Norton

I'm predominately a sax player who doubles on flute, drums, bass, guitar, wind synthesizer, keyboard, and vocals. On stage in my current setup I'm playing sax, flute, wind synth, guitar, vocals and a small percussion controller that I use when singing something too difficult to play while singing (I'm not a natural singer and have to work at it). My duo partner is a fantastic singer and also plays guitar and Buchla Thunder Tactile MIDI controller. I make my own backing tracks. This Morph is not nothing I need, but something I'm interested in. -- It could be an aid in making my own backing tracks, -- and on stage I might be able to not only use the drum controller, but slap the keyboard skin on and play a few keyboard synth lines, as the wind synthesizer does not do harmony well (two note drone or parallel harmony, not very versatile options). My partner's Thunder and my Wind Synthesizer do things that a keyboard synth will not do (and vice versa). Having a drum controller I can hit with sticks instead of my fingers without buying an e-drum set could be a plus. Having different ways to do things is never a big problem. Having more toys (oops! tools in case the IRS is monitoring) is always a good thing. This device looks interesting. Can it do the same things as the Thunder and other things as well? Is it a cool fun toy? Most of all I'd like to know how it's made, and if it's worth trying or not. If someone has one, let me know how rugged it seems. Is it full MIDI complaint so that a USB to MIDI interface will transfer to a 5 pin DIN MIDI sound module. It gets good reviews on Amazon, but I know those can be padded, I'd rather hear from others. It's not that expensive, if it's well built and fully MIDI compliant, I just might give it a try. (I have sound modules.) If I spring for it, I'll publish a report here. Insights and incites by Notes

I see an advantage of freeware and selling add-ons or luring into the great wide world of Bandlab. In order for a profit product to remain successful, it must sell itself again and again every year. Feature after feature is added and when there is nothing left for the users to upgrade the next year (to keep the cash flowing) the company has to add things people don't really need, perhaps don't want, and affecting the stability of the program. Corporations are funny things. They depend on perpetual growth and we know perpetual growth of anything on Earth is impossible. If it doesn't keep growing, the stock prices will decline, and the stockholders will sell their stock and move on, and as the stock becomes worth less and less the company goes into deeper and deeper debt. Having the app as a loss leader or for selling add-ons might be a good idea in that the product doesn't need to bloat every year to sell the yearly upgrade. I don't know if this pertains to CbB or not, I'm just musing on the subject. Insights and incites by Notes

I got wind of this from the Buchla Thunder users group https://sensel.com/ An overview: https://sensel.com/pages/video It's an alternative MIDI controller / music production controller / Ableton Live controller / etc. / etc. I'm thinking about trying one out, but I wonder if anyone here has purchased one before I spring for it. If so, is it as advertised? Pros? Cons? Thanks, Notes I have no affiliation with this company and am asking out of curiosity - in other words - this ain't spam

I miss Eudora ;) but it doesn't have the safety requirements that modern clients have. Thunderbird and Agent are good alternatives. Insights and incites by Notes

I think Quantizing and Auto-tune are the two things that take the soul out of the music. Over-compressing is a close third IMHO.

Generally if something on the Internet is free, you are not the customer - you are the product. I don't know if that applies here or not - it could very well be a loss-leader. Notes

I can access my e-mails with my web host's web based app, and leave it there for download to my e-mail client later. This works fine when I'm not at my desk. Insights and incites by Notes

IMO if it sounds bad, quantizing won't help. Practice usually will. But perhaps I'm just too old-fashioned. Insights and incites by Notes

Gotta admit, I don't get the Tinder reference. But I have heard the name. IMO the reason why MIDI hasn't evolved sooner is that the original specs were very well thought out with room to grow, including some continuous controllers to be used for specific synths and/or manufacturers. There is a lot of musical expression available with the MIDI 1 specs, that is if the synthesizer can utilize them. Two way communication with the synth seems to be the logical step forward, although I don't know what it will be used for. But thats the limits of my own imagination. I'm curious to see what applications will use two way communications. A new world of expression might open up. Insights and incites by Notes

I still use a client. I want to keep a copy of many of my e-mails, especially customers in both my band and band-in-a-box businesses, and I want them accessible off-line. I also don't want google or yahoo reading them and adding to my dossier :O Insights and incites by Notes

I think they chose the 5 pin DIN because it was a common off-the-shelf connector. I'm glad it hasn't changed though, I have many different ended USB cables and adapters and all I need is one MIDI type cable. Like a guitar cable and unlike XLR I'm glad it doesn't matter which way it plugs in - it's reversible - so they did a lot of things right. I just wish they wouldn't occasionally fall out when moving gear. For me they don't fall out often enough to be a major PITA, but infrequently enough to be a nit. I do one-nighters for a living. Whenever I have to open the back of the rack, I habitually push all the MIDI cables in whether they need it or not. My WX5 Wind MIDI controller has a small dedicated MIDI plus power cable that locks, which is a good thing because it hangs off the WX5 and could easily get unplugged in the middle of a solo, which would be embarrassing. I don't need my gear to make mistakes for me, I can do that by myself :) Insights and incites by Notes

Hair today, gone tomorrow. Or in my case, gone years ago. If we put our heads together we could make an ..... (never mind, the censors might not like it). Better idea, Dolly Parton. You might notice the rock and roll toupee in my avatar :D Notes

And the only mistake they made was that 5 pin DIN connector. Obviously they were in-house people and not used to rolling a rack to one-nighter gigs, where the non-locking DIN connectors have a habit of falling out of their sockets. A locking connector with a mechanism like a XLR latch would have been better. But I'm a big fan of MIDI and the cables don't unplug themselves that often. On the other hand, they decide to be loose when there is no room to take the back off the rack 😀 I run with 4 sound modules in my rack. Two Yamaha VL70m's, One Roland XV-5050 and one Roland Sound Canvas. I am truly thankful for being able to fit a few thousand sounds into 3 rack spaces (actually 2.5). Insights and incites by Notes

I do this on the guitar and hate it when the microphones do it :D

Since I tend to record MIDI, what I end up fixing mostly is erasing slop notes - the kind where I went for that D and brushed the C# on the way. Since I sequence all the parts and practice each one first, on a new song, I'm still prone to that occasional wrong note. if the feel and the timing is right and the rest of the track is good, in MIDI that's a simple fix. When playing/entering the most attention is on timing. In my situation wrong notes can be fixed (as long as they are uncommon - if there are a bunch, get back Notes and practice some more before recording again). Insights and incites by notes

I guess I'm old school. Practice until I get the timing right, and play it live in real time. IMO there are no short cuts to practice until right. But then, I'm only recording myself, and unlike Bill BRainbow, I don't have clients to accommodate. I have my personal pride to satisfy. Instead I make backing tracks to play behind my duo, and I want the backing tracks to sound as close to a real band as possible. If it's difficult, it might take me a few days to work up the backing track, to get the timing right, to get the notes right, to get the groove right and to get it as good as my current skills allow. But if I'm lucky, I'll get to play that song thousands of times in front of an appreciative audience and I'll be inspired to sing or play my best on top of the track. If I knew I could do it better, it would haunt me every time I play the song. But like I always say, there is more than one right way to make music. Insights and incites by Notes

I'm interested in MIDI 2. I heard two way communications mentioned, and I wonder how that will work out. I don't have two way communications with my sax, drums, bass, guitar, flute, wind synthesizer, keyboard synth, or voice, and can't help wondering what benefit 2 way communication will provide me. Will it be fantastic, a usable tool, or meh? Time will tell, and I'll stay tuned for details. Other than perhaps a new form of synthesis, I have pretty much all I need in MIDI sound modules (notice I said need and not want). I hope MIDI 2 is so exciting that I just have to part with some of my hard earned cash. And as I said before, I'm very glad backward compatibility was a prime concern. Insights and incites by Notes

I'm an anti-quantizing person for most forms of music (some electronic dance music and disco songs need it). I believe that along with auto-tune, they are tools better to be left alone. IMHO quantizing takes the soul out of the music. It takes the breath out of it. It makes it sterile. The rhythm section needs to groove. Sometimes the 2s and 4s need to be a hair ahead of the beat, some times behind. Same for eighth notes. Big triplets need to be dragged in most cases. Melodies often drag part of a phrase and then rush to catch up or vice versa. Sometimes a certain beat of a song needs to be rushed or dragged for emphasis. In many Latin American forms of music the congas need to be played laid back behind the beat. Sometimes in jazz the ride cymbals need to be a hair pushed. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. I've played professionally since the 1960s in a variety of genres and venues. When I started sequencing MIDI back in the Atari/DOS/MotorolaMac days I tried quantizing and hated the sound. Where's the groove? Where's the soul? Where's the vox humana? I realized I had to play the parts in live, in real time, and use the feel that I'm used to by playing with some of the finest musicians I've ever heard. Of course there are many exceptions. And although you can generalize about certain things like 2&4s being laid back in the blues, the reality is no two songs are alike. If you know the song well, play it like you feel it. One more thing, as I mentioned earlier, some "dance" forms of music and/or individual songs from the disco era on need to be quantized as that is their sound. Of course, there is more than one right way to make music. My way may not be best for you. Insights and incites by Notes

It was nice. I like the moment right before totality too, because it looked more like a globe than a disk. Notes

Yes, I think GM2 was based on Roland thing called GS. It adds 128 additional standard patch names in a second bank of sounds. I have an Edirol SD-90 that is compatible with GM2, GS and XG (which I think is a Yamaha extended bank). I don't remember exactly how to access them. I have access to up to 16 variations of any GM1 voice by using a MSB (Most Significant Bit) and LSB (Least Significant Bit) in the MIDI stream going to the synth. I suppose GM2 and the others would be accessed in a similar way. But they are just patch maps and not additional sounds so I've never bothered with it. GM1 is nice because I can do a MIDI sequence using GM patches, and when another person receives it, the patches will have the same name. They of course might not sound the same, because each synth has it's on variation on what they think a tenor sax, trumpet, clean guitar or fantasy sounds like, but at least it will be recognizable. If every GM synth doesn't recognize GM2 it's not going to work.. Insights and incites by Notes

I'm glad they are ensuring backwards compatibility. Although I have new MIDI devices, I also have sound modules that go back to the dawning of MIDI like the Yamaha TX81z, Korg DS8, and Roland MT-32. While plenty of the sounds on these synths are dated, there are still some great sounds that havnen't been duplicated in newer devices. Insights and incites by Notes

OK, I'll be patient. In the meantime I found this: https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=toc.html It seems to be much better than nothing, although I'd like a downloadable one, because often when I'm intensely working on music, I disconnect from my WiFi. Notes

Is there a downloadable user manual for the current Bandlab version of Cakewalk? Thanks, Notes

Hot cocoa sounds like it will be in order. The tail end of that big northeastern blizzard will make it down here and Sunday is supposed to be the coldest night of the year. It normally goes into the upper 60s or 70s here at night, but Sunday night they are predicting 50s or 40s and then a warming back to normal. I know that doesn't sound cold to people who live in the north, but it's 80 right now, and that's a big dip in temperature. I've seen a number of full lunar eclipses, and I never get tired of them. So if I don't return, send out the Saint Bernard dogs with a full keg of brandy !!! Notes