My New Video: How World Music Can Change Your Life

[Fleer]

Vastman is alive and posting at VI Control. 
As for Silk and RA, I opted for the former because of the articulation wealth. Didn’t get the latter. Indeed, too many instruments covered in too little space. 

[Zo]

5 minutes ago, Fleer said:

Vastman is alive and posting at VI Control. 
As for Silk and RA, I opted for the former because of the articulation wealth. Didn’t get the latter. Indeed, too many instruments covered in too little space. 

Thks Fleer , will give silk videos a watch ....

Why Vastman doesn't chill around here no more ? Glad to hear he's good .... Tell em Zo said wassup !!

[Fleer]

I’d like to, Zo, but he’s not as frequent as back in the day. Here’s hoping he’ll find his way back to our neck of the woods

[Zo]

9 hours ago, Fleer said:

I’d like to, Zo, but he’s not as frequent as back in the day. Here’s hoping he’ll find his way back to our neck of the woods

Thks homie , just knowing he's around enougth already

[jerrydf]

Great video, Reid. I love those eastern instruments like the koto and the yangqin. I've had a long interest in music around the world, both folk/custom based and modern derivations, including stuff from my own doorstep - traditional Celtic and English folk which I play in our ceilidh band. Here in the UK one of the greatest proponents of all sorts of world music is broadcaster Andy Kershaw. He had regular shows on BBC radio for a number of years (he was also a war reporter in his part time!) until he fell foul of the BBC (partly his own fault regarding a personal matter).  Anyway, he's back with his own podcast - https://andykershaw.co.uk/category/podcast/ complete with playlists. He actually extends beyond the purist "world music" label, and includes whatever he likes. Andy has a no-nonsnse attitude - listen to the music, no jingles or over-chatting. Do give him a listen.

Anyway it inspired me to acquire a few world music kontakt libraries. I often find these a little limiting in thier depth, so I tend to end up buying specific instruments like Boulder's Dahn Tran, etc. 

Personal plea: Does anyone know of a real Cajun accordian vsti? Not any old accordian - the honking bellowing Marc Savoy type of box. It's a beautiful sound.

jdf

[Reid Rosefelt]

11 hours ago, jerrydf said:

Great video, Reid. I love those eastern instruments like the koto and the yangqin. I've had a long interest in music around the world, both folk/custom based and modern derivations, including stuff from my own doorstep - traditional Celtic and English folk which I play in our ceilidh band. Here in the UK one of the greatest proponents of all sorts of world music is broadcaster Andy Kershaw. He had regular shows on BBC radio for a number of years (he was also a war reporter in his part time!) until he fell foul of the BBC (partly his own fault regarding a personal matter).  Anyway, he's back with his own podcast - https://andykershaw.co.uk/category/podcast/ complete with playlists. He actually extends beyond the purist "world music" label, and includes whatever he likes. Andy has a no-nonsnse attitude - listen to the music, no jingles or over-chatting. Do give him a listen.

Anyway it inspired me to acquire a few world music kontakt libraries. I often find these a little limiting in thier depth, so I tend to end up buying specific instruments like Boulder's Dahn Tran, etc. 

Personal plea: Does anyone know of a real Cajun accordian vsti? Not any old accordian - the honking bellowing Marc Savoy type of box. It's a beautiful sound.

jdf

Thanks, Jerry. 
Celtic music is so beautiful.  I hope someday I’ll be able to give it a serious listen.  
I have many accordion libraries, including Tarilonte’s, but nobody has done a real Cajun accordion yet.  Of course, if you know how to play one like that, maybe you’d get close  

I agree with seeking out quality solo instruments.  But there are often some quite good ones in collections  

Working on my next World Music video now  If all goes well, it will be better than this one   

 

[bitflipper]

What an inspiring essay, Reid! btw, "1492" is one of my all-time favorite soundtracks. 

I have so many virtual instruments on disk that I don't use often enough. Many of them I've had to look up on Wikipedia because I didn't know what the heck they were. Kontakt has been a musical educator, a window onto the larger world. Who knew there was such a thing as a bass balalaika? And that it sounds awesome in a jazz or prog rock context.

[Reid Rosefelt]

3 hours ago, bitflipper said:

What an inspiring essay, Reid! btw, "1492" is one of my all-time favorite soundtracks. 

I have so many virtual instruments on disk that I don't use often enough. Many of them I've had to look up on Wikipedia because I didn't know what the heck they were. Kontakt has been a musical educator, a window onto the larger world. Who knew there was such a thing as a bass balalaika? And that it sounds awesome in a jazz or prog rock context.

Thank you so much.  That's the funny thing, I was on those locations for months.  I was in the cathedrals and on the boats, but I didn't meet Vangelis. :  ) 

Yes, it's so hard to get the most out of what we already own, and our attention keeps getting drawn to all the imaginative new releases. 

The only thing that works for me is to make templates.  If I didn't have a Chinese instrument template, I'd be lost.  How many Guzhengs do I own?  I need to have them all together.  And I have the same for everything I reach for a lot, like electric guitars, ambient guitars, pads, pianos, percussion, etc.  I'm always building these things.  I actually enjoy making them.

Kontakt opens the door to so much free stuff.  I think full kontakt is the best purchase a young musician could make. 

My training mainly comes from YouTube videos.  I watch lots of performances and training videos.  I learned a lot about the Yangqin from the teacher from Singapore who let me use his student's video--he's got a channel with courses.   I included more information about how to play a Yangqin in earlier versions of the video--but I had to find a balance between all the other things I was trying to do.  But definitely if I had shown more about technique it would have made watching the girl more interesting.  Because her technique is impressive for someone so young.   It's also good that I bought a pair of sticks.  It's good to get your hands on something.  My next purchase is going to be a wood or bamboo flute.