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list Mon, 14 Dec 1998 Volume 1 : Number 54In this issue:
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Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 08:55:38 -0500
From: jim & joyce <"lande@erols.com"@erols.com>
To: list@contrabass.com
Subject: cheatingIn the summer of 1971, I played tenor sax in a rock and roll band. This
meant twice a week practices and gigs that started at midnight and paid,
in essence, $3 per hour to haul equipment and nothing to play. A summer
of this convinced me to return to college. Now I can afford the bid
large amounts on the instruments that were practically free in those days.I could never play sax nearly as well as I could play clarinet. No
matter what I could do on the clarinet, however, someone from the band
would astutely point out that there was nobody left to play the sax. So
I got to play the clarinet only in practice.Occasionally, the lead guitar player would have to attend to one of his
four daughters. That left me to run my mic through his equipment. This
does nothing for a tenor sax. (There were some leaky pads and I already
sounded ...ahem...rough.) But if you get the opportunity, mic a
clarinet through a wah-wah petal and something that drops you an octave.
I thought of myself as the Jimi Hendrix of the clarinet and tried to
convince the band to work in a number. And the band always pointed out
that we wouldn'd have a sax OR a lead guitar.Perhaps when my family packs me off to the retirement home I will pick
up some equipment and experiment.cheers
jim------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 15:33:09 EST
From: Heliconman@aol.com
To: list@contrabass.com
Subject: Re: cheatingIn a message dated 12/14/98 12:58:50 PM Eastern Standard Time, list@contrabass.com writes:
> In the summer of 1971, I played tenor sax in a rock and roll band. This
> meant twice a week practices and gigs that started at midnight and paid,
> in essence, $3 per hour to haul equipment and nothing to play. A summer
> of this convinced me to return to college. Now I can afford the bid
> large amounts on the instruments that were practically free in those
> days.
>
> I could never play sax nearly as well as I could play clarinet. No
> matter what I could do on the clarinet, however, someone from the band
> would astutely point out that there was nobody left to play the sax. So
> I got to play the clarinet only in practice.
>
> Occasionally, the lead guitar player would have to attend to one of his
> four daughters. That left me to run my mic through his equipment. This
> does nothing for a tenor sax. (There were some leaky pads and I already
> sounded ...ahem...rough.) But if you get the opportunity, mic a
> clarinet through a wah-wah petal and something that drops you an octave.
> I thought of myself as the Jimi Hendrix of the clarinet and tried to
> convince the band to work in a number. And the band always pointed out
> that we wouldn'd have a sax OR a lead guitar.
>
> Perhaps when my family packs me off to the retirement home I will pick
> up some equipment and experiment.
>
> cheers
> jiI'm a trombone & tuba player who's been playing around with electronic effects
casually for over 10 years. On occassion, I actually bring my envelope filter
to a funk gig and blow a few minds with that. I used it at a rehearsal and
watched as the bass player, then then guitar player was asked how they got
such a funky sound. They said, "Thanks! It's just my usually thing." After a
few seconds I started noodling on the envelope filter. The singer's mouth
drops open with this big grin. "Cool!"
I guess I got hooked when I worked for a couple of synth manufacturers,
Aries and ARP...the old voltage-controlled analog stuff. The Aries was a bunch
of Moog like modules with knobs, switches and a mess of jacks that you plug
your patch cords into. Some really phat, nasty bass sounds could frequently be
heard at lunchtime at Aries and after work in the ARP showroom/studio. Aries
made a pitch and envelope follower unit so you could control your synth from
your voice or flute or whatever. It didn't track lower frequencies very well,
but well enough if you practiced at it. They also had voltage controlled
filters and phasers and flangers with lots of resonance that could be
controlled by envelope, trigger, Low frequency oscillator with 4 different
waveforms for vibrato or trill effects (square wave for trills). ARP was
manufacturing the line of Mutron pedals that Parliament/Funkadelics were so
fond of, including their Volume/wah, flanger, phaser, Biphase (dual phaser
with pedal controlled sweep!) and Mutron III, an envelope filter. I was
playing my bone through a couple of pedals one night after work and Alan R
Pearlman (A.R.P. himself!) popped into the studio with his wife. He said they
were debating whether the sound was coming from a synth or a real horn player.
Unfortunately, I could never really afford these expensive toys, but I found
a way to play around with them. I currently own a DOD env filter, MXR Blue Box
(overdrive with suboctave), Boss HR-2 Intelligent Harmonizer (plays 2
additional selectable harmonies in the key you select), a Boss SYB-3 Bass
Synth pedal (sort of a combination Blue Box and env. filter with many modes)
and a Lexicon Vortex (for some really crazy reverb, echo, phase and flange
combinations!). And yes, I finally broke down and bought a cheap 60 watt Peavy
practice amp...can't justify buying my self a Hartke Bass Amp...YET! I found
that using a Yamaha "Silent Brass" amplified practice mute cuts out any
feedback problems but creates a great deal of hiss and is uncomfortable to
hold in the horn for any long period of time.Okay....I've got the JIMI complex, too!
Heliconman@aol.com
aka
Bonedaddy@Connections.ultranet.comHappy Hollydaze! ("Today" is my favorite holiday!)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 14:10:14 -0800
From: Grant Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
To: list@contrabass.com
Subject: Re: CHEATING>I suppose it's cheating....in a way...but I use a pitch shifter to send my
>instruments up or down as much as two octaves. Didjeridus that scream like
>banshees...a beautiful deep flute...even deep jaw's harps...then add some
>digital delay...and harmonizing. I won't be deleted from the list will I
>Grant?Cheating? Certainly not. What sort of pitch shifter do you use?
Calls to mind Paul Horn's "Inside the Great Pyramid" disc, which ends with
(if I remember right) Bach chorales in multitracked flute. He also used a
pitch shifter for a "contrabass" flute.Are you still having record temperatures there?
Grant
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green gdgreen@contrabass.com
http://www.contrabass.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------------
End of list V1 #54
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