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Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 18:05:35 -0500
From: M Rubin <mdrubin@bga.com>
Subject: Re: VW test
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comI got a sousaphone, a string bass and a PA system (2 cabinets, head, 3 mic
stands, ect..) and a girlfriend in my Jetta for many years.___________________________________________________________
Mark RubinPOB 49227, Austin TX 78765
http://markrubin.com
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Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 16:02:09 -0700
From: Grant Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
Subject: Contralto FS
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comSlightly less common than the bass saxophone, here's today's Bundy EEb contra for sale,
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=94087174,Also, a Couesnon Eb alto flugelhorn, at http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=94098387
Enjoy!
Grant
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green gdgreen@contrabass.com
http://www.contrabass.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------------------------------------------------From: LeliaLoban@aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 19:25:18 EDT
Subject: organs
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comGrant Green wrote,
>I'll venture a guess here: I'd think that most electronic keyboards are
tuned to equal temperment, while organs are tuned differently (perhaps not
meantone, but a less-tempered scale than equal temperment). The difference
tones probably work well on a pipe organ because the fifths are tuned
closer to actual perfect fifths, while pianos and most electronic keyboards
will be tuned to equal temperment (which has no *perfect* fifths). Does
the "Old Organ" stop on the Clavinova play in a non-equal tempered scale?>The cool thing about the Clavinova 811, and a lot of the reason I bought it,
is that you can tell it to tune itself to any scale you want. The default
setting is modern a=440 Hz, set up similarly to equal temperament but more
like the tuning compromise used by most piano tuners today. All the stops,
including "Old Organ," are pre-set to that default, but you can switch to
pre-set alternatives for Baroque-type equal temperament, Renaissance
mean-tone and some other useful historic scales. These settings are also
programmable, so that you can adapt any of these. You can also re-set the
overall pitch, so that if you want to use the keyboard as a harpsichord to
play with an antique instrument, for instance, you can tune to that
instrument's natural pitch instead of making the other player mess with weird
mouthpiece and neck combinations or whatever to haul up (or down) to a=440.
There's also a transposition feature that will let you set up to play music
written for an instrument of any pitch with an instrument of any other pitch,
so that for instance, a Bb clarinetist can play violin music without either
clarinetist or pianist having to sight-transpose. The computer does the
grunge-work. Easy way to get lazy . . . .I like this keyboard, although I was brought up entirely on acoustic
keyboards. The Clavinova action feels normal to me (many electronic
keyboards are "flabby"), and the touch can be set to "light" (very much like
an organ keyboard), "medium" (most pianos) or "heavy" (for piano-breakers
accustomed to a Steinway concert grand). The piano and harpsichord settings
sound reasonably convincing. The organ is okay within its limits. I'd love
to have a pedal board and another manual, of course, but for a
moderately-priced keyboard, this is a good instrument.I use the "Old Organ" on its default setting for the most part. The reason
it beats particularly well is that it's a harmonic corroborating stop, with a
quint built into it. The basic organ stop also has a quint in the mixture,
but it's heavy on the reed pipe sounds and therefore the beat isn't very
audible with that stop alone, and it won't produce a resultant at all, or at
least not one that I can hear. Those functions are also programmable for
relative volume of the different stops in the mxiture and so forth, or you
can delete a rank, although I don't fool with them much. Unfortunately most
of the pre-sets are for pop organs I dislike. One of them sounds like
Liberace's "champagne music" stop. Gag me with a Vandoren V-16.Lelia
---------------------------------------------------------
From: LeliaLoban@aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 19:35:02 EDT
Subject: organs
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comApropos of the settings on the Yamaha Clavinova 811 keyboard, Lelia the Brain
Dead wrote,
>Unfortunately most of the pre-sets are for pop organs I dislike. One of
them sounds like Liberace's "champagne music" stop. Gag me with a Vandoren
V-16.>Cheese! Two corrections in one day! Make that Lawrence Welk and gag me with
a Vandoren bass sax reed instead.Lelia
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 17:54:32 -0600 (MDT)
From: Shouryu Nohe <jnohe@nmsu.edu>
Subject: Re: Bass Clarinet Mouthpieces
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comOn Wed, 21 Apr 1999, Michael Famulare wrote:
> Hello Everybody, I need help in my search for a good bass clarinet
> mouthpiece. My old entry-level Selmer fell from a stand to its demise,
> so I'm looking for a quality replacement. Tell me what you use, item
> numbers if possible, how its sounds, and specifications like chamber
> size and facing.I find that medium mouthpieces are very good - but only for players with
experience under their belt (not EXPERIENCE experience, but you're comfy
with the bass and play it easily). Since you formerly played on a Selmer,
my guess is that this would be fine for you: my two big suggestions are
the Morgan 'D' facing mpc, or the Bay MO-M mouthpiece. I play them with a
2.5 or a 3 Vandie reed (depending on humidity, how my chops are today,
etc) and it gets a VERY rich sound, with lots of depth and a GREAT dynamic
range. Both are moderately open (MO-M means Medium Open-Medium), but not
gaping. Depending on the Selmer you were using, it shouldn't be much of
an adjustment. They are both flexible and well responding.Both are expensive, however. Even going through a catalogue, you'll pay
$150+ for the Morgan (mine was $169), and the whereabouts of $200 for the
Bay. However, I'm not sure - the Bay might be just as good of a deal,
because it MIGHT (I stress might, I don't know) come with a Bay ligature,
and IMO, the Bay ligature is better than a Rovner.(On bass, though, Rovners are darn good - almost as good as Bay's and the
price is nice.)If you feel you need to get some novacaine to numb the area around your
wallet, then...well, I suggest the Hite. It's a little more closed (only
one model available), but it's a fine mouthpiece for the price (I paid $71
retail). It's not quite as flexible as the Bay or Morgan, but produces a
fine tone and plays easily. It's comparable to Clark Fobes' Debut
Clarinet Mouthpiece - great for beginners, inexpensive, and will sound
good in the hands of most players. (Or, should I say, in the lips.)That's my three yen on the topic. I suggest that you always try before
you buy, though - what works for me may not work for you.(I've also heard good things about the Pomarico Crystal and fantastic
things about the Fobes Pro Bass mpc...the Nova, I think it's called. You
may want to try those as well.)J. Shouryu Nohe
http://web.nmsu.edu/~jnohe
Professor of SCSM102, New Mexico State Univ.
"If I wanted a 'job,' I'd have gone music ED, thank you very much!"---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 21:35:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: merlinw@netcom.ca
Subject: Re: VW test
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comI used to be able to get a baritone sax, straight Holton BBb Contrabass Clarinet, a Yamaha 5-valve Eb tuba, myself and a voluptuous tuba player into a VW Beetle (the real one, not the butt-ugly new ones.)
Merlin Williams
merlinw@netcom.ca
http://www.netcom.ca/~merlinw
A member of the Saxring and the Duke Ellington Ring.
---------------------------------------------------------Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 22:59:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: timjt@awod.com (Timothy J. Tikker)
Subject: Re: Fisk organ, Myerson Hall, Dallas
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comHere is the URL for the Fisk company's website:
http://www.tneorg.com/cbfisk/welcome.htmlClick the links for "Instruments" then "Opus 100: Dallas, TX" to find the
description of this organ, with its three 32' stops.BTW, I checked the article about this organ in _The American Organist_
magazine, May 1994 (pp. 50-54), especially the lengthy portion by David C.
Pike, then Executive Vice-President of Fisk. He describes the 32' stops
towards the end of page 52:"The Pedal Tuba Profunda 32' extension has full-length wood resonators and
is outside the [Tuba division] box. Its aural presence in the room is
palpable, making it especially well suited for earthshaking climaxes in
music for organ and orchestra...""The 32' basses of the organ merit special mention. Besides the Tuba
Profunda, which is _the_ climax stop in the instrument, the organ is home
to two other full-length 32' stops. The Prestant 32', made of polished,
burnished tin, appears in the facade from DD and is voiced for gentleness
but richness of tone and promptness of speech. As a mild,
pitch-recognizable underpinning to quiet combinations on the manuals, it is
unsurpassed and has proven to be much more broadly useful than a 32'
Bourdon [i.e. a stopped, half-length rank]. The Pedal Untersatz 32' is
scaled, built, and voiced for sheer fundamental power. The pipes,
constructed of Carolina pine, are leviathan in proportion: 32' CC is over
25 inches by 30 inches in cross section, has walls three inches thick, and
weighs over 2,000 pounds. Here is an example of a sonority that the
orchestra, partly due to human limitations when it comes to lung capacity
or bowing arm-strength, is not capable of producing -- _sustained_,
fortissimo, low-frequency energy. Its value to the organ's palette,
particularly in organ and orchestra repertoire, is immeasurable."As one will see from the stoplist either on the website or in this article,
the organ has three 32' stops, but no 64', even partial or synthetic.
There is, however, a derived 10-2/3' Quinte for a 32' difference-tone
effect. Also, the largest 32' pipe in the facade display is low D.-Timothy Tikker
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 22:22:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: timjt@awod.com (Timothy J. Tikker)
Subject: Re: MIDI pedals
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comFrom: Robert Groover <groover@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Re organs
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 18:09:33 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com
> - Organs can be difficult to access for practice, since they tend to be in
> churches and concert halls.But WHY can't one buy a MIDI pedalboard for practice?
They wouldn't be particularly expensive to manufacture, and might start
to sneak into pop music too if available.Actually, a Quebecois firm was making those: Syncordia. They've had a
website. Somebody said they might not be in business anymore, though, or
moved elsewhere at least.I played one of their pedalboards at a convention display in 1996. It
could be a pedal piano, organ harpsichord, or organ, as I recall, and could
also be set in several differnet temperaments.- Timothy Tikker
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