Recent content by dhosek

Your horn players will most certainly want to have parts in notation. If you can't read music and want to communicate with horn players, first step is learn to read. As has already been noted you want to be able to mark the notes, rhythms and articulations. Work with your horn players on this...

I'm looking at moving my mixing/editing from the PC to the Mac (mostly because the Mac is faster and less prone to lock up). Any comments on the relative strengths/weaknesses of Cubase vs Deck 3? Also, can either of these programs import multi-track WAV files? My HD recorder exports in WAV...

John Lennon used something like this in I am the Walrus (what I'd call I-bIV-V: F-B-C, except of course that we're in the key of A). Lennon's progressions are frequently very cool, as is his use of 3-bar phrasing (which McCartney also did, to a lesser extent). As for getting unstuck, sometimes...

Ol' Cecil is fun. Yes, orchestration has changed a bit since he wrote it (some instruments and techniques advancing, some instruments [re]appearing and some disappearing from the scene entirely), but it's very readable and has more than a few entertaining moments. Levine's books are dense, but...

Re: what wanted to know You can use anything for vocals. But different voices interact differently with different mics. I did some recording recently where I found that my voice sounded best on my AT3528 (small diaphragm condenser) with foam screen, while the other singer sounded much better...

I've got two sets of Rhodes sounds. Roland A90EX (controller keyboard) Voce Electric Piano (1/2 rack module) I'd have to say that the Voce is slightly better with its sounds, but it dies tonally at the extremes of the 88 key range while the Roland is solid all the way through. I tend to use...

OK, first off, in case it's not obvious, everyone's voice is different. Male voices tend to be divided into four broad categories: Basses, Baritones, Tenors and Countertenors. Basses have the lowest range typically something like E-C, a bit less than two octaves Baritones have a range which...

You really need to check the action yourself. I have an A90EX and when I was originally shopping for keyboards, I found that I liked the A90EX much better than the RD500, even though they allegedly used the same mechanics. The Kurzweil/Fatar action didn't appeal to me at all. Other people have...

Re: The producer of Titanic says.... Why not, it worked for Beethoven (and gobs of other classical composers). One of the things which is grating to me in so much music is the lack of dynamics. It's all forte the whole way through, with nary a crescendo or descrescendo to be found. And don't...

Anyone care to share some insights in the process of cowriting songs? Even just an account of a cowriting process (successful or failed, both could be enlightening). -dh

I've used Noteworthy and Finale and Finale is by far the superior piece of software. There's a stripped-down version, Finale Allegro, which might be adequate to your needs (I have the full version largely because every so often I end up having to do some serious scoring--orchestral type...

Good powered speakers have a built-in crossover and biamp (sometimes triamp). That right there makes them a better value than the powered mixer/unpowered speakers route. And you'll find that unpowered mixers will give you better flexibility for doing home recording as well... -dh