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mauriziodececco

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Everything posted by mauriziodececco

  1. In an electro/jazz/ambience projet, a NW2 too. Maurizio
  2. Ehm, after all this great music, difficult to post :). But i would like to share my progress on the melodica with the community. Again a concert with my class at the American School of Modern Music in Paris. coached by Aneta George. First video is Spleen by Richard Galliano: Second Video: Beatrice (Sam Rivers) and Happy People (Kenny Garret): Thanks for listening :). Maurizio
  3. A random sequence is a sequence that in order to be generated by an algorithm need an algorithm whose size (in number of instructions or lines of code) is proportional to the length of the sequence. 🥸 Maurizio PS: just a one of the definition used in IT. It may require more details, but the idea is there
  4. Exactly the conclusion I arrived to after using the MODX for a couple of years in electronic and jazz improvisation based setup. Not being actually able to do any unplanned adjustment in the rehearsal/gig setup ruled out its use in the electronic experimental project; extra financial given by the sale of an OB-6 allowed to switch to a Nord Wave 2 (discussed already in another thread). In this context, I fully use the NW2 interface to tweak the sound while playing; usually I ends up with a very different patch at the end of each piece. Nice way to generate new presets that will be tweaked next time. I continued to use it for my jazz/funk setup, but even if the sound were great (Purgatory Creek Rhodes), and the live tweaking a bit less fundamental (but still important), it was the key bed that I really couldn't adjust to, even after two years. I was happier with the NW2 keyed, so I finally decided I really am a Nord guy, and switched back to a Nord Electro 6D 61, just a bit heavier (and financially affordable with the sale of the MODX, probably we are lucky in Europe). Of course, this is just me, and my specific set of projects and workflows. For studio work, while I liked the MODX sound, I largely prefer a computer only workflow, at least for digital sound sources. Maurizio
  5. Eh eh, i was about to write the same thing, my brother is also a drummer, and we do the same thing, sometimes in band, sometimes alone just for fun. It just started a few years later (around 75).
  6. AFAIK, the Mk3 still have some kind of TP100. I searched the NI forums of the subject, and i found something in this sense, but i found no official information, so you should double or triple check before believing me
  7. Do you see any potential value/interest in the Apple Vision Pro (or similar AR devices ?) ? Like interacting with 3D controls while playing ? Should i resurrect my MIDIBlob application for the Apple Vision Pro (just joking) ? Maurizio
  8. Well, my dream machine would be a new synth (sort of, probably), a new keyboard instrument that like the B3 or the Rhodes at the time (or like the Mini Moog, or like the Prophets/Oberheim/DX at their respective time) will generate a new set of styles, a new keyboard language, even a new industry sector. Something that will inspire a new generation of musicians, and a new generation of me-too, and later clones or even real copies made by Behringer, with its set of patent and copyright infringements allegations. Something new, something innovative, something fresh. What ? I have no idea, i don't work any more in the music related IT research :). Maurizio
  9. I have an arrangement similar to what other described: a table fixed to the wall (60 cm depth), 32" with a wall support, monitor fixed too to the wall, and below a keyboard on a K&M 11810. No wheels, i just move it (the floor do not need special attention). A word of caution: initially i used a taller keyboard support, and the table was around 4/5 cm higher. I used this set up as my office for working from home, in the Covid times and i still do three days a week. After a few month, i started develop pain in both shoulders, slowly growing with time. After my doctor was a tendonitis or bursitis. Luckely in the same period i got some training on workplace ergonomic in my job, and i realised what was the problem. I bought a better, higher seat, and changed the keyboard support, lowering the table, and the pain went away. So, if you use the studio many hours a day, take care that it is correctly dimensioned, especially concerning the height of the chair and table. Maurizio
  10. A few years ago, we had a concert with my jazz/funk group; we invited a friend band to do a couple of songs during the break; the singer put a one pint glass of beer on my then shine new Nord Electro. The morning after i subscribed an insurance for all my instruments, covering accidents and theft in concerts and rehearsals 😎
  11. Well, if you look around internet you’ll find many slightly different definition of the terms; on a nice answer on Quora, for example, a guy define the note as a kind of event or object, that have two attributes, pitch and length. And then go on saying that pitch id the perceived highness of a note, and can be defined as a frequency or a name. In the context where i was working, pitch was intended as a continuous value, corresponding to semitones/cents away from a more or less arbitrarily reference note (a C0 of some sort). This value is continuous, like frequency, and correspond to a specific note when close enough in the specific scale you are using. Ok, this is a very physical/mathematical and arbitrary definition of the concept, but since it was used in writing software, it had to be. But outside the terms and their definition, the point i was making is that the human hear/brain is not sensible to frequency or more precisely to differences between frequencies, but to the logarithm of frequency, or more precisely to ratios between frequencies. Maurizio
  12. Yes, i worked with Miller Puckette for a few years (before he left Paris for San Diego) and Eric Lindemann; i met David Ziccarelli a couple of times. First on Max/Fts on the ISPW, later on the software only project that became finally jMax. Great time. About the cepstrum, i probably lost a couple of details since the time 😉; actually i worked on the software infrastrutture (Max itself) and not on the application. I miss those time quote a lot 😜 Maurizio
  13. Well, i know that the discussion moved on, but a bit of technical information can be interesting, so i'll add it, feel free to ignore :). A long time ago, i was working a Ircam, on the Max family of software; one of the things Max was user for were interactive algorithmic compositions; essentially, a Max program reacted to what the musicians were doing, trying to follow them on the score, and adding sound or effects or lights or whatever. Pitch recognition was an important part of the process. I am sure that there have been many progress since then (almost 30 years ago :), but at the time the algorithm (called cepstrum if i rember well) used was not based on the above definition, but on the analysis of the harmonics structure; the algorithm applied an FFT to the FFT of the signal; if the spectrum of the original signal jave a periodic content it means that the original signal have a regular harmonic content, and probably something that can be perceived as a pitch; so, by taking the spectrum of the spectrum, the fundamental of this spectrum tell you the regular distance between the harmonics in the original signal spectrum, and so the pitch. Sorry if it sound complicated, it actually is :). In other words, instead of looking to the fundamental, that may even not be there at all, you look at the harmonics, and see if they are organized as if harmonics of a given fundamental. It worked well for monophonic instruments, woodwinds and brass, usually. I think it should more of less work also with instruments like a piano where you actually have three (very close) fundamentals and three set of harmonics. What the actual ear/brain does i have no idea, i am computer scientist :). Maurizio PS: final point, not especially important: pitch is not frequency, pitch is the base 2 logarithm of frequency; hopefully, because the fact that the harmonic structure is linear with frequency and the the pitch perception is logarithmic is what "allows" complex harmonic structures.
  14. Either commuting, on earplugs or Bose headphones with my phone, or at home usually cooking, using KEF LSX. Or when studying music in my super-small home studio/office (4m2), using Mac on Genelec monitors. Source is usually Apple Music. Maurizio
  15. I do not have perfect pitch; i cannot give a name to a note; but i cannot improvise on a transposed keyboard; my hand fell in the wrong place, somehow my brain connect 'pitch as perception' to the physical reality of a key (more that visual, i play melodica with closed eyes usually :). This make me think that the perception behind pitches is a very complex and articulated phenomena. And by the way, just to make things more complex: even if you stick to physical definition, pitch is not strictly frequency of oscillation; it is, if you have a sine wave; if you have a piano, with three strings generating a lot of almost but not completely harmonic partials, it is something a lot more complex to define, mathematically speaking. Maurizio
  16. At the time, not enough money to buy a DX7, or anything else. I finished my studies, got the first salary in january 1986, and a year (or soà later i bought a TX802, together with a Matrix 1000 and a TX16W sampler, and a master keyboard. Yes, and an Atari :). Maurizio
  17. Sure, a lot of options around the analogue/VA/wavetable word. I wanted something that added samples to the pictures, so i looked at the Wavestate (that was in the short list), and Iridium/Quantum (that was problematic from the physical weight point of view, i walk to rehearsal and gigs :). Maurizio
  18. Yes, this is exactly the point, the alignement with the project. The project is not really standard: fret-less bass, groove machines and sax, and keyboards. Keyboards means the NW2 and my Melodica with a reverb. The style is half jazz and half techno, with the groove machines covering rythme and various riffs/pads, with a large analogue component. I am looking in this context for sounds that come out of the mix; either aggressive, or with a "natural" component that well separate from the groove behind (samples of acoustic instrument, voices, and so on); and this with a big component of improvisation, because the grooves are also (partially) improvised. The NW2 seems to work well in this context, either in aggressive or "different" leads or pads. Later i'll try to post the result of this work in the "Let's hear ..." thread Maurizio
  19. OK, i admit the sentence was a kind of short 😇, to give a short answer i would say "knobs (and buttons)". A longer one: it is a synth, not a workstation or rompler, that use samples as one as the sound source; don't use for organs, don't use for pianos or epianos, don't use it as a multi-timbral general purpose keyboard; it is not worth it. Use it if the high bandwidth between you and the sound engine is important, if direct access to the keyboard functionalities is important for you, more important that the compromise this approach imply, and if the added sample based sound engine is important for your sonic world. Not to say there no other solutions in that direction, of course. Maurizio
  20. I haven't found a lot of material in the forum around the Nord Wave 2, other than the discussion of three years ago in the MPN gear lab (that, will all due respect, were a little biased by missing the essential NW2 use-case). I just sold my OB-6 (that sat unused for a number of years in my studio) and bought a NW2, that is substituting a MODX7 in my electro/jazz improvisation based group. After the first experiences, i am very happy. Yes, it is true that the MODX7 is massively powerful, that can do almost anything and everything, but .... yes, if you spend hours in your studio doing sound design, it must be very gratifying. But if you need to change the chorus rate in a preset, or another parameter that has not been mapped to a macro, *while* improvising, well, you are out of luck, especially you do not remember perfectly well the menu structure. To be clear, i have nothing against the MODX menu organisation; i am an IT guy, used to switch OS as needed, and a new set of windows and menus do not scare me; the point is another, is playing versus programming; of course, it is a very specific use case, and in most of the cases this will not be a important subject. In concrete terms, in a year using the MODX i almost used only presets, sometimes organising them in new performances, and may changed a couple of parameters (notable reverb levels). I was never able to program a single new sound from scratch, or to modify in depth an existing sound. The day after receiving the NW2 i had a rehearsal, and in that single rehearsal i created and modified in depth more sounds than in a year with the MODX. OK, i had other Nord keyboards in the past, so my brain is already wired for them, but it make a huge difference, if what you need is the ability to quickly and deeply interact with your synth while you are playing; the bandwidth between your brain/body and the keyboard is completely different. So, anybody here having fun with a NW2 ? Anybody used a lightweight wheeled gigbag with it ? Maurizio
  21. Well, after at least three years of thinking about it, i sold my unused OB-6 and ordered a Nord Wave 2, that will substitute my MODX7 in the setup for the electro-jazz group Komalea. Maurizio
  22. A second Hammond 44H (v2) Melodica. The first need tuning, and it must be sent to Amsterdam. But rehersals are coming, there is no free slot in my planning, risking staying without the Melodica a week would stop activity (a probable mini concert end of september, for exemple). So, i have finally decided to have two of them, in order to have one always in working order. Whow, it sounds like a pro Maurizio
  23. Since the thread was resurrected, i'll tell the end of the story, it may be interesting to some 44h owners. After trying the BigSky plugin, i tried the IK Multimedia X Space plugin (there is a trial for it), and i found that for the 44H it sounded as good, if not better, than the BigSky; i found that the melodica require a clear reverb to avoid mudding up the sound. So i finally bought the corresponding pedal, new on amazon, for quite a lot less than the big names stuff. I use Rooms and Spring for medium/fast pieces, and a Plate for ballads, and it sound great. I use shimmers and other wild effects on a ambient/electro project. By the way, the 44H micro level was a bit too low; to avoid noise in the reverb pedal i bough a booster pedal that can add some amp saturation; the result is a fuller sound, great in solos. Maurizio
  24. My first serious melodica gig; actually the end of the year concert for the classroom I followed at the American School of Modern Music in Paris. The composition is mine, is called Strike, the arrangement is by the class professor (Aneta George), with the contribution of all the musicians. Text by the singer, Alana Savoir. For the moment, the video is on youtube, but unlisted, you cannot find it by searching; later we will probably publish more stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyhZ2D3PI9g
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