jarrell

Agreed; those are two great albums that feature these Brazilian composers with some great playing, vocals and arrangements. The story I heard on Pipoca (Hermit's tune on the Brasiliero album) was that Hermeto came to the studio with a nice ballad he had written, but Sergio said he already had enough slow tunes, and needed something up. So, Hermeto sat down and wrote out a composition on the spot - Pipoca. Could be apocryphal, but then again not out of character for Hermeto.

I'd just like the PC4 (or PC5) to add USB audio and MIDI support, like the SP7 has.

I played this piece in a performance back in '03 or '04. One thing I remember was there were several sections, at least 10 or 12, with associated rehearsal letters. For some sections one keyboard part might be written in 7/8, a second part was written in 4/4, and the third in 5/4 - but it was composed so that each section's part was the same length in time - the entire ensemble went on to the next section at the same time (see also Petrushka - 1st Tableaux, among others). Within each part, the phrasing was in accordance with the meter (or vice versa, how ever you look at it); 7/8 would be phrases of 7 (or 14 16th notes), 4/4 would be phrasing in 2's 4's and 8ths, 5/4 in 5's or 10's etc. For example (just making this up to illustrate the point) section H might be written for the 3 keyboard parts as: 16 bars of 7/8 14 bars of 4/4 10 bars of 5/4 + 1 bar 6/4 This meant you had to really pay attention to reading your part and not listening to the phrasing of the other parts, but definitely listening to the timing of other parts. Not your usual ensemble reading and performing experience, definitely took some practice and rehearsal time, plus a little nerve-racking in that if you ever got off, there was just no way to get back on... Still a fun and unique performing experience. Unlike some other similar pieces, this one has enough rhythmic variety and complexity in the phrasing to keep it interesting, plus some nice harmonic changes.

I think is is generally acknowledged the standard key is F - as it is in the old Real Book, the Chuck Sher Real Book, the Almir Chediak bossa nova book #2 (as well as every gig I've played it on). By the second half, dazzjazz probably meant the B or bridge section, where the last four chords before the return of the A section are Gm7 Ebm6 G7 and C7b9.

I think posting on the official Avid Sibelius forum is the best way to get help - several power users and occasionally Avid employees participate here. I read it every day, just to understand tips, power user usage, problem solving , how-to's, etc. In particular they can help you with getting Sibelius upgrades. If you post there it is most helpful to include your: OS and version number (e.g. Windows 11, macOS Sonoma 14.5) Sibelius version (w.g. e.g. Sibelius Ultimate 2024.6) (When you create an account to post in the forum, you can optionally create a signature that includes all of the above).

Yes, I saw ELP (with opening act Mahavishnu Orchestra!) in January 1974, and on one piece Keith explained the recording of the song (Abaddon's Bolero) had lots of overdubs, so as he couldn't do all that live, they were going to use a multitrack tape deck to playback the tracks minus one, which he would play live. I remember thinking at the time, before they started, that playing a tape live on a tour was kind of risky - speed variance, tape breaking, etc. - but the song came off without an incident. Of course contemporary classical music has been using tape music (either totally or in conjunction with live players) since at least the 1950's. OT I also like the spontaneous nature of jazz in live performance - like a lot of things in life, you just had to be there. Ironically many classic jazz albums were live recordings, so what has become classic or definitive in jazz history is just what someone played that evening. OTOH most classic jazz studio albums were also recorded live, in that there were no overdubs, no punching in fixing things, and sometimes sight reading new compositions (i.e. "Giant Steps").

Also Kurzweil PC4, just sayin'.

For smaller gigs, I just run everything through my pair of EV Zx-A1's, which do a surpassingly good job for 8"s and are good enough for more acoustic/jazz volume. For louder (and deeper, like low C) notes, the separate amp does sound better. I agree that how you play is the important factor.

When it comes to amplification, a little thought experiment should answer your question. If you're playing with a bassist, would his bass sound just as good if run through your keyboard amp, as opposed to his bass amp? Probably not...

Also unrealBook will do this, and more importantly, both apps can send MIDI program change commands when a song is selected.

Trillian is great; I have it, but only available on MacOS. However, it could be possible to gain access to the various Apple bass instruments in Logic if one got Logic for iPad, and then (in theory) access those AU from another iPad app, like AUM - anybody who has Logic iPad try that? I have Dave's patches, and they're really good, but again, I think it is the actual samples that is the issue. Yeah, I think the keyboard and ensemble/orchestral sounds in the Kurzweil are competitive, but IMHO the weakest are the guitar and bass sounds. Like I mentioned, I have the Bass Gallery sound library, and like you I don't remember the exact process I used to port a patch and its associated sample, but it didn't work out as well as I hoped.

In the past I normally used a separate device (Rhodes PianoBass, Minimoog, 360 Systems MIDIBass, Peavy CyberBass module) going into a bass amp and speaker, but now doing smaller gigs I just use my 2 EV ZXA1's using just the PC4's main outs (they work surprisingly well for acoustic jazz volume). For bigger and better sound, I have been thinking of exactly what you said, using the second output pair and of course a separate amp. While I can route individual patches within a multi to these outputs, I don't think addressing just one output is possible, but no matter, I can just take one output to the amp. But yeah, probably time to roll up my sleeves and get programming 🙂 Just a little frustrating that a $1,000 cheaper keyboard has exactly the sound I want out of the box, but I have to spend time working on it. I forgot to mention that I had an old Kurzweil bass sample CD, that I spend hours with trying to transfer a sound to the PC4 (I even wrote some code to decode the proprietary Kurzweil disc format, before I realized I could use an old Chicken Systems app to do that. I don't remember the details (this was a pandemic project), but several pf the programs I ported over had problems and just didn't work that well. Having said all that, I think part of the problem might just be that the Yamaha patch seems to more organically respond to velocity, whereas say PC4 patch 847 P-Bass, while it has a nice slap sound at high velocity, doesn't. I think the fact that it switches from one keymap (set of samples in Kurzweil parlance) to another above a specific velocity makes for too abrupt a sound change - ideally you want the sound to gradually change with increased velocity, like you might scale a filter to velocity. I spent some time last night just playing with different bass patches, and I noticed a funny thing - part of the problem I had with the fretless bass patches was added effects (even gasp reverb!). Once I tried out one of these patches in one of my multis, as I expected, there were no more effect units available (the PC4 has 32 units which are allocated from the lowest to highest slot (zone) in a multi, so a bass patch in slot 7 or 8 will get none). Of course I planned to disable effects one them anyway... And sure enough, a couple of the fretless basses sounded better to my ears without effects (although this was just through headphones).

I am currently gigging with a Kurzweil PC4, doing a few left hand bass gigs here and there (which I actually enjoy), and looking to upgrade my bass sounds. Wondering what my options are. Both with the PC4, and with an iPad or even small module. The PC4 bass sounds are decent, and I already have some multis with them. However, I know I can do better. I spent some time going through these bass sounds, and I think the problem is not patch programming, but the actual samples themselves (although I'm no expert patch programmer I admit). In particular, I play a session at a friend's house every week where he has a Yamaha p115 digital piano, and I have to say, the electric bass patch on there is really good - very touch responsive, nice tone, just the right emphasis when digging in - definitely better than any bass sound on the PC4. In addition while the PC4 has a decent fretless sound, it sounds better for solo than rhythm section usage - I had a great fretless sound on my old Peavy Cyberbass module, for example, and know I can do better there. The acoustic bass sounds in the PC4 are good enough for me, at least for now. So, looking for good electric and fretless sounds. I looked around for bass libraries I can buy and load into the PC4, as I have about 1 MB sample ram left, and would prefer for ease of setup/teardown to have everything in the one keyboard. However I can't really find any, at least in Kurzweil format. I have Chicken Systems Kurzweil Creator, which supports up to K2600 format (good enough, probably), and/or the Logic Sampler, which allows one to build an instrument. TBH if I can I'd prefer not to spend the time to do things that way, and find something more ready made. Or, I could use my iPad Pro (6th gen, so would need a USB C interface/dock), or even my old iPad Pro 9.7 (lightning, and I have a Korg plugKEY somewhere, although the latter with its short built in lightning cable seems pretty delicate). But all I can find in the App Library is iFretless, which sounds OK I guess. It seems bass AU instruments have not migrated to iOS yet. Again, I'd rather get the sounds into my Kurzweil - it already has a great synth engine, just need the right samples and patch programming. Any thoughts/advice?

I think the E-E range comes from the Rhodes, where the idea was to lose both a little from the top (8 notes) and bottom (7 notes). C-C weighted 73 would be my ideal. Perfect for left hand bass, could live without top octave, or shift as necessary.

I compare myself to a person in their twenties who is one of the list curators. When I was in my twenties, it was the 1970's. So, when I ask this 20 something curator to consider albums from past decades, I also ask my twenties year old self the same question. Caveats: Of course, I may have to consider individual songs, as the concept of a long playing album didn't come about until the 1950's. Also, I realize with today's media access through streaming and YouTube, it is far easier for anyone to listen to older music than it was in the 20th century. Still, interesting to consider how I would have curated a list when I was in my twenties: 60 year old albums (1964 vs. 1914 - 60's vs. 1910's) In the seventies I couldn't name a single song from this decade; way too old. 50 year old albums (1974 vs. 1924 - 70's vs. 1920's) In the seventies I might have known a few songs from this decade; way too old. 40 year old albums (1984 vs. 1934 - 80's vs. 1930's) At least this is the start of the great American Songbook (OK, actually 20's), so, Rodgers and Hart, Gershwin, Cole Porter songs - I appreciate them now, but in my twenties, not so much. 30 year old albums (1994 vs. 1944 - 90's vs. 1940's) More great American Songbook; still too old (my parent's music!) 20 year old albums (2004 vs. 1954 - 00's vs. 1950's) Two new styles - R&B and Rock - still too old for me back then - preferred Steely Dan over Elvis, Stevie Wonder over Dinah Shore - sorry. 10 year old albums (2014 vs. 1964 - 10's vs. 1960's) Finally, the first decade I listened to music as it was released - a lot of albums I like here.