My Blue Heaven, music by Walter Donaldson and lyrics by George A. Whiting, entered the public domain in 2023. This is a really fun song to play. One of my favorite 2 beat style songs. I have been wanting to try to make a split screen video for awhile, so I chose this song to try it. I thought it would be interesting to play my soprano sax (aka "Tiny") along with my baritone sax (aka "Beast"). I'm pretty satisfied with the result. Submitted for your listening pleasure.
Key- Eb Major. Tempo- quarter note= 200 bpm.
This was recorded in Logic Pro 11. Video was edited with Final Cut Pro. I am using Band In A Box Ultrapak 2024 for Mac.
Memo: Features Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm JazzSwingFreddie Sw 190 with Bebop Acoustic Bass, Piano & Jazz RealDrums. Guitar is intended to blend with drums, creating perfect backdrop for piano. -Examples: Green Dolphin St., Solar, Genre "Intensity" Score=30/100 _JFREDFS.STY. Fast Jazz w/ Fred Guitar All RealTracks. Quartet. Tempo=190 (180-250) Instruments: Ac.Bass, Ac.Piano, Ac.Guitar, Drums RD: Jazz: a: HiHat b: Ride & Snare :Craig Scott RT752: Bass, Acoustic, Jazz BeBop Sw 190 , Neil Swainson RT755: Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Jazz BeBop Sw 190 , Miles Black RT1098: Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm JazzSwingFreddie Sw 190 , Oliver Gannon
What a great listen! That bari really shines. Actually, both sax tracks are splendid.
I'm almost 80 years old, grew up in the 40s and 50s. My mother was a wonderful singer, and I can remember her singing this many times as she did the housework. And she watched all those old B&W movies from the 30s and 40s. Thus, I grew up listening to this style of music. She was particularly fond of the Carmen Miranda and Bing Crosby movies. She died in 2012 at almost 90 years old. You sure did bring backs some great memories for me!
I like the straight-forward arrangement - everything that's needed and nothing that's not. I've used that "Fred Guitar" on several of the old big band style of songs my wife and I have written - and she sang. It's such a solid presentation that compliments almost all swing styles.
I get a Tommy Dorsey feel when I listen. Nothing wrong with that!
What a great listen! That bari really shines. Actually, both sax tracks are splendid.
I'm almost 80 years old, grew up in the 40s and 50s. My mother was a wonderful singer, and I can remember her singing this many times as she did the housework. And she watched all those old B&W movies from the 30s and 40s. Thus, I grew up listening to this style of music. She was particularly fond of the Carmen Miranda and Bing Crosby movies. She died in 2012 at almost 90 years old. You sure did bring backs some great memories for me!
I like the straight-forward arrangement - everything that's needed and nothing that's not. I've used that "Fred Guitar" on several of the old big band style of songs my wife and I have written - and she sang. It's such a solid presentation that compliments almost all swing styles.
I get a Tommy Dorsey feel when I listen. Nothing wrong with that!
Very nice!
Alan
Alan-
Thank you so much! I'm so glad this brought you some happy thoughts when listening. I've been wanting to do a split screen recording for a little while now. It was more difficult than I imagined. I even bought a template for Final Cut Pro, but I was not able to get it to do what I wanted... it through off syncing the audio from logic to each of the screens. I ended up doing it manually.
I really love playing both the soprano and bari, though my main instrument is tenor. Using the bari and soprano seemed like a good choice for this arrangement as they are so far apart in range.
Steve, cool swingin' version. Super playing on both saxes and very transparent recording and mix. LOVE the BiaB arrangement, there are lots of excellent jazz styles that we don't hear enough of on this forum. Another super song.
DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
Great choice of rhythm section instrumentation and love the saxophones. Excellent production.
Some favourite Waoist Adages: #1: Play on the Way. #13: Ask not for whom the flower blooms, it blooms for you. #58: Bring consciousness to it. #63: On the road to effortlessness, effort must be made. #92: Be Love Now, the rest will come on its own.
Steve, cool swingin' version. Super playing on both saxes and very transparent recording and mix. LOVE the BiaB arrangement, there are lots of excellent jazz styles that we don't hear enough of on this forum. Another super song.
DC Ron- Most of the original music I've written in the last 20 years has leaned heavily towards fusion jazz. But, like almost all jazz saxophonist, I cut my teeth playing standards. BIAB does such a great job with acoustic jazz rhythm sections.
Cool fun. My thoughts go to how you captured and treated the horns.
It is a fun song to play. I should have made sure that I was standing at the same distance from the camera. I recorded the soprano first, then the bari. Next time, I will storyboard it a bit. Make sure that I am looking in the direction of which horn is playing at the moment. Also, add some harmonies/backgrounds on the non-melody/soloist horns. Maybe animate the individual frames so that they zoom into place and the melody/soloist is in a bigger frame to be featured while the others are in smaller frames while playing backgrounds or just listening to the melody on the featured instrument (not sure how to do this yet... but I am researching it).
Steve, one of my favorites that you played to perfection. Great tone on those saxes. I'll be 79 in early April so like Al this brought back some great memories. In fact I played this song when I was in a wedding band back in the early 1970s. Keeps playing those classics.
Love is grand. Divorce is twenty grand!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Steve, one of my favorites that you played to perfection. Great tone on those saxes. I'll be 79 in early April so like Al this brought back some great memories. In fact I played this song when I was in a wedding band back in the early 1970s. Keeps playing those classics.
MarioD-
I've played this song a lot over the years, though usually on tenor. I'll be 60 this year. I remember my grandmother used to sing this whenever we were out on a road trip. Good memories for me too.
This is absolutely not a genre I normally listen to, but when I saw how much fun you had recording your instruments, I listened to the whole thing. Twice! Very well done, you're a good brass player
This is absolutely not a genre I normally listen to, but when I saw how much fun you had recording your instruments, I listened to the whole thing. Twice! Very well done, you're a good brass player
B.D. Thomas-
Thanks for giving it a chance. I'm glad you enjoyed it. The video editing for split screen recording has been a bit of a challenge, but I'm glad I tried it. Have a great weekend!
Great job with both saxes! BIAB is so strong for jazz. I have gotten so much mileage out of the jazfred realstyle, it's ridiculous. LIke Nigel says, "More, please."
Windows 11, Intel Core I5 10400, 16 gig ram, Scarlett 2i2, Sony Acid Music Studio 10, BIAB 2020 UltraPlus Pak
Great job with both saxes! BIAB is so strong for jazz. I have gotten so much mileage out of the jazfred realstyle, it's ridiculous. LIke Nigel says, "More, please."
TuneMoner-
Thanks. Been really having a lot of fun with BIAB. I'm working to get some of my original material produced in BIAB. Gonna try and put together an arrangement that will have ALL my horns on it (Soprano/Alto/Tenor/Baritone Sax, Flute, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and EWI).
Learned a couple of new tricks for split screen recording, so I went back and re-edited "My Blue Heaven" from a couple of weeks ago. Same video clips and audio tracks. I think it's cleaner (border between the frames and I'm the same size in both frames). Also, got the audio synced better with the video. Let me know what you think.
Gonna spend Spring Break trying to get another split screen recording done of an original tune. OR... maybe try a Coltrane ballad. Maybe both.
Cool fun. My thoughts go to how you captured and treated the horns.
It is a fun song to play. I should have made sure that I was standing at the same distance from the camera. I recorded the soprano first, then the bari. Next time, I will storyboard it a bit. Make sure that I am looking in the direction of which horn is playing at the moment. Also, add some harmonies/backgrounds on the non-melody/soloist horns. Maybe animate the individual frames so that they zoom into place and the melody/soloist is in a bigger frame to be featured while the others are in smaller frames while playing backgrounds or just listening to the melody on the featured instrument (not sure how to do this yet... but I am researching it).
All good things but they don't address how you captured the horns...mic, reverb, compression, EQ, distance etc. were the things I was interested in. By the way, you'll not you've had a few listens & responses but don't seem to have reciprocated. I'm sure there're folks in the forum who like a listen & comment. Not me, but others.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
Cool fun. My thoughts go to how you captured and treated the horns.
It is a fun song to play. I should have made sure that I was standing at the same distance from the camera. I recorded the soprano first, then the bari. Next time, I will storyboard it a bit. Make sure that I am looking in the direction of which horn is playing at the moment. Also, add some harmonies/backgrounds on the non-melody/soloist horns. Maybe animate the individual frames so that they zoom into place and the melody/soloist is in a bigger frame to be featured while the others are in smaller frames while playing backgrounds or just listening to the melody on the featured instrument (not sure how to do this yet... but I am researching it).
All good things but they don't address how you captured the horns...mic, reverb, compression, EQ, distance etc. were the things I was interested in. By the way, you'll not you've had a few listens & responses but don't seem to have reciprocated. I'm sure there're folks in the forum who like a listen & comment. Not me, but others.
Ah.... now I understand what you were asking.
Ok... I'm using an Sennheiser 441-u for the saxophones. I record into Logic Pro X. For EQ, I run a low pass on the saxophones, push the mids in the 2-3k range, and roll the highs off a bit. Reverb is with the Logic Pro Chroma Verb- Set to "Room", Dry at 85%, Wet at 10%. I run the Logic Pro Compression and Noise Gate using the default settings. Mic is place pointed at the middle of the saxophone (around the F/G key), approximately 3 feet away.
I also have a FetHead by Triton plugged into the back of the mic... it's a dynamic mic and records pretty soft. To get around this, the FetHead, an In-Line Microphone Preamp. It boosts the signal 27db.
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