Larry's Tune is my latest in my “Leisure Suit Larry” series. Of course this means this is a practice piece for my wind controller, an instrument that I hope to live long enough to learn without having to resort to midi editing!

Anyway this song started out in BiaB using the JAZ_60 style. I brought it into Sonar and reworked everything.

Let me know what you think.

You mention a wind controller and I see guitars on your avatar. Could you share how hard it was for you to learn the wind controller? I am a guitarist that is considering one day purchasing one and trying to see if it is as difficult as the saxophone was for me. The biggest problem I had with the sax was the reed squeeks. Do you experience any problems liek that or is it more forgiving?

As for the song, I love the mood and the passing chords you chose. And I enjoyed the guitar fills in between the sax parts. The tone of the guitar is nice and clean that favorably fits the nostalgic feel of the song's genre.

NIce job!

RickeG

Mario,

Am I correct in understanding you played the sax on the wind controller and added guitar too? If so, I'm impressed. I like to hear concrete examples of people using BIAB as a learning tool. I also like to hear songs that are not entirely generated by the software, but which also incorporate tracks played by the person recording the song. (keeps it interesting)

Your song inspires me to dig deeper into BIAB as a learning tool. So far I've mostly used it as an aid to songwriting or a backup band to jam along with. But there are clearly many ways this software can be used to grow as a musician. We are all life-long learners, whether we choose to embrace that idea or not. Heaven forbid that any of us should learn to stop learning... at any age.

Thanks for posting.

Hi RickeG, Thanx for the kind words, I appreciate them.

Yes I am a guitarist TRYING to learn the EWI-ISB wind controller.

I used to play trumpet and French horn many years ago. I purchased the EWI-USB because there is a brass fingering mode. However it is a slightly different fingering than a trumpet. Plus there are octave rollers for controlling your octaves. All which take time to learn, time unfortunately I have little of at the moment. I look at the EWI-USB as a totally different instrument that I must learn. Thus all of my songs that contain the wind controller are slow songs, I’m not ready for any kind of speed yet, and I have to do some midi editing to get it to sound better, i.e thank God for that

Now my brother used to play clarinet and he picked it up and was playing in a few minutes. Apparently it is much easier to play if you play a reed instrument so you may be up and running fairly fast. However remember there is a learning curve here, i.e. no valves, pads, reeds etc.

You will get no reed squeaks using this wind controller. Also remember that with any wind controller you not limited to one sound. You use it to sound like any instrument you have in your sound arsenal. For instance if you only use the EWI-USB and the VSC-GM that comes with BiaB you can access any of the 128+ sounds are available.

Have fun - MarioD

Hi PatMarr, yes you are correct. I did play the guitar and the sax on a wind controller here. Actually I trying to learn a number of instruments and BiaB is a tremendous help. My process for this one is as follows:

1 - I figured out the chord progression and tempo on my guitar.
2- I inputed the chord progression into BiaB and selected a style (JAZ_60)
3- I brought the Biab midi tracks into Sonar, deleted the midi guitar and added mine
4 – Using the BiaB generated parts as guides I then replaced the bass and keyboard parts using my P-Bass and midi controller keyboard
5 – I replaced the BiaB midi drums with some Groove Monkey midi drum parts
6 – I added the sax part

Note that I did some slight adjustments to the Groove Monkey drum parts and that I had to edit the midi keyboard and sax parts. I am NOT a real keyboard and/or wind controller by any stretch of the imagination. But I’m having fun trying and learning.

Thanx for the kind words.

Hi Mario,

Enjoyed it very much. Looks like you are being quite successful in your search for new horizons.

Don S.

Mario,

Enjoyed it - you made us wait a little bit for that great guitar work of yours - but it was a pleasant trip getting there.

Well done.

Good tune! Well done and musical to boot....

I am also a trumpet player who struggles with the EWI USB! Yes, the fingering system is not the best. Actually, the EVI was WAY more effecient as a midi controller, Nyle Steiner designed it for Akai, and then when they pulled the plug, he marketed them himself, however his version looks like something a plumber put together, a giant oreo cookie!!!

The biggest issues for me on the EWI are>

Rollers don't work well, almost impossible to play the lowest octave. Some say hand cream works, but doesn't work for me.

You have to really spend a LOT of time on the bite and note sensitivity to get accurate note output.

Many users don't realize you have to have both midi IN & midi OUT checked in Aria player for it to work correctly. This doesn't make any sense, as the EWI doesn't "Output" any sound at all.

The whole "Bite to get Vibrato" concept doesn't work well and was much better on the EVI

Also, I haven't been able to get the EWI to work in BIAB. I get midi input in Reason, Pro Tools, Sibelius, etc. But not BIAB.....still trying to resolve it. Other users are having issues also. If anybody is getting it to work, PLEASE let us know how you are doing it.

Ed

Don and Powderman, thanx for the very kind comments.

Hi Ed, I feel your EWI-USB pain! I did look at this trumpet controller but $2K USD is way out of my price range right now!

Although I do all of my recordings in Sonar I did manage to get the EWI-USB to work in Biab. This is the setup I used:
1-in the MIDI/Audio Drivers setup window I choose the following
a-Midi Input Driver = USB Audio Device – this is the USB port where my EWI-USB is plugged in
b-MIDI Output Driver = SBX-Fi Synth A – my sound card
c—check both Use VST/Sxi Synth and Route Midi Thru MIDI Driver
d-I’m using Cakewalk’s TTS-1 for my GM synth
e- I’m also using MME audio drivers NOT AISO

2-in the BiaB’s main window click on Thru, select your sound and play

Good luck and let me know if this works for you.

Nice job on the song, Mario.
You're coming along quite well on the EWI.
The sax sound was much more realistic than many other softsynths I've heard from EWI.
Was that an Aria sax?

Keep up the good work.
Mick

Thanx Mick for the kind words. I’m still not comfortable with the EWI yet. I want to play without editing or thinking about what I’m doing. That only comes with practice and time.

Yes that is the Aria Tenor Sax-Jazz that was used here.

Hi Mario,
Enjoyed your song and thought your playing with EWI good and really loved your guitar.
Jim

Quote:

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Yes that is the Aria Tenor Sax-Jazz that was used here.

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I haven't heard anyone on the wind-controller forums that could make it that realistic.
Nice job!