funky sax

[kensuguro]

another exercise that's more syncopation orientated with a funky beat. Sort of wanted it to sound like "it's just begun" (jimmy castor bunch)

[kensuguro]

better stereo separation mix:
http://omgpop.snoops.s3.amazonaws.com/snoopsv2news2.MP3

[astroman]

great mix, particularly from the arrangement point of view.
if you could move a tiny bit of version 1's intro 'muffle sound' over to this one you'd be perfectly back in the seventys...
but maybe you're not interested in that anyway (good Jazzbass sound, too)
in this version it's hard to tell from a real sax, you probably just need(ed) some time to get used to the response of the controller

cheers, Tom

[kensuguro]

I did go for a more vintage sound in the first mix, but the narrow stereo field messed up instrument separation. But it's a neat sound though, when all the saxes get bunched up and becomes a thick texture. I hear it a lot in older b-boy classics.

The second mix has all the same sax recording, just with a slight eq to get more high end. It's interesting how the just drums make the sax sound muffled because of the high end masking. I spent years studying how to eq strings, I guess now I need to learn to eq saxes. It's hard to figure out what to exaggerate to get the most "natural" sound.

For now, I just interpret the sax sound as vocals, which seems to work for ensembles (lead + chorus) in the way I mix and arrange the lines. It's weird, I learned chorus arranging by studying brass parts from EWF and Brass Construction, and so it seems I can use that to arrange sax parts. I tried doing it with strings, and it didn't work at all. no surprise there. lol

The peculiarities of EWI and how it interacts with sax bros is interesting. I'm just amazed at how much automation goes on with just notes + breath control, since that's basically all sax bros uses. The bite sensor which is meant for vibrato is actually very nice to do quick pitch bends to simulate embouchure loosening like when bending up into a note, or a secondary scoop during a note to emphasize beat. The rest seems to be all in tonging and breath, especially when to use less breath so cc02 is not peaking out all the time.

[astroman]

would have expected more than just eq for the difference, at least that's what impression leaves...
in your 'jazz' recordings the horn is taking notes (keyboard-like) into one another, on the funky track it sounds much more natural as the sound really stops in between. That's what I considered as 'get used to' side effect.
I had a similiar impression with aftertouch, velocity on the Casio - it's quite stunning...

cheers, Tom

[kensuguro]

I guess it's not "just" EQ, it's voxengo HarmoniEQ. I never really figured out what they do with the high end boost feature. It's "harmonically enhanced", whatever that means. More harmonics with waveshaping?