One Forward, Four Returns on Solo Cocktail Jazz Piano Listing

[JenniferBowman]

Rick--I always listen to the forwards of listings I submit to, and wanted to say that I enjoyed your track very much, and thought it really evoked the title. I am a professional classical pianist that has been studying jazz and was also thrilled my tracks got forwarded as I am always working on feeling the right "vibe" as I enter this new territory.

I also appreciated hearing about your creative process and how you are handling it in Cubase--I have used the tempo thing in LogicPro and it does work but is a little labor intensive. For this listing I did record acoustic but I can't always get the piano tuner to come on short notice!! Also want to give a shout out to Ryan Burns on this thread--loved your tunes as well. And incidentally I live in Olympia but used to live in Normandy Park and had a music school there called Highline Musical Arts. Small world and hope to meet you both at the rally--Jennifer

[RPaul]

Rick--I always listen to the forwards of listings I submit to, and wanted to say that I enjoyed your track very much, and thought it really evoked the title. I am a professional classical pianist that has been studying jazz and was also thrilled my tracks got forwarded as I am always working on feeling the right "vibe" as I enter this new territory.

I also appreciated hearing about your creative process and how you are handling it in Cubase--I have used the tempo thing in LogicPro and it does work but is a little labor intensive. For this listing I did record acoustic but I can't always get the piano tuner to come on short notice!! Also want to give a shout out to Ryan Burns on this thread--loved your tunes as well. And incidentally I live in Olympia but used to live in Normandy Park and had a music school there called Highline Musical Arts. Small world and hope to meet you both at the rally--Jennifer

Thanks, Jennifer. I just had a listen to your two tracks from the forwards blog. Very well done.

I'm decidedly not a classical pianist, or jazz pianist for that matter. When my daughter was in high school, she volunteered me to guest with her string orchestra, where the main featured piece was classical. While I ultimately pulled it off, I was having severe doubts of making it. The closest I've ever come to that level of challenge since then was having to sub for another player on Deep Purple's "Highway Star" -- that organ solo (ugh!) -- maybe a half decade ago. I'm mostly self-taught, with the exception of about three years of lessons from my mother between the ages of 4 and 7. But most of my influences were from the church music, musical theatre, and, starting around age 12 when I started becoming extremely influenced by Elton John and learning most of his songs, the pop and rock worlds.

Figuring out what to call these improvisations was, in many ways, more challenging than "writing" (actually just recording) them. I just listened back, sometimes quite a few times, trying to picture what sort of high-end bar or restaurant scene they might accompany, then making up a title that might describe the scene. It's so much easier when lyrics are involved.

That is cool that you are able to record an acoustic piano! I far prefer playing real pianos to electronic keyboards, even with good piano samples. However, my 1940-something Story & Clark spinet just doesn't measure up. I've had various favorite sampled pianos over the years, and tried a few for this listing, but I ended up going with the Arturia Piano V2, which I believe is physically modeled, using a preset I believe is based on an American Steinway (played with a Roland A-88 controller). (In real life, Steinways are almost always my favorites to play, and most of the sampled pianos I've gravitated toward over time tend to be of Steinways, too.)

Rick

[Ted]

Rick, thanks for looking up that Visual Conductor-- I had no idea something like that ever existed. It might be cool, I think if someone were to revive that concept. Apple/Logic X has the different "drummers" like "Kyle" etc. Maybe they could have some different personalities to wave the baton.

That's funny about the "Highway Star" solo. I recently got IK Multimedia's Hammond B-3X organ and I love it. It came with some Deep Purple presets. I'm not much of an organist at all, but I had to try and learn that solo. I never finished learning the whole thing, but what I could play was better than I thought I could do. I always wanted to try the Hammond parts from some Boston songs too. I've been putting that B-3/Leslie on everything lately.

[RPaul]

Rick, thanks for looking up that Visual Conductor-- I had no idea something like that ever existed. It might be cool, I think if someone were to revive that concept. Apple/Logic X has the different "drummers" like "Kyle" etc. Maybe they could have some different personalities to wave the baton.

That's funny about the "Highway Star" solo. I recently got IK Multimedia's Hammond B-3X organ and I love it. It came with some Deep Purple presets. I'm not much of an organist at all, but I had to try and learn that solo. I never finished learning the whole thing, but what I could play was better than I thought I could do. I always wanted to try the Hammond parts from some Boston songs too. I've been putting that B-3/Leslie on everything lately.

Boston is way more my style! I even saw them back when I was in high school (I think, or maybe college -- they were SUPER loud!!!). I had to look up notation for the "Highway Star" solo to even have a prayer of learning it. The keyboardist who usually played it within the group of musicians at the event I was playing had wrist surgery, but she is really a hard rock/heavy metal type, for example playing with an Ozzy Osbourne tribute band. I was just doing it as a favor for the woman who was going to sing it (whom I happened to be interested in at the time -- LOL).

I'm not really much of an organist, either -- mainly a piano player -- though I my third paying job was as a church organist back in junior high. (My first was as a boy soprano in an Episcopal choir in the 4th grade, and my second was doing a newspaper route from 6th grade onwards through the end of high school.) But I'll play whatever keyboards are available to me. Also, back when I was in elementary school and junior high, I was fascinated by an organ some friends of my parents had because of the different sounds it could make. At that point, I really only played piano and clarinet.

I haven't got IK's B-3 or Leslie clones. I've mostly used NI products for B3 -- I really loved B3 and B3II, but then they went and discontinued those and now have a KONTAKT sample library (Vintage Organs) that really is a step down, IMHO, so now I mostly use Arturia's B3-V. I've just used the built-in Leslie emulations, though I also have PSP Audioware's L'otary, which is very good. It's just the extra hassle of using a plugin when the virtual organs tend to already have the Leslie simulation built in. (I do use PSP L'otary if needing a Leslie on something other than an organ part, but that has been pretty rare for me to date.) But I do use PSP's B-Scanner, not for Hammond-type stuff, but rather as a "secret sauce" for enhancing background vocals, with a very mild modulation setting. I actually used to have a real Leslie (I think the model number was 147) when I was in high school and college. I didn't have a Hammond, though -- I used it for my Farfisa VIP 600. I have to say I hated that the Leslie after having to schlep it to many gigs, especially getting it out of my parents' basement (in Upstate NY), where my band practiced. I was SO happy to get rid of it (the Farfisa, too!) just prior to permanently moving out to California.

[JenniferBowman]

Rick--
I will have to check out the Arturia sounds. I am a Steinway lover through and through and lucky enough to have one (I am a piano teacher and could deduct the whole thing). I usually use Logic's Steinway for my virtual piano but have to also confess I love the East West Bosendorfer piano and that does really well for me when I am doing non-acoustic tracks.

I really love hearing all the stories and everyone's background. So interesting and inspiring. Thank you for sharing! P.S. I have played harpsichord and piano but never organ after all those years of study. Crazy.

Keep at it and all the best with the upcoming projects~
Jennifer

[RPaul]

Rick--
I will have to check out the Arturia sounds. I am a Steinway lover through and through and lucky enough to have one (I am a piano teacher and could deduct the whole thing). I usually use Logic's Steinway for my virtual piano but have to also confess I love the East West Bosendorfer piano and that does really well for me when I am doing non-acoustic tracks.

I really love hearing all the stories and everyone's background. So interesting and inspiring. Thank you for sharing! P.S. I have played harpsichord and piano but never organ after all those years of study. Crazy.

Keep at it and all the best with the upcoming projects~
Jennifer

Jennifer, I am SO envious of your having a real Steinway!!! I had my first exposure to a Steinway baby grand back in high school as that was the piano they had on the stage in their auditorium. I played it in the jazz band, but my favorite time playing it was in "Tommy" -- I did Elton John's version of "Pinball Wizard" and also led the onstage band to accompany the rest of the show. Then in college (I attended and engineering school in Upstate New York), I'd walk about two miles over to the state college's music school to use their practice rooms, and they mostly had Steinway uprights there. I've played other brands, too. I'm really not fond of Yamahas -- they seem to be all or nothing on the touch side for me, whereas Steinways feel to me like they have more gradations between soft and loud (my Story & Clark spinet, which was the piano I learned on -- it was also my mother's piano growing up, but she got another piano when I was in high school, so I got her old piano when I moved out permanently -- also seems to have a good range of dynamics). There have been very few other brands that I've really liked, but I think maybe it may vary by model, or even by individual piano, as I hated my ex-brother-in-law's upright Kawai, but I played a Kawai grand at a church a few years back that was really good.

As for virtual pianos, some of my favorites over the years have included the Galaxy Steinway and the Garritan Steinway, which I still use a fair amount. Lately I've also been using NI's The Grandeur, which is a Steinway, too, but the Arturia piano (I tracked with the American Jazz preset, but ended up using the American Jazz Wide preset in the recordings) just seemed to work better for this project. I've used plenty of other pianos, too, though. I also have the East West Bosendorfer, though I'm not sure if I've ever ended up using it on a project. I know I've used Alicia's Keys (a Yamaha) on some recordings, and some of the more flavorful ones from NI (e.g. I'm currently using The Gentleman, which is an upright of a brand I'd never heard of, on a more country-flavored song). I really like NOIRE, too, despite it's being a Yamaha. But I like that more for flavor (e.g. I recently used the felt version of that with some "cloud" -- basically granular processing -- on a moody Beatles cover). I've never had the opportunity to try the Synthogy stuff, oddly enough.

That's cool that you've played harpsichord. I've never had the opportunity to play a real one, only virtual. It used to be one of my favorite keyboard sounds at one point, mainly for playing Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" -- one of the few classical songs I've actually learned. (I've played that one more frequently on piano, though, and also on organ at a memorial service once.)

It's really so cool that we keyboard players can sound like virtually anything these days thanks to great software. Currently just taking a break from working up a (virtual) acoustic guitar part, using UJAM's VG-AMBER in this case.

Rick

[Burnzy]

Congrats! Sounds good. I checked out your track. I submitted 9 Solo Cocktail Jazz Piano songs, and got 3 forwards. I am new, and this is only my second time getting forwarded. It's encouraging. I also submitted 6 Piano Trio tracks for the other Cocktail Jazz listing, and am hoping for the best. The ones I got forwarded are on my TAXI page, also. "Cocktail for Mom," Have a Cocktail," and "Gimme Some Cocktails."

Congratulations on your forwards, Ryan, and good luck with the ensemble ones.

I was going to ask for the link to your TAXI page to be able to have a listen, but I found it through the forwards blog (https://blog.taxi.com/forward/032621/). Good stuff.

It looks like quite a few songs got forwarded for this one -- if I counted correctly, 40 songs from 25 members. That makes me wonder how many submissions they got.

I've been a TAXI member this time around since late December 2018. I was also a member for a year back around 2010/2011. Last time I got 5 total forwards, a couple of those for my more typical stuff (i.e. songs with lyrics/vocals), but also 3 for experiments, one being a whistling tune and the other two being new age-type tracks where I was trying out my wind controller with ethnic flute sounds alongside some piano and synth pads. This one is my fifth forward this time out, with two of the others being for "positive piano-based" cues, one being an experimental electronica thing (that I'd actually put together for a listing back in my 2010/2011 stint, but which hadn't been forwarded for that one), and the other was for a 70s adult contemporary song thing. So far, nothing has resulted in any deals, no less placements.

Rick

I digged your track! Seems like a deal or placement is near for you...

[BrianSteel]

Hi Rick, congrats on your forward. I work in a similar way that you mentioned with the improv sessions and tempo mapping. Your piano sounds really good. Could you tell me what piano you are using on your forwarded track. Is this a vst? Sorry, I didn't get to read through all the posts here. TY. I have a lot of vsts for piano and also East West subscription. TY.

[RPaul]

Hi Rick, congrats on your forward. I work in a similar way that you mentioned with the improv sessions and tempo mapping. Your piano sounds really good. Could you tell me what piano you are using on your forwarded track. Is this a vst? Sorry, I didn't get to read through all the posts here. TY. I have a lot of vsts for piano and also East West subscription. TY.

Thanks. Yes, it is a VST, in this case Arturia Piano V2, which is physically modeled, rather than sampled. I think I was using an American Jazz (which I think is meant to be an American Steinway) preset (something like American Jazz Wide -- the specific preset was geared toward headphones but felt like it gave a more up close and personal feeling like being at the piano as opposed to a ways away from it). I probably did some light mastering processing on it, too, but fairly minimal if I remember correctly. (I think the preset already had ambience included.)

I also use lots of Piano VSTs, including pretty much all the NI Komplete stuff (including at least The Grandeur, Alicia's Keys, and NOIRE, but also some others). I haven't used the Arturia Piano as much, but it seemed to fit that specific context better than the others that I'd tried (and I think I probably tried most of my mainstays). I tend to gravitate toward Steinways more often than not -- the Garritan Steinway Basic was my go to for quite a while, and before that it was the Galaxy Steinway from Best Service.

My controller is the Roland A-88, which has a pretty nice feel for playing VST pianos.

Rick