Keyboard Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 10) LINKS letters STREAMIN’ AND STEAMIN’ Just had to comment on Jim Aikin’s article this issue on software samplers (Jan. ’08). In it he says, “No hardware-based sampler has yet been built that includes streaming playback from a hard drive.” Actually, way back in the late ’90s Akai included sample streaming from hard drive in their S5000 and S6000 series samplers, and they’ve had it in all successive samplers since. Streamed samples could not be played polyphonically or looped, but other than that it worked great and you could fire long samples with no delay. I still think that the S5000 and S6000 samplers are a pinnacle of sorts in the hardware sampling world, and mine still gets lots of use with the USB Aksys software that gives you software sampler ease of editing without the CPU strain. I’m loving all the sampling articles; keep up the good work. —Gregg Ward TEMPO FUGIT I love your mag, and have for years. One thing that bugs me, though, is in your full song/hot solo transcription (as on page 58 of the Jan. ’08 issue), a tempo marking is never given. Why? How fast do these tunes go? Not everyone is familiar with the original performances, so a tempo marking would help. Any possibility of including one? Thanks and keep the flame burning. —Zenon Slawinski How fast do the full song/hot solos go? You know the three goals of all good music: higher, louder, faster. Pick any two and go for it. Seriously, good suggestion, we’ll start doing that right away. —Ernie Rideout, editor in chief CAMILO COMMENTS In over 20 years of reading your publication, I honestly cannot remember a more well-rounded, informative, and inspiring interview than your December feature on Michel Camilo. His insight into the “holy trinity” of musicianship (technique, the physical and mental demands of performance, and the spiritual connection one has with their music and their audience) was exceptional. What a wealth of knowledge this man has. Those fortunate enough to attend one of his master classes should realize the value of his advice. It’s obviously a product of great teachers, genuine dedication to one’s instrument, and insightful personal reflection. —Brad Bobesich VIRTUAL VIRTUE Over the last six years I reluctantly sold my hardware and switched to a main controller and soft synths. I haven’t looked back since, and overall, I enjoy the millions of choices of patches I now have versus the hundreds I used to have. However, it seems to me there is one major player missing from the field: Roland. The other major players have made an appearance into this brave new world, or at least allowed others to create emulations of their sound. I am aware of Roland’s VariOS platform, but it’s sort of missing the point to use a piece of hardware when I already have a Mac thirsty for software; and I’m one of many who will seldom buy outboard gear again. I’ve been reading online that Roland keeps issuing cease-and-desist letters to any developer that publishes decentsounding emulations of their vintage gear. Yet Roland does not produce any of their own. When will they get to this? I’ll push the envelope and ask that it come in a Mac Audio Unit version, too. I have a few Rolandtype emulators for Reaktor, and they do the Juno series justice. But as for my old JX-8P and JX10 pads — those sounds are really missed. If you folks have any rapport with Roland, please ask them for us, “wassupwiddat?” Either produce something or allow others do it. Or better yet, point me in the direction of a realistic SuperJX emulator. —Robb Dorschel Thanks for your interesting question, Robb. Coincidentally, as I write this we’ve just returned from the 2008 Winter NAMM show, where one of the bigger announcements was that Roland has purchased a majority share of Cakewalk. My first question to our friends there was exactly your question. Their answer probably won’t make you happy, as they indicated they have no plans to create virtual vintage Roland gear. But they did not say that they’d never consider it. At least now we have two companies to bug with our request. —Ernie Rideout, editor in chief LINK LAMENESS Dudes! Every single time in the past couple of years that I have tried to reference a link from an article, it’s broken. Every single time! I love reading your magazine but it’s ridiculous. I would think that web content would be king with you guys. And it’s always something I’m dying to hear, in this case a sketch done with Absynth 4 from Jim Aikin’s excellent, in-depth review. Fire your web guy and get someone who can get this done! —Darren Yes indeed, we’ve had a bumpy road where web service has been concerned this past year. Our article links have been much better in the past couple months; hopefully as we go forward, you’ll be able to find all the articles, audio, MIDI, and video that you’re looking for. —Ernie Rideout, editor in chief THE SLOW LANE Recently I remember reading in the mag about a program or piece of hardware that allows you to slow down a CD (without changing pitch) so you can learn the really fast parts. I’ve tried looking through the last year’s back issues but can’t find it on my own; I think it was briefly mentioned by one of the artists in one of the articles. Thank you in advance for your help on this, and keep up the great work on a great mag. —Michael Moore-Kelly Thanks for the kind words, Michael. Around the office, many of us do a lot of transcribing, and we use a lot of different tools to do so. The more popular among my colleagues and my staff are, in kind of this order: the Amazing Slow Downer software (Mac, PC; www.roni music.com), the TASCAM CD-VT1mkII CD player (www.tascam.com), the PSD340 CD recorder and player (www.superscopemarantzpro.com), and the Transkriber software and TR-1000 digital music study recorder (PC mostly, Mac OS 9; www.reedkotler music.com). —Ernie Rideout, editor in chief Find us online or join the forums at www.keyboardmag.com. LET’S HEAR FROM YOU Contact the editors keyboard@musicplayer.com Keyboard Magazine 1111 Bayhill Dr., Suite 125 San Bruno, CA 94066 Subscription questions 800-289-9919 (in the U.S. only) 978-667-0364 keyboardmag@computer fulfillment.com Keyboard Magazine Box 9158 Lowell, MA 01853 Find a back issue 800-289-9919, 978-6670364, keyboardmag@ computerfulfillment.com 10 keyboard 03-2008 http://www.keyboardmag.com http://www.keyboardmag.com http://www.ronimusic.com http://www.ronimusic.com http://www.tascam.com http://www.superscope-marantzpro.com http://www.superscope-marantzpro.com http://www.reedkotlermusic.com http://www.reedkotlermusic.com
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