Video instruction

The Wizard of BiaB

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Band-in-a-Box (BiaB) has proven to be THE musician’s tool for improvising, songwriting, learning, and virtually anything else. Their incredible team manages to make wonderful improvements every year. And while it is no slight at all towards this amazing company, the “Wizard” I am referring to is not an employee.


Stelios Panos (the Wizard) is a content creator. Of course BiaB is completely incredible as is, but external musicians can add songs to those supplied by BiaB, to add new genres, for teaching purposes, etc. Stelios has created an amazing repertoire of great guitar jazz, and rather than a ‘magic’ wizard he is better described as a virtuoso, one who creates by expertise and lots of hard work. I have written about his fantastically accurate transcriptions of the jazz guitar greats in both print and on this blog, and said that all of his work has my highest recommendation. Well, he has outdone even himself with his latest set: JiaB, that is Jimi(Hendrix)-in-a-Box. In fact, when I first got a copy, I spent most of the morning just playing through JiaB tracks and listening while watching the transcriptions! I had to stop (I almost forgot lunch).


This incredible work of passion is the pinnacle of Stelios’ work as a virtuoso. This HUGE project, which took a year of work, includes all of Hendrix’s songs including live performances and even a few bootleg tracks. Mr. Panos knows his tool intricately, stretching BiaB’s capabilities to their extremes. Each song is divided into tracks for each instrument, just as the studio masters are. Instruments are included in two forms: as .WAV files for perfect reproduction, and as MIDI files which can be examined for detail and edited if desired. Notation is included, as well as TAB, and accurate lyrics. And of course Jimi’s singing as well as any background parts round out the amazing sound.


Just having this collection of Jimi Hendrix’s music is a great listening treasure. Even greater for guitarists (and bassists and drummers) is the ability to study any song, instrument by instrument, and even slow down the music to learn this classic collection. You even have the option of tuning down to Eb (as Jimi tuned), or tuning them up to play in standard (E) tuning.


I have run out of superlatives for this truly amazing work, so take a look and a listen to the short promo that Stelios has created for Jimi-in-a-Box at www.rockinabox.blue, where you can also purchase this great set.


DON’T MISS IT!

Is Studying Her Book with Ariane Cap a No-Brainer?

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Yes, in my opinion it is.

I was fortunate to be able to join one of her cohorts myself, to see her teach and also the reactions of her students. We were a mixture of levels of ability, plus those who had studied with Ariane Cap before and “newbies”.

Studying with the author of the book you are learning from is often a prestige thing — and certainly studying with Ariane Cap is something to put on your CV — BUT this is a hard book and it takes a teacher who is an expert in the system to really teach it. Other teachers are liable to give up on it, or to try to breeze through it, not forcing the student to put in the hard work that will make them a much, much better player at the end. Ariane does this and gets great results, even if you are a pro to begin with!

I pointed out in my review of The Pattern System for the Bass Player that she is one of the finest teachers in the USA and beyond. But even knowing that it is amazing to watch her in action. The book is the central focus of the course, but as you work through the book she stresses creating your own variations on her exercises, giving plenty of examples. Improvisation is also encouraged from Day 1.

Learning in a group is a great way to hear others’ questions and concerns and encourages you to share your own. The sense of camaraderie is a great experience, feeling that the other students are cheering for you with no sense of competition. In fact, the cohort I was in was comprised of very nice people, some I hope to stay in touch with. As Ariane teaches several different groups at a time, she brings what she learns in each group into the others. It’s like extra sets of feedback which helps all groups, while allowing each to be small enough for individual attention.

The experience is VERY interactive . Ariane encourages questions, comments, and even critiques. She often strays from the book to add extra material on general bass playing which is invaluable.

She notes students’ bad habits when she sees them, which is a bit embarrassing but considering her own high level of virtuosity is extremely valuable. It is also much less painful with the support of the other members of the cohort. And she manages to check on every student during group exercises.

Shy students need not contribute, although it really does help to get into the spirit. In the group that I was part of there was no negative reaction to any student, but lots of sincere support. Much of that is down to Ari’s own supportive style. I noted that several students had taken other courses with Ari, which is the ultimate vote of confidence.

The price a terrific bargain to study with one of the finest bass teachers in the USA, if not the world! I should note that with the size of the book and her individual attention, the 10-week session is unlikely to get beyond the first half of the book, but again at the price it is worth taking a second session to reinforce what you have learned and to finish all of the great content.

For each pattern, anywhere on the neck, Ariane insists on students knowing where the tonic is even though it is not usually the starting note for a pattern. She turns many exercises to listening to the distance of a note from the tonic as an ear-training exercise that is very effective. Some of these variations seem to come to her on the fly, and it is very impressive to watch!

I invited comments from the students, and got back not a single complaint. The best comment sums up the general impression. (I have Mark’s permission to use his full name, and I think such an excellent comment deserves recognition):

The material in the Pattern System Book is pretty dense, and I would have tried to get through it much faster on my own.  By studying the material at a slower pace, I feel like I have absorbed it much more deeply.  The accountability of being in a group is great, and helps me stay focused.  Some of the material is really hard!  But staying focused and sticking with it, I can see daily improvement in my fretboard knowledge and playing.

Mark Rosenthal

I agree with Mark whole-heartedly. I myself would have tried to get through it more quickly, but Ariane has put a system in place to keep you from doing this, as it would definitely produce inferior results, thinking you have mastered what you have not. Simply using a metronome at strategic points, you quickly note where your personal problem areas are, and of course there are strategies provided to shore these up. And each week she posts what to practise the coming week, and how to do it. Each session is recorded, so that if you can’t be there live one week, you can view it later. It’s also handy to go back and review some of the concepts.

So again, studying The Pattern System for the Bass Player with Ariane Cap is a no-brainer! But you don’t have to take just Mark’s and my recommendations, just check out her testimonial page to see students as well as pros comment on her teaching and playing (and I will note that Victor Wooten’s praise is from 2010, and she has improved greatly since then!).

Need I add that her courses have my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION?

Duke Robillard Hot Licks Video

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Hal Leonard keeps up their highest level of excellence in their expanding and improving Hot Licks series with a masterful presentation by Duke Robillard. Duke is “a guitarist’s guitarist”, an often-used phrase that is rarely explained. To me it means a guitarist who other guitarists listen to for two reasons: 1) to learn new licks and techniques, and 2) for the pure enjoyment of the music and hearing our instrument played so well. This is why Neil Peart (who we miss greatly) is a drummer’s drummer, and Geddy Lee is a bass player’s bassist. (Sorry Alex, but this is Duke’s review!)

Few instrumentalists have mastered as many genres as Duke Robillard, and his combinations of styles make him absolutely unique. The little I knew of him a while ago had me thinking of him as a rock and roll player influenced by R & B. Then an acquaintance, out of the blue, gave me a copy of Conversations in Swing Guitar (Stony Plain, 1999), a duo album that Duke did with Herb Ellis that has some of the finest swing guitar ever recorded! That album comes the closest I have ever heard to my swing hero, George Barnes.

Book cover

Duke Robillard is a most enthusiastic student of all styles of blues, early jazz and swing, and several other artists who combine multiple influences. He starts off with one such artist, T-Bone Walker (no relation, unfortunately) and the depth of his knowledge of T-Bone’s styles is staggering. If anyone has missed out on this fundamental guitarist, you will be amazed at the influence T-Bone Walker continues to have on all sorts of modern styles. This chapter leads naturally into Blues-Based Jazz Styles, which is full of licks and ideas that will fit into all sorts of genres. and is a real joy for swing players. Another artist who blended styles in surprising ways was Les Paul, who Duke obviously has great respect for. At this point it becomes obvious that the master class has been building forward, with Les’ style including swing, blues, and jazz with his own unique take on all of them.

Following the migration of the blues northward, Duke next demonstrates some killer Chicago Blues Style. By now you will see that Duke can barely keep from playing, often as he talks. We are at the start of Chapter 4 here and we are already at Example 43 — and what an example it is! There are so many techniques demonstrated that it will take you a while to work through them, but it is well worth the effort.Vibrato styles, double-stop slides, tremolo-picking (with palm mute), and slides are some of the techniques that make up this expansion of blues style. Double Stops, or as Duke prefers to call them “Chord Fragments“, make up a short but important chapter on using thirds (mostly) to build up complex chords melodically, incorporating different ways of using slides with them.

Another meaty chapter is Texas Influence & Rock ‘n’ Roll. This is one of those chapters where you will have to learn the examples slowly and then speed them up. This is clearly a style that Duke loves, as he flies through Example 58, climaxing in a Free time bar over a simple F major chord before returning to more “normal” time such as the 15/8 bar on page 51, ending in 12/8. Texas has produced its own sound with many great guitarists hailing from there, and Duke has studied many of them carefully to be able to demonstrate their several variations on that sound.

Duke makes a surprising confession that he had trouble with producing the finger-tremolo sounds of his early heroes, so he got the sound using his whammy-bar. His demonstrations show how he has mastered the use of the bar, and also that he now also has it in his fingers. Taking advantage of this “problem”, he came up with several unique uses for the bar in his playing. The final notated chapter is Jazz Chords in the Blues, and the title is an important distinction. This is not jazz blues, but how he slips some jazz chords into his blues playing. He points out the importance of knowing when to insert these chords, and not overdoing it.

The master class ends with two performances: Les Paul’s “I’m Confessin’ ” (a particular favourite of Duke’s) followed by his own version of Jay McShann’s “The Jumpin’ Blues“. Unfortunately, these are not transcribed, due to a combination of copyright law and running out of space. With 78 good-sized examples the book already is jammed full of information that you want, so there is no point in bemoaning this. In fact, this is a great opportunity to transcribe these great performances yourself. They are not too long — 2:25 and 3:39 respectively — and Duke explains what techniques he will be using as well as a couple of new ones. If you have worked on the techniques throughout the book, especially the jazzier ones, you should have no trouble figuring out what he is playing, especially since both hands are shown in close-up.

You can playback the videos from your MyLibrary page at Hal Leonard, but unfortunately their Playback+ does not support video files. If you feel you need help in transcribing these last two songs, you can download the files, especially the last chapter that contains these songs. Note that Duke also introduces a couple of new techniques that he uses in the songs, so there’s a bonus for watching this video! There are several ways to slow down the video, so I’ll just mention a few ideas. One is to use the VLC Player and its slowdown capability, but the pitch drops as you slow the video; maybe not the best solution. If you have QuickTime or QuickTime Player, you can use New Audio Recording (from the File menu) and record just the songs. You can then use another app to slow down the audio but keep the pitch the same. I like iRehearse for this or Hal Leonard’s own ASD (Amazing Slow Downer).

SUMMARY: This whole series is simply amazing and I unreservedly recommend ANY of the book/video combinations. This is an ongoing project at Hal Leonard so if your favourite Hot Licks video has not yet been done, give them some time! The Duke Robillard version is a brilliant addition to a superb series that includes some of the greatest players of all time, and Duke could measure up to any of them. So far I have concentrated on jazz and swing players, with more rock ‘n’ roll added from Duke Robillard, but there are several Nashville artists and country players, chicken pickin’, metal players, slide guitar as well as artists like Brian Setzer, Buddy Guy, Eric Johnson, and many more on the way. With great transcriptions that cover the finest nuances but remain easy to read in both notation and TAB, you can’t lose with these fantastic master classes. If you can’t get to your favourite music store, check them all out at https://www.halleonard.com/.

John Entwistle Hot Licks DVD

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With such a great roster of artists, Hot Licks has to be flexible to accommodate different ways to get across the most valuable information from each person. Emily Remler was a lucky find, because very few of the top artists are actually great teachers. John Entwistle is a case in point. While not a great teacher, he is probably the greatest electric bass player of the 20th century, changing the way the bass was used and perceived, and inspiring generations of great bassists. So the problem was how to get his ground-breaking style across in video.

DVD cover

What we get with this DVD is more of a demonstration-type master class than theory, which suits Entwistle’s style perfectly. His enthusiasm and virtuosity is very inspiring, and you really do have see what he is doing with his right hand — while he explains it — to get the brilliance in his approach to the bass. He is musician, playing trumpet and French horn before starting on the bass, and he continued to play the French horn (an occasionally trumpet too) with The Who. From the lewd sounds in Pictures of Lily to full horn arrangements on Quadrophenia, he remained a consummate musician.

The fact that he inspired some of the greatest bassists like Geddy Lee makes it even more interesting that he was inspired by guitarists, finding the standard bass patterns of his time too dull It is a testament to the change he made in the view of the bass, making it a lead instrument rather than part of the “backup”, that it is still perceived that way today. How many songs of the mid-1960’s are like My Generation, a 2:00 song that has a bass solo as well as several bass breaks? Only The Who played like this, and many budding guitarists decided to switch to bass after watching them play.

On the DVD, Entwistle teaches more by example, but unfortunately not all examples are transcribed.  He is demonstrates the right hand first, and it is very interesting to see how he tends to hit the strings from ABOVE rather than sideways, unless he is using a pick. This lets him switch strings very rapidly, and also to play chords. By setting both treble and volume to the maximum, he can just tap the strings to get his signature sound, the treble cutting through a very loud band.In fact, it seems quite surprising that such a powerful player plays so lightly, thanks to setting his strings very low to the fretboard. But the most incredible revelation is that he uses all five fingers of his right hand “just to add a bit of flash”! This is a feat that few if any other bassists have ever mastered, but he can just toss it in to “show off”.

The left hand is not covered in detail, although it is pretty obvious that Entwistle plays the real blues scale (pentatonic plus flat 5), with freely added chromatic notes. You can see more of his left hand in the exercises.

One  physical issue with the DVD is a noticeable hiss, most likely from the high volume of the amp he is using in the studio. Once again with the DVD versions, the booklet is rather light and a lot of the examples are just not transcribed. Many of the examples fly by on the screen but are not all included in the booklet. The examples are not even numbered, on-screen or in the booklet, but they ARE shown in the table of contents on the main screen. This is crucial, because the table is organized by technique or concept, and so there are many entries. Still, this part takes up less than half of the 45-minute format set by the videocassette original. What to do to optimize the remaining time?

Arlen Roth, a producer of the series, steps in to jam with Entwistle and to ask questions that fans no doubt are dying to ask, which Entwistle answers off the top of his head. Oddly, he switches to a pick here, showing his versatility and discussing the advantages of both fingers and picks. It is here that he states that he keeps his action low and actually hits the strings softly, being careful not to ring harmonics accidentally. Surprisingly, he changes strings every show, every time in the studio, and often even after sound checks. One reason is to keep the strings lively with lots of treble, but he also notes that when the singer uses a humidifier on stage for his voice, the humidity causes corrosion on the strings.

He demonstrates LOTS of chords, both 2- and 3-notes, and some of the tab here goes by slowly enough for us to play along. He prefers 2-note chords and shows some great ways to use them melodically and harmonically.

Many of the demonstrations have been cut into “exercises” that can be played back at both real speed and slowed-down. These are some of the most valuable parts of the DVD. It seems to me to be the best idea to watch the DVD all the way through first, and then having seen and heard the ideas he is getting across, work with the exercises to get the techniques into your own fingers. Unfortunately the exercises are only numbered, not given the names of techniques they teach. Still, it’s a good idea to take notes as you go along, including the exercises you need the most practice on.

While not perfect, this is still a great master class because it is John Entwistle, and he had a lot of great information and insights to pass on before his tragic death. This is one of the best master classes on playing the electric bass around, by the man who completely changed the style of bass playing forever after him.

Every bassist should have a copy of this DVD!

WaveLab 10 Mastering Courses

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Would you love to master your own recordings but are concerned about the learning curve of the software? Steinberg is now recommending two courses by WaveLab Academy that focus specifically on WaveLab 10, a program that I heartily recommend. WaveLab 10 can not just save you a ton of cash — although it will — but it will also put you in control of the mastering process. No more “I paid all that money for THIS???”

The most disheartening sentence I heard from a reader who paid a big name studio big bucks to master their song was “I think I can hear a difference”!

I have not taken either course so I can’t say how good they are, but considering that Steinberg themselves are recommending them, I’d say they are probably really good. There are separate courses for Elements and Pro versions. The Elements course lasts for three weeks, while the Pro course goes for five weeks. Each is a combination of pre-prepared streamed video and live sessions where you can ask questions and get immediate answers. These live sessions are recorded so that you can re-watch them later.

You can get more information and register here.

If you have WaveLab, or are considering learning to master recordings, you should definitely check this out.

 

 

Jazz Guitarist Holidays

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Is there a guitarist who does not love Django Reinhardt‘s music? There certainly isn’t one that can’t learn a lot from his playing, and after a few listens that ‘like’ will turn to ‘love’.

If you are one of my faithful readers from Just Jazz Guitar then you know that the music of Django brings to mind ONE name: Stelios Panos! I gave Stelios and his transcriptions of Django, Wes Montgomery, and Charlie Christian a well-deserved rave when he first came out with them for Band-in-a-Box. (You can read that review here.)  In case you didn’t have BiaB, he also provided MIDI files for many of the songs in order to share the wealth further. Now he has come out with further improvements on Django’s transcriptions as well as sets for Joe Pass and Grant Green.

Django & Xmas Tree

In a previous review this month I suggested that every guitarist would love a copy of Band-in-a-Box, so if you are wondering what gift to get a loved one who plays guitar (or really any instrument) look no further. Why go out into winter weather or order something that won’t arrive on time when you can order BiaB and get it before Christmas if you order by Monday! Better yet, you can download Stelios’ wonderful transcriptions from Django-in-a-Box right up until Christmas morning if you like to cut things really tight!

Stelios has continued to make his transcriptions available to Django fans by creating videos of ALL 277 transcriptions of Django’s solos in two different formats: one plays the original solos with transcriptions in notation, while the other gives you the Background Track that you can play over top of. Now even if you don’t have Band-in-a-Box you can still learn and play all of Django’s solos with original accompaniment including on-screen chord charts. (N.B. The ones marked “SOLO” contain just the solo, not the song theme.) These videos were made with Band-in-a-Box 2019 so the ornaments are true to Django’s playing. I like to use the free VLC player (which is available for every major OS, including tablets and phones) for these since it can slow down or speed up the videos for you. It’s a great way to learn.

The Joe Pass and Grant Green sets are the same high quality of transcription that we have grown to expect from Stelios Panos, and he has not let us down.  You don’t have to choose since the set includes both guitarists. This package contains 55 songs/solos from Joe Pass and 22 Grant Green songs/solos for Band-in -a-Box . You can view both lists of songs by clicking here. There are high-quality audio tracks of each song as well as the BiaB versions. One caution about these, and other songs marked “solo”: Band-in-a-Box usually tries to create a backing track on the fly that can sometimes be more distracting than helpful, so I like to turn off the other instruments in the Mixer and just have Audio playing. One nice feature of Band-in-a-Box is that it will suggest a RealStyle that will substitute for songs where they fit, and the results are usually a nice improvement.

Whether you are shopping for a loved one or just yourself, go to Django-in-a-Box and see all of the great jazz, and not just guitar. Even guitarists will want to check out Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, and Miles Davis! You can learn a lot from another instrument’s interpretation of songs, and they help you to get out of your own patterns for your personal instrument. It should go without saying that learning from some of the all-time greats in jazz will open your ears and playing to great new possibilities.

As always, Stelios Panos gets my top recommendation for his astonishing work in the service of jazz players everywhere.

Mastering – Is It Worth Your Money?

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Executive Summary: We look at WaveLab Pro 10, another astonishingly powerful software tool from Steinberg that can save you thousands of dollars while teaching you one of the most valuable skills in music, all the while improving your mixing and grasp of the entire recording chain.

WaveLab Pro 10 box

‘They’ll fix the mix in mastering” “The more you spend on mastering the better your song will sound” “I didn’t master my CD and it sounds great anyway” “We sell our CD’s at gigs so we didn’t need to master them.”

There are a lot of misconceptions and partial truths floating around about mastering. I had just spoken with a couple of friends who had decided to master individual songs and were wondering whether it was money well spent. Since we’re all about getting musicians value for their money, and saving it where we can, the appearance of WaveLab Pro 10 seemed perfect for this blog. WaveLab Pro 10 is Steinberg’s newest version of their acclaimed mastering software (and as with Dorico, there is also an “Elements” version with just the basic capabilities for learners and those just interested in checking out mastering for fun). I’ll have a lot to say about WaveLab Pro 10, which is frankly amazing, but first lets see what “mastering” is.

The job of the mastering engineer is to take the final mix of the album, song, soundtrack, or other audio source, and make it consistent with professional standards. One task is to fix obvious audio errors (pops, clicks, extraneous noise such as buzzes from lights, fans, etc.). A more important task shows up with an album, EP, or other set of songs: consistency. While the mixer gets the song balanced as perfectly as possible between the tracks, the mastering engineer balances all of the songs to have about the same overall loudness (no annoying changes of volume for the listener) as well as the same general frequency content (with room for obvious exceptions). You don’t want one track to sound as if it were recorded in your living room while the next sounds like it was done in a barn.The artistry here is in the creation of a single sound-world for the entire project while no part seems too different from the mixed version (for a more colourful description of the problems that can arise see Mixerman’s Zen and the Art of Mixing). Other tweaks can include adding more of the highest frequencies for more “air” or boosting a frequency that is lacking to give a sound more “presence”. These are subjective calls but based on lots of information on the mix of frequencies and their changes over time. Mastering includes (or at least should) all work up to the physical replication of the work. This includes the creation of a DDP (digital description protocol), a format used by most disc replication plants to create CD copies of an album. (Neither of my friends received a DDP file for their money, although they did have single songs mastered.)

It’s true that the mastering engineer can save a bad mix to some extent, but in many cases with a stereo final mix, there are serious limitations. I’ll give you some examples as we explore WaveLab Pro 10. Just as you don’t want to let a bad performance slide, thinking that “they will fix it in the mix” you don’t want to hope that a poor mix will be “fixed in mastering.” Great results only come from every member of the team doing their best.

WaveLab Pro 10 Example 1

WAVELAB PRO 10

I hadn’t seen WaveLab since its very early years and so when I first opened version 10.0 I was overwhelmed by all of the information in front of me. I chose a nice-sounding stereo mix from years ago that had a few problems to test what WaveLab could and could not do. My first problem was trying to find the transport bar/window. It started off “hidden” and I could find no reference in the online documentation (the current PDF manual is for version 9.5 with a multi-lingual manual for 10.x available soon). This was frustrating, but my problem was solved by a quick question to — and a quick answer from — the Steinberg WaveLab 10 forum. While support forums vary in quality, Steinberg’s have proven to be great so far. I got quick, accurate answers to my questions, including detailed instructions and even screenshots with recommended settings. A very welcoming and knowledgeable group! (It turned out to be present but I needed to click on its “Show” button to make it visible.) BTW, I always use a pseudonym in support groups so that I don’t get special treatment as a reviewer. So, once I had this going, many of the displays were self-explanatory. Being able to see the frequencies vary as the song played was a revelation, but even more amazing was the 3-D graph of the frequencies over time. The bass was woefully missing for ALL instruments, and so was any hint of “air”. This nice song was compressed into a strangely tight band of frequencies. While this was mostly OK in an MP3 or on the laptop’s speakers, the better the playback hardware the more obvious the flaw.

WHERE’S MY BASS?

While every instrumentalist seems to want more prominence, the bass player had a good case here. The well-placed interweaving lines were barely audible, often drowned out by the over-loud guitar. I was able to easily choose just one spot where the bass was crucial and adjust its EQ with WaveLab’s own StudioEQ. I had my whole set of Slate EQ’s at the ready, but I really liked WaveLab’s StudioEQ, a parametric EQ with shelving that let me hone in on the precise frequency range of the bass. If you do have a favourite effects chain for mastering, WaveLab Pro 10 will host any 64-bit plug-in.

With this precise ability to boost the frequencies of our missing bass I hit our first mastering problem. Why the mixer chose to cut the bass so drastically suggests poor monitoring during recording and mixing. The lack was obvious from a first listen and confirmed by the several different frequency displays. I raised the bass guitar nicely BUT also raised the guitar when it was allowed to encroach on this frequency range. Even being able to pin-point single notes caught guitar ones as well. While their tight interplay could have been separated in mixing, it was too late (for me at least) when the stereo file arrived at my “mastering desk.” So some sloppy mixing could not be fixed at mastering.

M/S ANYONE?

Another option in mixing would have been to put the bass in the middle and pan the guitar out to the sides. Besides giving a wider stereo image, it would have made mastering in WaveLab a lot easier as it can to M/S (Middle / Side) processing simply, and then switch back to regular stereo with a single click. Had it been mixed that way I could have processed the bass (and probably the drums too) without the guitar getting in the way. If. A mixer who knows what to expect in mastering will likely deliver a much better mix.

CHAIN, CHAIN, CHAIN

I was more successful with my next few attempts. I was able to add in very high frequencies and get a lot more “air” in the song without taking away any of its punch. A slight hum from the lights disappeared without a trace.

One huge bonus has been learning what can, and cannot, be salvaged in mastering. Working at the end of the recording chain gives you an overview of the entire process, including what you could have done better in mixing, even what mistakes you made in recording. Even if you are a complete beginner and working on an important project that will be professionally mastered, you can learn a lot about your mix and make fixes that show up in WaveLab so that the pro has the best possible mix of your music to enhance. Rather than spending their important time (and your important money) fixing bad mix decisions, they can concentrate on those little tweaks that add up to big improvements.

At the mastering desk I can see that the bass is far too low but also that the guitar keeps dropping into the bass range. So apart from just being too loud, the guitar part makes raising the bass volume very tricky. Were I able to, I’d remix the original (which is apparently long gone) to balance the instruments better. So for my own next mix, I’ll use this experience to have a better result to be mastered, having fixed flaws in my mixing technique as well as compensating for the shortcomings of my equipment and room.

MORE FEATURES

WaveLab Pro 10 has enough features to fill several books (in fact there are two important PDF ones, the Operations Manual and the Plug-Ins Manual) and several are difficult to describe without a solid knowledge of mastering.

In general, there are several graphic representations of frequency content, both in real-time as the song plays and separately covering the entire piece. Different ones allow you to focus on different areas that need attention.

You can also choose virtually any section, including the entire song, to process as finely or broadly as you wish. You can also see the effect of your processing on the waveform in real time and toggle between the processed and original versions instantly. This can save you from unintended consequences of what “seemed like a good idea.”

There are all sorts of tools to save you “riding the sliders” with things like Dynamic EQ that can click in only for a particular instrument or frequency range when they are sounding, not affecting other instruments unnecessarily.

One huge plus is the Audio Montage, that allows you to load several songs at once as well as a reference song. One of many things you can do here is compare the content of each song to one another and even to a reference song you would like to emulate. You can then use the same processing to get the same type of sound as your reference!

This is also a handy area from which to create a DDP if you are planning to distribute your work via disk. Assembling this protocol file is much easier with the songs right in front of you, and as much of this process as can be automated has been, letting you concentrate on artistic decisions like the run order.

Aside from the vast array of processors and their versatile modes of operation, plus the sales opportunities of disk, WaveLab goes a step beyond by taking you into the money-making world of global music sites such as iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, etc. If you thought you would just upload your “mastered” MP3 to this type of site, read on and learn.

WaveLab Pro 10 Example 2

READY FOR THE BIG TIME?

WaveLab Pro 10 allows you to format your music for the big streaming sites like iTunes, Spotify, and the rest. These sites have very specific formats that you must follow to have your music accepted on these services and WaveLab makes it easy to conform your music to them. It also has an Encoder Checker to let you hear your song as it will sound on iTunes, and the others or even as an MP3, and compare it to the original in real time. You can even use the frequency analyzer to visually check the effects of this coding.

Specific loudness is a requirement for streaming sites, and this can be confusing as loudness is NOT the same as volume, gain, and other similar terms. WaveLab has a simple one-step procedure to get it right first time. (Yes, even if you don’t get it right, the site will automatically adjust the loudness of your song, but it is best for you to be the one in charge of doing this and hearing how it sounds for yourself first.) You also look much more professional providing the exact format they require.

WaveLab lets you add the metadata that you need too — especially important if you want to get paid — and it will even let you add your album or song cover as well as lyrics to each song.

Not every mastering service does all of this, so there you have to fill in the gaps for yourself, IF you know what those gaps are. Submitting unprepared, poorly formatted material marks you as a real amateur, and I don’t mean this in the sense of “music lover”. I found all of these crucial steps, like other parts of WaveLab Pro 10, thoroughly thought out.

LEARN BY DOING

The best way to learn mastering is to master something, preferably something fairly simple that you have mixed yourself. Just remember that your goal is to learn mastering, not to produce a brilliantly mastered song at first. Steinberg provides an entire YouTube channel of videos showing the basics of mastering and how to achieve them for beginners, and the new features for seasoned mastering engineers along with tips and techniques for all.

You can find Steinberg’s WaveLab channel here.

Of course, there is a 30-day free trial to check this out for yourself. I suggest finding time where you can clear your calendar to concentrate on learning the basics and getting results. I found this particular video very helpful in getting up to speed enough to really use several crucial tools:

How To Make Your Music Sound Professional | Mastering for Beginners

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Don’t ignore the system requirements. WaveLab Pro 10 requires macOS 10.13 or higher (note that the new Cubase 10.5 requires 10.14 or higher). So if like me you upgrade slowly and cautiously, you might need to consider an upgrade. For the power and potential big money savings of WaveLab Pro 10, I’d say the case is made.

SUMMARY

WaveLab Pro 10 is another out-of-the-park home run for Steinberg (please don’t ask me for a cricket reference). Learning to master is a valuable skill and WaveLab is powerful, fun to learn, and can save you thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars that you can put into PR or better equipment. It is the software that has convinced me to stop shopping around for mastering engineers and spend that time improving my own mastering skills. If you are comfortable mixing you will find this a complementary process. I’ll say upfront that there is a learning curve, but once you get the concepts you will find the tools remarkably transparent. I advise watching the videos once to get the concepts, and again with WaveLab Pro 10 running and doing what the presenter is doing on your own song (stopping the video as needed).

This is just my first post on WaveLab Pro 10. I will be following up with more specific examples of mastering, more features including video support, enhancements to the effects chain, and some tips on getting your best results.

Yet again, Steinberg software has earned MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION. GET IT!

Interesting Song and Bass Tips from The Beatles

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With the release of the movie Yesterday, The Beatles are once again news, so this is a good time to take a fresh look at some things that we can learn from their legacy.

One thing that is too often overlooked when considering their songwriting genius is how much emotion they can create in such a short time span. Consider the emotional drama stirred up by Eleanor Rigby and then notice that this song is under two minutes long! OK, this timing is from my original vinyl album; the official CD release says 2:11 (including some silence after the song ends). Even on CD, songs just barely over the two-minute mark include: And Your Bird Can Sing, Good Day Sunshine, and For No One. The longest songs on Revolver show as 3:00 exactly. I chose Revolver as the example because it is the first “studio album” meant to be listened to rather than performed — The Beatles never performed songs from this album even on their tour after the album was completed. Even Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band begins with the title song at 2:00.

So tight songwriting is a skill that any songwriter should strive for. Make every note count.

Experimentation was a key to The Beatles keeping their sound from becoming stale and predictable. Consider that the brilliant collection of songs that make up Revolver began with what might seem the least likely one: Tomorrow Never Knows. Now that it is a classic, it is hard to realize that it was considered “too weird” for many people at the time of its original release. Having lived through being considered a “Beatles freak” because I loved the song, I remember the reaction all too well. The same can be said of Hey Bulldog, which no one even knew about except for us “Beatles freaks”, possibly because none of our local bands (including mine) could find a bass player who could get close to playing that amazing bass part.

Even now we Beatles freaks can learn something new. I was re-listening to the CD’s of The Beatles Anthology – Volume Two (freakish enough, right?) when I noticed that (the not yet “Sir”) Paul McCartney was fooling around with 5ths on the bass (two notes at once) just before they began recording Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, and sure enough he begins the song by playing 5ths in the bass for the first two chords. A handy tip for bassists looking to fatten their sound, and a technique that he would use again (e.g. in While My Guitar Gently Weeps). At the start of A Day in the Life he plays chords on the bass! (Thanks to my friend Don L. for pointing this out.)

Many of The Beatles’ guitar lines are rightfully famous (several played by Paul McCartney) but their innovative bass lines are often overlooked. An off-the-top-of-my-head list of great bass lines to learn would include Hey Bulldog, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, Dear Prudence, Lovely Rita, as well as most of Sgt. Pepper  and the dozen or more that just don’t come to mind right now. Folks, warm up those basses!

One note of caution: Much as I appreciate all of the hard work put into the transcriptions, “The Beatles Complete Scores” have some downright mistakes (look at the first two bars of the bass in Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite) as well as one major flaw. The flaw is the use of repeat signs, which are handy for the melody and chords, but miss McCartney’s brilliant variations on repeats. This brings to mind one song I should have added to the list: Cry Baby Cry. That bass part is a master class on varying a simple descending line in what would otherwise be a very repetitive part. Thankfully, there are some excellent demonstrations of this and other Beatles bass lines, such as this one by one of my favourite players: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goSBCIY7Qs4

 

Learning Jazz

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Thank you to all of my readers from Just Jazz Guitar for hanging on with me over here in Blogland. I know that you will welcome many others who have written to my gmail address drdavejjg asking for help on learning jazz. Many are guitarists, but I’ve also heard from bassists, trumpet players and players of all saxes but the baritone (where are you bari players?)

This is a huge topic so for today I’ll just steer you to some of the best I know of and have experience with.

Anyone Can Improvise cover

One of the oldest and most trusted names in jazz music education is Jamey Aebersold, who got into the internet early enough to have the URL jazzbooks.com which of course now contains DVD’s, CD’s and download tracks as well as all the modern e-commerce conveniences. Jamey Aebersold covers virtually all instruments with enough guidance to play jazz on ANY instrument or voice.  If you are wondering where to start I’d recommend the DVD Anyone Can Improvise, which will show you that you can too. He also shows that improvising can, and should, be fun. He also gives a suggested progression of 5 or 6 of  some of his HUNDREDS of books to get you started fearlessly improvising in any key! In a later post I’ll go through this list and show you why I agree that it is very effective. The amount of time it will take you to become proficient depends on your work, your goal, and your dedication, but the Aebersold approach has worked for thousands of students and from my own experience I’ll say the results can be amazing if you put in the time, and it really is enough fun to keep you putting in that time.

Ticket To Improv Vol 1 cover

Guitarists have an overwhelming number of selections to choose from. One of my personal favourites is Robert Conti’s educational materials that range from absolute beginner to professional level, a much wider range than most. Mr. Conti’s approach is that you learn jazz guitar by playing jazz guitar, so even though he has an excellent series of theory DVD’s you can begin playing real jazz with his Ticket To Improve (TTI) series. Robert Conti claims that these are solos that “you can take to the gig” and it’s true. I’ve done it, and the solos go over really well. Over time you learn to mix in your own material and get your own style going, but from day one you are playing real jazz, not exercises. This is a different approach from any other (at least before he began doing it) but it works as well as the very best other approaches. I should mention that I have interviewed Mr. Conti for Just Jazz Guitar and had several in-depth conversations with him about jazz and teaching, and he is the “real deal” – an expert player who enjoys sharing his knowledge and hearing back from purchasers of his products, to the point of posting their performances on his own site. I first met Mr. Conti as a satisfied customer who wrote a review of his theory series The Source Code, after which Robert Conti phoned me to ask if I would like to review his first Ticket To Improv DVD. The review was a rave and the DVD convinced me that Mr. Conti was really onto something with his approach to improvisation. You should be aware that several trolls and others have objected to his marketing style, which while perhaps being over the top for some certainly produces results and if you question his claims I am only one of an army of supporters who can tell you that his approach works. I’ll write more on Mr. Conti’s products later, but to start I suggest that you invest in Ticket To Improv Volume One and see for yourself. You will be playing jazz guitar right away, soloing over some of the best-loved jazz tunes of all time.

Finally, for now there are many publishers that include jazz instruction but the most extensive to my knowledge is Hal Leonard (including their recent acquisition of The Music Sales Group). Just go to their site and search “jazz guitar” and you will get close to 1,000 titles. Among these are many excellent books published for The Berklee College of Music, as well as some of the best transcriptions of solos for many instruments (in all genres). There are far too many books here for me to start choosing but I hope to devote an entire column soon to my very favourite books.

I’ll also devote a future series of columns to solo jazz guitar especially fingerstyle, another vast repertoire.

And let’s not forget many of Dorico 2’s additions for notating jazz, with playback not far behind, as well as the great instruments and support from NotePerformer.

Jazz is alive and thriving these days. So set your own music free and start improvising.

This post is Part One of MANY.