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I have a 2010 27 inch imac, memory 8gigs, processor 3.06 ghz intel core 2 duo with about 400 GB of unused drive. Would this be sufficient
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08-15-2018 07:50 AM
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Those specs are strong! I use a laptop for my music software and I think it has a 1.4ghz processing speed (forgive me if the terminology is wrong), 4GB RAM and a hardrive around 300 GB, if I remember correctly.
Originally Posted by BFrench
That 1.4 ghz processing speed is just not robust enough for BIAB realtracks, especially considering any degradation due to time.
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Watched half the video - couldn't take it any more. More over analyzing in my book. I gave up the metronome when I discovered drummers and bass players. IMHO, if you can't match time with the rhythm section in about two bars, you shouldn't be there. I think the metronome is TOO perfect to practice with because that's not what happens on the bandstand.
As to BIAB and backing tracks, especially BIAB, it can be programmed to give a more natural feel and it's also the only way that some of us 'out in the sticks' folks have of getting anybody to play with. I know it's hard to believe for those of you in big cities but some places just have NO music scene whatsoever. In my area, if you don't play electric blues or 'tiki' bar music, you don't play, unless you want to go play heavy metal in a garage with a bunch of 16 year old kids...... I'd rather stay home. At least my duo gets to go out and play with tracks a couple times a month and the audience likes it so what's the harm?
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It took me a long time to realise that the metronome is for ear training.
It is listening practice, every time you lose it you stopped listening.
Most people think that metronomes are for getting fast, not true they are for getting accurate. Accurate in listening to yourself objectively. The metronome provides that objectivity.
Most people get it backwards, they think you start at a medium tempo and get faster and faster. Much better to start at the slowest tempo you feel comfortable hearing and when it starts to swing put the tempo DOWN. You will hear more and more and more as the tempo goes down.
My ambition is to feel free and light playing with a metronome set below ten BPM.
D.
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I think backing tracks are essential. Friend turned me on to iReal Pro (about $20.00) 1350 tunes with real musicians. Set a 30 repeat loop, change tempo, key, fade out the piano to work on comping. Only drawback is no melody, that's up to you. I haven't used BIAB since.
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You said it all ! Originally Posted by Freel
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I bought ireal pro a few days ago I just haven't had any time to fool around with it yet but I do see a value in it what little I messed around with it. Just don't know...biab, just irealpro or both?
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Decisions, decisions! Originally Posted by BFrench
If the cheaper option works for you, I would stick with it, or at least give it a chance to work.
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Making your own tracks assures the quality you want. It's a great education, and another form of creative engagement. There are several good drum programs, any guitarist should be able to lay down good bass-lines, and adding a rhythm guitar part takes care of the harmonies, and can easily be changed to try out subs and chord extensions. With programs like Garage Band and audacity, you spend no money unless you want to purchase a notation or drum program. For my Senior faculty work, I find an appropriate drum groove, lay down a7-string backing track, go back and create drum fills, and I have a track to play and sing over that has my changes in my key, and I can go back in and change things at any time.
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Have you ever thought of using a looper pedal as well as BIAB? That way you can practice comping and soloing any way you want.
I got a Digitech JamMan SoloXT. It uses MicroSD Cards to store loops and can thus store almost limitless loops.
Amazon.com: DigiTech JamMan Solo XT Compact Stereo Looper Phrase Sampler Effect Pedal with 35 Minutes of Internal Recording Capacity and Included Jam Manager Loop Librarian Software Patch Cable and Zorro Cloth: Musical Instruments
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I got EZ drummer2 a couple of weeks ago, I really like it. I've already recorded a song I wrote with it... (non jazz content) Originally Posted by AlsoRan
It goes right into a DAW as a plugin (or can be used stand alone). It's great for organizing a song during the songwriting process. I still need to learn the customizable feature so I can add hits at appropriate spots. I think I'll be using EZdrummer a lot more than BIAB.
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That EX drummer is a pretty nice little program. I never figured out how to use that customizing feature, and I am not sure how far one can go with it. There was a Youtube video years ago that showed how to create a "custom groove" but I could not do it, and gave up. Originally Posted by fep
Good luck to you with the program. There is also Superior Drummer that allows you to get a Midi Keyboard and create a nice drum solo. Never figured out that one either.
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This! Originally Posted by Freel
Jens
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[QUOTE=princeplanet;889150]You can program the real tracks to include a maximum amount of variations. You can even change the styles, endlessly (there are almost too many Jazz styles to choose from) The harmonic variations are random and can keep you on your toes, sometimes b13, sometimes #11, or #9. You can punch in a 32 bar form 8 times before any repeats. If you start to memorise what the band is doing, you change style...
Are you referring to iReal Pro here?
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Backing tracks are a tool for simulated performance. I use them to assess how Skype students sound when playing.
(That said one great assessment method is simply to record the student without any backing and see how well they establish the time and changes etc. It’s a bit hardcore for some though.)
They also have some practice uses but not many that can’t be done playing along with records. Things like playing superimposed harmonies on standard changes and so on. Though you can do that with a loop or freeze pedal. You could also fade out the piano and practice comping I guess.
Simply blowing on a backing track is not a great way of practicing. I think most experienced players agree?
I also think it gives rise to this wrong concept of playing ‘over’ the music as in: ‘playing over chords’ and ‘floating over the time’ as opposed to the correct concepts of expressing chords in your line and establishing a clear sense of pulse and groove in your soloing.
Also practicing comping with you recorded soloing is a great thing to do. You will quickly learn the importance of negative space and how it is easy to misjudge it.
Playing with records is a practice activity I don’t often hear discussed but has a long history among jazz players. It’s good for feel, learning music and so on. You won’t get good feel playing with a machine, and you won’t learn to phrase melodies etc along with the masters.
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Good stuff there. I think these are what most people take issue with. Originally Posted by christianm77
The inherent "problem" of a backing track and in one very real sense, is that , because the track can't HEAR what you're doing and allow space for that, it HAS to provide slightly more auditory information and fill up the space more than real players necessarily would or should. Real life, bandstand type space would be pretty difficult to hear form etc.
That's what I really like about drum genius and it's clave feature. It uses original, very sparse, (and on their own, pretty difficult to hear). Clave kind of gets you "in the building", and once you can hear it, you can remove it and play with a more dynamic and real-world-interactive kind of reference.
It's no one's fault, just the nature of the beast, but backing tracks, by nature, HAVE to include a little TOO much rhythmic information to be played-with in the first place.
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Agreed Matt, permit me to add.
If we are singing with others, say at a pub or church or football match, it is easy to imagine that we know all the words and how everything goes. We are however being carried, if the karaoke machine, or just the captions, or the others singing stop, then we have to face the reality that our memory and minds are far less clear than the circumstances flattered us into believing.
So we need to spend time being honest with ourselves and actually working, checking, memorising. Some of this happens automatically whilst we are being carried. Being carried works most effectively at a jam session where we are pretty much constantly emotionally engaged (fear of embarrassment, mostly, in my case). But when we get home we need to solve the problems that confounded us so that the next time we do better, not just the same week after week.
For that we need to NOT be carried. Backing tracks are great for simulating the jam, but we will not be as emotionally engaged as we are at a jam so we will learn much less and remember much less, and of course they are useless for giving us the feedback from watching stronger players and copping their stuff. But they have their uses.
I love Band in a Box because we can mould it to helps us with the type of work that no jam session would ever tolerate like repeating an eight bar section a thousand times at 30 bpm changing key every fourth repetition. Things like that, things we might set out to do in a practice session but our human memories will drift and we will soon get derailed, but the computer won't. So we will be being carried but we will have chosen the destination precisely knowing exactly where we want to go.
At their worst tools like BIAB and backing tracks and even just a nice drum loop encourage us to imagine that our arbitrary rhythms are cool and groovy because we hear the track and appropriate it's evenness to bolster or own self esteem. That might not be so bad, but it does make most people at jam sessions a horrible nuisance because they are not aware that they are tripping everyone up because at home the computer wasn't listening, never makes a timing mistake or reacts to us, doesn't care and could not be tripped up trying to make sense of our rhythmic imprecision. I've known otherwise accomplished players that throw the whole band out with their arbitrary entries, EVERY TIME.... mind you mostly saxaphone, guitarists aren't so loud that they can reliably and obliviously false foot everyone.
D.Last edited by Freel; 08-18-2018 at 10:35 AM.
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[QUOTE=vashondan;890973]
No, BIAB... Originally Posted by princeplanet
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I've never really enjoyed the time feel of BIAB (or ireal pro, for that matter) but I think they are useful tools for practicing different changes at different tempos, changing keys, etc.
Even though it seems a bit old school, some of the Jamey Aebersolds are really good: "Hot House" has Jeff Tain Watts and Christian McBride, the Cedar Walton one has Cedar and Ron Carter, Cannonball Adderly one features Cannonball's rhythm section (Sam Jones! Louis Hayes!), Woody Shaw's one features Woody's actual band, etc. Joey Defrancesco has two really good ones, the charlie parker one has Kenny Barron, Ron Carter and Ben Riley, etc.
There are some aebersolds where the pianist is super annoying and/or the band is rushing (or in some cases dragging), but seek out the ones that are to your taste, and you'll get a lot out of them!
While I don't think any of this stuff is or should be a substitute for playing actual jazz with people, many many great jazz musicians have (and continue to) use aebersolds as practice tools. To be specific, George Colligan and Joel Frahm have both mentioned practicing with aebersolds a lot in clinics, and I'd be surprised if many jazz musicians of that generation didn't use them.
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It's all good IMO. BIAB at home helps timing, comping, melody and soloing. It can get stale after awhile and I don't think I would subject an audience to it, but it sure make practicing fun and practical.
Now, when I do get a chance to jam with others, the templates I worked out at home are there and I am adequately prepared, but the whole thing goes somewhere new...awesome!! Gotta love the organics of playing with other humans!
It's a tool, not a substitute IMO.
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BiaB aint groovy.
The illusion of being in a band will not last for long, so that's not a good selling point.
Using a backing track for longer practice means it better be a damn good one. Because you're gonna absorb this and why would anybody ever want to absorb something "almost good enough"?
So, maybe BiaB ok for short test-runs. Surely not for long practices. Haven't used it for so long so it might have been improved but I doubt that.
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I did some browsing today. Check this out:
Great idea
...saw some metronome-talk in this thread.
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What version of BIAB did you use and did you use the Real Tracks? Then you keep praising the aebersold backing tracks because you know they're real musicians playing? Originally Posted by pcsanwald
'cause, you know, Real Tracks are actual musicians actuall playing, isn't it? You see the inconsistency in you r words here, don't you?
If you only use the MIDI styles, then I can understand getting boring after a while. However, if you use the Real Styles, then It's not the program providing the groove, but the musicians playing on it who do. And I'm sure most of the musicians that you get to play in your neck of woods are NOT even able to keep the tempo, let alone providing an useable "pocket" for you to play in and along. Hell, many musicians don't even know others to play with, let alone being capable. So forgive me if I just don't take your words seriously. Originally Posted by emanresu
So you're basing your whole argument on something you haven't used for long and most probably you don't even know how to properly use? Your Honor, I rest my case! Originally Posted by emanresu
Lately I've been hearing several new Smooth Jazz artists selling their albums with original compositions where BIAB's providing a good part of the backing tracks of piano, drums, sometimes bass, brass and even ethnic instruments in some cases, plus BIAB-generated counter-soloing, with pretty good results.
As I always say: "it's not the hammer, it's how you use it™"
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Originally Posted by LtKojak
I haven't been praising Aebersold with one single word.
edit: oops, you didn't mean me, sorry.
Originally Posted by LtKojak
In my neck of the woods funnily things are way better. I'm the one lagging behind though
Originally Posted by LtKojak
I checked the 2018 version in Youtube and it still aint something I'd want to fill my head with. Real tracks also.
Listen, I gave my honorable reasons why this doesn't work. The arguments were not theoretical or philosophical but were based on earlier experience -
Not groovy and mediocre. Not inspiring. Fake band effect. When I would include this to my honorable daily routine, I'd have to tell to my brain "Yes this is music! Deal with it!" and it would go "oh allright
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edit: for jazz, it's better to dig up great recordings and play with them. Playing the melody or comp with them is fine mostly. Totally better idea than using BiaB for that. But even soloing is possible this way.Last edited by emanresu; 10-27-2018 at 10:59 AM.
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no, it isn't real musicians playing. It's samples of real musicians cobbled together in a crude simulation of real musicians playing. Not (he typed, mildly) the same thing. Originally Posted by LtKojak
Sometimes it is the hammer. Especially if the hammer is a styrofoam simulation of a hammer.
I have it, I've found uses for it. Did somebody forbid using it? Must've missed that.
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