Most of the emphasis in reviews of Amp Sim apps these days seems to focus on tone, and the application’s ability to achieve, with flawless accuracy, the nuances of the classic gear we all love.

This obsession with perfect tone in software is a bit misguided at times. With the $60 I spent on AmpliTube for iPhone and iRig, I was mostly interested in a practice solution that didn’t disturb my neighbors, or wake up my girlfriend late at night.

I got exactly that, and the tone was pretty decent considering that I was playing my Gibson ES-135 into my phone.

In addition to being able to upload your own songs and loops, one extraordinary feature that caught my eye was the SpeedTrainer slider. This allows you to slow down the tempo without changing the pitch of whatever song you are working on, perfect for uploading and practicing with Aebersold tracks.

After ripping my Aebersold Vol – 54 – Maiden Voyage CD, I transfered the files through iTunes file sharing, slowed down the beginning of Song for My Father to about 0.6x the original tempo, and set out woodshedding those triplet runs, then speeding the tempo up slowly as I improved my ability to nail each one.

I tried this on both my iPhone 4 and my iPod Touch 2nd Generation. The iPhone 4 could slow down the track considerably without too many added pops and crackles, but the iPod Touch really couldn’t pull it off so well. Depending on your device your milage with this may vary.

Obviously, tone and sound quality is important, even just for practicing, but it seems like recent debates on apps like this one tend to leave out equally important factors, such as realistically how are you going to be using this product?

Maybe some people are interested in using Amp Sim software for live performance, but I feel like they are in the minority, and even that minority is probably using more powerful devices than an iPhone.

Playing your guitar directly into your iPhone will probably never sound like, or feel like a Mark I Mesa Boogie, but it can provide awesome practice tools that make ironing out those little kinks in your style a breeze.

maxBreakwell.com - Music, Sound Design, and Multimedia Art Experiments

…to anyone who visited my site over the past couple weeks. I was hacked and I wasn’t able to get around to fixing the situation and setting up a new site until yesterday.

Everything should be fine now as far as I can tell. Google has taken down their malware warning on my site too. Things have been extraordinarily busy in my personal life recently, but you can expect some new posts and projects to be coming out over the next couple weeks.

Please Stay Tuned,

Max

maxBreakwell.com - Music, Sound Design, and Multimedia Art Experiments

FYI

In the process of updating some things on my site today I unknowingly erased the downloads database. It’s probably going to take me several hours to maybe a day before everything is re-uploaded and working properly. I apologize to anyone who is trying to download something.

Come back real soon and I should have things all sorted out.

Thanks,

Max

maxBreakwell.com - Music, Sound Design, and Multimedia Art Experiments

Recently I sat down to do something I haven’t done in a long time. Make a MixTape for a friend. After hearing No Room For Squares by Hank Mobley, my friend admitted that she was much more knowledgeable on the subject of vocal jazz as opposed to instrumental jazz. So, I offered to make her a MixTape of some songs that she might like.

These are the tracks that I decided on. By no means is this a list of tracks I feel to be the most important or most influential in the jazz genre, but rather a compilation of tracks that I enjoy or find unique for a particular reason. Please feel free to leave comments on any of the tracks that I mention, or ones that you feel should have been included.

The Real McBop Live at the Blue Note by Arturo Sandoval

• Recorded June 10-11, 2004 at the Blue Note, NY
  Arturo Sandoval (Trumpet)
  Dennis Marks (Bass)
  Felipe Lamoglia (Saxophone)
  Rene Toledo (Guitar)
  Tomas Cruz (Percussion)
  Alexis Arce (Drums)
  Phil Magallanes (Piano)

This album includes a DVD of the performance as well as the CD version. Well worth the money, especially since halfway through the performance Arturo plays an imaginary Acoustic Bass and does some extended vocal solos that are better appreciated seen than just heard. The DVD also includes some interviews with Arturo Sandoval as an added bonus. The opening track, The Real McBop, is a fast Bebop tune pushed along by Afro-Cuban rhythms. I love this sound, and clearly nobody is doing it better these days than Arturo Sandoval.

Moontrane Unity by Larry Young

• 1966
  Larry Young (Hammond B3 Organ)
  Woody Shaw (Trumpet)
  Joe Henderson (Saxophone)
  Elvin Jones (Drums)

A friend of mine gave me a cassette tape version of this album when I was in college. I loved it so much it pretty much stayed in the tape deck of my car for a few years. Then, one hot sunny day while moving across town, I took it out and left it on the passenger seat — it melted. After that I bought it on CD. Moontrane is a Woody Shaw composition, and you can hear the original version on his album Moontrane, but I think this version is the best. I also saw John Scofield and Jack DeJohnette do an amazing version at Yoshi’s in Oakland several years ago. As a guitar player, it was nice to hear another guitarist play the melody of this song. I find it to be a rather difficult one to really nail as it alternates between quarter-note phrases and triplets, and also triplets that tie into quarter-note phrases.

Keiko’s Birthday March Puttin’ It Together by Elvin Jones

• 1968
  Elvin Jones (Drums)
  Joe Farrell (Tenor & Soprano Saxophones, Flute)
  Jimmy Garrison (Acoustic Bass)

Usually, I don’t like such high pitched instruments like the flute for extended soloing, but Joe Farrell manages to pull it off somehow. The song is beautiful. I can almost imagine Keiko doing her Birthday March. This song was also a recent discovery for me and I felt it was even more appropriate considering I live in Japan.

Self-Portrait in Three Colors Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus

• 1959
  Charles Mingus (Piano & Acoustic Bass)
  John Handy (Alto & Tenor Saxophones, Clarinet)
  Shafi Hadi (Alto & Tenor Saxophones)
  Booker Ervin (Tenor saxophone)
  Jimmy Knepper, Willie Dennis (Trombone)
  Horace Parlan (Piano)
  Dannie Richmond (Drums).

Every mixtape must have a track to slow the pace and give the listener a glassy-eyed retrospective feeling. See the movie High Fidelity for further instructions on how to make a mixtape. This is my track to do just that. It is an old favorite of mine for solitary pondering over the complexities of the human condition. Mingus is a master of creating texture within his compositions.

The African Queen Cape Verdean Blues by Horace Silver

• 1965
  Horace Silver (Piano)
  Joe Henderson (Tenor Saxophone)
  Woody Shaw (Trumpet)
  J. J. Johnson (Trombone)
  Bob Cranshaw (Bass)
  Roger Humphries (Drums)

Horace Silver is a mean piano player, but I also really like the way he arranges songs. The saxophone, trumpet, and trombone all crescendos and decrescendos beautifully over an addictive slow groove. The only further advice I could give is to sit back and crank up the volume to concert levels for full effect!

Ilya The Best of Irakere by Irakere

• 1978
  Chucho Valdéz (Piano)
  Arturo Sandoval (Trumpet)
  Paquito D’Rivera (Alto Saxophone & Flute)
  Oscar Valdéz (Percussion & Vocals)
  Carlos Puerto (Bass)
  Carlos Emilio Morales (Guitar)
  Jorge Varona (Trumpet)
  Tato Alfonso (Percussion)
  Bernardo Garcia (Drums)

I first heard about Irakere listening to KCSM in Oakland, CA. They were doing a radio show about Irakere and one of the members (I forget who) said they started the band with the goal of killing Jazz Music. The 70’s surely wasn’t the best decade for Jazz, but after hearing that comment, and a few of their early singles, I went out and got the first album of theirs that I could find, which happened to be this Best of Irakere compilation. I know that “Best of…” compilations are generally looked down upon among collectors, but what can I say, it was cheap. I believe most of the album is live recordings too, so as far as compilation CDs go, I think this is a pretty good one.

Belle Isle Yusef Lateef’s Detroit by Yusef Lateef

• 1969                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Yusef Lateef (Tenor Sax & Flute)
  Danny Moore (Trumpet)
  Snookie Young, Jimmy Owens, Thad Jones (Trumpet)
  Eric Gale (Guitar)
  Hugh Lawson (Piano)
  Cecil McBee (Acoustic Bass)
  Chuck Rainey (Electric Bass)
  Bernard Perdie (Drums)
  Roy Brooks Jr. (Drums)
  Ray Baretto (Conga)
  Albert “Tootie” Heath (Percusion)

While I was a student at Hampshire College I was lucky enough to take some classes with Yusef Lateef and I have been a huge fan ever since. His music and compositional style really transcends classification. I am somewhat partial to his funkier albums during the 1960s and this one might be my favorite, but then again Live at Pep’s might be too. I originally was going to put the track Livingston Playground on this CD, but at the last minute I changed my mind. Both tracks are pretty funky tunes with some nice signature sax playing by Dr. Yusef Lateef, however, Belle Isle is a bit more up tempo and “intense” sounding. Listening to this track with headphones on in a crowded train station may cause you to dance (or strut) your way through the crowded turnstile.

Tapscotts Blues The Moontrane by Woody Shaw

• 1975
  Woody Shaw (Trumpet)
  Steve Turre (Trombone)
  Azar Lawrence (Tenor & Soprano Saxophone)
  Onaje Allen Gumbs (Piano & Electric Piano)
  Victor Lewis (Drums)
  Cecil McBee (Bass)

The first version of Moontrane I heard was the version recorded on the album, Unity, by Larry Young, which I mentioned earlier, however, after hearing that I had to go out and find the original too. I still like the Unity version of that song better, but if you ask me Tapscott’s Blues is the gem on this album. I wonder if it has anything to do with Horace Tapscott, who I read about in Wax Poetics magazine recently?

Stopover Bombay Journey In Satchidananda by Alice Coletrane

• 1971
  Alice Coletrane (Harp & Piano)
  Pharaoh Sanders (Soprano Saxophone & Percussion)
  Vishnu Wood (Oud)
  Tulsi (Tamboura)
  Cecil McBee (Bass)
  Charlie Haden (Bass)

Alice will be the only Coletrane on this list. Alice Coletrane can create a sound environment like no other. It is free flowing, spacious, and undulating, without suffering from becoming atonal or arrhythmic. Pharaoh Sanders is also greatly responsible for helping her achieve the vibe. You’d be hard pressed to think of anyone who could have played a better sax on this album — except for maybe her brother.

Joshua Fit De Battle Ob Jericho Feelin’ The Spirit by Grant Green

• 1962
  Grant Green (Guitar)
  Herbie hancock (Piano)
  Butch Warren (Acoustic Bass)
  Billy Higgins (Drums)
  Garvin Masseaux (Tambourine)

Grant Green is by far my favorite guitar player. I even read his biography. It’s hard to decide what to recommend if you can choose just one song. There are so many amazing tracks that he played on, on both his albums and as a sideman in other projects. Feelin’ The Spirit is an album of old spirituals reinterpreted with some jazz-funk sensibility. I ended up going with this track cause its got a nice dark tone and a funky rhythm to it. Grant plays the song’s gorgeous winding melody quite masterfully as well. Herbie Hancock also does an amazing job of keeping things funky and simple on piano, while the guitar solo is full of Grant Green’s signature soulful licks.

Little B’s Poem Organic Vibes by Joey DeFrancesco

• 2006                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Joey DeFrancesco (HammondB3Organ)                                                                                                                                                               Jake Langley (Guitar)                                                                                                                                                                                                       Ron Blake (Saxophone)
  George Coleman (Tenor saxophone)
  Bobby Hutcherson (Vibraphone)
  Byron Landham (Drums)

This is the most recently released track on the tape. Joey DeFrancesco is a monster on the Hammond B3. I have always enjoyed the way he played, but I never owned any of his albums. I bought this on a whim a few years back and never really listened to it until recently when I put it on my iPod. Every time I set the iPod to random, and this track comes on, I find my self taking it out of my pocket to find out what track is playing. I particularly like the way the melody almost seems to ramble on and digress, yet at the same time refrains from being noodling or wasteful.

maxBreakwell.com - Music, Sound Design, and Multimedia Art Experiments

I’ve been having entirely too much fun with this awesome iPhone/iPod Touch application by Intua. I put off buying BeatMaker for a long time because of the 19.99 price tag. When there are so many good music applications for much less, why bother, right?

The reason I bothered was that you can upload custom sounds. I searched and searched for a cheaper application that has this same functionality, but in the end I just gave up and dished out the 20 bucks — it was totally worth it!

I don’t really want to make this a review since there have already been plenty of great reviews on BeatMaker, (you can find a very thorough review here) but I do want to show some of what I have been doing with it.

/*See post to listen to audio*/

After playing around, making beats on the train like the one above, and learning the ins and outs of this app, I finally got around to creating my own kit. I used a collection of samples that I downloaded from freesound.org, (attribution page included in download) and I also made some samples using my keyboard and guitar.

I wanted to have an amount of variety with each sample that I created. The C7_Rhodes, Organ&GuitarVamp, and OrganBass samples are probably all best used after slicing down the audio file to a specific section that you want to use. This isn’t a problem because you can crop down any audio file within BeatMaker easily. Here is a little beat I created with my custom set.

/*See post to listen to audio*/

I am posting this kit on my downloads page. Anyone is welcome to use it, or any of the individual samples, as long as they credit me for the samples I created, and/or the original authors of the samples used from freesound.org. The samples that I downloaded were also treated to some effects and editing in Ableton, so my versions may sound slightly different from the orginals.

Have fun, and feel free to leave comments or suggestions!

BeatMaker

maxBreakwell.com - Music, Sound Design, and Multimedia Art Experiments

So, this is my first attempt at making any kind of website for myself. I hope that you enjoy. Please let me know if you have any issues with the functionality of the site, and feel free to leave comments about whatever.

maxBreakwell.com - Music, Sound Design, and Multimedia Art Experiments