At the time when I recorded this, that instrument had Presto Nylonwould Ultralight strings which are very nice Nylon-based strings – they sound great but aren’t the best for bowing, so I later replaced them with Thomastik Spirocore Weich strings.
Time to pick up that big bass fiddle again, and to play some more tunes… 🙂
Like always, thanks for reading, viewing, and/or listening.
This is a nice gift for Santa, thanks to Dore Mark: a Steinway grand piano model B, sampled in 7 velocity layers, and using different microphones and microphone placements:
Kontakt Interface view of Dore Mark’s Steinway Model B grand piano
On Windows and Mac computers you can use it within Kontakt, the same with Linux in case you have something like yabridge. In case you don’t have that, or don’t plan to use Windows plugins in Linux, you can still use the provided SFX versions.
The Steinway model B is a 7 foot grand piano which is often found in the recording studios of this world, and in the homes of those who can afford such an instrument. The famous model D is too big for most places, and more at home in the concert halls. Dore Mark also has a Yamaha and a Fazioli grand piano if you prefer these.
Got them for Mitchie during the last Black Friday Sale, and later for myself, both 40% off, so almost two for one:
Google Pixel Buds A-Series, dark olive (Picture: Google)
They sound okay, with a very full bass, even more so than the Moondrop Chu in-ears with cables. Not the best and most HiFi (or neutral) sounding headphones – the Moondrops are probably even better in that regard, but I’ve tried them with a bit of Wikiloops radio and TV via the Zapp app, and they’re good, and even for TV you won’t really notice the latency. Then I listened to one of my own albums because I know the sound of these of course, and yes, they’re still nice – of course not comparable to my open Sonarworks-corrected Sennheisers, but if you want neutral on your phones, there’s always Wavelet – if you believe in that. My personal experience especially with in-ears is that it’s mostly the correct fit which “makes” the sound, especially in the lows. And both Mitchie’s Jabra Elite Active 75T and my Moondrop Chu can’t reach these here in the bass *in my ears* (yours might be different – Zuleikha for instance would prefer the Jabras I think). Anyway, in case you want to read and know more about Wavelet, you can do that here, here, or here. Or directly at the source.
I started listening to my album with both the phone and the earbuds at 100% charge, and after the 41 minutes of my album it was 97% for the phone and 87% for the earbuds. All good.
So yes, if you want to (or have to) get rid of the cable, and for casual listening and/or phone calls, and for 59€ these are nice ones. Recommended.
Update, from Friday Dec 2nd, 2022:
For movies these are even great – if you have a low rumble like from a ship’s engine in ‘1899’, or some other low-pitched stuff, these are just massive – think Dolby in a good cinema. They’re better in that regard than my closed Sennheiser HD569, and I thought that these have a good bass as well. But these Pixel Buds A are a bit louder with the same setting on the phone, and even voices appear clearer, and are easier to understand. So what more could you wish for? These now have my ‘highly recommended’, especially for the movies.
This is a very cool video about what you can achieve using “only” open source software when creating music and videos for the tubes. The gentleman calls himself “Bransby“, and his explanation of things is about the best I’ve seen, so thanks for that, sir! Here we go:
Recording and Mixing using Open Source Software – Ubuntu, Ardour, Calf Plugins
I’ll use this for friends in Wikiloops in case they’ll ask about a howto, so thanks again for your good work and for the nice explanation, Bransby. Oh, and your song is great as well 🙂
In case you have Netflix, this is a good tip (see Wikipedia and/or IMDB). I hadn’t heard the term ‘webtoon‘ before, but this seems to be the current big thing coming from Korea, and with this series based upon such a webtoon, that might explain its charm – it’s adorable. I totally agree with IMDB reviewer kgolmei who wrote that this is a “Must watch: A stress reliever!!!”. Even the music is awesome – here’s the 6-head girl group April with “Crazy”, one of the main themes of the show (together with a few pictures of it):
Oh, and I always suggest watching shows like these in their original versions, with subtitles of your choice (I take English most of the time). That way, you get many more of the original expressions and feelings of the actors/actresses, most of which would be lost in translations.
Again, kgolmei is right: What a relief to see something this nice. And as always, thanks for reading/viewing/listening.
The music you see within that program is from Dan and Chris, you can listen to that one on Wikiloops if you’d like to. The program seems to work fine, so next step is to also install it on Linux 🙂
And like always, thanks for viewing, listening, and reading.
I had downloaded the new Ardour 7.0 for both Linux and Windows as soon as it was released, but haven’t tried it yet (except that on Windows I installed it parallel to the 6.9 version I already had).
In case you’re interested, here’s what’s new, in about 4 minutes:
What’s New in Ardour 7.0
Maybe I’ll try it with the next song & project I’ll be “working” on 🙂
As always, thanks for watching. And thanks and congrats to the Ardour team of course.
Edit, from later the same day: as soon as I show this, there’s a new version again. See here…
Terrible to read about the passing of Don T., one of the bluesiest guys I’ve ever heard on Wikiloops… he was a good friend and once even wrote a song for me. I had the honour and pleasure to play on his latest song in the ‘loops and asked him with a PM whether he would also consider to sing on it, no answers so I was thinking of him. So here you have it with a lead guitar from Carlo instead of Don singing:
This track is embedded with the friendly permission by the creatives on wikiloops.com.
Condolences to Don’s family, he truly was a wonderful guy! Rest in peace my friend…
