I won’t be back home until later tonight, so sure, share or repost whatever you want!
thanks!
It is still in this thread somewhere at the beginning of this thread. I’m behind my computer in 3 hours
@ryan3 Here is the Dorico file with sillent mode because with the Broadway Lites it was to much for the forum. But you have the midi now I suppose.
BigBandForForum.dorico (1.3 MB)
I ran this through Garritan JABB 3. No tweaking on the numerous settings for the instruments. This is their default state.
Only custom expression map stuff in this case…I added CCs to apply falls and doits for the trumpets. The rest of winds/brass just CC1 dynamics. The bass uses default Velocity dynamics.
To get ‘scoops’ for these saxes and falls/doits for the Trombones, I used the line tool to quickly draw pitch bends in on controller lanes.
Built in Reverb from the ARIA player is disabled. I am using a touch on the FX Send on Dorico’s Mixer from Reverence, the Large Stage preset with no further user tweaks.
I can’t figure out how to make the drum track in this score work.
Saxes…
Trumpets…
Trombones…
Here’s the mixdown, including the bass…
Sorry, that’s just for notation as it’s what a drummer would want to see. You can program another track based on that notation, use a sample, or whatever you want to use if you want drum playback. It was basically just to test the horns, with a bass to give some time and harmonic context.
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No problem…I’ll find some other stuff to demo with.
I’m having a hard time finding a score that uses lots of different mutes.
JABB3 is loaded with mute options to simulate cups/straight/buckets/hats/plungers/etc.
I’m throwing together a thick score I found on Musescore as I type, but it doesn’t show off the mutes at all. All open…
Grabbed this score from Musescore as XML…
Gourmet Race Kirby Superstar – Uptempo Jazz - The 8-Bit Big Band Transcription
Imported it into Dorico. It came in pretty well as far as I can tell other than some repeated drum stuff missing. Copied and pasted that in…
There are ‘turn’ symbols in the score that Dorico isn’t playing back. I suppose I’d need to enter those manually on hidden staves or something to get them to play?
Saxes, Trumpets, Trombones, Piano, Acoustic Bass, and Drum Kit come from Garritan JABB3.
Orchestra Percussion, Harp, and Strings all come from Garritan GPO5.
Again, pretty much default settings for the sounds.
ARIA reverb disabled. Reverence BallRoom reverb on the sends with a much shorter reverb time set than what is in the preset.
I did run the Drums through the Steinberg Multi-Band compressor.
The unusual panning is on purpose. I did Brass to the left, and everything else to right, to expose the character of the instrument families a bit more for scrutiny.
Here’s what I got. Going to MP3 does lose some sizzle compared to what I hear straight through Dorico.
Hm, to me I don’t like the sound JABB. I prefer working with noteperformer it is not ideal but for me it works. If I find time I will add an drumtrack the track.
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As you say, Garritan is completely ‘dry’ by default, and benefits greatly from additional space.
I did a version in JABB earlier in the thread: post 125. I’ve since learnt how to get the falls and doits working in JABB. There’s a CC for the volume of the effects, and another to trigger them.
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Curious, what do you use for monitors/speakers?
I’ve been using the following…
Equator D5
Yamaha NS10M
Some kind of Bose computer speakers
Sennheiser HD280pro Headphones
I like to bounce between these speakers and compare. It’s mind boggling how different things sound on each setup.
My room and speaker placement is terrible though.
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Oops, panning is all out on the NP rendering above. I forgot I have to do it inside NP itself, not on the mixing console.
Here’s a second take.
I use an Neuman headphone or genelec speakers. The point with NP for me is that I get an good idea if it will work in real life. The sound gives me somehow that information. That said to give it to somebody as an mockup is with jazz not so good idea.
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Heres the same file with Straight Ahead Samples.
Atomic Big Band! The Horns, but with Art of the Alto on lead and Sophisticated Bari subbed in.
All with Smart Delay, very slight stereo panning and very slight room reverb. Compressor and Limiter on the Master
Saxes
Trombones:
Trumpets
All with Bass
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JABB reminds me of being in stage bands. We could only afford to PA the Saxes, Bass, and Snare/Hats. Brass rarely got a mic unless there was a Solo. We did NOT have floor monitors or anything so a conductor or other visual cues to avoid phasing problems were paramount.
In rehearsals, we’d do the Flying V thing. Trumpets stand (or lean on stools), bones sit in chairs right in front of the Trumpets (Higher voices to the left, lower towards the center). Saxes would sit in chairs or on stools on the other side with the rhythm section so they could hear themselves better (Higher voices to the right, lower voices towards the center), and not go deaf. Plus there was more on that side of the V that ‘might’ get a full-time mic.
We didn’t have fancy effects on the PA, so the Saxes usually came across pretty ‘loud and dry’ due to the PA. Everything else bounced all over the room. We’d use our music stands ‘tacit’ to control some of the ‘slapback’ in a super live room.
I didn’t spend but a minute on that mix, but I was ‘attempting’ to kind of duplicate what it sounds like to be on the conductor’s podium in our old rehearsal halls.
Hearing the ‘space’ between notes, and detail in the style of tonguing and such is a big deal in jazz to me. Clear differences between accents, housetops, etc…
When I did mockups for ‘teaching purposes’, I’d even exaggerate such things a little on purpose.
Back when I used JABB3 the most, I was into situations where I needed to make ‘practice tapes’ for things like Dance Lines, Color Guard, etc. Such tapes/CDs went out to performers weeks before anyone even met for actual rehearsals.
Actual performances aren’t that crisp and exposed, and the conductor might pencil OUT 2/3rds of them because his group can’t clean them up consistently, but I’ve found it helps drill writers, choreographers, and such make up and teach routines in advance of holding meetings to ‘teach them’.
Side Rant
Did more with Sibelius for Marching Bands and Stage Bands (Typically with BigBand style Orchestration). Back then it was safe to buy an arrangement and change it so it fits the pedagogy, instrumentation, and abilities of individual players in the target performing group. Buying a chart with a part for every member of your group covered the ‘royalties/fees’ so you could use the ‘tune’. Nobody really cared if you swapped things around. The copyright holders got their cut, and that’s all they cared about.
If you couldn’t find a ‘chart’, you could transpose your own, call a service like Harry Fox, and arrange to get ‘permission’ to use the tune.
I hear directors aren’t really allowed to do this anymore. Some dork is inevitably going to record everything and put it on social media. Rumor is, small time music educators are getting busted for ‘making changes’ to charts. I’ve also heard you can’t really ‘library’ scores and parts anymore. I.E. You can’t pull out a chart and parts that have been in the school library for 30 years. Gotta buy it again (if possible), and it’s only good for a certain time period. They want all kinds of information on how many performances, venues, and more.
I might be misinformed, but I have heard these things are going on in the USA, and ramping up in frequency. Even ‘schools’ that have been playing their old ‘fight song’ for 10 generations are getting busted.
I haven’t been in the classroom in a while, but I can imagine if I were, I’d be making a big shift to ‘really old’ music that is in the public domain. Not that I have a problem with paying arrangers…it’s just that the charts and rights to use them are getting really expensive and ‘restrictive’…as in, tough luck if the chart is ‘too hard’ or half the trumpet line quits and you need to move parts to Saxes/Clarinets; plus, no money left for instruments/stands/uniforms/travel.
People will cough up $500 a seat to see pro sports, or go see an act like Taylor Swift. When it comes to local ‘music’, they EXPECT a 200 piece marching band to show up for ‘free’, and get mad if everyone in the band doesn’t spend at least $50 each while they are there.
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Perhaps Mozart’s lesser-known Ein Kleines Schulkampflied?
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Interesting I gone try maybe the Saxes of broadway lites with trumpets & bones from atomic bigband. Downside is that straight ahead samples works a bit slow on my laptop and it is annoying to have the delay, I know I can turn that off. Anyway thanks for posting.
Love the falls. Is there a key-switch or CC for that?
I’ve heard it in more than one demo in this thread.
How do slide trombones pull off a doit with a valved/chormaticish/scale rip?
Not saying it can’t be done. I just want to know how 
Is it just a matter of lip slurring in the opposite direction of slide movement?
Ein Kleines Schulkampflied im Inneren Einer Flachen Biene
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