Fastball - The Way on Zynthian

Hi,

I used the record/play track method to put this together. I used an Arturia MiniLab MK2 keyboard. The pads made it fun to record the drums. The drum midi track I put together in loops and layers. I record each percussion part individually in loop and then assembled the loops together in a midi track. I recorded the bass, guitar, instruments by playing each one individually on the keyboard.

I play tenor sax and figured a tenor sax would sound good for the lead. I am going to work on adding a trumpet/trombone section playing cords at ends of a the stanza in the chorus. I can hear it in my head… Maybe I can cheat with MIDI-FX multi-chord

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A genuine sax player would be the ideal candidate for using a wind controller to add expression to your lead instrument.

The Karoryfer Bear Sax sfz sample package has about 40 different zfz sountfont expression options. Using 140 Mb of samples from a Conn baritone saxophone from 1926.

The WhereSax created 2 years earlier is an alto saxophone the download totals 188Mb.

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I play the Tenor Saxophone. I played 1st Clarinet and Tenor Sax in my High School Band. After High School I played in a couple of bands but we were just goofing around, mostly Blues and some Pink Floyd, and 10th Avenue Freeze Out from Springsteen. Fun to to play.

I’ve got a Conn Tenor Sax that was made in the 1930s. I bought it in the 80s and it was old then. Nice sound for blues, only problem it needs a pad job now. The last time I had it done I was in my 20s and it was pretty expensive. Hopefully I’ll find a local place where but I am sure it’s going to cost over $1000 USD. Thanks for the SoundFont Links!

I tried to add expression with the velocity on the keyboard and I adjusted the expression with the knob on the MiniLab. I will see if I can find a wind controller, that’s a cool idea.

This little Zynthian is pretty cool. In the 90’s I couldn’t generate this sound with a Roland Synt. I had a cheap Casio Keyboard out to a Roland box…didn’t like the sound so I didn’t play it much.

This little Zynth…

WOW I just listened to the Bear Sax! Man that sounds almost like my old Conn Tenor Sax, except it’s baritone… WOW. Yeah I miss my old Conn. You had to send me this. Now it’s time to save up.
Thanks!

Do you where I can fly a Tenor Sax sound fount that sounds as good as the Bear Sax ?

How do I import Bear_Sax into Zynthian ? It’s not a typical Linux Sampler SFZ archive. Bear Sax is a sample library for Plogue Sforzando version 1.845 or newer. Is there a utility I can use to convert it ?

I haven’t got beyond playing them on the free Sforzando player on my desktop.

The Zynthian Soundfont Wiki mentions the Polyphone editor that handles multiple formats.

The TEC is a pretty well known USB breath control

Commonly the commercial breath controllers are used with high end orchestration sound sets with high levels of expression.

I have played around with a couple cheap Chinese pressure sensors, in search of an ultra cheap breath control.

A couple of DIY experiments on youtube: (Do music not drugs)

I can confirm that Polyphone editor working on Bear_Sax sound font. The next is load to Zynthian for using in FluidSynth or LinuxSampler by webconfig. Accessing Zynthian from your computer - ZynthianWiki
The usable wind controler is AKAI EWI USB that have also sax fingering.

Herer’s a demo of the TEControl breath controller and VG Tenor Saxophone Kontakt sample library (The Akai demo on the page is a lot more impressive)

Native Instruments’ KONTAKT appears to have a lot of performance control capability, and is most often referenced by the breath controller makers. It might be a reference standard for expressive instruments.

A top 32 list of libraries, includes a list of Kontakt instruments, that also lists their capabilities. Here’s a sample of the expensive FORZO Brass library from Heavyocity, perhaps suitable for producing movie sound tracks.

There’s a free KONTAKT player for Win/Mac available as well as a starter kit with 2,000 sounds and more than 6 GB of content. (Player doesn’t handle all 3rd party samples)
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A video of: Tenacious D - “playing” the Kawasaki SAX-A-BOOM toy sax controller. at Zénith de PARIS 2020

Someone created a little soundfont from it

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Demonstrated here

Wow… this is amazing stuff. Thanks! I am going to attempt to use Polyphone and attempt to get Bear_Sax imported into my Zynthian, this is really cool. I am going to look for that sax-a-boom.

It looks like saxaphone midi controllers have come a long way. The first generation didn’t have all the keys, it was more like a Recorder. The new Saxaphone Midi Controllers have all the keys of a saxophone. So far I haven’t found a cheaper one that has all the keys. I looks like a I would need something like a Roland Aerophone AE-10. I’m looking for a used one, maybe at Musician’s Friend or a store like that.