Rock amp Roll

Hi Fred,

I didn't recognize the tune, but if you've nearly caught what your band sounded like, it sure would be great to hear you guys. Or, to have heard, I guess would be more compatible with the current time. During those years, I spent a lot of time in places that had bands, especially on weekends, but I can't recall one to match yours. I certainly never came across one with trumpet and trombone. Mostly they had a couple of guitars, drums, a keyboard, and a lead vocalist, the guitars, keyboard and drums adding a chorus.

Yours is RR played as a jazz band might play it. As I said, sure wish you guys had played where I was.

I ran across a sax soundfont, called Roland Super Tenor. It is breathy, even gritty, and has a lot of volume. If it sounds like one you might be interested in, I'll look up the URL.

all best,
mgj

Hi Fred,

Some great memories. It's good you still keep in touch. Golf? What is it about golf and music? Good you still play, too. I gave my clubs to my son a few years ago. He lives near a hilly, rural course I used to play almost daily--after a considerable drive--and my back doesn't like me swinging a club (though I still take out a beat old driver I have in the tool shed, on occaions. Ouch.)

That's a real bummer about your new computer. Sounds like maybe something with the setup--not Composer, necessarily, but the computer itself. What do you see when you open control panel, then click on sounds and audio? What are the choices in the default midi pull down menu? As far as some doorbells instead of drums, I wonder if you maybe need another preset. There is quite a difference in octaves 3 and 4 between 0 (1 in Composer) and 48 (49 in Composer). What sound system does your computer have? Sure hope the problem can be rectified.

all best,
mgj

Hi Fred,

It seems there's a rash of new computers on which old standbys don't work like they used to. At least I'm having some of the same problems. I use Acoustica, which is similar to Audacity, and it won't record, either. In fact I have only front mike, rear mike and modem as recording choices now; 'what you hear' is gone, as is midi synth.

Synthfont works, but I get drop-outs when I play to a file to make a .wav or .mp3 recording. You can set up what you want it's default soundfont bank to be: file menu/select default soundfont. If you're saying you want the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, you can make that the default...if you can find it. It's probably in Windows/System32. It sounds so bad on my machine (strings that sometimes sound a lot like winds) that I avoid it, though the drum kit is pretty good.

I started with golf at 35, and maybe I should have waited until 63. I broke 90 without much trouble and in fact got right down around par once or twice. That was enough to keep me thinking every time I went out that I might break par, but usually I wound up somewhere between 80 and 110. I could find a way to screw up any hole. If all was looking good when I got to the green, I had no trouble 2 putting from 3 feet. There are quite a number of courses that have heard my variations on ##(*!@##$%#@@#%.

I shouldn't go work on my trumpet concerto after remembering how easily I could make a mess of a round of golf, but . . .

best,
mgj

Hi Fred,

I had the extension wrong--no wonder I couldn't find it. I made a copy of it and will use that to see if I can find some way to edit it. I have had it open in Soundfont Bank Manager.

Do you think Donald Trump is rich enough to pay minimum wage for the hours we spend with this software? Maybe you can find out at your lunch ;)

all best,
mgj

Hi All,
Omigosh! I was going through some old picture albums and came across a few pictures of my old bands. There is one picture in particular that is of the exact band that I referred to for "Hail, Hail Rock & Roll". I am providing a link to my pictures sight on Yahoo.com.
It is in the Album "Fred's bands 1955-1965". It is the picture titled "The Deltas_1962". It is a public sight, so it also contains another album of my wife's early paintings. The band pictures are digital camera photos of the old photos ( at least the ones that were not severely damaged ) so there are some flash spots that could not be helped. When I get the time, I may try to do a little better with the lighting. You are welcome to view the photos. Here is the link:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/icompo...zon.net/photos

Cheers,
Fred

Sorry, the link did not materialize. I'll try again. If it doesn't show up as a link, just copy and paste it into your browser.
Fred

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/icompose@verizon.net/photos

Hi Fred,

Ah Ha! Now I see why the band was so pouplar. The music? Naw, it was those good-looking instrumentalists with the perfect duck tails. ;)

Enjoyed the pics.

I also enjoyed the first-rate paintings.

all best,
mgj