I wanted to share this with you, not because I think I’m great, but because I had so much fun making it.
Friends and family will know I’ve bought myself a Yamaha WX5 Wind Midi Controller for my 44th birthday. It looks like a clarinet, but it is more like a synthesizer keyboard that you play like a wind instrument. You can see a picture of it here.
I thought you might like an idea of what it sounds like, so I’ve uploaded some of my own recordings to give you an idea.
Some of them I just played from memory by ear because they’re tunes I love (Like the Dark Isle, The Parting Glass, and Basin Street Blues). Some of them are from a “Play along” music book I recently bought which has the backing tracks that you can play along to. For one of them (Beauty and the Beast) I took a midi of the the tune, removed the melody line, and dubbed my own melody line over the top. (I’ll promise to explain how to do this in my technical blog soon).
“Beauty and the Beast” is a very pretty melody. If you only listen to one of these tunes, I hope you listen to this one.
Anyway – here they are – the sounds of me having fun.
Piccolo voice:
The Dark Isle
The Parting Glass
Sway
Beauty and the Beast
Trombone voice:
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Trumpet voice:
Basin Street Blues
Clarinet voice:
God Bless The Child
Tenor Saxophone voice:
Hit The Road Jack
>Hi Neilius
I really enjoyed your rendition of “I wish I knew..” – I’ve been trying to track down a backing since I heard the track for the nth time this weekend, but *finally* discovered what it was called and who had recorded it! In the UK it’s mainly known as the intro to a famous TV show. Now I’ve heard the lyric too, I really, really love the song. A couple of strange coincidences: I own a WX5 too! My sister lives in QLD! (Townsville). All the best,
Chris
>Hi Chris
Glad you liked it. WX5 players are hard to find. Please send me your contact details – perhaps we can exchange ideas. Just post your email address in a comment. It won’t appear. I’ll make a note of it and delete the comment so that it doesn’t appear online.
Regards
Neil
P.S. What synth do you use for Tone Generation?