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frankymax wrote:The guy who ran the webcast used to work at Wally Heider recording in L.A. and I had several people email me that the sound and video were really good for the webcast, which was great to hear.

Yeah, I listened on my studio monitors (Focal Twin6 Be & Sub 6) and it sounded creamy and warm and it was very well balanced and defined. It's a joy when you have such a great drummer (Peter is amazing) and players who know how to play with finesse and mix themselves, but hats off to the engineer for mixing it so well because it sounded terrific. I was thoroughly impressed and enjoyed it completely. You all looked like you were having a blast, even though you were working hard. You were funny. I really liked the vocalists, too. What's the name of the female vocalist? Wow, that girl can sing. I just loved her voice. I think I'll get her CD.

Yeah, I heard you say that at the end, "Now we have to pack up all these horns." There sure was a lot of 'em. It seemed like everyone brought three or four different horns.

Anyway, job well done. Thank you for such a treat.

Thanks! The female vocalist is Tierney Sutton, she's got her own incredible trio that is nominated for a Grammy this year, for her album "Desire". And yeah, we had a lot of horns! Jay Mason, who was doing the low reed chair played piccolo, flute, bass flute, clarinet, english horn, bass clarinet, bari sax and bass sax. He had the most doubles at 8, while the rest of us woodwind guys only had 6-7 doubles! The horns took up most of the stage.

I'm so glad to hear that the mix sounded good- Tim was mixing it on the fly, having never even heard the songs before. He's pretty amazing!

frankymax wrote:Thanks! The female vocalist is Tierney Sutton, she's got her own incredible trio that is nominated for a Grammy this year, for her album "Desire". And yeah, we had a lot of horns! Jay Mason, who was doing the low reed chair played piccolo, flute, bass flute, clarinet, english horn, bass clarinet, bari sax and bass sax. He had the most doubles at 8, while the rest of us woodwind guys only had 6-7 doubles! The horns took up most of the stage.

I'm so glad to hear that the mix sounded good- Tim was mixing it on the fly, having never even heard the songs before. He's pretty amazing!

Here's a stupid question: I have never played a wind instrument. Are you tired after that? I mean, do you feel it in your lungs or diaphragm or are your lips or mouth tired? Or are you so used to it after all those years of playing that you don't even notice it?

I can only speak for me, but I actually feel very invigorated after playing, just like exercising. If you have to play for long periods of time without a break, I think your chops (lips, embouchure) can get tired so breaks of a few bars here and there are very helpful for wind players, just to get the blood flow back to the face!

frankymax wrote:I can only speak for me, but I actually feel very invigorated after playing, just like exercising. If you have to play for long periods of time without a break, I think your chops (lips, embouchure) can get tired so breaks of a few bars here and there are very helpful for wind players, just to get the blood flow back to the face!

Interesting. I've been wanting to take up a wind instrument as a hobby just because I like them so much, but at 54 I'm thinking I'm probably too old, and now I have dentures so that's probably not too good either. If I were to take one up, what instrument would you recommend?

Sorry for going off topic here but I can't pass up the chance of getting advice from someone with such experience.

Thanks

well, with dentures I'd probably go for the flute, as it doesn't affect your teeth too much. Brass and saxes/clarinets all would put pressure on your teeth and that might be a bit uncomfortable with dentures. Good luck with it!

Thanks!

Great stuff Frank. Loved the arrangements, great band. Came through beautifully here in downtown Melbourne. What a great idea.
Thanks for organizing the webcast.

Had to work. Is there a replay anywhere?

I was traveling and missed this. Looking forward to some clips/Youtube videos!

We'll eventually put some clips up on youtube- I'll let you know when that happens. Thanks for your interest!
-Frank