IMMusic Inc.
MIDI, Music and Keyboard Fun
MIDI, Music and Keyboard Fun
blog.immusicstore.com
RadioIndy Review - Jazzy Christmas
Pop in the dazzling Jazz instrumental album featuring superb holiday classics on the CD, “Jazzy Christmas” by Ric Iannone as your spirits with lifted with radiant joy. This CD is comprised of a talented trio of musicians, (piano, bass, and drums) that skillfully take traditional holiday tunes and weaves them into spectacular Jazzy compositions. Opening up the album, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” grooves with a smooth and easy flowing vibe. Another song, “Deck the Halls,” has a fine bouncy beat and an excellent colorful arrangement. “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,” has a sparkling jazzy groove with exceptionally tight precision. Taking it down a notch the song, “What Child Is This,” has dynamic power and yet a delicate tonality. If you are feeling stressed out from the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping then the outstanding holiday Jazz album, “Jazzy Christmas” is just the thing to kick back and unwind to.
-Diane and the RadioIndy.com Reviewer Team
Mantiray
Just put together a quick audio track to upload to Google+. Add us to your circles and join us there.
Track Order for Jazzy Holidays - Part2
Yesterday we brought up the topic of track order and how that affects your overall perception as you listen to a CD.
Jazzy Holidays was arranged and recorded with the concept of a simple Jazz Trio setting. Three musicians, three instruments:
- Piano
- Bass
- Drums
In the first post we shared the list of tunes in alphabetical order. Since then we have come up with the following order:
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
- Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
- Deck The Halls
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- Jingle Bells
- Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
- We Three Kings
- Jolly Old St Nick
- What Child Is This
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
We are going to listen in this order a few times today to see how that flows and we are still taking suggestions on track order if you would like to share your thoughts? There should be enough time today to cut a few demo tracks and upload them so you can take a listen.
CD / Song Track Order - Your Thoughts?
Here's something that you might not spend much time thinking about. You just purchased a shiny new CD or downloaded an electronic version of it. As you settle down in your favorite chair, maybe with your beverage of choice, and crank up the volume to take a listen, the first track starts to play. Somewhere along the way somebody decided the track order that you hear and that track order does influence the mood and your overall perception of the the final product.
Should the first tune be up tempo or a softer selection?
So - here we sit, working on the next CD, which is a collection of Christmas tunes, considering the track order that we would like to present. On this CD, we opted for a simple Jazz Trio of Piano, Bass and Drums.
The list of tunes includes (alphabetically):
- Deck The Halls
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
- Jingle Bells
- Jolly Old St Nick
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
- Sugar Plum
- We Three Kings
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- What Child Is This
Of course, you haven't heard them yet (but you will soon) - so it's not as easy for you to pick an order, but we are open to suggestions. What do you think - Deck the Halls or Santa Claus is Coming to Down for the first track?
Distortion
Looking for a good distortion pedal to give you an extra boost? The Boss DS-1 pedal is a fantastic pedal for just that. Inexpensive and simple to use and setup.
By itself, the pedal doesn't have that good of a tone, but it works great along with the distortion you already have. If you want to give a fat boost to your down-strumming during the verse, just flip on the DS-1 and listen as the tone fills up. It will sound great as you're playing your next concert. When it comes to solo time, and you don't need to have as much distortion, it's as easy as stepping on it to turn it off and you're all set.
Do you have a favorite pedal - If so, which one?
Austin
Let's do 500 downloads
We put together some Jingles that you can use for "whatever" a few months back. Put them on your website, put them in your PowerPoint Presentation, you can even make a ring tone out of them if you want. They are zipped up into groups of 10 Jingles, vary in styles, and range from 15 seconds to around a minute in length. Free for the taking…. Enjoy.
We are getting close to hitting 500 downloads. For those that have downloaded and tried them tell us more about what you used them for?
For some reason we stopped at Jingle 71. As time permits we might as well record a few more and make it to a nice even 100 Jingles. As we start to do that - do you have a favorite style that you would like to see more of?
Here's Jingle56 from the IMMusic Inc. Jingle51-60 collection.
Download | Duration: 00:00:45
Not what you are looking for? There are plenty more available to pick from on the Jingle page. Download the whole collection and lets see if we can get to the magic 500 download number this week!
Pandora - Here we come!
In a recent post we mentioned there was still one more detail we were working on related to the release of the Happy Holidays CD on Amazon. Earlier the week we were notified by Pandora that the Happy Holidays CD has been accepted and will be available on their service very soon. So there you have it, the super-hush-hush secret we were not able to tell you about until now. Very exciting stuff - Well, at least for us it is!
Amazon has some short demos or you can check out the demos we put together over on Soundcloud. We posted the list of tunes a while back for your review. Take a look and see if we included one of your favorites?
If you are interested in the steps required to submit your work for consideration by Pandora, you can learn more on their blog located at blog.pandora.com/faq
Make sure to listen for us later this year during the upcoming holiday season!
Guitar Strings - So Many Choices
Got a new acoustic guitar? Want a new sound from your current guitar? Something as simple as changing your strings can give a whole new feel and sound to your guitar.
If you want a brighter sound to your guitar I highly recommend getting Elixir guitar strings. They provide some of the brightest tones in the industry. An alternative - check out the coated Ernie Ball strings which will also provide a bright tone.
If you prefer a warmer, richer tone you have a number of choices. You can choose from Martin strings, Gibson strings, Fender strings, the earthwood strings from Ernie ball, or DR acoustic strings. All provide a warm tone to them.
You don't have to pick between bright sounding strings or warm, rich sounding strings. What if you want something that offers both? Diaddario strings are your best bet, or try Yamaha strings which also offer a nice balance between warm and bright tone.
At any point please ask any questions you might have and I'd be more than happy to answer them for you.
Austin
Guitar Strings - Do you have a favorite?
Hi guys, This is Austin and I'm glad to be here posting my first entry on the IMMusic Inc. blog. Let's jump right in!
Have you ever been into your local guitar shop and seen Nanoweb and Polyweb Elixir guitar strings, but never knew the difference? Well, here are some fun facts about each.
First, we are just dealing with Elixir Acoustic Guitar Strings. We will talk about Elixir Electric Guitar Strings in a future post. In general, Elixir strings will give you a very bright tone and would be perfect for Taylor guitars. In fact, Taylor guitars come with Elixir strings on them from the factory. These are a great choice if you're looking for a bright tone from your guitar, regardless of the manufacturer.
With Polyweb strings you get what Elixir calls the "original" coating. The coating on these strings makes them pretty slick allowing you to easily slide your hand up and down the fret board in order to quickly play bar chords. Some of you may find as the strings start to reach the end of their life, the coating starts to peel or flake off where you strum the guitar leaving white flakes over the body your guitar. None the less they are some of the most popular and widely used strings in the industry.
Nanoweb strings have a thinner coating then the Polyweb strings do. Because of this, you can feel the grooves of the strings more than on the Polyweb strings. They also have a warmer tone to them in comparison to the Polywebs and don't tend to flake in the same way the Polyweb strings do.
Comment back with your favorite stings.
We Have A New Team Member!
We are happy to announce the newest member of the IMMusic Inc. team. Welcome, Austin Magura. Austin will be leading a new division of the company focused on guitars, drums, and PA speaker systems. Austin will be splitting his time between IMMusic Inc., working as a musical instrument specialist at a local music retailer, and taking classes working towards an Audio Production degree. Surrounded by music all his life, he enjoys both playing and working with musical instruments.
An exciting time for both Austin and IMMusic Inc. Everyone say hello to Austin!
Available Now!
