We're over it and making summer plans, Virtual Drumline in the wild, RIP Steve Weiss, VDL Tip: Editing Battery Velocities for Playback Realism, Artist Spotlight - Danny Raymond

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May 2014 Newsletter

GET OVER IT...

Your spring semester that is. WGI finals are in the rear view. Youâ€™ve had your final concert (or if you haven't had it, youâ€™ve no doubt had it with rehearsals). Your muscles are tired. Brains are shot. Us too!

We're getting over rocks, snow, and other things.

So instead of telling you what weâ€™re up to this month, which we're over, hereâ€™s a little of what weâ€™ll be looking forward to this summer:

climbing stuff (see above)
sampling Portland's many brew fests
playing gigs
kayaking with orca whales
playing with dogs
watching movies in the park
home remodel projects
grilling fresh northwest salmon

Oh, and of course we're hard at work on lots of exciting new musical projects with Tapspace that we can't wait to share with you! Here's a private sneak peek at Robert Oetomo's solo marimba arrangement of "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz. Between kayaking, climbing, and grilling, we'll be getting this into print, along with a bunch of other great stuff, so stay tuned and ready to get over your old ideas, and into new ones!

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What's Happening

STEVE WEISS (1943-2014)

On April 22nd, 2014, we received the sad news that Steve Weiss passed away. Steve made an everlasting mark on the percussion community by creating and operating one of the world's most specialized and celebrated percussion retailers, Steve Weiss Music. Steve Weiss Music is more than just another music shop. Because of Steve, they've maintained a reputation for stocking some of the world's rarest instruments. And if they didn't have them, they'd find a way to get them! Furthermore, their library of percussion-specific sheet music and recordings is unparalleled!

Steve Weiss was our first-ever dealer and had always been a wonderful supporter of what we do here at Tapspace. We'll miss you, Steve. For those of you who didn't know Steve, fear not. His legacy lives on through Steve Weiss Music, which is thriving and very much open for business today, just as Steve would have wanted it!

Also - they're having a 15% Off All Sheet Music Sale until May 18th, so go pay them a visit and stock up on the good stuff!

VIRTUAL DRUMLINE IN THE WILD!

As a well-informed Tapspace fan, you probably already know that Virtual Drumline is the go-to percussion sample library for arrangers, composers, band directors, and marching enthusiasts. But it's also made a huge splash in mainstream media over the years. You probably hear it every day if you're watching TV commercials, but here are a few of the cool places VDL has turned up over the years.

BeyoncÃ© - COUNTDOWN

You can't miss the VDL tenor line rim shots, bass line, and cymbal crashes throughout this tune!

GLEE

If you're one of the few people who hasn't seen the hit TV show Glee on Fox, you've missed out on countless moments of Jane Lynch hilariously insulting her co-stars over the top of a bed of Virtual Drumline sounds.

Jonas Brothers - POM POMS

The entire percussion bed of this song includes buzz rolls, rim clicks and shots from the VDL snare line, plus the unmistakable sound of the VDL cymbal line crashes!

ESPN/ABC COLLEGE FOOTBALL

You canâ€™t help but get excited for college football when you hear this one which ESPN and ABC use to advertise their upcoming slate of games. The entire percussion track is comprised of VDL sounds (including vocal grunts!).

STATE FARM INSURANCE

The Saturday Night Live Superfans dream of Da Bearsâ€™ coach Mike Ditka and sausage pillows in this State Farm commercial. Listen for Virtual Drumline in the logo stinger at the end of the commercial.

VIRTUAL DRUMLINE: INTRODUCTION

This isn't a new video, but it covers a lot of what you get when you jump on the Virtual Drumline bandwagon. This 10-minute introduction video gives a basic overview of some of VDL's main features. All percussion sounds in the music on this video were created with Virtual Drumline!

New Services Available

SIMPLE CD-ROM/DVD REPLACEMENTS

We get it. Sometimes a music educator's life is chaotic and stuff gets lost. If Murphy's Law is keeping you down and you've lost or broken a CD-Rom or VDL DVD, all is not lost! Simply order a disk replacement, and we'll get you back on track in no time!

Featured Items

VDL NANOKEY BUNDLE

Virtual Drumline works best when entering music with a MIDI keyboard. The Korg nanoKEY 2 is one of the most compact USB keyboard controllers on the market and you can save money by purchasing one of these keyboards together with Virtual Drumline using our VDL nanoKEY 2 Bundle!

Haven't tried the Korg nanoKEY yet? Check out our review in the shaky-cam video below.

UP FRONT

by Jim Casella & Jim Ancona

Some people have called this comprehensive book the "Pit Bible." Others have stated it's "Something every percussionist and band director should own." Whether you're prepping for the upcoming marching season, or are just in need of a rich resource on percussion gear and techniques that features extensive exercises and arranging/teaching tips, you'll want to add UP FRONT to your library!

Virtual Drumline Tip

KEY VELOCITIES FOR BATTERY INSTRUMENTS

When composing for marching battery, many people are comfortable inputting parts, adding some accents and simple dynamic markings, and then hitting PLAY and letting their notation program handle the rest. But what if you're not quite satisfied with the way the playback sounds? Are the taps or grace notes too loud? Accents not loud enough? In this month's VDL tip, we're going to touch on the topic of manipulating key velocities in order to make your playback more realistic.

Virtual Drumline was programmed with an extraordinary amount of detail. The battery instruments alone were recorded at up to 16 levels of soft to loudâ€”this is what we mean when we use the term "key velocities" (or just "velocities"). Velocities can be manipulated directly in the notation program*, giving users a great many options for detailing their playback. With a little knowledge of how to manipulate these values, you can quickly get your scores to sound exactly as you intend.

In the language of MIDI, velocities can have values between 0 and 127. In the language of marching battery, we deal with taps, accents, and grace notes, all at any dynamic level. There's also the fact that, in the real world, battery instruments will tend to overpower other instruments by a factor ofâ€¦umâ€¦a lot. So how do you know which values to use? By experimentation, of course! But to get you started, here are some general values that we think work pretty well in most typical situations:

Overall TAPS ACCENTS
Dynamic Range Velocity Values Velocity Values
pp - p 60 - 80 85 - 100
p - mp 80 - 90 100 - 110
mp - mf 85 - 95 110 - 115
mf - f 90 - 100 115 - 124
f - ff 95 - 105 120 - 127

You'll notice in the above table that there is some overlap. Again, this is not an exact science. If you think about the VDL programming from a real world perspective, you'll realize that even though you can program a velocity value of 1, no drumline is ever going to successfully create that kind of subtle playing live. Also as you may know, VDL also gives you options in terms of "playing zones" on the snare drum, different implement choices, etc. So if the parts you write call for edge playing on snare or "puffies" on tenors or bass, you may find the need to further refine your velocity values.

*Finale and Sibelius each have different processes by which you can manipulate these velocity values. Consult your documentation for more detailed info. These topics are also covered in detail in Virtual Drumline Demystified.

For some expert information about all things VDL (including velocities and volume), check out Virtual Drumline Demystified â€“ an onscreen training course by VDL guru Bryan Harmsen on using Virtual Drumline with both Finale and Sibelius.

Artist Spotlight

Danny Raymond

When it comes to drumming, it doesn't get much better than this month's spotlight artist, Danny Raymond. He's been a performing musician for Disney for over 20 years, and is well known as a two-time DCA individual snare drum champion. See him play, and you'll know why!

When not drumming for Disney, Danny can be found adjudicating, writing new music, or presenting clinics in the USA, Canada, Japan, and Europe. Additionally, Danny's compilation Let It Rip has been a popular resource for snare drummers around the globe!

In this month's Artist Spotlight, Danny Raymond gives us his read on "The Gong Show," matched grip, and becoming water.

What is your favorite book?

â€œThe Game Show King: A Confessionâ€ by Chuck Barris. Funniest book Iâ€™ve ever read. I laughed out loudâ€¦a lot. If you remember shows like The Gong Show, you might laugh at it too.

At what point did you know music would become a big part of your life?

I made a conscious decision two years after high school that music was where it was at for me. I had to first get my own house in order so I started taking private lessons again, joined a drum corps, eventually auditioned for Disney and the rest, as they say...

What's your favorite ice cream flavor?

Kilwins Chocolate Peanut Butter

What's your favorite quote?

â€œYou put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.â€ â€“ Bruce Lee

Do you play with traditional or match grip. Why?

Both. I do whatever I need to express myself. The above quote may offer insight as to the â€œwhyâ€.

Browse all of Danny's music!

Video Submission of the Month

Just a few weeks ago the University of Nevada, Las Vegas percussion ensemble accompanied soloist Kyle Bissantz in a light-fueled performance of Jim Casella's "Meanwhile in a Parallel Universe."

To share videos of your latest performances of Tapspace music, click here. We'll look forward to hearing what you're doing with our music, and maybe we'll feature you here!

Played any Tapspace pieces lately?

Like our music? Want to help make sure more music like it is created in the future?

By letting ASCAP know that you performed our pieces in concert, youâ€™ll be supporting composers and Tapspace, and it doesnâ€™t cost you a thing! Every year ASCAP collects monies from orchestras, bars, radio stations, karaoke clubs, even sports stadiumsâ€”nearly every place and space where music is played. These funds are distributed based on reported performances. If you donâ€™t report this performance, thatâ€™s one or two more pennies that will go to Avril Lavigne.

So please, take a few minutes, visit our Submit Concert Programs page and help us support creativity in percussion.

Social Isolation

Are you following us on Facebook or Twitter? If you are, you already know that we send the latest and greatest there first. And we often run flash-promotions exclusively via our social channels to save you some quick cash! But mainly, we like to engage with all y'all so come join in and isolate yourself less!

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