https://www.dropbox.com/s/12w9mdoyos74maj/Original%20electric%20Jazz%20trio%20kits.zip?dl=0
These are double zipped. Unzip, then unzip the individual kit. Includes:
NP Electric Jazz Trio, NP Electric Jazz Trio 2, and NP Electric Jazz Trio 3.
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Hi Phil, thanks for sharing these jazz kits. I installed through BB Manager. So far so good. Am I wrong or is there just sound on the R side (one channel)?
See, this is why I had taken them down. These kits require use of both outputs. They are split so you can control the drum volume independent of the bass and piano. The L/Mono jack on the BB does not sum both channels into one.
A question about these kits in general, and āNP Electric Jazz Trio 3 XRpā in particular -
Is it a characteristic of the samples that they distort when played with high MIDI velocity?
For example, Iām attaching a song file āAll of Me - sj01.sngā. Either in BB Manager, or on the pedal itself, the start of the Intro sounds consistently and unpleasantly distorted. I donāt think itās the rest of my signal chain, but since I could be mistaken, I ask here about the samples themselves.
All_of_Me_-_sj01.sng (277.5 KB)
Try the song with a newer kit. I tried the song with Electric Jazz Trio 72-C1 and it sounded goodāI did not run it through powered monitors though.
For my tastes, the velocities are too high and if youāre running your BeatBuddy through a PA, it may be so loud as to be uncomfortable for your listeners. If youāre playing this just for yourself, itās probably fine. IMO, higher velocities may or not lead to clipping.
Phil Flood has done a great job tweaking and improving the fidelity of his kits over time.
BTW, I like your rendition of the song.
Thanks for your comments Persist!
Iāve just completed a new edit with the Piano velocities lowered by 30. It sounds alot better to me, (using the same āNP Electric Jazz Trio 3 XRpā kit) without the specific distortion I was noticing in the 01 version.
If the difference is that the 01 version (with higher velocities) is driving the samples into clipping (?), how should I think of that in terms of properties of the sample itself, properties of the kit definition, and properties of the BB (and/or BB Manager)?
Iām attaching the 02 version here for anyone who cares to compare with the 01 version.
All_of_Me_-_sj02.sng (277.6 KB)
For some reason, the electric pianos that I tried to use then always distorted when I combined notes. I think there was some digital clipping on my end that could have been avoided. I have acquired better monitors and headphones in the time since I did those, but I still have trouble getting chorused electric piano to sound the way I want. Reducing velocities overall does help, as that is the only āvolumeā control we have for the arrangement on the BB. Generally, what I try to do when making a song is play it back and see if I detect any clipping. If I do, I then start reducing velocities on my midi arrangement until I get it to an acceptable level.
I found over time, that when creating a kit, I need to control the peak levels, and I do this with normalization in my sample processor (NCH Switch). For instruments that will be played in groups of notes, I try to keep the normalization in the 50-60% range. 55 is a good start. Single note instruments can be higher, but 70-75% is a good upper limit. Otherwise, you are just asking for clipping in the final arrangement.
Even with those controls, you still need to be careful with the velocities to avoid overdriving the BB amp.
Thank you for your comments Phil (and for the fine kits always!!).
I will follow your method of managing via velocity as necessary.
Do I understand correctly that every sound that is playing āat onceā is contributing to the drive of the BB amp and therefore the density of the arrangement will always be a factor and possible trip point wrt. output distortion?
Are there other points of distortion involved in the story other than overdriving the BB output amp?
Itās definitely one potential source. Although, generally, if the song play without clipping in BB Manager, you should be alright in the pedal as well. I try to look at my meters in my interface software (Focusrite Saffire MixControl), which provides me the best guide as to possible clipping problems.
OK. So, in todayās case, the problem was definitely audible in BB Manager, so what does that mean? (For the sake of my understandingā¦)
The clipping that I am seeing appears to be caused by the bass velocities, even in your version 2 of the song. Bass is notorious for causing a clip. I actually get a clip on the first note of the intro , and then again on the second note of part 1 All OF Me. The piano distortion is mostly what seems to be a tube saturation sound as opposed to a digital clip.
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And, and BTW, Iām so sound engineer - just an idiot who tries to make arrangements on the BB so I can work with a limited palette of sounds and still get something I find acceptable.
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Thanks for your further comments Phil.
Here is the 04 version, with velocity even more curtailed (all above 100 x .9).
All_of_Me_-_sj04.sng (278.0 KB)
Thank you so much Phil. You are talented, prolific and of great benefit to a growing group of musicians.
