Ostinato with a “blowsy” saxophone solo

(Download the file, 05:43, 13.2 MB. The “saxophone solo” begins at 01:58.)

I took some additional time with this one. Instead of relying on a Matrix pattern generator to provide the notes for a virtual tenor sax, I chose to go “old school” and draw the notes, adding manual pitch blend curves to liven things up a bit. If you look at the saxophone’s “note lane,” you’ll see its resemblance to a venerable player piano roll, but one running left to right, rather than from top to bottom. (If you click on the graphic, you can get a better look.)

What makes this somewhat tedious is the time required to implement a reasonable facsimile of rubato. No self-respecting jazz artist plays only on downbeats or upbeats in strict rhythm. I had to loop through the solo piecewise, tweaking note duration and timing down to so many 240ths of a single beat to get it to sound authentic.

Needless to say, this ain’t how the pros do it. They’ll connect a MIDI device to the computer; play the solo in real time; route the note, velocity, and pitch blend messages to Reason’s External MIDI Interface; and then apply the MIDI data to the instrument or instruments of their choice. The end product can be saved for post-production or you can even do this in a live performance.

Well, maybe you can. My keyboarding skills don’t extend that far.