Matt Traum: 0:01

Welcome to the Aerophone Academy podcast with me, Matt Traum...

Alistair Parnell: 0:01

...and I'm Alistair Parnell. Join us each month as we discuss the wonderful world of wind controllers, and you get the very best. Information and answers to your questions.

Matt Traum: 0:17

The Aerophone Academy podcast is the source for accurate information on wind controllers.

Alistair Parnell: 0:23

So make sure you subscribe to the podcast and while you're at it, why not check out www.iSax.Academy and PatchmanMusic.com

Alistair Parnell: 0:36

Welcome back, everybody. This is podcast number 19. I think we're on to now. And if you have been following our podcast series, you'll know that we started a very interesting conversation in podcast 18 about how we can market ourselves as wind synth players. So if you haven't already heard Podcast 18, I suggest you wind back a little bit and listen to that first half of this discussion, which we're going to continue now. with both myself and our co-host Matt Traum.

Matt Traum: 1:12

Thanks, Alistair. Yeah, we just had so many things to talk about in this uh on this topic that we thought maybe we'd carry it on and make a whole second episode. I think maybe this is uh one of the most useful episodes we've had is in terms of helping people to get out there and benefit from playing a wind controller. So let's carry on, shall we?

Alistair Parnell: 1:47

Now, the other thing is, of course, Matt, We need to mention social media. And, you know, I hope you don't mind me saying this, Matt, but we're both perhaps a little bit old school, but we do try our best to do a little bit of social media. I'm sure we could both be much, much better at it. But you must see quite a lot of wind synth stuff on social media, Matt?

Matt Traum: 2:12

I do see a lot. I'm mostly a YouTube and Facebook guy, so I'm old school. But I see some folks are on Instagram, and I recently saw there was a guy playing just an old Crumar EVI, and he had like 16,000 views on this little Crumar EVI clip for a minute that he was playing and I was like blown away. I was like, wow, that's interesting. Yeah, there's there's ways to get you know, a lot of exposure out there, and maybe capitalize in on it. Like you say, teaching, if you're a good player and you're eight, you have the ability to to teach, you know, and you have that, it's an innate ability, I think, and not everybody has. But yeah, you could do teaching through the through YouTube or live stream or you know, FaceTime or Zoom or whatever. Yeah. That's an option. Promoting yourself through those Media outlets is is one way to do it. I don't know how many gigs you'd pick up locally from that type of thing.

Alistair Parnell: 3:16

I think the thing with the social media, I would not profess to be an expert in any means. But I think it's don't don't underestimate it's it's still quite a lot of work. I think sometimes people can feel you know, if I do a video or something, um that'll kind of spark a lot of interest and get me noticed kind of thing. Um as far as I'm aware You know, you've got to be posting pretty regularly. I've seen people say, you know, you need to be putting things up even multiple times a day onto things like Instagram. I wish I Could have the time and do more on YouTube. Some of the listeners might already know my YouTube stuff. going for about 11 years now I think and um it's been it's been uh very helpful it's it certainly was the vehicle that got me noticed by Roland when they started to ask me to help them with the the Aerophone. Had I not done any YouTube stuff, they wouldn't have found me. So I think that there is value in that. Now, as I'm sure some of the listeners already realize, you know, you don't get paid an awful lot of money from YouTube. So I don't know, my YouTube on a really good month, might give me something in the region of a sort of $80 to $100. I mean, that's you know, not to be sniffed at. That's great. But I've been doing it for eleven years and I have what about kind of eighteen thousand followers or something. You know, I put quite a lot of time and effort into that. It's not the sort of thing that's going to pay all of your bills. Unless you really take off in a big way. But I think there is value in terms of getting your name out there. And so, for instance, you know, if you've got some online presence where you can say to a wedding venue or old people's home, whatever it is. You know, you can say, hey, go and look at my, my, my, you know, my reel. I think this is what they call it. You have a reel now where you've got a few little clips of you playing. This is very often, you know, we don't write letters anymore. We don't even write emails to say, hey, do you want to hire us? Very often now you need some kind of recording, preferably video. That you can say to people, hey, you want to hear what I can do? Go and watch this video. It's up on YouTube. So that is something I think that becomes more and more the norm now in terms of advertising for quite a lot of what we've been talking about going out playing live. Very often now you need some kind of website or at least some YouTube channel where you can direct people so they can hear what you can do and the sort of music you can play for them. So I do think it's the sort of thing that's worth dipping your toe into. Like anything else, it can be a bit nerve-wracking at first, and there's a certain amount of learning to understand what's required and how you upload things and the best settings and how you get a good balance and all of that stuff. You know, there's quite a bit involved, but it's The only way you learn how to do it is by getting in there and as they say, press record and get on with it. So certainly worthwhile. But I think, yeah, it's not a short term thing. It's something you're going to spend time on doing.

Matt Traum: 6:42

Yeah, I would say for sure, get a nice, like you say, a reel, get a five-minute demo of if you're in a group or if you're doing a single thing or whatever it is, put together a really nice, you know demonstration, presentation of what you do, show different uh styles and you know make it look good and sound good. Don't don't put garbage up there. You know, it make it look nice and if you need somebody to help you do it get somebody to help and edit it together and uh get get a demo so use use those social media uh outlets as a a repository of your demo. In other words, if you have a bride and groom that are asking for a considering you for their wedding Say, okay, yeah, go up here, and here's the link to my demo. Yeah. And definitely have a demo up there that you're proud of, and that'll help you get some work as well. That's a great idea. I wish I knew more about monetizing YouTube and stuff like that. I don't. And maybe, Alistair, you and I need to talk to somebody to maybe there's a way we can make some clips of our podcast, and maybe there's a way to do this. I don't know. I'm sure there is. But again, I wouldn't expect much to come in in terms of monetary payoff from things like that. I just don't think it's there. Unless you're got millions of views, you're not going to make any money.

Matt Traum: 7:59

If you are enjoying this Aerophone Academy podcast, please consider visiting Patchman Music. com for your next wind controller-related purchase. Patchman Music offers the largest library of highly expressive, professional-quality breath-controlled Sounds for numerous synths and soft synths. The popular Patchman Music Turbo VL upgrade chip for the Yamaha VL70-m sound module, developed over 20 years ago, is still a staple with wind controller players worldwide. Patchman Music has worked with the very best. Best in the field, including Tom Scott, Michael Brecker, Judd Miller, Bob Mintzer, Jeff Kashiwa, and Wix Wickens, keyboardist and music director for Paul McCartney. And we are happy to help you make your wind controller experience as fun and productive as possible. In addition to our wind controller sound libraries, PatchMan Music is also the leading dealer in the U. S. for new and used wind controller hardware products. Including the Roland Aerophone series, the Akai EWI series, the Berglund series of instruments, including the NuRAD and NuEVI. The Yamaha YDS series, and the complete series of audio modeling SWAM virtual instruments for Mac and PC. If you are looking to purchase a new or used wind controller, need a repair, or are looking for some world-class expressive sounds to take your wind controller experience. To the top, why not support this Aerophone Academy podcast and visit patchmanmusic. com for your next wind controller-related purchase? Thank you.

Alistair Parnell: 9:30

The other thing that's useful, Matt, in terms of having a reel or some kind of way of getting people to see what you're capable of, you know, I've done a little bit of work where a producer for a track or something, or somebody making some music for a film or something. I've done not done anything big, but I've done some local things where, you know, they've asked me to add, say, you know A sound to a bit of a soundtrack for a film or for a pop song or whatever it is. And this is something else where, of course, the wind synth can be very Valuable because you can do everything from kind of ethnic flutes to kind of weird and wonderful synth sounds again, in a way that is really expressive and different from a keyboard player. That's something else that you can think about. Again, you've got to have a way of demonstrating to somebody, hey, I'm someone who you should consider to do that. Of course, a lot of those things go through word of mouth as well. But that's another angle to consider. to be able to if you know, you need a computer and a digital audio workstation. Yeah, you need a little bit of setup, but a lot of people have that stuff now. totally capable of making really high quality recordings right in your own kind of front room, you know, especially with a wind synth. You don't have to have loads of acoustic treatment or anything because you can just be directly plugged into your audio interface, and you can send a pristine copy of your performance to somebody that's asked you to fill in a little bit of a ethnic flute sound or something or panpipes or I don't know, it could be anything, but this is something that is also an avenue worth exploring.

Matt Traum: 11:21

I agree. I've done some of that where there's a Christmas somebody's putting together a Christmas album and they need a harmonica sound or a sax solo or something. So they'll send me a track that has a You know, shows me where you can play from here to here and play a couple takes, and we'll pick something. I've done several of those types of things. And again, unless you're really busy at it, I don't think that's going to pay the bills. But it's fun and it's certainly something that can be done really well if you're if you're a good player and you can offer that to people. I don't know how much money is to be made these days in creating music.

Alistair Parnell: 11:57

As far as recorded music, I think that's it's always difficult. Yeah, and when and when you're asked to do something, you know, quoting a price, that's one of the hardest things I find in the whole business, you know, because I've certainly had times where I've completely underestimated a cost, a price when I've quoted somebody. And then there are definitely times where I've sort of over-quoted the price and not got the gig at all. I don't know what the answer is to that. You the only way you learn is by experience in that. But do take into account the fact that you know you spent a huge amount of time investment both in terms of equipment and your own personal time practicing and working to be able to to to do these things well And if somebody's hiring you, they hopefully need to respect that and realize it's not just the time you're there. the distance you have to travel. You may well be quite a unique person, especially if you're playing a wind synthesizer. There won't be that many people that can do it. I find the best thing to do is get an idea. You know, it's actually quite easy nowadays to have a little surf on the Internet. Get an idea of what people are charging for a wedding reception. You know, most people have these packages now that they advertise, you know, the price that it will cost you. To hire these people, so it'll give you an idea of the sort of figure that you might be looking at. But I wouldn't like to profess to tell anybody how much they should should charge for these things. It's one of those things that only experience will give you, and I will continue to make mistakes, and I'm sure everybody else will. As well. But I've always found that difficult. How about you, Matt? You know, what do you charge?

Matt Traum: 13:51

Yeah, it's hard. It's a tricky one. I would say I used to work a lot with agents here in town, and they would hire groups. They would have a whole stable of Musicians and groups that they would they would have tapes there and videos, and a client would come in and look at a few and they would recommend, and the agent can kind of give you an idea. You know, they know what the other bands are charging. Yeah. And that's another thing I would say is go into the agents and go into the wedding people if you're looking for that type of work or the different entertainment. Whoever might be hiring a group, of course, you have the bar owners and the nightclubs and things like that, but we're talking more like weddings and private events like that. Country clubs. They're always looking for entertainment, you know, the golf golfing things. Get to know the people that hire. And again, the agents, you can find them in your city. There's always going to be some entertainment agents there that are associated with various bridal Wedding planners, I guess, and things like that. So, they're always looking for entertainment. Yes. So, if you can get on their good list, you know, and and get up on their list, yeah, you you're in good shape, you know, just just do the job, be there on time. Be friendly. Don't give people a hassle. Be presentable. Oh, absolutely. Don't be drunk on the gig. You know, I mean, just be professional, and you're going to do just fine.

Speaker 3: 15:17

In a world where no one's Alistair Parnell brings the joy of light online courses with wisdom to share on the Roland Aerophone. He shows he cares from professionals to amateurs alike in the warmth of his guidance. We all unite. iSax.Academy, the place to be where melodies dance and souls are free. In the notes, let the music flow with Alistair guiding. We're ready to go from the UK shores to the World's grand stage. He opens doors with wisdom and grace. Host of the Aerophone Academy. With Matt Traum, they create a symphony Blowing kisses to the wind in harmony Together they teach pure euphony. Conductor and teacher Every single sound so wholesome and rich from lush paths to leads He's the one that you pitch got the world buzzing like bees on a train when Patchman's in the mix, it's the pop in the game. Synthesizer royalty, they vouch for his craft. And every masterpiece, you feel that Patchman draft with honesty and fairness, he sets the tone in a sea of fakes. He stands all alone. Patchman vibes, he's. The sound magician, preparing the past with a current vision. Honest and fair, he's the one you can trust in the world of sound. Patchman's a must as Patchman vibes. He's the sound magician, preparing the past with a current vision. Honest and fair. To fare, he's the one you can trust in the world of sound. Patchman's a must. So next time you jam, remember the name. Patchman designs in the hall of fame. For decades, he's crafting with heart and with soul. Creating the vibes that make the world whole. Patchman, we're hooked on your art. Designs so fresh, man, they captivate the heart.

Alistair Parnell: 18:09

One thing that's big over here, Matt, I guess it probably is with you as well, wedding fairs. You know, these are places where potential brides and grooms, you know, they go and they can see people doing flowers, they see people offering services for photography, for wedding cakes, for dresses, and of course, for musicians. And again, a nice little setup like A wind synth with a backing track, or a wind synth with a pianist or something, you can actually hire a spot in a wedding fair. You won't get to play all the time, but you get to hand out your cards and of course you can have some stuff on a table to show them the sort of thing you can do. And then they'll probably offer you like a 20-minute slot here and there that you can actually play for so people can Hear what you're doing. And that's that's very popular. Very good friend of mine did quite a bit of that early on when he wanted to get some more wedding gigs, and he ended up getting really busy for wedding gigs. I mean, he would sometimes have two or three wedding gigs in a weekend And he'd he'd even have more over the top, and sometimes he'd pass them on to me, which I was very grateful for. But they were pretty much all largely from playing at these wedding fairs. Used to be the case that you could play at a wedding fair and you didn't have to pay anything because they treated you like the kind of little bit of entertainment. But I'm afraid that's gone now, so you will have to pay for your pitch, as it were. you know, to get a slot to be in the wedding fair. But it's certainly something that I found a lot of musicians do, and they seem to get quite a lot of gigs that way. So it's another little avenue to chase up.

Matt Traum: 19:44

Yep. I did several of those over the years. I was just gonna I was thinking as you were talking, part of the problem, the reason why musicians don't make the kind of money they do playing out live anymore is because musicians will often take any gig and for any pay they'll just go out and play. And sometimes in some cities like Los Angeles sometimes they have to pay to play at a venue. You know, they're paying to go and entertain the guests. And it's backwards, but I was gonna say, you know, maybe if y you could offer to play for free at certain things and say, I'll do this so you can hear what I do. I'll come in and play it for an hour at your If you're having a dinner party at a country club or something, just I'll set up and play. If you like me, you know, then hire me. I'm going to do one free before you, and that's it. You know, you have to pay after that. But. Um but yeah, you don't want to go overboard with that and go out and start playing for nothing. And it that hurts the whole profession, it really does. Sure.

Speaker 5: 22:26

Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da

Matt Traum: 23:01

So you've been listening to just a few of the sound demos that Alistair recorded for the Patchman Music XV-5080 soft synth.

Alistair Parnell: 23:09

Yeah, Matt, in particular, that Andean flute, I guess you've kind of taken advantage, of course, of the built-in effects that are available in the fifty, eighty. So you know, you haven't got to add any more kind of effects in the kind of chain. But that Andean flute, I spent a long time playing that. That's that's a really lovely sound. I really enjoyed that one.

Matt Traum: 23:34

Oh, thank you.

Alistair Parnell: 23:41

Okay, Matt. Well, I think we've covered things pretty well. Now, if you're listening to this podcast, And you've got some other thoughts to add. Don't forget that if you look in the notes of the podcast, you can leave us a message. You can even leave us a voice message. We like voice messages because then we'll play the voice messages on the next podcast. So, if you've got anything to add, we'd be very, very interested to hear. what you've got to say. Maybe you've had some some experiences, maybe things that we haven't even talked about in this podcast. Now before we wrap this one up Matt, we have got a listener question. I've just mentioned the fact that you can leave us a message. You can also leave us a question. That can also be a voice message or If you like a message left through the podcast link underneath the podcast. And this is from Klass. Now, I do know Klass, he's a member of the iSax Academy. He is in New Zealand. And he says, Thank you both for the regular podcasts. They're always very interesting. He says, I'm in. I'm a regular whistle player in an Irish band, and as you know, whistles are diatonic. meaning they're limited to playing in just one major or minor key. So whistle players tend to end up having, you know, various whistles in different keys. Now Klass is saying he thinks that the Aerophone would make a good instrument in this case because We could actually, you don't have to have all those whistles, you could play in any key you like on the Aerophone. Now, Klass is also saying, however, the built-in whistle sound on my Roland AE-30 doesn't quite capture the sound I'm after. And he says, I was wondering if you could suggest more accurate whistle sounds as a plug-in for my iPad that would work well with my Roland Aerophone AE-30. I guess in that respect, any other wind synthesizer as well. Now, Matt, you very well understood this very quickly, and you made the suggestion which I completely agreed with straight away. So I'll let you. Tell the listeners what you said?

Matt Traum: 26:02

Oh, well, one of the first things that came to mind is the Audio Modeling SWAM Vari Flute, which is an instrument, probably the most recent thing that they've released and it's a it's a physical model of a flute and you can I'm sure you can get some nice uh whistle type sounds and The sounds that I've heard online are phenomenal. That might be a way. And I think do you know is that available for iOS on the phone and iPhone and iPad?

Alistair Parnell: 26:27

I'm pretty sure it is iOS, yes. Not for the Android, as far as I'm aware, it's only iOS, isn't it, I think.

Matt Traum: 26:35

And of course Mac and PC as well. for a desktop and laptops. But yeah, that's a very good option, I think. I would check that out. And of course, I always promote the Turbo VL upgrade chip for the Yamaha VL70-m, which you know, it's very, very popular with wind controller players. And there's some nice whistle type sounds in there. I did a a tin whistle in there where you overblow and it kind of goes up the octave like an actual tin whistle does. That's a nice sound too, if you happen to have a VL70. And that can be used with the AE-30, with a MIDI connection.

Alistair Parnell: 27:06

I mean, I have seen along the way, you know, various sample libraries. That will do some nice kind of Celtic instruments or whatever. But of course the issue there is that you don't Know whether they're going to work with the wind synthesizer or not. The chances are they won't do out of the box. If you're the sort of person that's clever enough to get into the settings and start to make that respond to breath control, you might be lucky and get something that will work. You know, usually you're looking at spending quite a lot of money and there's a big question mark, is that going to work or not? So I think it's pretty hard to beat that swam Vari flute. You can pretty much, you can kind of almost design your own instrument in that in that bit of software. It's really very, very clever. You can even sort of manually change the diameter and the length of the tube that you're blowing into. you know there's quite a lot there that you can play around with and it's it's a kind of visual representation of of of what you're kind of um inventing almost So quite a lot of flexibility involved there with what you can get out of that. So I'd suggest Klass, you know, as Matt said That VariFlute might be a good option. It's not very expensive for the iOS. It'll be twenty dollars or maybe less or something like that. Nicely run on your iPad. And I think that would be a really good starting place. You've got an Aerophone, but you could do with some help. Getting information from the Internet or finding a great teacher just isn't happening. And you know how important it is to make the best possible start. Let me introduce you to the Aerophone Basics course from the iSax Academy, a brand new online course for the beginner to intermediate player. After you've learned how to set up the instrument, we'll look at hand position, breathing, articulation and sound. Selection. There are 20 videos to help you learn every note on the instrument, plus the alternatives, with detailed explanations and playing tips. On how to get the best from each sound. There are sessions on improvisation and help with reading music. Downloadable PDFs and backing tracks for each lesson. Start playing great tunes from day one and see great results in just 90 days. Regular live. webinars with me Alistair Parnell to get your questions answered and join a whole community of players. Visit isax. academy for more information. So, Matt, I think we've probably uh rambled on for a little too long, as usual, because we always get a bit carried away. Now, Matt, we look forward to our next podcast. We've got so many ideas for podcasts. We're just going to have to see what we do next. Chances are, it may well be about one of the new wind synthesizers that have been coming out recently. But Matt and I are just in the process of trying them out and testing out the sound. So, that we can give you the very best insight into those new instruments before you part with your hard-earned cash. So, we're looking forward to that. There will be certainly more sound demos to come. In the meantime, Matt, I wish you well and good luck with all of your new endeavors with the Patchman music that you're doing. They all sound great. I will certainly be playing some more on those XV-5080 patches. And I hope you're going to continue to develop more and more sounds. You've got more on the way, right? I'm hoping.

Matt Traum: 31:13

Yeah, there's a lot coming. Actually, I've been really busy, and I have a list of at least 30 sound bank ideas that are almost ready. So it just takes time to finalize anything and make it a product. Sure. I would also like to encourage our listeners. There, if you're if you have any ideas for future podcasts, any topics, please go to the Aerophone Academy podcast website and let us know what you'd like to hear us talk about. And it would be interesting for us to see yeah, what you guys are thinking.

Alistair Parnell: 31:48

Well, huge thanks to our listeners for joining us in this fascinating two-part podcast on how to market. yourself as a wind synth player. We really appreciate you joining us and as you can probably gather, Matt and I can talk forever on wind synthesizers and please make sure you subscribe to Our podcast, and if you can help us out, you can spread the word and ask some others to tune in to our next episode as well. But for now, thank you so much, and we will see you next time in the Aerophone. Academy podcast. So long, everybody.

Matt Traum: 32:29

Bye-bye, Alistair, and thanks so much, and everybody for listening. We'll see you all again in the next episode.