Sample Model Release For Churches: Fill & Download for Free

Well, I’m not a piano player, but I have a couple of good stories on the subject.The Sound Can Be As GoodSo, right out of college, one of my good friends — a guitarist and keyboard player — started working for one of Ray Kurzweil’s companies. Kurzweil was a pioneer in many different areas in those days, including speech recognition, electronic book reading, and electronic pianos. Kurweil himself is a pianist, founded Kurzweil Music Systems in 1982, and worked with people as varied as Stevie Wonder and Robert Moog on his ideas for digital pianos.The Kurzweil 250, released in 1984, was the first keyboard/synthesizer to pass a “blind” listening test as a piano. Experts and pianists were unable to identify the difference between the K250 and an actual piano in listening tests. Obviously, these were not conducted standing next to each instrument!So that was the absolute state of the art in 1984. The best piano emulations have only got better. The Kurzweil piano used a sophisticated piano model. Some later sample-based models actually recorded 3 or 4 samples per per key. Some more recent keyboards use physical modeling of the different strings, hammers, physical modeling of the various resonances in the piano’s sound board, etc. These include the Yamaha VRM Clavinova, the Viscount PHYSIS, and the Pianoteq plug-in for your PC DAW (which offers models of specific pianos, including two licensed and approved Steinway models).The Experience… Maybe Not So MuchIt’s quite different, in a number of ways, to the piano player.Here’s my sister Kathy… she started playing piano at about six years old. She majored in piano at Oberlin. She’s not a working pro, but she usually plays in a couple of serious bands in the Princeton, NJ area.She’s got several pianos: a full Yamaha 88 key keyboard, a smaller Nord, and the big one, a 1950s restored Steinway Grand. That Steinway cost more than I paid for any two of my cars. It’s not simply the sound that one can record from such a piano — as I expressed, that can be done with synthesis that’s good enough that piano players can’t tell the difference. But the sound you hear live, the sound you hear while playing, the action of the keys, etc. that all adds up to very different experience for the piano player. In fact, Kathy worked pretty hard to convince herself that a nice new Yamaha or maybe Bechstein would be “just as good”. She spent quite some time trying other instruments, but wound up convinced that it was the Steinway or nothing.You May Have Already Been Fooled!So, if you attend music concerts, you have probably seen a pretty hot show that slows down for a bit, to feature the artist in some big, emotional song that really needs a Grand Piano.Some years back, a friend of mine was working as Bass Tech for a famous rock band (not Ms. Stephani here), and I was invited to sit on the bass cases on the stage and watch. You’d probably know the band. It was an absolute blast!And yeah, while most of the show was guitars, drums, bass, sax, and pretty rockin’, there was the Grand Piano in the Spotlight moment. Even from stage, where you don’t necessarily get the best mix, it sounded great, every bit that dramatic moment they were after.Once the show was over, I was fascinated watching my buddy and the other roadies back up several semis worth of gear, including stage scaffolding, instrument cases, amps, speakers, etc into multiple trailers, all in about 1/2 hour. And one of the big surprises was when they went to the grand piano and extracted the keyboard — some high end electronic piano — from the grand piano shell. Sure enough, I had been completely fooled.The goal, of course, was not to be fooled, but just to deliver the best possible sound with reasonable effort. If you’re watching a concert by a famous classical pianist at a place like Carnegie Hall, there’s a really good chance that’s the House’s very expensive Steinway they’re playing on. That instrument would be tuned regularly, of course, but it’s also just not being moved all the time. But places like “The Spectrum” in Philadelphia (long gone, but that’s where I saw this particular show) don’t necessarily have instruments, because rock bands bring their own (my buddy was managing about 10 different bass guitars). So it would be insanity to load up and move a real grand piano for every show. It would likely need retuning all the time, and all that travel would just be terrible for it.Recording It, Versatility, and ConclusionsThe other thing about electronic pianos… they’re super easy to record. The sound comes out on a cable, in stereo. I can plug that directly into my 16 track digital recording system. If it’s a real piano, yeah, it can be recorded. I’d like about three mics near but not too near to different parts of the soundboard. It’s just more work, and the result, if I did well as an amateur recording engineer, is that it sounds as good as the electronic piano.And of course, that really expensive Steinway sounds like… a really expensive Steinway. That’s great, when you need one. But what if you need a Hammond Organ? Or a Harpsichord? A church organ? Or something more suited to country or rock-and-roll? Your keyboard is a dozen or more instruments. Ultimately, most people can’t own all of those instruments.I had the same issues to consider when buying electric guitars. I have one Les Paul, and a few fairly generic amps, but if I wanted a specific guitar sound, what do I do? A professional may not have this problem — certainly, Slash can afford all the guitars he’d like to afford. But that’s also his full time job!For me, while I do own one Les Paul and a few acoustics, the answer was the Line 6 Variax (mine is the JTV-69 shown here). This guitar doesn’t model the actual guitar string sounds, but it has digital processing to modify that sound. So it can model the sound of other guitars. Very precisely model other guitars. And in fact, it makes recording pretty easy… its model of a Martin D28, for example, is so much easier to get right than micing my own Martin D16, that if I’m recording something, I’ll probably just use the Line 6. And while this version is a good guitar, as with the pianos, playing the JTV-69 is a completely different feel than playing the D15. It’s understandable that Martin still sells plenty of guitars, but I can’t justify the cost of a D28… and what if I want the sound of a Gretsch, a Rickenbacker, a Stratocaster, or a Danelectro next time? Line 6 also does the same thing with modeling devices that emulate specific amplifiers and speaker cabinets.Just as with my guitars, there’s also your practical budget. You can buy a Yamaha XF keyboard/synthesizer for as little as $3,000, and their licensed Steinway Model L piano model for $50. The actual model L weighs 650 lbs and can easily run you $40,000 for a used, reconditioned piano. You’re going to need to have that piano tuned and serviced at least twice a year, or you are not treating it right, and it will in turn not deliver the sound you want.Can you afford that real piano? What if you only have $3,000-$4,000 to spend? You can have a very accurate version of the Steinway Model L sound, as well as all sorts of other piano and instrument models on the Yamaha synth. Or you can buy a used Baldwin upright or Yamaha Console piano.When it’s in-person, and especially when you’re playing, the experience of the real piano will be superior to that of the electronic piano. But in more practical terms, if you’re not getting that real piano tuned and serviced at least twice a year, you are not treating it right, and it will in turn not deliver the sound you want. For most people, the electronic piano or synthesizer is a better option, and much easier on the wallet.So in conclusion, yeah, electronic pianos can substitute for real one when it comes to recorded or amplified sound.

I can. This is my five star review.It's an utterly astonishingly brilliant album, in all its 42:53 length.First, the album was recorded in 12 hours in November 1969. How many other bands can claim to have invented two new genres in just 12 hours in the studio? With this album, Black Sabbath invented both Heavy Metal and Doom Metal. Not a bad day's work.Secondly, it was released on Friday 13 February 1970 (in England). How fitting.The cover art is a creepy picture of a witch with a cat tucked in her cloak in front of a mill near Oxford. Sabbath's album art was a bit hit and miss. I'd say this one is near perfect for capturing the doomy vibe of the music.The woman was a model called Louise. Not much else is known about her but she apparently met the band once after a concert. Here is Mapledurham House today:The inlay of the gatefold had an inverted cross (not the band's idea) and a weird poem written inside it about rain and dead animals. You can see why the Christians raised an eyebrow.Here are my brief observations about the music. It's worth focusing on the bass and drums because that is where the magic is on this album (and all of Sabbath's albums featuring Geezer and Ward, for that matter). Try it if you haven't. Try to filter out the guitar and vocals and really focus on what Geezer and Ward are up to. It's truly awesome.Black Sabbath starts with the sound of rain, thunder, a church bell and then you hear it. The simple tritone riff. The flattened fifth. The diabolus in musica. Notes that if played together would get you banned from church in the 16th century. The most evil and heavy riff in metal. And it's played in the key of G, ie, three notes higher than the guitar's lowest note, E. (Iommi didn't tune down to C# until Master of Reality).Hear how the bass swells under Iommi's trills and gives the riff its heavyness. Hear the ominous softness of the drums when the vocals start. Notice that Ozzy's cry of "Oh no, please god help me" found its way into Metallica's One, 18 years later. By this song, Ozzy "Found out I'm the chosen one". Nice line for the future Prince of Darkness, don't you think?The Wizard was about their drug dealer. But it's also cool song about Gandalf. Cyprus Hill sampled the harmonica on Black Sunday's I Ain't Goin'Out Like That. The band played this song up to the end in 2017. Blue Öyster Cult ripped it off in Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll. Listen to the drum fills in the gaps in the riff. As Malcolm Young said, it's the stops that rock.In Behind the Wall of Sleep, Ozzy double tracks the vocals with different versions in the left and right channel. It sounds eerily cool as they don't quite match. I adore the terrifying line: "Turns your body to a corpse" when he sings it over and over. This song is magical, heavy and scary and was a staple in Sabbath's live set.There's a bass solo (called Bassically). Metallica possibly nodded to this by including a bass solo on Kill 'Em All, particularly with it also being placed before the last track on side one..Then you get one of the most recognisable and monstrous riffs in metal: N.I.B. And this riff is the business. Light years ahead of Iron Man, it's slick and evil sounding. The lyrics take the view point of the devil: "My name is Lucifer, please take my hand." That casually sung line is followed by a double tracked solo that does take you right by the hand. Ozzy's delivery of "Your love for me has just got to be real, before you know the way I'm going to feel, I'm going to feel, I'm going to feel." showcases his knack for driving the song using his voice. He stops the song with the long "feeeeeel", which triggers Iommi to kick it all off again with the main riff. This song is also a pioneeringly early example of bass with distortion.Wicked World: check out the way the bass bubbles out arpeggios under the vocals when they start. Check out the weird psychedelic clean guitar break. The spiky distorted link, then back to Ozzy's metallic vocal line. It ends with thick, eerie and scary sounding feedback.Sleeping Village: has a huge doom riff tucked in at 1:38. It's a psychedelic sprawl and has Iommi double tracking his solo using different guitar tones to thicken the sound.Warning is a bastardised bluesy cover. It sounds standard but contains a 10min guitar solo/noodle in a variety of styles so it remains interesting. Just when you're wondering if it's still the same song the final verse brings it back to the start. "I was born without you baby, but my feelings were a little bit too strong."Evil Women: bonus track on my cd. Possibly the song I'd say least about. It's only a couple of minutes long and has a hint of things to come - see if you hear a foreshadow of After Forever's "would you like to see the pope on the end of a rope" in Ozzy's melody for the verse.If Metal's your religion, this album is worthy of worship. It's where it all began. It has its flaws, but it was made in 12 hours and 49 years later it remains relevant, still rocks and irritates one of my kids.The band claim to have not known what they were doing. I think they knew exactly what they were doing. I think Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath is a masterpiece.

This 1920 Eagle toy stove by Hubley Manufacturing Company features a working damper and came with a waffle iron. COURTESY OF THE STRONG, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.In 1977, I got a gift out of the blue, no reasons or awards attached, from my maternal grandmother. A gently used Easy Bake oven that had been left over from a church auxiliary flea market. It was blue, missing all the accessories, but the ladies tested it and it was deemed not a fire hazard. My grandfather cleared a section of his workbench in the garage near an outlet and fire extinguisher- better safe than sorry. My grandmother scoured the kitchen looking for miniature metal pans as well as a box of over the counter brownie mix. Within minutes, I had three metal pans ready, waiting for the light bulb to heat up. I gently placed the first pan inside and within minutes the smell of brownies wafted from the garage to the house and outdoors. I ran inside to get a pot holder and spatula to remove the first pan and when I returned…Easy Bake Oven 1964 (All-TIME 100 Greatest Toys - TIME )IN LITTLE MEN, THE SEQUEL to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, the once-tomboyish Jo gives a miniature kitchen to her niece Daisy.The centerpiece was a real iron stove capable of cooking “for a large family of very hungry dolls.” But the best of it, writes Alcott, “was that a real fire burned in it, real steam came out of the nose of the little tea-kettle, and the lid of the little boiler actually danced a jig, the water inside bubbled so hard.”[1]The idea of giving a 10-year-old their own wood-burning stove is not as fantastic as it may seem today. In 1871, when Little Men was published, such toy stoves actually existed, directing young girls into,into, play.[2] For young girls of relative means, a toy stove could accustom them to future responsibilities. Yet too often, such toys proved to be phenomenally dangerous.Miniature cast iron stove, late 19th-early 20th century (A Tragic History of Tiny Stoves)In the 19th century, wood and coal cookstoves, as opposed to open-hearth cooking, spread westward across the United States during the country's rapid expansion[3] Toy stoves soon followed, many of them exact replicas of full-sized stoves. Some stove companies manufactured them by simply minimizing the proportions.[4] Manufacturers of full-sized stoves also produced exact, miniature replicas of their real stoves, possibly as "salesmen samples" used to demonstrate the features of a particular stove to potential buyers. Made to 1:6 scale or 1:8 scale when compared to the actual product, machine, or piece of equipment, these highly detailed replicas were typically labeled with a product name and company logo, and often came in customized travel cases that could be used to enhance the display, or hold several versions of the same item in a range of colors, styles, or finishes.[5] These salesman samples allowed the salesman to point out important design features and the stove’s functionality as they tried to convince the shopkeeper or leery early housewife of the marvels of gas or electricity over hot and labor-intensive wood-fired ovens. They are often misidentified as demonstration models, patent models, children’s toys, and doll furniture.Little Fanny Stove Philadelphia Stove Works (Warnick & Leibrandt's Philadelphia Stove Works and Hollow-Ware Foundry. First Wharf above Noble Street, Philadelphia)Even stove manufacturers, however, may have envisioned these small stoves as toys. The 1916 Hughes Electric Company catalog, for instance, contained 80 pages of full-sized stoves, and a two-page spread dedicated to a 15-inch stove, touted as the "Idol of a Million Little Girls, a Real Electric Range," and "a gift that makes the child love to cook."[6] This advertisement suggests that, though some manufacturers may have made stoves for salesmen, many manufacturers intended these stoves as children's playthings. Philadelphia Stove Works, a company that primarily made adult-sized stoves, produced this "Little Fanny" stove, perhaps intending that children would play with it.[7] Many were cast with elegant designs, just like their larger counterparts. Later, both large stoves and toy versions came in gleaming, expensive nickel-plating.[8]“Generally every shilling expended by the husband for the accommodation of his wife in her domestic operations is returned to him fourfold ... it will be in the order, peace, and happiness of his family. ... Where conveniences are found in a family, there are generally bright looks, happy feelings, and industrious hands." —Detroit Free Press, May 31, 1839[9]Many families who could afford an elegant toy stove likely hired a cook for their real kitchen. But cooking was considered a valuable skill for even adult women of means, who could then teach hired help to prepare household dishes. There were other reasons for parents to buy functional stoves for their daughters. Not all families who could afford tiny stoves for their daughters had the money to hire domestic servants. Plus, a movement was underway urging women to cook for their families: the beginning of home economics. Unlike the ease of modern appliances, using coal and wood cookstoves was laborious, especially since they were difficult to clean, maintain and operate. It “was best to learn this process in childhood, since cooking proficiency came only with long experience.”[10]This 1910 toy stove, made in Germany, heated food with alcohol burners. COURTESY OF THE STRONG, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.In 1862, the Morrill Act was passed, establishing land-grant colleges in each state that were open to women, and that were mandated to foster research and instruction in practical areas of endeavor.[11] At this time, the application of scientific theories and techniques modernized activities associated with home economics, such as cooking, laundry, sewing, housecleaning, care of the sick, and sanitation. This in turn led to the implementation of courses in “domestic science” at the end of the nineteenth century.[12] It was during this time, that newspapers and women's magazines began to publish tragic stories of young children burned, disfigured or even killed as a result of accidents due to malfunctioning toy stoves.April 23, 1890 Rome Daily Sentinel reporting on how some children in Utica tipped over a toy stove and set their 2-story frame house ablaze.On April 23, 1890 Rome Daily Sentinel reported on how some children in Utica tipped over a toy stove and set their 2-story frame house ablaze. Several months later in September of 1890, Louisville’s Courier-Journal recorded that while several children were playing with a toy stove, one of them, Ellen Hanson, “caught fire and was almost burned to death before she was rescued and the burning clothes extinguished.”[13] Ellen survived, but with severe burns and her hair singed away. In a case reported in newspapers around the nation in December of 1909, six-year-old Minnie Comin from St. Louis poured a bottle of kerosene into her toy stove, then lit it with a match: “as she had often seen her mother do in a real stove.”[14] The stove exploded, and the child ran to her mother in flames. Minnie perished, and her mother was fatally burned. Her father was injured trying to extinguish them both.The Kenton Hardware Company of Ohio produced this gas-burning stove. (Before the Easy-Bake Oven, Toy Stoves Were Beautiful and Deadly)When oil and gas stoves emerged in the early-20th century, children’s stoves mimicked the trend. One particularly spectacular stove is a curlicued pillar from 1920, with the words “Superior Gas Range” displayed across the front.[15] A real functioning oven, it had a stove top that actually burned gas, allowing children to cook over an open flame.Of course, non-functional stoves could also be a boon. One 1914 advertisement assured parents that a toy stove was “Harmless” and “not to be lighted.”[16] It was around this time when parents and toy companies acknowledged the hidden dangers these playthings poseessed. An opinion article that appeared in the Watertown Daily Times in 1923 called for the manufacture and sale of toys stoves to be prohibited because of all these fires.[17] The writer argued that children naturally wanted to emulate the adults around them. They would find ways to start fires in their stoves as they saw their mothers do in their real kitchens no matter how careful the parents were. A ban on the toys could be the only solution. In response, manufacturers developed and marketed the electric toy stove, still dangerous, but not as bad. A toy electric stove advertisement boasted in 1925 how it attached “to the house current” and possessed “two burners and a real oven.”[18]Toy companies marketed electric stoves as safer options, like this 1930 example from the Empire Company. (first toy electric oven empire company)Few toy ranges can rival the one produced by Lionel (better known for its electric trains) in 1930. Twice the size of others in its class, the Lionel range stood two feet tall with a cooking surface just the right height for six- to nine-year-olds. It had a ten-by-ten-inch oven; four electric-coil burners similar to those on modern, grownup electric stoves; and was constructed “as substantially as the one Mother uses.”[19] Perhaps it proved a little too substantial. By 1931, shortly before Lionel discontinued it, an advertisement proclaimed the stove as ideal for apartments or kitchenettes—the company wasn’t selling it as a toy anymore.[20]Easy Bake Oven 2013 (Hasbro Reveals Plans For An Easy Bake Oven For Boys)Today, the Easy-Bake Oven dominates. One name kicked around for the toy, released in 1963 by Kenner Products, was the “Safety-Bake,” which would have been a change from past toy stoves’ glamorous and evocative names such as the “Venus,” “Fairy Gift,” and “The Queen.” [21] The Easy-Bake lacked a functioning stovetop, removing some of the risk factor. Until 2011, it cooked food with much-safer light bulbs secreted deep inside their plastic chassis. (The phasing in of cooler fluorescents and LEDs prompted a redesign with an electric heating element.)[22]While it’s easy to be horrified at the parenting of the past, researchers note toy stoves are representative of the times when they’re made. Childrearing has changed dramatically over the last century. Back then we were still thinking of children as little adults. The mentality often was “you have to learn how to do this because this is part of our family work.[23] Toy stoves could be both plaything and teaching tools. During much of their history, “the idea of play” wasn’t necessarily a central part of a lot of children’s lives.[24] While children still played regardless, it’s not necessarily something that a parent was consciously promoting. Instead, toy stoves were a practical purchase for parents seeking to acclimate their daughters to future roles as housekeepers and caretakers. Even today, there’s still a pernicious gender gap in the United States when it comes to household chores such as cooking, with both women and girls spending more time on such tasks each day than their male counterparts.[25]My Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book - 1965 to 1968When I returned to the garage, gone for no more than a minute or so, my first little brownie was all over my grandfather's workbench as well as what looked like a waterfall of blue plastic, with a growing pond of plastic on the floor underneath. I was devastated and then fearful for the yelling and punishment that would accompany almost burning down the garage. To my surprise, my grandparents cleaned it all up and never mentioned the incident to my mother when she picked me up after she finished work. I was quiet and sad, but no questions were asked.A day or so later, my grandmother invited me over, unusual since neither of my parents were working. When I went inside to the kitchen, she handed me an apron and a worn copy of a Betty Crocker cookbook and pulled up a stepping stool. Until they moved out of the area, four or five years later, once a week I went to my grandparents and would spend the afternoon watching, learning, mixing, chopping, recreating generations of family recipes. I still have the cookbook and when my son is not knee deep in pre-teen angst, we will open it up and pick up where my grandmother left off so many years ago.Footnotes[1] Little Men[2] Woman to Watch Michelle Parnett Dwyer[3] Advertising, Design, and Consumer Response to the Cookstove, 1815-1880 on JSTOR[4] Toy stove:Tarbox - Spicers & Peckham - Google Arts & Culture[5] Salesman Samples - The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles[6] Antique Cast Iron Philadelphia Stove Works Little Fanny Miniature Toy Stove[7] Warnick & Leibrandt's Philadelphia Stove Works and Hollow-Ware Foundry. First Wharf above Noble Street, Philadelphia[8] Before the Easy-Bake Oven, Toy Stoves Were Beautiful and Deadly[9] When stoves were the hot new thing[10] From Fireplace to Cookstove[11] Morrill Act (1862)[12] Domestic science: making chemistry your cup of tea - PubMed[13] The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky on September 20, 1890 · Page 8[14] A Tragic History of Tiny Stoves[15] http://1985 At Home with the Range: The American Cooking Stove, 1865-1920 Phyllis Minerva Ellin University of Pennsylvania[16] Scary Dangerous Old Toy Stoves[17] Miscellaneous015[18] Kids and Cooking: Playing with Fire[19] LIONEL ELECTRIC STOVE. - James D. Julia, Auctioneers[20] 1930s Vintage LIONEL Childrens STOVE OVEN Pre-war Toy[21] Easy-Bake Oven: The famous toy has been around for more than 50 years - Walls with Stories[22] Easy-Bake Oven - Wikipedia[23] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/26767_03_Maynard_%26_Thomas_CH_02.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwifkKTO_dXuAhVDG80KHRyyBl0QFjANegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw2ZsXKCqCAv2Ovy2EemZWMB[24] A Portrait of a Victorian Concept on JSTOR[25] A ‘Generationally Perpetuated’ Pattern: Daughters Do More Chores (Published 2018)