Bigga Giggas Alto Sax

The John Rekevics Saxophone Library

One cannot hope to present all the possible sax nuances in a single sample library or in
dozens of libraries. This blanket statement is true for all acoustic instruments. Nothing
replaces the human player whether the instrument is a violin or a child playing spoons.
Nonetheless, it would be really nice to have a serious multi-velocity sax that does not
sound "fake" and is usable as a solo sound in "modern" music... jazz, R&B, soundtrack
work etc....
In fall of 2002, I began recording with the goal of creating the largest and most realistic
solo sax Gigasample libraries possible. The result is The John Rekevics Saxophone
Library /bigga giggas
Baritone, Tenor, Alto, Soprano Sax
All 4 instruments are vintage Selmer Mark VI (the classic industry standard)
All 4 saxes are played by John Rekevics; one of the most recommended and
experienced sax session players in Southern California.
Since the creation of Bigga Giggas in mid 1999, I have recorded & or post-edited many
Giga sound libraries. There are now many disk-streaming samplers and large format
sounds have become the de facto industry standard. Multi-velocity large format samples
provide challenges previously unmet in the world of sound developers. The projects
undertaken by myself and Per Larrson have become increasingly more complex and we
are proud to have participated in the large format revolution in sampling technology.
I have learned a great deal about saxophones during creation of this sound library, but
my chief role has been in recording and editing/assembling the samples into usable
keyboard instruments. I have relied heavily on John Rekevics considerable knowledge
and artistry. I hope you will enjoy the results and find these sounds to be truly useful in
your personal musical projects.
John Thomas
bigga giggas

about John Rekevics

Versatility is Johns trademark. He has performed with artists such as Natalie Cole,
Johnny Mathis, Lou Rawls, The Temptations, Mel Torme, The Fifth Dimension, Big
Mountain, Burt Bacharach, Peggy Lee, Andy Williams, Patti Page, Robert Goulet,
Glen Campbell, Tommy Tune, Bernadette Peters, Steve and Eddie Gorme, Kim
Carnes, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Dianne Carrol, Doc Severinson, the San
Diego Symphony and many more.
As a studio musician, some of Johns television and movie credits include Mind of
the Married Man (HBO), "The Young And The Restless" (CBS), "The Usual
Suspects", "A Minor Miracle, "Good-bye Lover", " The Search For John Gissman",
"Early Bird Special", "Gentleman B", Christmas Shoes (CBS), and The Snow
Queen. John has also played on literally hundreds of Jingles and TV "ID's", such as
Budweiser, Michelob, Suzuki, Cadillac, NBC, ABC, and CBS to name a few.
John also composes, arranges, and produces music that has been used for television
shows on the A&E, Disney, History, PBS, Learning, and Lifetime channels.
Along with performing and writing, John has enjoyed teaching Saxophone at San Diego State
University for over fifteen years.

Quick Start (Differences from the Bigga Giggas Tenor)

As explained below, the original intention for all the BG saxes was to
record moderate length samples and create loop points. Looping turned out to be an
unsatisfactory method and was abandoned. Since we learned this on the Tenor Sax,
ALL source wavs for the Alto, Bari and Soprano are recorded a bit longer. This is
especially true of the Growls, Flutters etc. The Alto Sax is approximately 100
megabytes larger than the Tenor.
Size

Shortly after first release of the BG Tenor Sax, we

discovered a very useful form of Legato emulation. This was added to the Crossfade
Presets of the BG Tenor Sax as a free update and the cd masters were updated so
future customers are not bothered with an update patch. The BG Tenor Sax
KEYSWITCH Presets contain a second type of Legato Emulation available via
ModWheel. The Keyswitch Presets of the BG Alto Sax do not contain this older
Legato Emulation method. We feel that the Crossfade Presets offer a superior
emulation so the older method was not added to the Alto.
New Legato Emulation

The Alto Sax has been tested

stacked with the Tenor sax and the results are very favorable. Volume levels are
exactly matched at each velocity level and micro-tuning shows very little variation if
any. One expects the Smooth articulations and Staccatos to stack well, but
surprisingly, even the Vibratos stacked nicely. We intentionally attempted to record
Vibratos with similar characteristics and thankfully, it worked exceptionally well. This
allows the player to easily stack the Crossfade versions and smoothly change from
standard to Vibrato. Chords played as well as single notes, so the User may stack
these solo sample instruments and create a very nice Sax Section Emulation.
Using the Alto alongside the Tenor & Baritone

Main Features
QUALITY All source recordings in the Rekevics Saxophone Library were made in

32bit direct to disk 44.1 kHz. The actual recorder hardware is of course 24bit. (MAudio Delta 10/10)
Software was set to 32 bit mode throughout all recording and editing, so the final
16bit 44.1kHz sample .wavs retain a very high quality.
This sound library of Alto saxophone samples was created specially for
native Gigasampler format. It is not a conversion from a smaller format. ALL the
notes of the instrument range are sampled in multi-velocity, rather than being limited
to chromatic 3rds or similar compromises. More samples means a higher realism
factor.
SIZE

For HALion & Kontakt & Mach V & EXS24 Users: 100% success is a rare thing when
importing any Gig file into another format. Bigga Giggas will definitely release a Kontakt
version, since we have received many User requests for it. All features described in this
document are GigaStudio specific.
KNOWN IMPORTING ISSUES:
Presets in the Giga version named Crossfade all use a special 2 layer setup that allows a
smooth shift from one layer to the other using the ModWheel: Example = Smooth to Vibrato.
HALion v1x and Kontakt failed to recognize this setup and play both layers at the same
time..not a good thing. The special Legato Emulations contained in Crossfade Presets also
failed to import.
All KEYSWITCH and other standard Presets imported correctly, so the importer does have
access to all the basic voicings contained in the library.

STEREO or MONO
Have it your way. Complete sets of each Voicing are
provided. The Mono voicings are Close-mic using a tube mic Pre-amp and Neumann
mic for extra character and warmth. The stereo voicings are moderate ambience
from a pair of Shure KSM32 condensers. All source recordings are dry and accept
any User chosen Reverb.

EXTRA PROGRAMMING NUANCES

This library takes full advantage of the
powerful possibilities available in GigaStudio format. Special Crossfade switching
and Keyswitch versions of the instrument versions allow for very sophisticated usage
without a big learning curve. Many Presets contain a special Legato Emulation
accessible via Keyswitch .

Large format sample instruments present an extra demanding challenge

to sound developers regarding micro-tuning. Longer source recordings mean that
pitch does not remain absolutely constant over the length of the note. Just because a
note begins perfectly is no longer a reliable benchmark in sample tuning. Extra care
has been taken to assure the compatibility of these sounds with traditional
workstation sounds available from Yamaha, Roland, Korg etc.

TUNING

AltoSax.gig

633,015 kb

36 Instrument Presets (18 Stereo & 18 Mono)

VOICING TYPES
Smooth
Vibrato
Staccato
Sforzando (swells)
Growls
Flutters
Falls

4 Velocities
4 Velocities
2 Velocities
2 Velocities
2 Velocities
2 Velocities
2 Velocities

Recording Technique
Stereo Ambience or Close-Mic Mono
Traditional mic placement for saxophone recordings is a single (mono) mic placed
fairly close to the instrument. Some studios also use extra mic(s) placed at some
distance to give room ambience and blend the two attitudes. The Rekevics Sax
samples give you the same options.
A pair of matched Shure KSM32 condensers was used to capture ambient stereo
image and a Neumann condenser mic was used for the traditional close-mic
approach. A custom modified tube Pre-Amp was used on the Neumann to give the
classic characteristic warmth associated with early single mic recordings The
ambient pair used a solid state mic Pre-Amp for clean reproduction.

Blending Stereo & Mono

Stereo and Mono were recorded at the same time on isolated tracks and allow the
user to choose Stereo, Mono, or a blend of the two attitudes. For GigaStudio Users,
convenient .GSP Performance Presets are included that will load the corresponding
Stereo and Mono instruments on two Midi Ports, effectively blending the two sounds
into a single mix. This allows the User to hear both sounds together in real time as
they play.
To use the provided .GSP files, GigaUsers should check to make sure that they have
authorized at least Ports 1 & 2 in their User Settings. It does not matter that you may only
have one Midi interface!

Kontakt, HALion, Mach V etc can do almost the same trick by loading the Mono and
Stereo on separate tracks of a sequence. The User simply records one track and
then copies the midi data to the second track. When loading the Mono and Stereo
versions on separate sequencer tracks, one gains the additional nicety of separate
volume control on each track. (also possible for Giga Users) Effectively, you become
the recording engineer and personally choose your own blend of ambience.
Microphone placement was made in such a way that the stereo pair blends very well
with the Mono if both tracks are played at the same volume. It is nice to have
blending control, but you may wish to simply use the default levels. The .GSP
performance files simply mix the two sounds equally.
Users may also wish to check their sequencer software for Multitrack recording
capabilty. Example = Steinberg platform sequencers allow more than one channel to
record simultaneously with separate volume, panning, etc.

IMPORTANT!
When using Mono and Stereo versions together, it is vital that you use the pair that
have the same name. Presets are paired together by number and name so they are
easy to find. Combining Soft Crossfade Mono with Medium Crossfade Stereo etc.
is definitely not recommended! Since different source notes would be playing at the
same time the result is drastically bad.

No Loops: Heres Why

Short source recordings do not last long enough to change pitch or volume. It is
relatively easy to create an infinite loop marker in a short piece of audio. While
planning the creation of this library, I intended to create long loops, which are a bit
more difficult, but I have done long loops in several Giga libraries, so I was not
expecting a big problem. After working on the actual source recordings, I revised
difficult to nearly impossible. The sound of a saxophone varies a great deal in a
very short time; in volume, pitch and timbre. While I could create seamless loops,
they were very obvious. The only method that absolutely worked was to choose
extremely short areas of a recording. The resulting high-speed loops sounded very
reminiscent of old-school small workstation sax sounds; rather like a kazoo on
steroids. Since the advantage of large format sample instruments is based on added
realism, short-looping would have been a large step in the wrong direction. Since the
source samples are fairly long and have a smooth ending, the lack of loops should
not be an issue in normal musical usage. If you wanted a 15 second long sax note,
this library will not do it. I am genuinely sorry about this, since I do not personally
mind creative usage of sample sounds that may ignore normal player limitations. I
would rather have 5 seconds of realism than 15 seconds of super kazoo. The picture
below of a source wave may explain the situation better. A long-loop would
normally require about 1/3 or at least 1/4 of the total wave. Anything less results in
super-kazoo.

Where to Loop?

User Tips

Save Memory

For Giga Users:

When a .Gig file is loaded, the default method loads every Instrument Preset of the
Instrument Bank. There are 32 Instrument Presets in The Bigga Giggas Tenor Sax.
Your list of loaded instruments can be reduced to only what you are actually using.
To accomplish this trick, bring up the list of loaded instrument names as they appear
in the picture above. This list is hiding underneath the Midi Mixer in the default
GigaStudio view. Highlight a single instrument name and opposite click to bring up
a hidden options menu. This includes the choice to Unload Unmapped ..
Your Memory savings results will vary according to your system, but this approach
should be used on any Gig files that contain extra sounds you are not actually using
in your sequence. A typical Memory savings on a large multi-voice Gig file may be
more than 10% of memory. This memory is then free to be used for FX etc. and your
sequences will gain in available polyphony etc.
For HALion & Kontakt & Mach V & EXS24 Users:
HALion can create BANKS of instruments if you choose. I believe this is also true for
Kontakt and probably for Mach V and EXS24 sample formats. While Banks are
convenient, it is perhaps advisable to create your own custom Banks that contain
only the sounds you use in the current sequence.

About Applying Reverb

. All the Rekevics Saxophone samples are dry so any preferred reverb can be
added by the User. Generally speaking, Plate type reverbs have been the popular
choice for recording engineers when mixing sax , particularly if the instrument is a
lead solo sound. In sound track or similar musical content, it is fairly common to
use a lush, wet reverb. In ensemble band tracks, reverbs are usually drier, since a
drier sound retains more punch.
For Giga Users, the Small or Medium Plate Reverbs are highly recommended.
The .GSP Performance files provided actually load this FX in addition to the
Instrument Presets.

About EQ
All source recordings used totally neutral EQ settings and no EQ has been applied in
post editing. When using these sample instruments in your own mixes, there should
normally be no need for any added EQ. A flat EQ is generally the preferred studio
choice on sax and these samples are realistic enough that you may treat them the
same as working with the real thing. If you have a personal EQ preference, these
samples will accept it, since they have no built-in EQ or compression.

Using & Choosing Presets

There are two important groups of Presets contained in the instrument Bank for the
Bigga Giggas Alto Sax. These are: Crossfade and Keyswitch.
The default instrument Presets for the Bigga Giggas Tenor Sax are Crossfade Stereo
Alto Sax and Crossfade Mono Alto Sax.
Most Crossfade Presets contain only Smooth and Vibrato samples. The ModWheel
controls a gradual change to true vibrato rather than using a fake LFO modulation.
This means that these Presets will behave in a manner similar to any existing sax
sounds you may have and can be substituted in existing Midi sequences with good
results.
Some special Crossfade Presets contain Growls, Flutters etc. The player can change
smoothly from standard to Growl via ModWheeletc. These specials Presets are as
easy to use as the normal Crossfade Presets, but one should remember not to insert
these in existing sequences that expect ModWheel to control vibrato.
For many players the most useful instrument Presets will be the Keyswitch
instruments. These offer all the special attacks in a single instrument choice. The only
disadvantage in Keyswitch Presets is that a change to a new voicing will be 100%
with no gradual change between voicings. It takes some time to get used to changing
to vibrato from smooth without using a ModWheel.

Main Crossfade Presets

The main Crossfade instruments contain only Smooth and Vibrato samples. Their
appeal is that you can use the ModWheel to smoothly change between Smooth and
Vibrato. This feels natural to many players because it simulates the behavior of
traditional synth sounds when the player pushes the ModWheel. The big difference
here is that the player will actually be gradually changing to using REAL vibrato
source recordings rather than activating a phony Modulation LFO. It should be noted
that there is a small area where the player hears both source recordings at the same
time. This area should be passed through quickly, but the whole point is that you get
a fairly smooth transition rather than a sudden 100% change to the new timbre. In
the actual transitional area, the player will hear a sort of chorusing effect, which is
rather interesting and may provide some experimental type sounds for adventurous
players.
:
CROSSFADE LEGATO EMULATION
A Keyswitch command mapped from C2-G2 was added on all Presets that have
"Crossfade" as part of their names. Press on E2,F2.F#2. or G2 and Legato emulation
activates. Press on C2,C#2,D2 or D#2 to return to normal attack.
The effect here is very subtle. To notice the difference, try activating the Keyswitch
Legato command and play a fast phrase. Then, play the same phrase again with Legato
turned off. The standard mode has more strike at the start of the note and also hangs in
the air a slightly longer time .
The concept of legato emulation is to start the sample playing without hearing the normal
attack. A very short Rise-time has been added to smooth the attack. A special command
is added in the "Mix" area of the Editor that tells the Legato mode to start the sound at a
point already 1360 samples into the source wav. This avoids the area with the normal
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attack transient; effectively creating a new starting point that is only used in Legato
mode. The Release Time is shortened to only 0.1 seconds. This avoids note-overlapping
during fast legato passages.
Special Crossfade Presets
10= Crossfade Dirt Stereo Alto
11= Crossfade Dirt Mono Alto
These two Presets BEGIN using Growl and Modwheel will crossfade to normal Smooth.
Many players call a Growl or squeal at the start of a note "dirt".
This term is used here to designate that these Presets begin with "dirt".
12= Crossfade Growl Stereo Tenor
13= Crossfade Growl Mono Tenor
These two Presets begin on Smooth. Modwheel crossfades into Growl.
14= Crossfade Flutter Stereo Tenor
15= Crossfade Flutter Mono Tenor
These two Presets begin on Smooth. Modwheel crossfade into Flutter. Flutters on an
Alto Sax are naturally smoother than on Tenor Sax and the User may find these fx
sounds as useful as Growls. (on the Tenor Sax, flutters are more of a novelty item)

About Choosing Soft, Medium, Loud

One of the most popular features of large format sample instruments is the ability to
automatically access different source samples according to how hard a piano key is
struck. This feature is wonderful for adding the subtle changes that occur in real
playing. One of the things that gradually became obvious during creation of this
library is the old adage that less is better. While it is nice to have the choice
between 4 velocities, it turns out that there is not a lot of sax music that requires all 4
in any one performance
The Keyswitch Presets named Soft, Medium, Loud actually contain only two velocity
layers each.. (Giga format at this time has a limited number of Dimensions and it
was important to have all the voicings available in a single Preset. Using only two
velocities on Keyswitch Presets allowed all 8 voicings to be chosen.) Unlike some
instruments, it seems that saxophone samples actually benefit to some degree by
having a limited amount of dynamic range mapped in any given Preset. Real players
tend to choose a loudness range and then stick fairly closely to it for the duration of a
track. This may seem a bit contrary to instinctive logic, but good results are the goal
here!
Default Presets 00 Crossfade Stereo Alto Sax and 01 Crossfade Mono Alto Sax
have all 4 velocities mapped in a way that spreads the velocities almost evenly.
Other Crossfade Presets are mapped to further minimize this issue. If you look
closely at the velocity regions in the GigaEditor (or HALion etc) you will find that the
Presets marked Crossfade Soft, Crossfade Medium, Crossfade Loud have 4

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velocities, but they severely limit the areas assigned to the velocity regions.
Obviously Soft favors the quietest two velocities and medium favors the middle
two, and Loud favors only the two loudest velocities. All four velocities are available
in each Crossfade Preset, but you will normally hit at a velocity that matches the
name of of the Preset.

Keyswitch
Presets

For many sample Users, Keyswitch Instruments provide the ultimate solution to
creating intricate and realistic passages rapidly. The concept is quite simple. Certain
notes are designated as the ones that command the instrument to change to a
different set of samples. In the picture above, the purple notes are the the command
notes. These command notes make no sound. Their only function is to provide an easy
way to change sounds.
A simple way to get fast results is to play a passage completely using the default
Smooth voicing. This creates the basic midi track. The player can then experiment by
manually step entering the command notes as actual midi notes in the track.
Commands MUST be placed before the actual beginning of a new musical note. You
may place a new command note DURING any sounding note and the effect will occur
on the next available musical note. (Always remember to enter the command to return
to the next desired voicing! The voicing will stay stuck wherever you leave it until it
encounters a new command note.)

Smooth & Vibrato

As previously stated, the main disadvantage to Keyswitching is that the change between
Smooth and Vibrato is a sudden 100% change. True vibrato timbre is very different than the
Smooth timbre. The Vibrato timbres in the Rekevics Sax are particularly nice, but the player
should be warned about over-using these. It is perhaps best to choose between the Smooth
and Vibrato at the outset of a passage and then stick to that timbre for most of the passage.

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In some cases a player may wish to use the Crossfaded Presets for areas involving a
change to vibrato and ALSO use the Keyswitch Presets on separate midi tracks to
easily access the specialty voicings for all other parts of the passage.

A very useful trick that works on all specialty voicings is that they may be applied on
individual short notes with an immediate change back to the previous voicing on the
next note. The resulting sound gives a hint of change without a startling change
because the note does not continue long enough to fully establish the timbre of the
new voicing. Experimentation is highly recommended as a way to add extra realism to
a passage.

IMPORTANT: To see exact range of any special voicing type such as Growls, load the
single Instrument Preset rather than a Crossfade or Keyswitch type . Growls,
Flutters etc are not played the full range of the sax because sax players rarely or never
go that high or that low on certain sounds. These specialty sounds are stretched to
cover the extra high or low areas in Keyswitch versions because the standard
Smooth and Vibrato areas already cover this additional range. Key-switching gigs
are great for convenience, but you should look at the single type maps if you want to
know what range is 100% realistic for the specialty sounds.

Staccatos 1 & 2
Both layers of Staccato notes are essentially Medium loudness in character. Staccato 2 is a
bit louder. The actual shape of Staccato attack and Release areas is dramatically different
from all other voicings; a sort of buh-wah burst of sound. In actual sample usage, these notes
are often most effective as the last note of a short phrase. They are particularly effective as
the ending notes of classic Rhythm & Blues saxophone bass phrases, for example. Baritone
Saxes commonly play these type of phrases, but the Tenor Sax is very useful by itself or
doubling the Bari Sax.

Sforzandos
The Sforzandos are a long, swelling sort of attack. They are useful for short and medium
swells and also may be surprisingly useful as an occasional voicing subtlety when applied on
very short notes. The very beginning of a sforzando is actually almost a staccato sound! The
entire length of a sforzando sample should rarely be used.

Growls
Growls are exactly what their name suggests. They should be very seldom used, but
sometimes nothing else will suffice. As in the case of other specialty voicings, it is sometimes
useful to apply this voicing on a very short note as a method of applying color rather than
fully establishing the voicing.

Flutters
Flutters are perhaps best described as extremely aggressive Growls The characteristics
are very similar, but Flutters have a more defined tongue action. Some players may

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associate Flutters with classic burlesque show stripper sounds. As in the case of Growls,
Flutters should be very seldom used, but sometimes nothing else will suffice. Again, it is
sometimes useful to apply this voicing on a very short note as a method of applying color
rather than fully establishing the voicing.
Falls 1 & 2
Using Falls was one of the pleasant surprises of the specialty voicings. An amazing
variety of effects can be achieved by activating these samples. The actual Falls
recording are quite long. By only playing a short part of the Fall the player can get a very
realistic sort of pitchbend effect in a short or medium length note. If Falls 1 does not give the
desired effect, try Falls 2 before abandoning the experiment. Every Fall is unique! Falls 2
will be the louder velocity, but these two layers are both relatively Medium in level.
Subtones (breathy sax)
Subs are played only in the lowest part of the Tenor Sax register. Alto Sax has no
corresponding voicing so no Subs are provided in this library. However, a pair of Xsoft
Crossfade Presets was created for the Alto that stacks very well with the Subtones Presets
of the BG Tenor Sax.

About Normalization of Samples: How Loud is Loud?

Regular music recordings are peak normalized to near zero dB for a good
reason......high signal strength is perceived as good and it helps create consistency
in overall projects. Nonetheless, Mastering Engineers spend extra time attempting to
create the correct volume relationships between a soft song and the louder one that
may follow in the next track. The skill involved is part art and part science.
Scientifically, it turns out that human ears hear some frequencies better than
others. These frequencies are heard as being louder than other frequencies, even
when decibel analysis shows them to be the same decibel loudness. When a human
musician is asked to play several different notes at the same volume an interesting
thing happens. The player automatically adjusts the volume so that all the notes
sound as equally loud. When analyzing these equal notes using decibel analysis,
one finds that these equal notes may actually be different by as much as 20
decibels or more! The picture below shows the entire range of the Tenor Sax played
at the same human perception of loudness for the Forte timbre. A similar pattern of
actual decibel loudness is visible even on non-velocity sensitive analogue synths!
The actual pattern varies on every instrument, so it is important to retain the true
scaling of that instrument if one wishes to retain the playing characteristics properly.

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Forte Notes (All Played at the Same Human Loudness )

In order to reproduce the human notion of equal loudness, it is necessary to retain
these differences in a sample instrument. Many sample instruments fail to recognize
this and sound harsh or simply wrong. This becomes a larger issue when one is
creating multiple velocities. It helped enormously that John Rekevics is an extremely
consistent studio session player. He easily reproduces notes at nearly even volume
throughout the range of the saxophone. This allowed for the basic creation of 4
velocity layers each on the primary attacks; Smooth and Vibrato.
In order to retain the true player volume scaling, each layer was RMS normalized as
a group. Each group was targeted at a decibel level consistent with its original
average. The software used is aware of the Fletcher-Munson Loudness Curve and is
intended for use by Mastering Engineers to equalize the RMS volumes between
different songs. In other words, it left the human scaling of loudness intact, unlike a
standard peak-decibel based normalization command.

Thank you for using Bigga Giggas sample libraries!

I hope this manual has been helpful.
Best regards,
John Thomas

(c)2003 bigga giggas.

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