sylvainbd - 12-30-2011 at 12:51 AM
Hello guys
What are good softwares are you using to practice oud ?
I use on Windows :
- oud tutor 
- A good drone ... 
http://tampura.bzhtec.com/fr/Introduction.html
- Audio editor ... 
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/?lang=fr
And unfortunately, I found nothing on ANDROID ... Do you know a handy softwares on this OS ?
Best wishes
fernandraynaud - 12-30-2011 at 03:44 AM
Not on android. But on windows don't forget <b>rooster</b>os.com's REAPER and for percussion there's DARBUKA.
(Edit) I just saw the idiotic censorship that corrupts the name C O C K O S. C O M
dkhoury35 - 12-30-2011 at 03:47 AM
what about for mac
sylvainbd - 12-30-2011 at 07:15 AM
Hi fernandraynaud 
I found REAPER but DARBUKA ...?
You mean Wizoo darbuka ?
Very good sample of darbuka and traditionnal rythm ...
For mac I don't know ...
fernandraynaud - 12-30-2011 at 07:34 AM
Yes it's by wizoo. Excellent plugin for DAW programs and probably can be used standalone, I forget. As I recall Reaper can now use VST plugins. Eh, ce
oud tutor c'est utile en realite? How long have you been playing?
sylvainbd - 12-30-2011 at 08:39 AM
I use Oud tutor for diagrams of scale ...
For exemple, this is Athar Kurd diagram in DGADGC tuning in C note ...
I never learnt music theory so for me it's more easy to remember some scales ...
The sound is very bad (midi sound) but you can change a lot of parameter (tuning , right or left hand ... )
Unfortunately it doesn't work on smartphone !
sylvainbd - 12-31-2011 at 02:17 AM
Hi oud lovers
I found two apps for smartphone on Android market very handy and free !...
- gstrings , a chromatic tuner
https://market.android.com/details?id=org.cohortor.gstrings
- ZyMi , a metronome
http://www.androidtapp.com/apps/music-audio/zymi-metronome/
And one more but for 4 euros
Tape machine recorder, excellent audio editor ...
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.samalyse.tapemachine&f...
Best wishes
fernandraynaud - 1-2-2012 at 01:29 AM
I tried the Oud Tutor Trial Version. After a bit of fiddling to get the firewall/security software to allow some of the "against the rules" stuff it
does, like writing temporary .DLLs to system folders as part of its time limit hack, I finally got it installed on 64 bit Windows 7 and starting up ..
here ... it ... comes. CRASH. My review is brief. It crashed reliably every time I tried to start it.
I then installed the Free Version. That one runs. The difference is that it does what little it does without time limit. The concept is not bad but if
they had only reached a little higher, it might have been more useful. What it does is show the finger position of notes as they are being played from
their proprietary note files by the awful default piano sound of the Microsoft soft synth, on the neck of a pictured oud. It allows several tunings
and views (right, left, mirrored, etc). It uses pich-bend to play half-flats.
An interesting feature is that at rest it shows the "fretting" positions of notes that belong to the selected maqamat. This serves as a quick
reference of some common maqamat on the neck. It blanks out notes that don't belong to the current maqam, and can do so dynamically while modulations
occur during a piece it's playing.
It interacts with everything else on the system in rather strange ways, like only playing when it's the foreground window, and capturing keyboard
input to "play" the on-screen oud. It's written in old Visual Basic, and it shows.
There is another program they offer, MELCOMP, which is free, and converts text files that you can create from a score, using a sort of notation
shorthand they defined, into their proprietary format that plays while showing fingered note positions on their pictured oud's neck. It's also
possible to add in instructions to use a more oud-like sound, and to change the displayed maqamat as the music plays. Their own proprietary files in
addition can show a score, and a recomended fingering.
The frustrating thing is that with some work the program could have been much more interesting. On the other hand, it can be MADE more useful. By
adding the following line to the tunings.ini file in the program's folder, I was able to add a tuning I needed, in my case tuning the 5th course to E
rather than F:
5 :: C2 - E2 - A2 - D3 - G3 - C4 :: Do - Mi - La - Re - Sol - Do :: 36 40 45 50 55 60
The maqams.ini file contains the maqamat it knows. That file too is plain text and can probably be edited so more maqamat are added to the 20 or so
already defined.
For someone who does not read music, this could be a useful way to learn some oud pieces by observing the neck positions. By using MELCOMP it would
also be possible to take an oud score, type in the notes, and then have it played while it shows the notes positions on the neck.
Whether this is all worth it for $15 is a personal decision. The number of downloadable additional files they offer with the maqam changes encoded is
pityfully small. Only one includes the score to be displayed.
The next unfortunate thing is they don't accept Paypal, so payment has to be made by trusting someone with your credit card number. And since I can't
get the trial version to run, I can't possibly bring up its dialog in which one is supposed to enter the purchased serial number.
sylvainbd - 1-2-2012 at 02:45 AM
Thank you fernantraynaud for your answer !
That possibility to add some new tuning in oud turor is very interesting.
Somewhere i am very suprised that the oud world has not several softwares specialised for oud player ...
It is the same thing for DVD method for oud.
Next to the guitar world, it's very poor.
There is a lot of thing to do !!
Patience is the master word !!