Conference napalm::guitar

    I'll bet it's a synth

    >     I'll bet it's a synth
    
    Nice emulation if so. The riffs sound more "live" than I'd expect from
    a synth/sampler.
    
    Edd

>    Nice emulation if so

    Yeah. I was listening to it last night thinking that it was a
    sample-player type keyboard but there are frequent glisandos (no attack)
    that make me wonder.

    --Ron

    Wild guess: it could be Neal Jason is somehow involved.  Neal was
    formerly a hot N.Y. area studio bassist (used to sub for Will Lee
    on Letterman occasionally) who nowadays runs a shop that cranks out
    sequenced scores and jingles; evidently he saw the handwriting on the
    wall re a career as a studio bassist :-)  Anyway, I'd expect
    state-of-the art bass sequencing from him.
    
    If it is a real bassist, there's a good chance it's someone you don't
    even know.  BP just published the name of the guy who did the "Barney
    Miller" theme; I forget the name (Brian will know) but it's nobody you
    ever heard of.
    
    /rick

    I had read (in TV Guide?) that it's the show's producer (maybe director)
    
    Danny W.

    I thought Carol Kaye did the Barney Miller theme.  I just got a TV
    with fairly good stereo and it's pretty obvious to me now that the
    Seinfeld theme is played on a keyboard (synth/sampler take your
    pick).  
    
    Peter

    Without discounting your opinion, I'm curious - What qualities do
    you think make it obviously a keyboard?
    
    I haven't payed alot of attention to it (other than "Whoa, cool...")
    but having done enough sequencing to choke a small community, I'm still
    siding with real, although the entire riff may have been sampled. (One
    long sample, hit the key and run...)
    
    Edd

    re: .6
    
    In the latest Bass Player mag, Carol Kaye and Lee Sklar claim Chuck
    Berghofer (sic) played the BM theme (he's a veteran sessionman on both
    electric and upright).  
    
    Supposedly it's a cop from a tune on James Taylor's "Walking Man" LP,
    therefore based on a Lee Sklar lick.
    
    							Brian

    I stand corrected on the BM theme.  I haven't read Bass Player in
    about a year.
    
    On the Seinfeld theme, I hear a whole lot of pitch bends that I didn't
    hear before, also it just doesn't sound like a bass, or even a sampled 
    bass to me.  Of course it could have been a sample that was munged.
    
    Peter

re:        <<< Note 2707.8 by TECRUS::ROST "Don't fry bacon in the nude" >>>

>    In the latest Bass Player mag, Carol Kaye and Lee Sklar claim Chuck
>    Berghofer (sic) played the BM theme (he's a veteran sessionman on both
>    electric and upright).  
>    
>    Supposedly it's a cop from a tune on James Taylor's "Walking Man" LP,
>    therefore based on a Lee Sklar lick.

I remember seeing once, in the Barney Miller credits, that Larry Carlton is
credited.  I think the credit was "Theme Song By: Larry Carlton".

I'm not so familiar with his sound that I can tell if it's him playing the
guitar, or if he just wrote the melody and someone else played guitar.  The
recent revelation about a cop of a JT song is interesting to hear.

I always ask in this file, about once a year, if anyone has a full-length
recording of this tune (if one exists).  I guess this note can serve as this
year's request.

I think I'll pick up this month's BP magazine (blasphemy from a guitar player,
I know!).

adam

>>I think I'll pick up this month's BP magazine (blasphemy from a guitar player,
I>know!).
    
    
    Whaaaaat's BP magazine?
    
    8^)

    Larry Carlton also did the theme for that show where Tony Danza played
    a maid for a rich woman.  The name of the show escapes me at the
    moment, but I'm not going to die if I never remember... I just
    remembered it... "Who's the Boss?". 
    
    I've also heard Larry credited in some way for the "Hill Street Blues"
    theme (one of my very favorites: my band does it during the cocktail set at
    weddings) although my understanding is that Mike Post wrote it and all
    Larry did was play a (GREAT!) guitar solo which was cut out of the
    version used in the show anyway.
    
    I think Larry does a lot of the soundbites used DURING/IN the show
    however.

    
    re: .11
    
    BP is short for BASS PLAYER Magazine (a spin-off from Guitar Player).
    It's a great mag (for those who don't play those wimpy little things
    with the tiny six strings ;^)
    
    re: .12
    
    Yeah, that's Larry on the HSB's theme ... very cool!!
    
    
    
    /Billy_K

    Listening closely last night I quickly became convinced that it's a
    keyboard. There were a few places where the use of the pitch bend was
    evident to my ear. Also consider the context. All the other parts are
    clearly a board except for the "pah pah".

    --Ron

    This month's edition of "The First Reflection" (Alesis user rag) has 
    an article on Jonathon Wolff, creator of the Seinfeld music theme.
    
    It tells most everything you'd want to know about how the music is
    created.
    
    Except whether they used a real bass!!!
    
    Most of the snappin' and poppin' came from Alesis drum machines,
    apparently including the "pah pah" bits.
    
    Given that, I'd probably agree the bass is MIDI'd.
    
    Edd

    Not that anyone cares anymore, but this topic just came up on the
    internet bass digest.  Apparently there was an Electronic Musician
    article awhile back that spilled the beans.  Not only are the Seinfeld
    bass lines sequenced, but they were 'composed' by a band-in-a-box style
    random riff generator.  Eeeek!
    
    /rick