Jazz trumpet player, Yamaha artist and clinician Kevin Clark, has been using the ST5 since its introduction. Clark was given a brief tutorial with Jim Metz, Yamaha’s wind instrument product specialist. “I had it figured out pretty quickly,” says Clark. “It’s really not as complicated as one might think.”

There are several features to this compact unit that will benefit anyone who enjoys pushing the boundaries of playing, be they professionals or dabblers. It is also a valuable practice and skills development tool. “The first thing that’s great about the ST5 is the built-in chromatic tuner and the built-in metronome,” says Clark. “The metronome is great because it’s got authentic percussion beats that you can play to: there’s samba, a funk beat, Latin beats, the works. It will go through odd meters, and you can syncopate the meters with a bell ring to beat on the downbeat; it can go through all the meters that you can think of.

“The percussion beats can play in preset patches, or patches that you modify and customize yourself,” he continues. “So, in a performance application you can start these drum beats, and play over the top of them, and sound like a sousaphone.”

The phrase trainer is one of Clark’s favorite features. “It allows you to record a CD, a tape, or just an artist playing. You can then play it back, slowing it down to half-speed, or stop it on particular notes and chords—it’s excellent for transcribing solos and charts.” A composer himself, Clark spends quite a bit of time transcribing music. “For me personally, it saves hours when I’m writing my charts, and that relates to dollars.” In addition, it helps players learn new or complicated pieces, as the user can slow down a recorded piece of music to break it down—without changing the pitch. There is a pitch adjust function available, however, which is useful
in several situations. “You can plug a CD player into it,” Clark explains, “and with the pitch adjust, you can go up or down one octave in half-step increments.”

The ST5 has 50 preset patches to play with, from

irregular patches like echo, flange, and distortion, to French horn Silent Brass mute, trombone Silent Brass mute, and euphonium Silent Brass mute. But what’s even more fun is the 50 user patches a musician can modify however he sees fit, using any combination of effects.

“Playing with these patches is great,” says Clark. “You can do polyphonic—two notes at once, from two octaves higher or lower. You can stack different effects together. You can get all kinds of sounds out of the ST5 by changing the parameters of the patches.

“Then, to take it a step further,” he continues, “you can take the patches and put them in a file. A little wheel on the unit makes it really easy to scroll through them. The ST5 clips to your belt, so you can quickly change to the next patch. With a little flick of the wheel, you’re sounding completely different—excellent for playing with an electronic band. I can make nice sousaphone sounds, or sound like a trombone or guitar, or I can play two notes at once. I put it in this context when I demonstrate it to people: most of what I do is traditional jazz, and I have nine mutes that I use on gigs for different sounds; well, the ST5 gives you over 50 different sounds. It drastically increases the effects  you can get on your horn, which is extremely beneficial to have in any electronic application.”

“When you put all of these things together,” Clark concludes, “considering what it’s retailing for, it’s a really good deal. Students have to have a metronome and they have to have a tuner. They also will want to transcribe solos and other music. The ST5 is perfect in this capacity. For professionals, it has several incredibly useful applications. Along with practice and transcribing, it’s a great tool to compete in the electronic music arena. Although I don’t play in an electronic medium very often, I see this affecting musicians who do. If an audience is seeing a trumpet play, but hearing a sousaphone, it makes an impression. It’s offering a whole new approach to playing.”

To learn more about Yamaha’s ST5, please contact the Yamaha dealer in your area or log onto www.yamaha.com/band.

32 EFFECTS PROGRAMS These programs allow for nearly every sonic effect that can be produced in a studio, such as delay, chorus, filter, auto-wah, pitch shifting, overdrive, and distortion.

METRONOME AND DRUM PATTERNS
With 34 different tempo settings in four different subdivision patterns, the metronome mode can facilitate practice in nearly any time signature.