A Nice Couple Of Tunes

[Henk van Aalten]

Squeezers,

 

With the Audicity software I recorded a nice couple of tunes from the Playford Collection. Both tunes are also entered in the Tune-O-Tron: The Rover Reformed and The Fine Companion. I played the two in that order on my Marcus 30b G/C Anglo. The chords were obtained by merging the two ABC files and removing the melody. As I use the Tune-O-Tron very much for this process I like to call the piano player "Ken Schwartz" or "Paul Coles" .

 

Comments or questions are very welcome!

[Jim Besser]

Comments or questions are very welcome!

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Nice tunes, Henk, especially the first one.

And a real challenge on Anglo!

[JimLucas]

With the Audicity software I recorded...

Do you really record directly with Audicity? I can only get it to record additional tracks against a pre-existing sound file, but I can't get it to record an original file from scratch.

 

Also, I find it very annoying that Audicity doesn't synchronize the new tracks with the old ones, but delays them, and then provides only dragging with the mouse as a way of aligning them. With poor eye-hand coordination, it could takes hours to match them up.

 

...a nice couple of tunes from the Playford Collection.

Two lovely tunes. A bit slower than I'm used to doing the dances, but that's not a criticism.

 

While you say "from the Playford Collection", I'm curious as to your direct source, since your version of "The Fine Companion" differs somewhat from that in Peter Barnes' book English Country Dance Tunes, particularly in the B part, but he also has no C#'s anywhere in the piece (and in all my dancing days, I don't think I've heard it played with C#'s). Does anyone know of other programs -- either free or cheap (I have Bill Gates's software, not his income ) -- that can be used to record and edit multi-track sound files?

[Henk van Aalten]

Do you really record directly with Audicity?  I can only get it to record additional tracks against a pre-existing sound file, but I can't get it to record an original file from scratch.

Using a simple microphone makes it possible to direct record a tune. Already existing soundfiles (MP3 or WAV) can be imported.

Also, I find it very annoying that Audicity doesn't synchronize the new tracks with the old ones, but delays them, and then provides only dragging with the mouse as a way of aligning them.  With poor eye-hand coordination, it could takes hours to match them up.

Do not only blame the software. It could be possible that the soundboard in your PC is the problem. You need a powerful soundboard to play and record at the same time without any time-delay.

Yor dragging-problem can be made easier by playing sound-markers before you actually play the tune. Play these markers in the tempo of the tune. When recording the second track try to play some of the markers at the same time you hear them in your headphone (from the first track). As these markers are rather "sharp" and isolated, it is easy to synchronize precisely when you have zoomed in. Use edit - snap on to get the line across the two tracks. It looks like this:

 

 

It really is not that difficult

 

While you say "from the Playford Collection", I'm curious as to your direct source, since your version of "The Fine Companion" differs somewhat from that in Peter Barnes' book English Country Dance Tunes

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I forgot to mention that my source is Robin Williamson's book "English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes" - Oak Publications - ISBN 0-8256-0165-7

Also for concertina it is a great book!

[JimLucas]

Using a simple microphone makes it possible to direct record a tune. Already existing soundfiles (MP3 or WAV) can be imported.

Apologies for my complaints about Audacity. It seems I had an older version. It was actually crashing when I tried to record an inital track (yet not crashing on adding subsequent tracks to one that already existed), and the misalignment of later tracks was half a second or more. The current version seems to be recording just fine from both mike and line input, and I think the alignment is also OK (but it's too late right now to do really good testing without worrying about disturbing my neighbors).

 

...I find it very annoying that Audicity doesn't synchronize the new tracks with the old ones...

Do not only blame the software. It could be possible that the soundboard in your PC is the problem. You need a powerful soundboard to play and record at the same time without any time-delay.

Well, I no longer have the problem, but I don't see how that could have been the case. If it's time-slicing the playing and recording, the delay shouldn't be more than a single slice, should it? But it was a good half second. If that's because the sound card's processor can't keep up, I would expect noticeable gaps in both audible output and recorded input.

 

Use edit - snap on to get the line across the two tracks.

Hmm. I don't know that feature, yet, but I think I understand what you mean. I'll look for it. Thanks.

 

I  forgot to mention that my source is Robin Williamson's book "English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes"....

Ah, yes, that book. I don't think there's a single tune in there that doesn't differ noticeably from every version I've ever heard from others. My suspicion is that those are his personal variants, not exactly versions he's learned from others. Not that I have anything against his creativity, but if he makes major changes (that's a pun, since I believe he has changed some originally minor chords to major) to a tune that he has taken from a 325-year-old book, I think he should acknowledge that he has done so, and not give the impression that he's presenting what was in the book.