Jump to content

New to the forum - 20 button harmonic Anglo player who loves coming up with new tunes


Recommended Posts

RIght, I've had a listen back to the audio (by listening to it on my phone with earbuds in and also on my computer with headphones) and I've discovered a few interesting things.

 

The issue is a garbled sound which sounds like it is underwater-like distortion.  A burbling.

 

I have checked the levels in a mixer and its not like there is any clipping - the sound is not now and never was too loud.  So that's good.  I exported the video file as an mp3 (not ideal but eh) and looked at it in Audacity and found a note with the warbling and zooming into the waveform nothing looks untoward (that distortion must somehow be in there as information though).

 

Initial web searches reveal that this sound distortion type is known - and may be something to do with recording devices that people often use to dictate into/use in meetings (and phones?) being optimised in some way for voices rather than music.  Apparently something called  "echo cancellation"/noise cancellation can cause that   I'll look into that.

 

I am wondering whether it is because I filmed it on my phone and didnt use a separate mic/recording device.  So far all the videos of me playing concertina taken on the phone have that burbling.   I am going to continue seeing if this is a problem with iPhone videoing.  Also its possible I did a bit of initial editing (trimming of the video) on my phone and possibly also in Photos in Windows 10 before importing into my film editing package.    I'm going to test this by recording some video!

 

Its odd because when I use the recording app on my phone the burbling is not there.  Also the burbling is not there when I use a separate recording device (I havent used a proper mic yet).

 

That said, it was my second ever attempt to play something live videoed on a concertina - and I didn't want to spook myself by setting up a load of stuff and getting all perfectionist about it.  Since then I put a recording device further away as well as video - and that doesn't have this distortion on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Kathryn Wheeler said:

 So, I assume octaves should ideally have no beats? 

Yes that's correct, though it difficult to achieve exactly for all volume levels because pitch of a reed flattens very slightly as you increase volume, and low pitch reeds usually flatten at a faster rate than higher ones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fascinating!  Is the increased flattening because we are more likely to detect a change in pitch at those lower frequencies or something to do with the size of the reed (I’d have thought a bigger reed might be more stiff/harder to move by an increased pressure of air?)
 

The concertina definitely isn’t producing the watery burbling you can hear in the recording (luckily recordings not off video confirm that too...phew..)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...