Performance Standard

[brightfield]

I'm trying to get two or three tunes up to performance standard for this evening, when I'm going round to my friend's studio for a recording session. All I want is to provide some demonstrations of what a 'tina sounds like to accompany the pics on my website.

 

But its really hard to get the tunes totally flawless - I just know the recording is going to show up the slightest error on my part, every click and wheeze, every bum note. So, for the last few nights, I've been going over and over the difficult parts (but heck, they were never *difficult* until I started to really listen to how I'm going to sound this evening).

 

I suppose I've relearned the importance of "practice slowly" and above all, don't "practice your mistakes". In the meantime my poor wife is being driven to distraction when night after night I'm playing the same few tunes over and over again. I ended up in the furthest away bedroom last night to save her ears.

 

Its a bit late to post this question now, but does anyone have any tips for getting a tune up to recording standard? When I listen to concertina CDs, with perhaps 20 flawless track on them, I 'm thinking, "how do these folks do that?".

[Alan Day]

Tom,

I think you will be lucky to give a faultless performance (one off take).It is quite usual to go into a recording studio,do the best you can,ignoring any small mistakes and record over the errors afterwards by computer splicing.Above all you have to be relaxed and not worry about how you play(as you are).

You have practiced enough,just go for it. Talk it over with your friend when you arrive and he should understand and offer his help as discussed above.A recording studio is nothing like being in front of a large audience,you are with a friend so enjoy the experience.

Good luck

Al

[Henk van Aalten]

Its a bit late to post this question now, but does anyone have any tips for getting a tune up to recording standard?

The big difference with playing before an audience is that you know it's a one-time thing and a small mistake happens but cannot be corrected.

When you record you have always the thought in mind: "When I make (even the slightest) mistake, I can re-record". As a result, sitting alone before a microphone is terrible (at least for me).

Alan is completely right about the technical possibilities. Even in my (rather primitive) situation I repaired mistakes with the Audacity software. A lot of my tunes that are on the Recorded Links Page have been edited with Audacity to correct errors.

I can only advise you to relax and do not concentrate on this microphone.

 

B.T.W.: I hope we all hear your tunes very soon

[keeper]

I would like to offer some ideas that are not specific to the concertina.

 

Identify the sections which cause technical problems

Try every conceivable fingering and bellows direction for those sections - often an unexpected fingering can remove the problem of uneven playing

Practice the optimum fingering/bellows direction slowly until it becomes 'muscle' memory - reserve your 'conscious' performance memory for the eay bits

[important, this one] Some sections of music will always be beyond our ability at any given stage of development. That does not mean that ' the piece is too hard' - it means that some sections are too hard. Professional players are never entirely satisfied with any performance; they learn to live with an [un]acceptable 'error rate.' How you approach tricky sections can make a huge difference to how they sound. One tip is to try to relax in such sections as much as possible. This releases the tension that can cause error in the first place. For example, instead of tensing as the tricky bit comes up try distracting yourself with a picture of the family or recalling a funny joke. As long as the notes are under your fingers and filed in subconsious memory you might well find yourself through the tricky bit without it becoming a stumbling block.

Record and listen, even if only to a cheap analog recorder. What sounds good to us may sound different to a listener as our total experience floods in and compromises the purely auditory one. This is because there are fingerings that are physically satisfying or written phrases that are visually elegant

I agree with Alan and Henk about digital remastering. If you record digitally, do not be afraid to cut unsuccessful sections and paste-in more successful attempts. If your aim is to represent the instrument, this is a different aim from producing a 'whole performance' and cutting and pasting is valid in such a case.

[JimLucas]

When I listen to concertina CDs, with perhaps 20 flawless track on them, I 'm thinking, "how do these folks do that?".

The two main methods I know of are:

... 1) Practice

... 2) Edit

 

The practice part usually goes into years of familiarity with the instrument and the tunes. Even then, certain "variations" could well be accidents that sounded good, and were kept.

 

Editing, on the other hand, lets you excise the bad bits from one take and replace them with good bits from other takes.

 

Some engineers seem to have a habit of trying to record over the original track. I think it's much better to record a parallel track (if you have one available) for a longer segment, because then you can decide where to make the splice after you've listened to both (or even more than two) tries. It's always best to splice at phrase boundaries, where changes in attack, volume, etc. tend to occur, anyway.

 

Or a technique I use at home: If I make an obvious mistake I stop, then restart at the beginning of the phrase and continue from there. Later I cut out a segment that leaves me with one continuous but "error-free" copy of the phrase. With several errors and corresponding repetitions, I can work my way from one end of the take to the other, cutting out offending and redundant bits until it sounds to the listener as if I recorded it in one continuous, error-free take.

[Clive Thorne]

Tom,

 

On the other hand perhaps you should relish the fact that you're human, and thus prone to errors. Let the small slips stand, and let people appreciate it 'warts and all'. After all, anyone can produce a perfect recording with sufficient time and computer power!. Lets face it, you could record the whole thing at 1/4 speed and then digitally wind it up to whatever speed you wanted it. Or you could record all the notes individually and digitally re-arrange them to fabricate the tune (any tune) - but where's the fun in that?.

 

In terms of practise, yes practise slowly until you know the tune. But I am also a great believer in practising it a bit faster than your intended performance (but making sure it's still accurate). Then when you come to the actual performance, at a slower speed, everything will seem relatively easy and relaxed, and it will still be real.

 

'Keep music real' as the MU say.

 

 

Clive.

[brightfield]

Fantastic advice from everyone. Thanks greatly.

 

I'm not sure editing is going to be realistic option - the sound engineer isn't really into it all that much and I think he's just going to record straight, do a bit of tinkering with balance etc, and then mail me the file. And I certainly don't have the equipment or software to do anything myself. So its "get it right first time".

 

Just one more question please - what do people think of adding a bit of echo to blur the mistakes? it seems to me that this can be a very forgiving thing and make a less than perfect performance sound quite good.

 

Incidentally, I'm very impressed that everyone seems to be able to record themselves - this would suit me much better as you're not wasting someone else's time. Can anyone advise what equipment I would need to be able to do reasonable quality recordings on my own? Its many years since I had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and I have no idea what the modern equivalent is.

 

Thanks

[JimLucas]

... I certainly don't have the equipment or software to do anything myself.

Easy enough to get. Check out my bits on Henk's tune links page. They were all done using the free software Audacity -- mentioned in this Topic, -- and the cheap desktop microphone that came with my computer. (On those, I didn't even do any editing, just multiple takes. But they're short.)

 

Definitely record additional takes of any parts where you think you made a mistake, then do your editing at home if you get a recording from your soundman (most likely a CD, rather than a tape, or he's way behind the times). You can play it into your computer's Line-In socket, recording it with Audacity, and then edit in Audacity. It's just like copy-and-paste with text in a word processor. You may need to practice getting the bits aligned for a good splice, but you can make multiple copies of the recorded file to play with, and Audacity gives you unlimited undo and retry. If you have windows open on two separate copies of your recording, you can copy from the one and paste into the other, so you don't have to keep "scrolling" back and forth between the two takes.

 

Just one more question please - what do people think of adding a bit of echo to blur the mistakes? it seems to me that this can be a very forgiving thing and make a less than perfect performance sound quite good.

My suspicion is that if you use that effect only in spots, those spots will stand out like a sore thumb, drawing attention to the fact that you've tried to obscure something. As for using such an effect all the way through, my personal opinion is that it's obnoxious and unmusical. (I know there are others who disagree.) "Blur" is indeed a good description. I consider it "musical mumbling". But that's also something that can be added after the fact, so that you can experiment with it and form your own opinion. If your sound engineer does it for you, then you can't remove it if you don't like it.

 

Incidentally, I'm very impressed that everyone seems to be able to record themselves - this would suit me much better as you're not wasting someone else's time. Can anyone advise what equipment I would need to be able to do reasonable quality recordings on my own? Its many years since I had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and I have no idea what the modern equivalent is.

There have been some threads recently that went into detail on things like minidisc recorders and even more recent technology. Others can probably point you to them... or do a Search. But recording directly into your computer should be fine with a decent mike, depending on the acoustics of the room.

[Rod Thompson]

Its many years since I had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and I have no idea what the modern equivalent is.

One thing - editing on computer is far - far easier than on a rtr tape recorder.

[Lars]

Fantastic advice from everyone. Thanks greatly.

 

I'm not sure editing is going to be realistic option - the sound engineer isn't really into it all that much and I think he's just going to record straight, do a bit of tinkering with balance etc, and then mail me the file. And I certainly don't have the equipment or software to do anything myself. So its "get it right first time".

 

Just one more question please - what do people think of adding a bit of echo to blur the mistakes? it seems to me that this can be a very forgiving thing and make a less than perfect performance sound quite good.

 

Incidentally, I'm very impressed that everyone seems to be able to record themselves - this would suit me much better as you're not wasting someone else's time. Can anyone advise what equipment I would need to be able to do reasonable quality recordings on my own? Its many years since I had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and I have no idea what the modern equivalent is.

 

Thanks

 

 

I wouldn't add any echo to cover the mistakes, it usually doesn't work in a simple solo mix. A light touch of reverb, etc. is always nice but easy to overdo. Recording into your computer is much more simple nowadays but I would use an extenal interface as every PC I've ever had puts excessive noise into your recording when using the built in jacks. I've never tried the Macs so don't know about them....Presonus makes an inexpensive firewire interface and it'll be nice and clean, there are a number of freeware simple audio recording programs too. Also get a decent microphone or if you're only recording your concertina maybe check out the specialty mics for them from the Button Box, etc.

 

Lars

[Guest]

I'm fortunate enough to be able to use a nice microphone left over from my husbands band days, which works well with my PC.

 

As far as your performance, if you get a chance to set up your own recording at home, I would recommend doing lots of takes, just to get used to being recorded. Many years ago back in my harp days I make a demo Cd with a very talented electric guitarist friend of mine, and I was certainly a lot more relaxed about being recorded once I got used to it. Which isn't to say I was perfect every time - some days are magic, and some days you just deleted everything, but it's a learning curve.

 

Good luck with the recording, and please let us know how you go.

 

Cheers

Morgana

[cnrobinson]

I never had a problem 'live'. Some days were better than others but in front of an audience it always flowed. In front of a microphone, however, I seemed to get into a mental state where I was waiting for my fingers to hit the wrong buttons! The anxiety got so bad that I gave up any idea of recording in a studio. The other curious thing is that when I listen to any of my recordings I can only hear my mistakes, never those of the other band members. They, on the other hand, could only hear their mistakes. Third parties not involved except as listeners rarely commented on any mistakes! Maybe your engineer is the best judge of whether you need retakes!

 

Chris

[brightfield]

Thanks again to everyone for the advice. I'm going to mess about with Audacity and get a desktop mike for the computer.

 

My recording session on Thursday was not successful and I'm going to do it all over again in two weeks time. Why not successful? Well it was perhaps the coldest night of the year so far, and my friends heating system had broken down. In the studio is was 7 degrees Celsius and you can imagine what effect that had on my fingers. Maybe our Scandinavian friends can cope with this sort of thing better than I can!

[Cream-T]

They'd just go and play in the sauna!

[JimLucas]

... In the studio is was 7 degrees Celsius and you can imagine what effect that had on my fingers. Maybe our Scandinavian friends can cope with this sort of thing better than I can!

Maybe those in Stockholm, Bergen, or Kaustinen? Those around Copenhagen seem to think that blood freezes at 10° C (50° F).

 

I played on the street for an hour today, wearing a light jacket and no gloves in 2° C weather. And I was surprised that much of my playing was even crisper and more precise than usual, even though I couldn't always feel the buttons. But I grew up in Buffalo, NY, which has much colder winters than anything I've seen here.

[brightfield]

Check out my bits on Henk's tune links page. They were all done using the free software Audacity -- mentioned in this Topic, -- and the cheap desktop microphone that came with my computer. (On those, I didn't even do any editing, just multiple takes. But they're short.)

 

Thanks for that Jim. I went downtown today and got a cheapo microphone, and I downloaded Audacity. Now I'm wondering why I didn't do that before. Its perfect for what I want and in a few days I think I'll have the recordings ready - some more practice is required first I think.

 

But following your later message, you were a brave man to play on the streets today.

[Henk van Aalten]

I went downtown today and got a cheapo microphone, and I downloaded Audacity. Now I'm wondering why I didn't do that before. Its perfect for what I want and in a few days I think I'll have the recordings ready - some more practice is required first I think.

Tom,

Welcome to the Audacity world. It might be confusing at the start, but just try and listen to the result.

In previous posting about audacity I linked to two e-Learning files that I made about:

Reducing MP3 filesize with Audacity

Synchronizing sound tracks with Audacity

 

Hope this might help

[brightfield]

In previous posting about audacity I linked to two e-Learning files that I made about:

 

Hope this might help

 

Yes! Thanks for that Henk. They are very useful e-learning and it is good of you to provide them free of charge. You must have put a huge amount of work into them.

Edited November 26, 2005 by brightfield