A rough recording session.
But successful.
Two very good and dear and supportive friends of mine are getting married on the same weekend as the Spoutwood Fairie Fest. They wanted me to play at the wedding but this gig is really to big and too important to miss.
So we came to a compromise: I would lend them some sound equipment so that they could have music, and I would personally record the tune that they wanted as their "1st dance". That way I could play for them remotely. The tune is from the Pennsic(and now)3LF repertoire, a beautiful Italian Renaissance dance called "Rostiboli Gioioso".
I can play several parts for the song, from melody to guitar and some improvisations.
I also do some improvising and counterpoint especially on guitar, but other instruments too.
The good news is that I know the tune pretty well, thanks to Pennsic.
The bad news is that I don't always get to practice what I needed to do for this recording because, when we do it at 3LF practice, I'm playing whatever part is *not* there.
The other bad news is that it's been awhile (or never) since I've needed to do some of the things I needed to do to record this in the studio. Much time was burned reading manual entries and trying to make sense of the instructions as they relate to the very non-intuitive user interface on the multitrack. Forinstances to follow:
I kept getting lost in the repeat count for the parts, and I kept drifting off of tempo.
After much wrestling with the multitrack I've FINALLY found how to activate and set it's internal metronome. Activating the metronome and setting it's tempo are in two completely different menu sections. WTF? And it'll let you set up a kickass tempo map where different sections have different tempi and even rhythms. *But* it won't record it onto a track for you.
In some respects that's good, (as it doesn't burn up a track), but I would have liked the option, especially because of what I wound up having to do.
I got a great recording of the melody (on my straight bore recorder), but only after somehow solving a mysterious air leak problem that seemed to be getting air his into the mic. I don't know why or how it's happening. There may be a problem with my embouchure. Anyway, I finally fixed it (somehow) and recorded it, set to what seemed to be a reasonable tempo on the metronome. Of course, it took the requisite too many times to get a take I liked. It took all of Friday night to get to that point where I knew it would work, and then all of Saturday afternoon to get the good take.
THEN, when I went to dub the guitar, I found that the recorder part was actually too slow.
Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn (you get the idea)
So after cursing for awhile and some food, I had a fiendish idea, and I semi-proved the concept with an experiment, but actual implementation would have to wait.
First, there was
thesheryl's birthday party to attend- Which was very nice and mellow. Good for a psychological reset.
So Sunday, I implemented the fiendish plan:
I burned the track onto a CD, then went upstairs to import the track into Audacity.
Audacity has a "tempo increase" effect where you can dial in how much you want the track to be sped up without changing the pitch. I've sped up recorder parts before with no problem (I did it on _Patches_ to get the C recorder and harmonica part down to Bb on "Star of the County Down/Pretty Maid Milking a Cow".) But THIS was different. Some sort of obscene math is done to a sample to compress it down or expand it to a different length, and then re-calculated back to it's original pitch. The effect actually worked. I sped up a guitar part I had to spare and it WAS still right on key. But it created sonic artifacts.
You can hear these artifacts alot on podcasts. I used to think that it was just a poor sampling rate. I realise now, that these tracks are being time-compressed to fit into a certain length after the fact. So- big risk here of needing to re-record the part. My HOPE was that on a waveform as pure as a recorder (a slightly fuzzy, but almost pure sinewave), that the math wouldn't wind up having all kinds of remainders that made these artifacts.
I also theorised that it would help if I could keep the speedup not TOO radical. So I determined that an increase from 110 to 115 bps would do it. And....
It worked.
Unfortunately, tho, to get it back on to the multitrack meant that I would lose the original metronome setting because 110/115 is not a good decimal fraction and so I couldn't just reset the metronome and expect it to stay on the beat precisely. Damn Damn Damn. (I'm not a big fan of playing with metronomes- the songs sometimes wind up sounding too mechanical and don't "breathe" well, but THIS song really benefitted from it).
Also I had to undergo the extra step to transfer the song to the Linux partition to burn it, as I don't TRUST the CD burning on the Windows side. In hindsight, I maybe should have done all of the work on the Linux side, especially since it looks like the version of Audacity there is a little more advanced. Live-n-learn.
So after THAT pain, I got it down stairs and then had to wrestle for an hour with the multitrack, relearning how to digitally import an audio track off of CD.
So... THAT done, I spent Sunday afternoon getting the guitar part right, and finally getting something I'm *mostly* happy with. I may want to dub in one correction, but I could also leave it there. But it would sound just that one percent more "whole". Without that metronome part, it did, in fact, prove to be just a little more difficult than I'd hoped.
Because I'm doing variation and counterpoint as well as chords, I really needed to keep that timing in my head.
And then, I did something I've never put on a recording before: a dumbek.
It was *almost* a mistake.
It took some time to find a good way to mic it. (A dumbek sounds great, but that sound doesn't project upward or outward the way most of the other instruments that I play do). Then I had to develop a good sounding part (I only had some vague ideas in my head). Then I had to get to where I could play it. (The metronome sure would have helped here)
When it comes to instruments, I've got a decent sense of rhythm, and some good hand coordination, but this is an instrument I rarely play with, and I'm *not* a drummer. I don't live in that world and boy do I still have a lot to learn about drumming.
It took me for fucking EVER (okay, an hour) to get to where I could play even 40 out of the 160(I think) measures in 3/4 precisely the way I wanted it to sound (and yes, it had to sound just so, otherwise it just wasn't complementing the other parts right). The rhythm (for that part) was something like "dum ka dum ka tek ka" Yes, I had to do numerous punch ins and corrections. Fortunately, once I figured out the sound I wanted for the other parts, *those* went pretty smoothly. It helped that those parts weren't nearly as ambitious. Ultimately the sweat and annoyance was finally worth it because...
When we (3LF) play Rostiboli, it sounds really pretty and all, but we don't currently have a drummer in the group (BTW, if you'd like to play drums/percussion in 3LF, boy do I have some sweettalk for YOU), so it sounds pretty, but kind of airy. The music for the dance is very romantic, but it's also Italian, so it really wants some *passion* as well.(IMHO) So adding the dumbek to what I did, once I got it working, REALLY added a very passionate heartbeat to the song.
I'm not done yet, as I'd like to add in some more little bits- harmonica (maybe) tambourine, (especially) and maybe some other harmonies too. But by 3LF practice tonight, I should have a working version and basic mix to hand to the happy couple so that they can practice to it.
So back to that grindstone today. If my other ideas for the song are too hard to implement, it sounds great as is. But this is special, and I really want it to "Go up to 11".
No matter what tho, it's work to be pretty proud of.
And THEN, back to editing and arranging the live tracks for the new CD, which I hope to also have done by Spoutwood.
The weirdest thing, is that this session took a physical toll as well.
My thighs ache from holding the dumbek, and somehow on Friday, I hurt my KNEE, playing recorder. THAT is fucking weird.
Two very good and dear and supportive friends of mine are getting married on the same weekend as the Spoutwood Fairie Fest. They wanted me to play at the wedding but this gig is really to big and too important to miss.
So we came to a compromise: I would lend them some sound equipment so that they could have music, and I would personally record the tune that they wanted as their "1st dance". That way I could play for them remotely. The tune is from the Pennsic(and now)3LF repertoire, a beautiful Italian Renaissance dance called "Rostiboli Gioioso".
I can play several parts for the song, from melody to guitar and some improvisations.
I also do some improvising and counterpoint especially on guitar, but other instruments too.
The good news is that I know the tune pretty well, thanks to Pennsic.
The bad news is that I don't always get to practice what I needed to do for this recording because, when we do it at 3LF practice, I'm playing whatever part is *not* there.
The other bad news is that it's been awhile (or never) since I've needed to do some of the things I needed to do to record this in the studio. Much time was burned reading manual entries and trying to make sense of the instructions as they relate to the very non-intuitive user interface on the multitrack. Forinstances to follow:
I kept getting lost in the repeat count for the parts, and I kept drifting off of tempo.
After much wrestling with the multitrack I've FINALLY found how to activate and set it's internal metronome. Activating the metronome and setting it's tempo are in two completely different menu sections. WTF? And it'll let you set up a kickass tempo map where different sections have different tempi and even rhythms. *But* it won't record it onto a track for you.
In some respects that's good, (as it doesn't burn up a track), but I would have liked the option, especially because of what I wound up having to do.
I got a great recording of the melody (on my straight bore recorder), but only after somehow solving a mysterious air leak problem that seemed to be getting air his into the mic. I don't know why or how it's happening. There may be a problem with my embouchure. Anyway, I finally fixed it (somehow) and recorded it, set to what seemed to be a reasonable tempo on the metronome. Of course, it took the requisite too many times to get a take I liked. It took all of Friday night to get to that point where I knew it would work, and then all of Saturday afternoon to get the good take.
THEN, when I went to dub the guitar, I found that the recorder part was actually too slow.
Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn (you get the idea)
So after cursing for awhile and some food, I had a fiendish idea, and I semi-proved the concept with an experiment, but actual implementation would have to wait.
First, there was
thesheryl's birthday party to attend- Which was very nice and mellow. Good for a psychological reset.So Sunday, I implemented the fiendish plan:
I burned the track onto a CD, then went upstairs to import the track into Audacity.
Audacity has a "tempo increase" effect where you can dial in how much you want the track to be sped up without changing the pitch. I've sped up recorder parts before with no problem (I did it on _Patches_ to get the C recorder and harmonica part down to Bb on "Star of the County Down/Pretty Maid Milking a Cow".) But THIS was different. Some sort of obscene math is done to a sample to compress it down or expand it to a different length, and then re-calculated back to it's original pitch. The effect actually worked. I sped up a guitar part I had to spare and it WAS still right on key. But it created sonic artifacts.
You can hear these artifacts alot on podcasts. I used to think that it was just a poor sampling rate. I realise now, that these tracks are being time-compressed to fit into a certain length after the fact. So- big risk here of needing to re-record the part. My HOPE was that on a waveform as pure as a recorder (a slightly fuzzy, but almost pure sinewave), that the math wouldn't wind up having all kinds of remainders that made these artifacts.
I also theorised that it would help if I could keep the speedup not TOO radical. So I determined that an increase from 110 to 115 bps would do it. And....
It worked.
Unfortunately, tho, to get it back on to the multitrack meant that I would lose the original metronome setting because 110/115 is not a good decimal fraction and so I couldn't just reset the metronome and expect it to stay on the beat precisely. Damn Damn Damn. (I'm not a big fan of playing with metronomes- the songs sometimes wind up sounding too mechanical and don't "breathe" well, but THIS song really benefitted from it).
Also I had to undergo the extra step to transfer the song to the Linux partition to burn it, as I don't TRUST the CD burning on the Windows side. In hindsight, I maybe should have done all of the work on the Linux side, especially since it looks like the version of Audacity there is a little more advanced. Live-n-learn.
So after THAT pain, I got it down stairs and then had to wrestle for an hour with the multitrack, relearning how to digitally import an audio track off of CD.
So... THAT done, I spent Sunday afternoon getting the guitar part right, and finally getting something I'm *mostly* happy with. I may want to dub in one correction, but I could also leave it there. But it would sound just that one percent more "whole". Without that metronome part, it did, in fact, prove to be just a little more difficult than I'd hoped.
Because I'm doing variation and counterpoint as well as chords, I really needed to keep that timing in my head.
And then, I did something I've never put on a recording before: a dumbek.
It was *almost* a mistake.
It took some time to find a good way to mic it. (A dumbek sounds great, but that sound doesn't project upward or outward the way most of the other instruments that I play do). Then I had to develop a good sounding part (I only had some vague ideas in my head). Then I had to get to where I could play it. (The metronome sure would have helped here)
When it comes to instruments, I've got a decent sense of rhythm, and some good hand coordination, but this is an instrument I rarely play with, and I'm *not* a drummer. I don't live in that world and boy do I still have a lot to learn about drumming.
It took me for fucking EVER (okay, an hour) to get to where I could play even 40 out of the 160(I think) measures in 3/4 precisely the way I wanted it to sound (and yes, it had to sound just so, otherwise it just wasn't complementing the other parts right). The rhythm (for that part) was something like "dum ka dum ka tek ka" Yes, I had to do numerous punch ins and corrections. Fortunately, once I figured out the sound I wanted for the other parts, *those* went pretty smoothly. It helped that those parts weren't nearly as ambitious. Ultimately the sweat and annoyance was finally worth it because...
When we (3LF) play Rostiboli, it sounds really pretty and all, but we don't currently have a drummer in the group (BTW, if you'd like to play drums/percussion in 3LF, boy do I have some sweettalk for YOU), so it sounds pretty, but kind of airy. The music for the dance is very romantic, but it's also Italian, so it really wants some *passion* as well.(IMHO) So adding the dumbek to what I did, once I got it working, REALLY added a very passionate heartbeat to the song.
I'm not done yet, as I'd like to add in some more little bits- harmonica (maybe) tambourine, (especially) and maybe some other harmonies too. But by 3LF practice tonight, I should have a working version and basic mix to hand to the happy couple so that they can practice to it.
So back to that grindstone today. If my other ideas for the song are too hard to implement, it sounds great as is. But this is special, and I really want it to "Go up to 11".
No matter what tho, it's work to be pretty proud of.
And THEN, back to editing and arranging the live tracks for the new CD, which I hope to also have done by Spoutwood.
The weirdest thing, is that this session took a physical toll as well.
My thighs ache from holding the dumbek, and somehow on Friday, I hurt my KNEE, playing recorder. THAT is fucking weird.
