[TPIN] recording...

[D. Michael McIntyre]

I posted here awhile back seeking recording advice.  We went around for a bit, 
and the concensus was that I should just practice more and worry about 
recording later, because I suck.

Well, I came back to recording today.  I've been redoing an old all-MIDI 
composition multitracking myself playing as many of the parts as possible on 
real instruments.  This thing needs a little trumpet part (53 bars of rest 
and 10 bars of playing, then 26 more bars of rest, etc.  I wasn't a trumpet 
player when I wrote this originally!  :)

I finally got it, after spending two days reading about comb filtering and 
static pressure levels and all that nonsense.

My recordings all sounded terrible because I was using a supercardioid 
microphone (the Beta 58 the first responder to my original query recommended) 
in a location where it was picking up a strong reflection from the wood 
paneling on the wall.  The reflected signal was getting picked up out of 
phase with the original, and comb filtering was the result.  Or something 
like that.

It's amazing how complicated all of this was to work out, but I had it.  I did 
it at long last.  I finally recorded something that sounds like a trumpet to 
me.

And then after I recorded the real part, I realized I was playing everything 
about three cents flat.  The recording was a wash.  It was the best I can do 
playing wise (not bad for only two years seriously on the horn), and sounded 
fine by itself, but mixed in with the other parts, no cigar.  No cigar at 
all.  Totally out of tune.  Bleck.

So I had to start over, and in so doing, I broke my music stand.  Putting a 
different music stand into the equation changed everything, and the resulting 
recordings were no good.  I've got to work out a new set of problems, or fix 
my old stand (which is a massive four-wide affair I made out of heavy 
hardwood plywood and a broken coat rack; its mass and woodiness probably had 
some impact on all of this).

So when I redid the recording, it wound up being out of phase and distorted 
all over again.

Sigh.

But I did get this pointless little sound bite to prove I did finally manage 
to record SOMETHING that sounds like a trumpet.  (IMHO.)

Not that anyone in this sea of hardcore power players will be moved in the 
slightest by this stupid little warmup played by a lamer who isn't remotely 
in the same league as most of you, but it's all I can offer at the present 
time.  I'm all out of play time for today, and have to go back to my day job 
directly.

http://users.adelphia.net/~silvan/sample.wav.mp3

(Once I work out the new acoustic problem, I've got to do something about 
better monitors so I can play the next one in tune with the other parts.  I 
couldn't hear the parts well enough to hear whether I was in tune or not.  I 
think I really can play in tune, though I have yet to prove that by actually 
recording an example of my doing so.)

-- 
D. Michael 'Silvan' McIntyre  ----   Silvan <dmmcintyr at users.sourceforge.net>
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek;  registered Linux user #243621

Author of Rosegarden Companion http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/