At 11:44 AM -0400 6/28/06, Raymond Horton wrote:
The arms race is true in orchestras, but can be much more true in
live pop and jazz. ..
About ten or 12 years ago, the Tempataions did a pair of outdoor
concerts with us. They had synths doubling all the orchestra parts
at ffff, and sound guys would come back and tell us that we couldn't
be heard, so we needed to jam the mics in our bells and play as loud
as possible. The volume was deafening on stage. .. [snip]
After the second show, I left to drive overnight up to Cleveland for
the trombone workshop. On the way up , I heard the original
recording of the above mentioned song on the radio. My jaw dropped
open - it sounded like chamber music by comparison - and the trombone
Cs were unison only, very small bore, and light. The recording
sounded like about 12 instruments, tops. (And no synths, of course.)
John Howell wrote:
One problem is that many (most?) audio engineers and mixists are not
very good musicians, learned their trade mixing rock and country
bands, and are suffering from advanced hearing loss. When I found out
that I had a progressive high frequency hearing loss (no rock bands,
just your average trumpet and trombone players!!) I impressed on my
mixist that I would tell him what I heard and what I wanted to hear,
but that he must use his own best judgement in interpreting my
instructions. We attempted to keep our SPL below 90 dB, and still got
occasional complaints from little old ladies whose hearing was MUCH
too good!
Our music technology program is too new too have a track record for
our graduates in the industry, but we do insist that they be
performing musicians, sing or play in ensembles, do senior recitals,
etc., and take all the same theory and history courses as the
performance and music ed majors.
John
Sorry, John, I've been in and out of town and away from computers part
of the time and did not see your reply when you first posted it in late
June. At what school are you?
I'll go you one better on your statement about audio engineers: All
sound guys are deaf. Except for MY son, of course, who is interning
with an outdoor sound company while home from college (Ball State U),
where he is in a fine Music Tech program that is very demanding and
comprehensive. He has taken all the music classes, including performng,
theory and even private composition; all the science and math classes
including calculus, physics, acoustics, and other things I'm afraid to
ask him about.
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
Finale@shsu.edu
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
