Alexander Mac Donald wrote: > Re Nigel Gatherer's comments on Skinner's new CD
> I share your opinions completely on Skinner as a composer, " a huge > admirer" and on his playing, " not the biggest fan of his playing" and > that it "seems exaggerated, showy"... At Stuart Eydmann's talk at Fiddle 2002, "Every Scottish fiddle record ever made", he played a track of Skinner's playing which was amazing. Unlike the new Skinner CD, which was digitally cleaned by passing the whole lot through a hardware/software combination at one go, Stuart had spent a lot of time cleaning the track virtually by hand, so that the result was a remarkably clear sound. And a very different sound from the scratchy, poppy sound of the Topic LP I'm used to. I think it would prove an eye-opener (or ear-opener) for many people to hear such a track. Stuart said he wouldn't hear anything against Skinner after studying that track in such detail, and I'm inclined to agree. He then played the same track, slowed down to half speed, but the pitch had been kept the same, and to be able to put Skinner's playing under such a microscope was mind-boggling. It was also remarked that he had been playing a Stroh fiddle; a member of the audience who had played one said it was a heavy, difficult to play instrument which may have affected intonation etcetera. Rather than this being an excuse for Skinner's playing, to me it's remarkable that he sounded so good, but this is from the perspective of 2002, where we have the technology to examine his techniques in such detail. Hopefully Stuart himself will de-lurk and talk with greater authority about this. -- Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/gatherer/ Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
