Dad3353

The rot set in when the first log-thumpers and hollow-bone blowers started to 'improve' upon 'natural' sound creation, tuning their bones to make more 'agreeable' notes and adding resonance to the percussions. Once one accepts that violins do not grow on trees, the article creating the sound (music...) becomes irrelevant, from a 'natural' point of view. That the vibrating air is excited by throbbing gut or by a paper cone matters not a jot; the ear has the same perception, and the brain fills in any gaps a lack of technicality may create. The 'world renowned pianist and conductor' was possibly quite content to have the money in the bank from sales of his facsimiles, I suspect. I'm all for 'live' music, and poetry recitals, but records and printed books are fine, too. Embrace it all; it's all good.

It's only a question of budget; if he needs the prompt, he's best served with a prompt. If looks are so important, how bad does it look if the singer (or any musician...) messes up and the mind goes blank..? I understand, but the important thing is to be comfortable on stage, not to preen and risk losing the plot altogether. When I was drumming for show-bands, I had my drum scores on a music stand beside me. I didn't need to look at them, but played all the better for the binder being there.

Some are not ...

Some bands (and singers...) are amateurs.

This is a reflection more of yourself than that of the musician, though. There's nothing wrong with doing what it takes to play the gig.

Use whatever you have on hand (a 'phone..?) to record the rehearsals, just as a means of listening back the next day and picking up any issues. You'll not be looking for studio quality, just something to check on anything that comes up. I'm a drummer, and I drop sticks. I pick another from the bag hanging by and play on. I've maybe a bass drum starting to creep away from me; I discretely use my hi-hat hand to rein it back in. A cymbal stand gets knocked over by a drunken idiot (or the bass player...); I play on and use another for those hits. What I'm getting at is : it's important to continue as if everything is fine, whatever the bum note, dropped pick, foot fallen through rotten stage floor... If you're lost, stop for a second and come back in once you've remembered where you are in the song. None of these scenarios will happen during your first gig, but are very likely in a whole playing career. Keep it going; that's the thing. Timing is more important than notes, so keep tapping your foot. In many (most..?) songs, the drums give some clue as to when the verses end, or the solo is over. Listen to what the drums are doing. Have fun, and be part of everyone else having fun.

It's really quite simple for most things we're likely to buy. There's the cost of the item itself, then shipping, then VAT, then any handling charge, then import duty. Which of these apply and at what rate, depend on what the item is, and the country they're coming from.

Only to those aware of these notions; to everyone else, they're just out of tune.

Tell me about it..!

[pedantry] (sorry...)... 33 is not 9, but 27 (3x3x3...) Similarly, 44 = 256, 55 = 3125 These are, however, the correct complexities when working with groups of people, for music or anything else. I shan't post the likelihood of problems arising from institutions such as the House of Commons. [/pedantry]

A word on WAV files... Modern music is often 'continuous', filling a track from end to end. Much of my music is rather short passages interspersed along the track, so much silence. A WAV file takes as much file space for silence as for sound, and the files can be huge. My advice would be to compress the WAV file, using 'ZIP' or 'RAR', and send the compressed files. Once 'unzipped', the WAV files are recovered with no loss of quality, at their original size. I had sixty tracks, 15 minutes long each, to transfer; total 'weight' as WAV : 12 Gb. Once zipped, they weighed 1.06 Gb. The zipped files transfer faster, and take up less storage space; useful for archiving. If sharing, make sure everyone is using the same protocol and parameters for best results. Just sayin'; hope this helps.

Not much to add to all of this except to say that we are all different, and that experimenting is a Good Thing. The sound wanted from recordings varies enormously depending on genre, taste and style, so there's no 'silver bullet'. I'm 'old school', whereby I want the drums to sound like acoustic drums. Once, when recording for a reggae-style song, we used a giant ladybird cushion stuffed into a plastic bucket and spanked with a wooden spoon. This gave a much better 'reggae' drum than my kit. No, I don't put pillows into my shells; I use a pair of felt strips inside, vertically, each side of centre, to control the 'boom'. There's no port (nor need for one...). It was the fashion in the early days of mic'ing kits to remove the resonant heads altogether, and placing the mic's inside the shells. The 'sound' of the kit was created using the console, as the kit itself now sounded either like a steel drum band, if tuned up, or like cardboard boxes when damped with bits of whatever taped to the batter heads. These became known as 'concert toms', and many makers actually made whole kits like that, with no lugs at all for a resonant head. If that's the kind of recording and/or live stuff wanted, get a 'concert' kit and be absolved from the need to tune a resonant head. It's not quite the same thing to remove the resonant head alone, as one gets the issue of the unused lugs rattling, for instance. One wonders why bass drums are ported, but rack and floor toms are not. The sound will not be 'matched' if they're mic'ed up differently. Again, recording in studio conditions is a different game from recording at home, even in a suitable room. Most recordings can be adequately made using a bass-drum mic, a snare mic and an overhead. A well-placed overhead can eliminate the need for separate snare, too, if the player knows how to create the dynamics required without a separate channel strip. I'd recommend this, for anyone wanting to record stuff; there's a lot of questions answered in there, plus questions one didn't know to ask ... The Recording Engineer's Handbook 4th Edition ...

Bloomin' youngsters.. ...

Ask to receive rendered WAV files, then, and send back your tracks in the same way.

I'll listen to anything, for a (short...) while; everything gets its chance. However, I'll not suffer for long if it's not hitting the right spots. I, too, am old, and can't be wasting time panning for gold. I'm quite sure I've missed a few nuggets over the years, but I've come across gems, too, in the past. Not often enough to carry on as before; it gets its chance, that's all.

Does your wife know this..?

What is it you're sharing..? If it's the whole Project, you'll need to all use the same DAW, and have, each, all the bells and whistles used in the Project. If, on the other hand, you're sharing rendered files, any DAW can use WAV files rendered by another DAW. It's best in this case to establish a System for file naming, with key, time signature, tempo info for instance. I can't say what, if any, advantage Cubase (or any other...) DAW would bring except Project compatibility, if you've all identical set-ups. Hope this helps (a little...)...

Consult. Soon.

So, there's Hope ... You want to climb the ladder, you want to see forever, you want to go out Friday, and you want to go forever...

I had stuff from Amplitube 3 which disappeared after 'upgrade' to (free...) A5; there's no roll-back possibility. Unsympathetic response from IK. I've since chosen, unwillingly, to buy (again...) the elements I want/need for A5, but I'm not enchanted with the reaction I got from IK. I'll be investing in other sources in future.

My ears can't tell the difference, on or off, so I leave 'em on.

My M-Audio monitors have exposed cones; I've draped a lace curtain over them. This keeps dust off the speakers, whilst letting the rich audio tones reach me with no hindrance. I've had occasion to remove them once or twice, when they got beaten moderately to remove accumulated dust. It works for me (and we've a rural, dusty environment...).

Good afternoon, Bruce , and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

You must have done at some point..?