[Dixielandjazz] FW: The Perfect Recording

Fri Jun 27 12:31:32 PDT 2008

I have been in a few sessions where I played less than perfectly on a part. 
Later I went back and the technician cut me in and out of a passage as I 
replayed it.  Then it was a cut and paste job and presto chango the 
recording was now perfect.  There was another instance when nobody played a 
soli section perfectly so it was back to the drawing board with a little cut 
and paste it came out pretty good.

So is this all real?  Was that really me or the electronics?  The 
electronics made me better than I am.

The magic you can do in a studio can make truly wonderful recordings but 
then again live musicians can't even come up to the level of their own 
recordings.

In a live performance the balance between instruments is almost the holy 
grail but in the studio it's a twist of a knob and balance can be achieved 
or enhanced with unlimited settings.  With enough time, as you pointed out 
35 hours, and a good technician a good recording can be had as vs. 
performance on the fly with one shot at it as in most live performances.

My only observation is that live performance would seem to suffer but then 
again the audience only hears the live performance once.  With the recording 
the listener may hear the performance hundreds of times as in my Mozart Oboe 
piece example.  The one out of tune note might not have even been noticed at 
a live performance but on the tenth playing becomes truly grating on the 
nerves.

I have a recording of a clarinet player who is really very good but in his 
solos he squeaks every so often and after hearing the recording a few times 
becomes a bit annoying.  This could have been minimized if not eliminated 
fairly easily and IMO wouldn't be wrong at all to have done so on the 
recording.

I wasn't really putting down recording studios or what can be done there but 
rather using electronic gadgets to cover up or hide poor performance or 
worse still an end in themselves.

In the end comparing live performances with the product turned out by a good 
studio may be like comparing oranges to apples.

I'm not sure that anyone knows where technology is taking us but I do know 
that as musicians we can't afford to ignore it and not learn to use it.
Larry
STL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 4:34 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] FW: The Perfect Recording

> >
> I think a lot of this technology is simply quick fix that really doesn't
> improve things much in the long run.
> Larry
> STL
>
> Apparently this thread started from someone mentioning a new computer
> program for "cleaning up" recordings.  I would like to stress that there 
> is
> a big difference between someone cleaning up a recording in a domestic
> situation, and a professional working in a controlled environment with
> professional equipment.
>
> A professional mastering studio will have approx 1 million dollars 
> invested
> in the equipment & the acoustics of the room, so work done there should
> never be compared with what one does in his garage/bedroom studio.
>
> I spend, normally, around 35 hours on a single CD, between editing &
> mastering.  That is not a "quick fix", and it hopefully improves things!
>
> Jim
>
>
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