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.)
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
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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