Yes--my experience with Czech, Polish, and Slovak engineers (my recordings were produced in Moravia) was astounding--I can honestly say that I never thought of recording engineers in terms of musicianship before, but I cannot split the two now. Turns out that they had to GRADUATE the conservatory before learing the audio stuff.
Aaron J. Rabushka [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://users.waymark.net/arabushk ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Howell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <finale@shsu.edu> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 10:29 PM Subject: Re: [Finale] OT: Can you spot the fake? > > > >So each musician needs to become an engineer and > >learn what works best to deliver the correct > >sound when amplified, like Eric Friedlander has > >done. It's not easy, but it's too important to > >be left to folks who couldn't pass the music > >department audition and so entered the Recording > >Technology department. > > No, and teaching is too important to be left to > the same kind of people. Kodály had it right > when he said, "Only the best musicians should be > PERMITTED to teach children." > > But our Music Technology majors DO have to pass > an entrance audition on an instrument or voice, > AND a playing Continuation Exam two years into > their degree, and they have to take and pass > exactly the same core music courses as > performance majors. So this is not in any way an > either/or situation. Yes, we do have some Tech > majors who don't seem to be as GOOD musicians as > some others, but that's simply individual > variation. > > And I expect that to improve. We used to have > failed performance majors move into music > education. No more. They have to pass > everything the performance majors do, INCLUDING > the Continuation Exam (a mini-recital and > interview) at the end of their sophomore year, or > they are not ADMITTED into the upper level music > ed program. > > >(I know that last sentence is probably not fair > >to the many sensitive recording engineers who > >entered the field in order to do a great job in > >any amplification situation, but at least for > >two colleges I know about, my sentence just > >about sums up the situation.) > > One reason we insist on our audio engineers being > musicians is that part of their job is to > translate arcane tech-talk into language > musicians can understand, often under the > pressure of recording deadlines. They have to > speak--and translate--both languages. > > Back a number of years a colleague in grad school > at Indiana was asked by Igor Kipnis to > participate in a recording of the Bach > multi-harpsichord concertos in Germany. He came > back amazed by the recording engineers, who could > not only read music but could read full score and > instead of saying, "there's something odd > sounding just a little before letter G," they > would say, "the third harpsichord is playing a Db > instead of a D in measure 97." That's not a bad > set of role models!! > > 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 > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > Finale@shsu.edu > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
