 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-04-18 15:19
At my teacher's suggestion, I purchased a recording system similar to the one he uses to prepare audition disks.
It is a Sony Hi-MD Walkman, model MZ-RH10, and I added a Sony Stereo microphone. Total cost (open box purchase for the recorder) was about $250.
The manual and the Sony software are user hostile. Over lunch with the manual, I was unable to get to a point where I could record my 1PM lesson.
IT GETS WORSE:
Later,I was able to record myself (its simple --after figuring it out).
I discovered the pain that my teacher endures with me in his studio. A very sobering revelation of just how far there is to go, and how shallo my competence really is.
Recording, listenting, noting things to work on, could easily double or triple my practice time, and its painful.
On the bright side (so to speak), my tone quality is not as bad as I'd thought.
Anyhow, this was a pretty simple, cheapish way to hear myself play, I'll see what can be learned using it at orchestra rehearsal tonight.
Bob Phillips
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2006-04-18 19:14
Don't be quite so harsh about your recorded playing, Bob. First of all I think it is harder to record clarinet well than with most instruments. In a dead room, the recording picks up everything and really seems to emphasize the worst parts. I usually have to listen several times. The first is to get over how critical I am of my own playing and then more times to actually get something out of it.
johng
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-04-18 19:21
If you're unhappy with your playing, record yourself singing...
--
Ben
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: FrankM
Date: 2006-04-18 19:23
Recording is certainly an eye (ear) opener ! For my money, the most awe inspiring musicians on the planet are the studio musicians.....those who ,with virtually no practice, are expected to walk in and perform flawlessly time after time in whatever style the music dictates....be it classical, jazz or lame commercial jingles!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-04-18 20:04
John,
The sound quality of my recordings has been satisfactory. In part, this is the result of being confined to the anechoic chamber provided my my walk-in closet. It is so dead in there! Its not my tone that's bad, its articulation, rhythm, balance (particularly alti notes interspersed with clarion register).
I'm surprised, this set-up makes clarinet sound like clarinet. The Walkman has a 46,000 sample per second operating frequency, and the mics are raded 20-15,000 Hz. I had the recorder with the mike plugged directly into it sitting next to my charts on my music stand. I'll try the more resonant living room and remoting the mic later when my wife leaves the house.
Ben,
I had the very great pleasure of catching clarinetgirl06 singing a clear coloratura in celebration of a good run-through of a Weber bit. There is no way I could compete with that.
You're absolutely correct about my voice, how DID you know?
Bob Phillips
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2006-04-18 20:14
For this same reason, I have requested cameras be turned off during my Ugly Old Guize Hockey (Uogh!) games;
We want to remember it the way it really happened...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-04-18 20:27
You're absolutely correct about my voice, how DID you know?
Call it male imagination...
To be honest, I find my own (recorded) very odd. I sometimes wonder how I found a wife with a voice like that.
--
Ben
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2006-04-19 17:40
LOL--I remember the first time I ever heard a recording of myself, giving a speech, in high school. Yeeeeooow. Suddenly I understood why, the first time I said something in class, some of my classmates snickered and stage-whispered, "Daisy Mae," from the back of the room....
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2006-04-19 18:04
Thanks Bob! Haha, I was actually singing because I felt awkward because I had to walk across the room to shut the recorder off.
I'm still working hard on the Weber, and I've noticed some improvements lately, most because I recorded myself and listened back. James Garcia has also graciously listened to some of my recordings and has given me some honest notes and feedback. I think it always helps to have an extra pair of ears sometimes.
It is interesting though to see how you've improved over time if you save all of your recordings. I used to think my tone sounded OK, but now I think my tone on my older recordings doesn't sound as good. I think my tone now sounds better.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mike S
Date: 2006-04-20 07:26
I'm a retread but I've always sung and I have my own 6 voice acappella group that performs regularly. A couple of years ago, we decided to make a CD and the advice we got from the sound engineer we planned to use was to start recording ourselves at rehearsals so we wouldn't be surprised or disappointed by the end results.
We did and we were horrified by what we heard!! However we kept at it and gradually the blend and the dynamic changes improved. At the end of the day, we made a pretty passable recording, but the key point for me was the way that individuals took responsibility for the improvements they had to make because they could hear the problems themselves. It is one thing to be told about a problem, but it is far easier to make the changes when you can hear for yourself.
Since then, we have gone from strength to strength, but I believe the process of recording enabled us to make a step change.
I haven't yet had the courage to try the same approach with the clarinet, but it is coming!!
Mike
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-04-20 14:38
Last night, I suffered throug the re-run of the recording I made of community orchestra rehearsal on Tuesday. I put the Sony Mini-Disc walkman (with its Sony stereo mic plugged directly into the recorder) on a chair. That was in front of the horns, behind the violins and to the right of the flutes and oboes, aheas of me and the bassoon.
I reported to my wife that I'd played "well," but found many, many flaws. Phrasing was lousy in several passages: when the bassoon and the clarinet are bouncing riffs back and forth, my phrasing doesn't "fit." My sound is inconsistent from one entrance to another.
Mostly, I played the notes required, but there's a lot of work to do on phrasing, musicianship and counting.
The orchestra, all in all, sounds thin and lacks confidence --despite the salting of very good players. The incessant stops/restarts are consumming a huge amount of time (many players treat these rehearsals as their weekly practice session).
I'm thinking that Mike really has a useful insight in his use of practice session recordings.
Bob Phillips
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ginny
Date: 2006-04-20 17:01
Gee my reaction to hearing myself recorded is usually that I'm not as bad as I had thought. The nice thing is I can analyse to improve a little more.
Last we I recorded my singing some Eastern European tune and heard I was out of tune on one verse but not the other. I was going sharp on the end of the dipthongs!
I find the MD player very easy to use.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2006-04-21 07:04
When we play a wind instrument, we hear through bone(=skull) conduction besides through air conduction. That's why we hear ourselves differently from listeners.
This has been really an obstacle to recognise our performance correctly. However,since audio gears have improved very much, what my Edirol plays is definitely the real one.
It may be an idea to listen to my play with my AKG headphone connected to my Edirol on its REC stanby mode.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-04-21 08:14
My notebook with Audacity does quite a good job at recording. Not quite HiFi nor really portable, but at zero addl. cost...
--
Ben
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2006-04-21 15:43
Recording yourself is revealing when it comes to technique but I wouldn't get too wrapped up on the sound or tonality your hear because as was mentioned, clarinets are a pain to record and a cheap mic on a walkman isn't going to accurately reflect how you sound.
Probably short of a AMT W2 mike setup, the best judge of your tone is an objective listener.
Personally I dread recording sessions because the truth hurts...g
Best
Rick
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-04-21 15:43
Hiroshi,
I did as you suggested and listened through my headphones while playing. It did not change my perception of the sound quality very much.
Bob Phillips
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
