Re: Remote Ensemble Playing

[David Kastrup]

Curt McDowell <address@hidden> writes:

> On 3/31/2020 11:51 PM, Gianmaria Lari wrote:
>> Does anyone have any idea how these people is able to do things like
>> these?
>>
>>     https://youtu.be/Sj4pE_bgRQI
>>     https://youtu.be/3eXT60rbBVk
>>
> There was an article in USA Today
> <https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2020/04/02/coronavirus-french-national-orchestra-performs-home-during-lockdown/5111830002/>about
>  
> the Ravel. It was done by:
>
> - Creating a short arrangement (4 minutes)
> - Sending to each of 50 musicians a score and a full soundtrack
>   including metronome clicks. LilyPond would be great for extracting
>  parts.
> - Giving them 4 days to record footage
> - Editing the audio and video at length, and cheating by mixing in
>   tracks from a previous performance by the same orchestra
>
> In the past I tried to record both parts of a fast duet on a Casio
> keyboard. It would play back a track while allowing you to overlay it 
> with another. The results were horrifying, even with no latency
> issues, and gave me an appreciation of how difficult synchronization
> is. (I had typeset the duet in LilyPond 
> <https://www.fishlet.com/2018/10/07/merry-go-duet/>, maybe you have
> heard the world's most annoying music 
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1V4iUQWtDU> :)

Well, my own multitracking history is exemplified in
<https://youtu.be/H9mYPaNvhhY> where I pitched in a fourth (or rather
third) voice after the fact.  However, both solo voices and the rhythm
establishing bass track were laid down in the first take live, so the
remaining voice did not play a structural role.  In this case, I find
the result good enough without the final voice, as in
<https://youtu.be/9kHxQTB59bQ>.  Those two videos also showcase a bit of
advancement in the used equipment (starting from a EUR5 Ebay purchase of
a camera looking like a plastic toy and having "Full HD" at 15fps).

Multitrackers are usually advised to lay down the rhythmic section
first, then take the lead voices and afterwards the rest.

-- 
David Kastrup