Pure Imagination (Clarinet and Piano)

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Michael Willis
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Pure Imagination (Clarinet and Piano)

Post by Michael Willis »

I'm facing my fears of live recording and not following a click track. During a visit my brother in law and I went over this about three times and then hit the record button. He played piano (into a midi track that used the Maestro Concert Grand) and I played clarinet. I gave it a little bit of reverb (Dragonfly's medium clear hall preset), but other than that I didn't really do any other audio processing.

https://instaud.io/270z

Please give me feedback! I'm trying to improve my understanding of how to capture and process live audio, and how to mix it with a virtual instrument.
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Re: Pure Imagination (Clarinet and Piano)

Post by wjl »

Beautiful, Michael!

I bet the fact that your brother and you had eye contact (or that you could watch him play) helped a bit with keeping the timing. The audio quality is very good, in fact even that virtual piano seems to have a little 'room' (either the samples themselves, or you/he mixed it in?).

Nice one. If you want other musicians from around the world to join in, consider to put it into Wikiloops (but only own compositions there, 'covers' aren't allowed due to legal reasons). It's also a good platform for losing these fears about live recording - my latest add just had the info 'key of Ab', and '65bpm':

https://www.wikiloops.com/backingtrack-jam-136821.php (Guitar, guitar, harp, and then me on my fretless bass)

Cheers,
Wolfgang
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Re: Pure Imagination (Clarinet and Piano)

Post by folderol »

Very much enjoyed this. Not using a click track lets you subconsciously use greater expression, and this really comes out in the pauses, and little delays. Working together live also gives you the extra visual dimension that means you can 'sync' with other musicians - far better than trying to multi-track by yourself.
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Re: Pure Imagination (Clarinet and Piano)

Post by magicalex »

Very nice indeed.
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Re: Pure Imagination (Clarinet and Piano)

Post by Michael Willis »

Thanks everybody! I take heart from all of the encouragement.
wjl wrote:Beautiful, Michael! ... The audio quality is very good
I'm really glad to hear that, particularly since I outfitted my music room with the cheapest dynamic mics that I could find that didn't have absolutely horrible reviews :lol: I decided that instead of being a gear head and spending lots of money, I first had to prove to myself that I would actually follow through and record some music.
wjl wrote:that virtual piano seems to have a little 'room'
Funny thing, I only have one decent set of headphones, so my brother in law was using them as monitors while playing the piano. I moved the stereo mics to the other side of the room, but in order to hear him I had to have my studio speakers turned up a little bit. I think my mics captured the sound from the speakers a little bit, giving the piano some "room" :mrgreen:
wjl wrote: Nice one. If you want other musicians from around the world to join in, consider to put it into Wikiloops (but only own compositions there, 'covers' aren't allowed due to legal reasons). It's also a good platform for losing these fears about live recording - my latest add just had the info 'key of Ab', and '65bpm':

https://www.wikiloops.com/backingtrack-jam-136821.php (Guitar, guitar, harp, and then me on my fretless bass)
I've really enjoyed the rich fretless bass sounds that I've heard from you, and this is no exception. I might consider using Wikiloops at some point for an original composition.
42low wrote:Don't be afraid for it. Do it with confidence and reach even higher results. Confidence .... get the flow of the moment .... get lost in the moment and the music.
YES! He comes to visit every week or two, so I think we'll try recording some more music together. Also I need to start working with other musicians too and recording together.
folderol wrote:Working together live also gives you the extra visual dimension that means you can 'sync' with other musicians - far better than trying to multi-track by yourself.
Heh, when I bought the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, I thought "I won't need more than two audio inputs! What on earth would I do with a bigger interface?" Now I find myself wanting to bring in more musicians and individually mic everybody... maybe I can save up for that Scarlett 18i20, and more mics, and cables, and stands, and more instruments, and and and...
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Re: Pure Imagination (Clarinet and Piano)

Post by jonetsu »

The piano and the clarinet go well together. The clarinet seems to be well-recorded, but then it might depend on the effect one wants in the end. Some like having a bit of the clicking of the keys, others like a bit more air or breath into the sound, etc.. At that point the combination of reed and miking technique can result in achieving certain emotional effect.

Sidenote: At some point I started to have doubts about the originality of the piece. Indeed, this is from a movie and many people covered it on youtube. Sorry, I do not know Hollywood much.

Cheers.
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Re: Pure Imagination (Clarinet and Piano)

Post by wjl »

Michael Willis wrote:...when I bought the Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, I thought "I won't need more than two audio inputs! What on earth would I do with a bigger interface?" Now I find myself wanting to bring in more musicians and individually mic everybody... maybe I can save up for that Scarlett 18i20, and more mics, and cables, and stands, and more instruments, and and and...
I've heard from Paul Davis (Ardour, see on my blog) that the Behringer X32 is class compliant and works very well under Linux. Imagine having 32 channels all going over that single USB port, and these result in 32 channels in Ardour, now *that* would be something nice to have with live sessions. No problem having 8 mikes for drums only...

Tho for my limited space, I bet a smaller 19" Soundcraft would do as well. Don't know how nicely they play with Linux tho...

And thanks for the nice compliments about my bass. I'm just about to find my sweet spot setup, that latest one was with the GxSVT amp sim and 2 Calf compressors serialized (and then another multiband in the master channel). And yes, if you want that bass and have no one playing it live, we could collaborate via Wikiloops. That's not live but ping pong recording, but at least you can do what they call "HD" files, which are single tracks (like my bass) for you to download and use in your own mix. That's always the way I prefer to work, but the latest you've heard was with the two guitars and the harp pre-mixed together into a .mp3 file - works as well...

HTH,
Wolfgang
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Re: Pure Imagination (Clarinet and Piano)

Post by psyocean »

Clarity... beautiful music! :)

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Guitar and synth tales... https://www.youtube.com/user/Psyocean/
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