I've never done any kind of recital before. It looks like fun. I guess I'll go find something to put in the recital:P Does it matter if I don't have a piano, and a keyboard instead?

Nope, doesn't matter. Usually around half the submissions are from people using digital pianos. Although I have both an M&H acoustic and a digital piano, I tend to do all my recording on the digital (the M&H is in the living room and I'd have to filter out my wife's television program -- and that's just too much work).

Ed

Opus 19, No. 2 is known as "Regrets".

Ed

Mendelssohn put word titles to very few of the Songs without Words and op. 19, no. 2 wasn't titled by him. It has been titled 'Regrets' over the years which is where the pun came from. One of my current favourite composers and sequences of pieces. I've been working on four of them and have plans for another couple at some point, but I think I should stop ignoring Chopin so much except he's too darn hard for my tiny brain and clumsy hands.

Monica, thanks for the answers (and the vote of confidence!!)

Pardon my ignorace, but just to clarify:

So, on the zoom, there are these buttons:



None are 192. I either had the top button pushed or else the MP3 button (actually I am pretty sure it was MP3 because that's what the original recording was before I even put it into Audacity). Once you put something in Audacity, you have to re-export it as an MP3, so whatever encoding I have is probably based on Audacity's?? Is there some way I can find out what Audacity encodes at, or some other way to check the encoding?

Also, re normalizing the volume level, my computer's speakers aren't so great, but I'm thinking that looking at the levels on Audacity should give enough of an idea of whether or not the overall volume needs to be increased? In other words, if the levels are going up to like 75% of the meter, that's probably a good level to leave it at? (since too high will cause distortion or breaking)

Sorry for all the technical questions, hopefully I'm not the only one with these questions!

Oops, sorry to keep going on here. But I just right clicked on the final MP3 version (i.e. exported out of Audacity, the one I'd like to upload) and selected Properties and then Details, where it says:

Audio
Bit rate 128kbps.

Is that the encoding?? And if so, then mine is too low, yes? Does anyone know if I can change that in Audacity at the point where I export into an MP3 format?

Or am I just doomed?

Ok, one more.

I just tried exporting aain, and it appears that if you take an Audacity project and export it to MP3, there is no step along the way where you can change the bit rate. But I still don't know if this is the same as encoding, so I'm not sure if there's something else I need to look for, or maybe there's something you have to do before selecting export??

Ok, I promise not to write any mor reponses until ... well until someone else replies.

Well, that just goes to show how bad my memory is! [edit] I record in either 44.1 or the 96 option, but I don't remember which. I *don't* recommend recording in mp3, simply because that compresses the file from the start and you don't have the option of burning it to CD in higher quality wav format. And converting wav to mp3 in audacity is very easy, so there's no reason not to record in wav.

I don't think you're doomed, even with the 128 bitrate. I've never had any problems with any of my recordings in the recital, and I'm doing what you're doing. But hopefully mahlzeit or one of our other tech wizards will come along soon to illuminate us both.

Hmm, if you record with the 96 button pushed, and then open up the file on your computer without going through Auduacity, what kind of a file is it? WAV?? It's been a long time since I recorded with the intention of sharing it with anyone, and so I looked at those buttons and thought that MP3 was higher than 96! Oops.

Hopeful there's some way around this, becuase otherwise I will have to re-record since the encoding seems to be set at the very first step in the process. I think.

Also can someone answer whether or not bit rate and encoding are the same?

Somehow I think I'm making this more complicated than it needs to be...

I've always simply recorded at 44.1kHz on my Zoom H4 (encoded as WAV) then opened up the WAV file in Audacity to chop off the silence at the beginning and at the end. No normalizing. I then just export it as an mp3 file from Audacity. It's always worked fine for these recital submissions.

Well, I'm confusing you, too, Shiro. I'm thinking now that I do the same as jazzyprof and record with the 44.1 button pressed.

Pressing any of the 3 buttons besides mp3 on the Zoom will get you a .wav file.

I'd say, just go ahead and submit the recording you have now. You'll be able to play it back and see how it sounds. Worst case scenario is that you have to update your submission with a new recording later, but if you submit now and it's okay, you'll have your spot in the queue.

I recorded mine with a Zoom 2 and in my file information it has the bit rate @ 128kbps. It is recorded in wav format and converted to MP3 with Audacity. After uploading mine I listened to it and it sounded fine only louder. I suppose that is the effect of the normalization. I am thinking of including a warning to reduce volume ... Moonlight Sonata does not do well at an elevated sound level

Just to clarify, record a WAV file on the H4 (normally I don't suggest the MP3 setting since that's compressed and you never want to edit compressed files as you lose data). You then import that file in Audacity and export it as an MP3 file. You can specify the encoding for the MP3 file in Audacity. As jzzyprof said, record the WAV file at 44.1 which provides adequate quality for that file. The setting of 192 comes in the Audacity export options.

Hope that helps.

Ed

I finally filled out my submission for the recital and currently sit at #22 but I have a feeling the piece won't stay there. I've made some arrangements for it to be moved around at a later time...

Shiro,

I think epf answered your question re: mp3 settings. Just to clarify, go to >Edit, Preferences, then the tab File Formats. At the bottom, it has 'Mp3 Export Setup', and you can select the bitrate from there (which then gets used in the LAME exporter)

Ok, thanks everyone!!

I an pretty sure that the older recordings I made were originally done in WAV and only put into MP3 at the final stage, so too bad that I forgot about that for this one. But I think it's still a useable recording. Thanks for the clear instructions epf and Euan. Since I still have the original file, I can open it up in Audacity and do the export with the setting at the 192 bit rate.

Otherwise, maybe I will try one more recording session and see if it's any better, and that one I can record as a WAV file from the begining. Since I'm recording my digital piano, it will be interesting to see if there's any notable difference in the quality.

Thanks again everyone! I think I am good to go!

Never mind. Question already answered.

That's what happens when I open 66 tabs to read different threads, and then I don't refresh before posting a reply in one of the last ones.

^Only 66, I thought for sure it would be 88.

Welcome to the recitals kalai1. I'll trade you islands.

Tried to get a recording of my Einaudi piece today. 3/4 of the way through it, the cat shook her collar, the mantel clock--that I forgot to turn the chimes off--chimed, and the batteries in the Q3 died. I took that as a Sign From Above that I should give up for the day. Sigh.

@ Monica
Is Waiting for the Sun your back-up?

Yup. I was hoping to submit Quel Che Resta instead, which is more difficult and a flashier piece, plus it's very very fast, so it would represent a new skill set for me. Unfortunately, one has to attain the skill set before one can show it off.

you’re too modest!!

btw, where did you find the sheet music for “Waiting For the Sun”?
or did you ear it out?

It's not out on his website yet? It will be soon. Here I must abandon modesty and explain that I am one of the adult beginners that David uses to obtain rankings of difficulty of his sheet music, so I get first crack at the transcriptions as they come in.

Did a test recording of the Bach P&F I'm working on last night.



Definitely needs more work.

Maybe it will help that I had the piano tuned (again!) this morning.

WOW!!
That's pretty cool!!

If “Waiting For the Sun” doesn’t make it to the recital, any chance of a YT upload??

I've been working on "In God's Hands" for over a year now (not always focused, diligent, goal driven practice) and I’m tempted to submit a shortened version just so I can move on, but feel like it would be a cop out.

Hi homeinmyshoes, if your ever in Hawaii look me up, and thanks for the welcome, this is my first recital, I only let a few close family and friend listen to me play, I am totaly self taught and I play George winston and piano pieces I created, like the one in the recital, I hope you all like it, aloha.

Chris

Hey! Watch your language!

JF

P.S. What exactly is a "recovering cellist"? One who stays away from it completely, or one who stays away from it an amount of time that would seem reasonable for most human beings?

If I had to pick one, it would be the latter.