Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recital 32 --- Call For Submissions

Yea, when I think of "splicing" I think of recording a number of times then picking out different sections that worked and splicing the whole thing together. I would imagine that some pros do that. It's fairly easy and hard to pick up on, especially if there are pauses. I would call that a "constructed recording". (And again, I have absolutely no problem with that and would do it if I had to for a good recording. But I would not do it for a "recital" piece.) More like a collage than a true performance. Playing one hand and then recording the other would be more of an "overdubbing".

And I agree, in the end we are all doing "recordings" as I doubt there are too many of us that can get the job done in one take. A true recital would be..."Here I go, one take, live..." I think I'll have to sit back and watch if we ever go there. I've been in a few true recitals and can you spell "panic attack"?

I have yet to see a live piano performance in which the pianist performs their piece in layered, 'multi-track' sections. Probably because this would not be a solo piano performance but rather a display in multi-track recording and overlaying.

There is no grey area here. Your submitted performance is either a single pass recording (irregardless of how many 'takes' it took to get it), or it's not.

We have never limited the recitals to 'solo piano' only, but we have been VERY clear about representing your true abilities when it comes to your submitted performances.

Personally, I don't see the compatibility with layering (overlaying) anything as this is a beginners forum. If you don't have the ability to play a difficult section, or it is more complicated than your abilities then you are only fooling yourself (and everyone else) that you can play it by overlaying it.

A better suggestion may be to spend more time actually learning the section that is being overlay-ed, or choose a piece that better represents your abilities.

Now let's be clear, I am NOT talking about added in flute or strings sections. You know what I mean.

I'm not even talking about a piece that calls for three hands, so you overlay-ed the third (and disclosed it).

I'm only talking about recording a 2-handed performance in sections, and then splicing it all together and presenting it to us as a one take recording. That's cheating (technically, misrepresentation).

Sanity is already returning.
We finished stage 1 of the kitchen renovations, I conquered the software for updating my GPS (which ate up 2 days of my time...how sad!) AND we went away for a 4 day weekend.(Wonderful!)

This coming week is going to be pretty tame

Yes, of course they do. They may also be playing to a click. And sometimes even -- unbeknownst to the audience -- be playing to a click in live performances.

My feeling is that your recording should be in keeping with the spirit of the recital, which I believe, is to show your progress to date with the piece you have chosen. Over doctoring your submission, would not be in keeping with this spirit.

However, pasting a couple of major sections together to get a decent recording ... personally, I have no problem with that. I agree though, that it can easily become a grey area and preference should always be towards a single pass.

just my two bits though

I'm just catching up on this conversation. I'm glad I posted when I did.

Just to be clear I recorded my piece for this recital then recorded over it to get in the part that I believe was written for a "3rd hand". I just made up that "3rd hand" term. It's not in the sheet music I have or anything.

One of the first copies I saw of this piece was on a You Tube video of a garage band recording and it was written as three tracks played together. So that is where I got the idea of using the 3rd hand. I imagine a skilled pianist could play this part with 2 hands, but it is beyond me.

Anyway, I'm happy I disclosed this before this discussion about disclosing this sort of recording. To be honest my piano playing is so weak it's not going to fool anyone no matter what kind of recording techniques I might use.

Don`t worry man! Just have fun. Some folk actually take music seriously . . . .!!

OK, I'm in.
But the sound quality is not good...

Glad you made it CarlosCC, looking forward to hearing all the Einaudi pieces, who, by slim margin is the most popular composer of this recital

Copper, I'm glad you disclosed (up front) what you did so there was absolutely no miscommunication or misrepresentation whatsoever. That's the correct way to do it.

My only general concern is that more and more people are overlaying (multi-track recording) sections of their performance and handing it in as their finished product. Some disclose this, and some don't.

Once again, the momentum of the actions taken when this is done is not in the spirit and not compatible with the intentions of a 'beginner' learning forum. (overlaying sections that are beyond your current playing abilities). Others may disagree with me on this but after building many custom homes, I can honestly say that it doesn't matter how nice anything else on the house is if you didn't get the foundation right. You will fight that problem forever.

'Overylaying', (multi-track recording), may also intimidate other performers who can't produce these 'enhanced' musically performed sections because they don't have these photo sound shop capabilities.

We probably should just fine-tune a few of the (thankfully) barely noticeable rules that we have and just state that full (and honest) disclosure be done.

The thing is, we already have a HUGE, unfair advantage doing an 'e-cital' as opposed to a live one since we have literally unlimited takes to get a decent recording. The people who must misrepresent their abilities by not disclosing their editing are being unfair to everyone participating.

We already have the home field/dealers advantage. No need to ask for more.

Alas, even splicing or overlaying won't save me :\



Cathy

Well, I realized I wouldn't have time to record anything better than what I had in the can already so there it is, #41.

Wow, it's a Debussy packed recital - 5 pieces so far! Looking forward to the weekend ....

Well, I think I still have some energy to record my piece again using a different combination of hardware. I don't like the noise that is heard during the piece.
Anyway, the piece was submitted and I will not delete it (+1 for Einaudi)

If you let your recording run for a few seconds before starting to play, Audacity has a great plugin that will sample this ambient noise and then filter it out of the entire recording. You may lose a little overall tone in the process, but it's fantastic for reducing hiss.

Those so-and-sos. You should demand that they give you studio time again!

I wound up doing the opposite... flubbed on the very first measure, but decided to plow forward anyway, and that was my final take.

Will filter out the sound of a washing machine running on the other side of the wall? :-)

Sam

In @ #43, right after Cheryl.

Cheryl -- Please, please, please, don't re-record. I do NOT want to follow Dr Gradus ad Parnassum.

Give it a try, it just might... along with all the harmonics of the piano in that same range.

Btw, I requested some help to the studio guy and he told me that most of (new) computers doesn't have good soundboards. "That's why people work in studios..." he said... Anyway, he offered his studio for an hour, but he could only work with me next Saturday - too late for the recital!!

Thanks for the tips . The problem is limited to some "pops" and "clicks" and I used Audicity and other free tools with all the filters and possible options, but the root cause is the soundcard... So, my last chance is to recover my old desktop computer and try again.

I wouldn't worry too much!