But lately, I've been recording music for the Whidbey Island Horn Club. I'm about halfway done recording our program music so the group can hear how the tunes sound for their practice. Plus, it helps me, as the conductor, get familiar with the music, learn the transitions, and have a reference to conduct with while I practice conducting. The latest piece I've recorded, which took a while to finish, is finally done, and you can click here to listen to it.
It's a Max Pottage quartet arrangement of some of Wagner's main themes from the Ring Cycle. Pretty cool stuff, but lots of transitions and tempo changes. With my limited knowledge and resources in audio engineering, it took a little while to edit everything. I recorded each different section separately, mainly because the tempo was different, and I wanted to make sure everything was as together as possible. Doing the whole piece in one take for each part would've taken way too long...I'd have to try many times. But, as you can hear with this recording, I finally got it edited to make the transitions relatively seamless. The recording isn't perfect; there are some out-of-tune notes an a few out-of-sync notes. I didn't want to use autotune on anything because I hate how it sounds. Plus, tempered tuning wouldn't be possible. I love the human element of imperfection, when it comes to tuning. When two parts are in unison, I love hearing the slight waves, just like you hear when two different people play, because no two musicians are ever exactly in tune on every single note every time. But, they're pretty darn close, and that's what makes it sound cool.
That being said, a couple of my tuning "imperfections" are, um...not so close...and, uh...I apologize for those. Don't cringe as much as I do...hehe. It only happens briefly for a couple of times, so don't let me discourage you. It's a pretty good recording.
Man, I genuinley love being a human musician.
Take care and value music.