Audio Technology

[summers4]

Hi,

This is my first post, so I guess I’ll tell you a bit about me. I’m 18 years old, I live in London, and most importantly, I enjoy playing piano. I’m not professional or anything, it’s mainly a hobby now, I had lessons when I was younger up to about grade 4-5 standard, nowadays I don’t have lessons and play things I like and that are within my capabilities.

Anyway, to the point of the thread, I was just wondering what kind of services are out there with regards to audio editing a recording to eliminate mistakes and whatnot. Like, when I play a piece of reasonable length, I always hit a wrong note or make a mistake somewhere along the line, which is fine if I’m playing on my own for fun, but I like the idea of recording myself playing.

So, is there any kind of service that can record me playing a piece (maybe I’ll have to play certain sections multiple times), that can cut bits out, alter, manipulate, so that it can be edited and put together as a complete recording without any mistakes?

Any help much appreciated.

Regards,
Summers4.

[stevebob]

You asked specifically about services that can provide recording and editing, and I don’t have any information about that.  However, it’s certainly feasible to do it yourself (just in case you weren’t aware of that option) without much difficulty or expense.

I use a portable digital recording device called Zoom H4.  The audio files it creates can be manipulated with software intended for that purpose; one such program (called Audacity) is freeware.

There are surely other means of accomplishing what you wish to do, but the combination I mentioned works for me (and many others as well).

[Bob]

Putting sections together is doable.  I think most of what you're asking is standard and doable.  (Though I think it's dishonest if you don't say it's an edited recording and what kind of edits it includes.)

Altering individual notes withing chords is trickier.  I think things can be done though.  But some of that starts getting into having the audio engineer control the performer's decisions.  And they can only go so far.  At some point I would imagine they would just be building up the piece from scratch though.  I'm sure there will be more possibilities in the future and if you're willing to pay for it, someone can do it.

It's probably easier just to practice it better.  You're able to actually play it then and have the ability to play other pieces on that level.

[Bob]

I was thinking professional when I wrote that.

Another option might be to record it on a digital piano with MIDI.  You record the MIDI and then can alter whatever you want. 

I can see the point of doing that to get your perfect aural image of the piece and to have a perfect recording.  I just don't like the idea of leading people believe someone is playing something or can play at a level that they actually aren't.

[richard black]

Editing recordings is something I do for part of my living. Basically, if you can play a piece to your satisfaction a bit at a time, the bits can be edited together. For instance, you play bars 1-6 several times until you get one 'take' you're happy with, then bars 4-10, then bars 9-15.... You need some overlap every time because edits can't always be done exactly where you want them.

Doing it this way doesn't always give a very good 'flow', and in fact what tends to happen in the vast majority of classical recordings is that the performer plays a piece or movement complete, probably twice and maybe three or more times, then any isolated passages that just won't go right are recorded in isolation, then the editor takes it all away and stitches it together from the 'best bits'. Of course, 'best' isn't necessarily the same as 'most accurate' - sometimes the chosen take may have a wrong note or two but the best general musical feel to it. The process hasn't really changed since the introduction of magnetic tape recording in the 1950s, although with computer editing it's possible to be a bit more precise and flexible, and of course you don't actually manipulate the original by cutting and splicing so you can afford to experiment much more.

It is possible to fix wrong notes to a certain extent without any actual editing, but this is tricky stuff and particularly hard on piano recordings. Basically, don't ever rely on it.

Hope this helps!

[Bob]

I see falh5 (thinks that's the name here) doing some MIDI recordings that sound similar to this.

[phillip21]

You might like to try making and editing video performances of yourself - this can help you see where you are in a work.  For example, the free Windows Live Movie Maker will do this, and assuming you can take video at 30fps that will mean that you can do the corresponding sound edits at intervals of 1/30 second, which is OK for most purposes.  Then if you publish your edited video (say on YouTube) your audience will be able to see where the edits are, and you cannot then be accused of trying to pull the wool over their eyes.