What was your most interesting recording session?

[Dick Glasgow]

Well! Did you notice that THREE new members joined us yesterday! COOL eh!

It's been a bit busy around here, Dulcimer-wise, this past week.

Firstly, an RTE producer phoned me saying he wanted to feature a Hammered Dulcimer on the soundtrack of his new one hour programme on the Ulster Scots. So, on the understanding that the Hammered Dulcimer would NOT be portrayed as some sort of Ulster Scots instrument, I agreed to gather up the regular Saturday night Session guys & we all went along to the Smuggler's Inn & were filmed, Dulcimer & all - including a solo from yours truly.

They're also meeting up with William Rea & hopefully his music will be used on the soundtrack & with any luck the film will include footage of William playing, so watch out for that.

Once I learn when it is to be broadcast, I'll let you know, as you can often watch these RTE shows after the event, on the Internet.

Secondly, I was approached last week to lay down some Hammered Dulcimer on three tracks, in a studio in Kells, Co Meath, for a new CD by Eimear Quinn, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1996.

It was a very intreresting experience indeed. Eimear & her sound Engineer, Martin, were excellent musicians & good people & they certainly put me through my paces. Eimear had worked out the Dulcimer parts on Piano, but of course hadn't realised that I could at most play two notes at any one time, so I had to play various groups of notes on top of one another, to create the illusion of Hammered Dulcimer chords. I wasn't sure about it at first but the finished article sounded very nice indeed.

It was a wonderful opportunity to get the H-D heard by a much larger audience in Ireland, even although folks will probably not even know what they are listening to.

I believe the CD is to be released just before Christmas this year, so I'll keep you posted.

So, this tale begs the question:

What has been YOUR most interesting recording session to date?

Cheers
Dick

[gypsy]

I'm impressed, and now a little daunted about putting in my silly little story. My band has reformed............AGAIN, and now we have a top class guitarist and fiddler. O'course, that means we need a new demo, as our old one had (shudder) a banjo, and is about 4 years old. Rather obsolete. Guitarist laid down his track in 20 minutes. Fiddler.....TWO tracks in an hour. Me? Played like a dream, played it back.........BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. badwordhere. again. BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.BADWORDHERE. This goes on for SIX hours. Try everything, i thought. Then took OFF the tristander, pulled out the old folding stand, and NO BUZZ. I might love my tristanders, but will NEVER use them for recording again!

[dulcimike]

Wow, gypsy! I've never had that problem with my tri-standers! Interesting. I'd certainly check them out for what's causing the buzz. That shouldn't be there! I did my whole CD using my HD with tri-standers.


And Ptarm - well, very cool stuff about the recordings. You'll have to be sure I can hear these when we come over - at least the CD. Email me when the RTE show is on so I can try to listen via internet.

[gypsy]

Yeah, i have done the check........still can't locate it. O'course, my tristanders ( have 3 sets) and not exactly new, and all have been on the road for years. At least himself built our recording computer, so the studio is HERE. So i will just use the wooden stand.

[Dick Glasgow]

Och, aw this bother wi' thur modern contaptions.

What you need is an old "Directors Chair", like what I use!

The seat acts as a table for my Hammers, tuner, sandwiches, cups of tea, etc etc

For a start, it doesn't have long legs which might trip folks up!

... Oh & it doesn't squeek in a studio, either! ;D

Cheers
Dick

[dulcimike]

admin said:

Och, aw this bother wi' thur modern contaptions.

What you need is an old "Directors Chair", like what I use!

The seat acts as a table for my Hammers, tuner, sandwiches, cups of tea, etc etc

Aye! I really like your chair-stand.

admin said:

For a start, it doesn't have long legs which might trip folks up!

Yeah, tell me about it! I actually now have a nice small sit-down stand that just might fit in the old suitcase, and it doesn't have a long leg to trip people up or have to fit under a table in the pub!

admin said:

... Oh & it doesn't squeek in a studio, either! ;D

No, that's the mouse that's squeaking!

[hdgal]

My tri-stander legs buzz a bit if I don't have them on tightly. No problems in recording with them, though.

So...usually I hate recording--too much pressure. I see dollars flying out the window with each mistake that causes us to do another take. Even so, I'm never completely happy with the recording. We all want some "Big Dog" to come in and shell out the bucks so we can take all the time we want to make a recording of perfection. Well, that ain't gonna happen. So rather than interesting, I find most of them stressful. I'm always amused, though, by the Engineers who record the HD for the first time. They always say, "Now, when you're finished be sure and sit quietly until the instrument stops ringing." Ha! The first time I recorded a song the HD rang for over a minute. Finally the Engineer spoke into my headphones: "Forget this! I'm just going to fade you out." Ha! I always warn them now, "this baby's got sustain up the wazoo!"

Anyway, like Dick, we have a recording session coming up in three weeks and I'll let you know how it goes. Our band has been chosen by the New Mexico Music Commision to appear in a television show this fall. They'll film us on stage at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (the Disney Performing Arts Center) performing a couple of songs, then they'll interview us, then edit it all together for a 6-8 minute segment. They're hoping to have it broadcast in other markets outside of NM so it might make the rounds in various U.S. communities. Either way it should be available to view on the internet at some point. This one should be fun so we're very excited to have the opportunity.

I'll let you know how it goes and when it's available to view.
Later!
Jeanne

[Nikita]

Good recording Jeanne... and good luck with hispanic TV... reminds me, I worked out a few mexican tunes from that wonderful record of Maestro Pedro Ruiz playing the Salterio. He plucks his instrument, and I had to work out a way to play his music with 2 hammers, when he uses at least 4 fingers (thumbs and index, I think !)
My last recording session was quite something : we recorded swiss music of the 18th century, with house organ, fiddle, percussion, hackbrett and two singers in a museum, where they had an organ made in 1810 : the problem was that the organ was in a corridor : four meters wide, 50 long . t'was like playing in a tube . we had to place the instruments by the inch : 5inches on the right or the left, and the sound was awful, sounding as if we where a long way apart. The sound engineer had a few nervous fits before we had a satisfying thing (and of course, we were doing direct takes : no rerecording, everyone playing together...). but I think the result is quite good, with a warm and lively sound...

[Dick Glasgow]

Hey Jeanne that sounds exciting. Please keep us posted with links to that segment, when it gets posted.

Meanwhile here's an exclusive photo of Nikita & his group during their recent recording session: ;D

..... t'was like playing in a tube ..

[hdgal]

HI all,
Just a quick update on the recording experience we had on Monday. The TV segment was filmed in a beautiful new auditorium--the Disney Performing Arts Center--named that because Disney dumped a whole lot of money into the building. It's truly an outstanding and beautiful venue. They had called before to see what our color scheme would be (as far as clothes--blue and black) and created a beautiful lit backdrop to match us that sort of looked like a sunrise. 'Twas very cool. There were four cameras...two stationary in the audience area, one on a huge boom arm that swooped all over the place and one hand held. The guy with the hand held was everywhere...sometimes just inches from my hands, sometimes running across the stage zooming across all four of us, and sometimes on the floor shooting straight up at my son while he played bouzouki. I told my son that I hoped he didn't have anything hanging out of his nose 'cause this guy got some great shots zooming right up his nostrils!

They set up mics to look as if we were using them, but in reality we were just syncing to our recording. This was harder than you would think. The first song we did was a collection of old time tunes (they didn't want any copyright issues so we had to choose either public domain or original tunes). We originally recorded it live because we like to increase the tempo with each tune starting off slow and really cooking by the end. Feeling the changes and staying with the recording was quite a challenge, but they seemed pretty happy with the the video they got. The second tune was an original 'rockin' out' bouzouki piece called "In the Zone." It was really hot under all of the spot lights and we had to be careful that we didn't get in the way of anyone' elses light and cast shadows on each other's faces. After filming the two tunes they took us to a smaller theater/studio to film our interview which was a lot of talking about our great state as this will be used by the Tourism Board. It was a fun experience and I can't wait to see the finished product which will take about four months to edit and produce. It was all done very professionally and between lights, cameras, sound, and other techies we probably had a crew of about 30 people working the shoot. It was an awesome opportunity.

When it's done it will be posted on YouTube, and will air on our local ABC station (BTW, it was filmed at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, but was not for Spanish TV). The NM Music Commission is hoping to sell the whole series in other markets...sort of like "Austin City Limits" and may even try to get it on some airlines. As my friend says, it was "cool beans."

I'll let you all know when it's on YouTube, but I'd definitely say that this is the funnest recording session we've had!
Jeanne

[Dick Glasgow]

WOW! That sounds like it was an amazing experience all right Jeanne.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

I really look forward to seeing the YouTube version.

Thank goodness I've only ever had to worry about my musical mistakes in a recording session & not the added pressure of cameras in my face & up my nostrils!

Cheers
Dick

[dulcimike]

admin said:

Thank goodness I've only ever had to worry about my musical mistakes in a recording session & not the added pressure of cameras in my face & up my nostrils!

Cheers
Dick

Hmmm. We'll have to see what we can do next year to fill out your recording experience, Ptarm! I'll have me camcorder with me. I wonder if they'll mind me lying on the floor at Smuggler's getting a shot of you playing dulcimer or concertina? You don't guess they'll think I had to much of the Guinness, do you? Maybe I'll just float around with the camera back and forth in front of yer hammers trying to stay out of yer way!

[Dick Glasgow]

Hold the phone Rick!

I'm actually hoping to have a meeting with the new Bushmills Committee in late October and if that goes well, we might even be looking at the next C. D. F. (in some shape or form) coming together for next September!

From past experiences I'm not holding my breath.

So yes, it's all pie in the sky right now, but one can but dream!

Cheers
Dick

[hdgal]

Woo Hoo Dick! We'll keep our fingers crossed for you! Hope all goes well at that Committee meeting and the pie falls from the sky right into your lap.
Jeanne

[Dick Glasgow]

Jeanne, if it does you can rest assured you guys will be the first to know about it.

Cheers
Dick