I've been doing more recording recently and am always eager to find a better sound. As a music technology novice, I find that much of the advice I find seems to relate more to mixing bands or mic-ing guitars, drums and vocals. I came across a useful suggestion that improved a Taimur Sullivan recording using the following simple EQ settings. I share them here in case they're of use to anyone else. With both settings the Q was about 3. Boost 1200Hz by 4dB and cut 300Hz by 4dB. Very simple and it didn't suddenly make me sound massively different but it added some 'air' to the sound and made it less boxy in a way that I found quite pleasing. I suppose this is no less important when recording than finding a good reed or playing on a professional instrument.
The Coronavirus pandemic has forced many musicians to teach online who previously had little to no experience with this way of teaching, myself included. It has been a real blessing that pretty much all of my teaching has continued when a great number of my colleagues have suffered and have simply not been permitted to teach online by their institutions. I thought it might be good to reflect on some of the positive aspects of online teaching, rather than gripe about the myriad difficulties (internet glitches, latency, audio algorithms interfering). One of the best aspects for me has been to use Sibelius to very quickly write out music examples and explain things. Sadly my notation penmanship never got particularly great and I am actually far quicker at putting something into Sibelius. It's also very helpful for quickly bringing up new pieces, sight-reading and even for things like writing notes under passages. I've also used Cubase on a few occasions to demonstrate certain aspects of music technology to pupils and even to record very brief passages for them. In general, having to work with the computer more has meant I've recorded more, since the set up is there. I also like ending the call and immediately being home with my beautiful wife and family!
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2022
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