SoundGirls.org: Many classical musicians have been dedicated to their craft since childhood: they’ve spent thousands of hours perfecting their playing technique, studying theory and harmony and history of music, taking lessons with awe-inspiring (and occasionally fear-inducing) professors, and developing a richness of sound that can fluctuate deftly between dramatic passion and subtle nuance, to make even the most hardened of hearts shed a tear of emotion at such sonic beauty!
3 comments:
Yes, I did go put on some classical piano when I read the title of this article. And then I read the article, after listening to the music. Both were wonderful and intriguing. I think the main thing that stuck out to me reading this article was the contrast between recording other genres versus classical music. It seems as though the ambiance of the space is very important to the recording of classical music, and you want the cavernous, spacious feeling of being in a concert hall. The natural sound of the instruments is more important to capture than the tracks that will be layered and edited in post. This does not mean to speak less of other genres, I listen to quite a lot of music myself. But, I really do find this distinction interesting and makes a lot of sense (and– I understood the sound vocab! Thanks Production Audio for that).
Classical music is an artform that predates audio recordings, and definitely one that predates the mp3, small file, spotify and apple music world we live in today. While other musical genres may benefit from post-production, classical music is meant to be listened to live, and recording it comes with the challenge of bringing that live fullness to a sound that is very much contained in earbuds. This article breaks down how that process works, and to my surprise, it’s very simple- make it sound great in person, and bring lots of mics. According to this article, the most intensive part of editing is the stitching together of multiple takes to get the best overall performance. I really appreciated learning this, as it feels correct for the world of classical music. The excitement of post-production is fun for other genres, but a focus on instrumental talent and musical integrity in classical music recording makes perfect sense.
I find this article interesting because there are so many components that contribute to an authentic sound such as acoustics in the room or how that vocalist is singing that day. When it comes to classical music, sound production is all about the pure music and how to make everything sound just right. As mentioned in the article, recording classical music is different than other genres because the goal isn’t to have the most control over the sound to then edit and adjust, but to make the final product be as raw and real as possible. One concept I find particularly impressive is how there are so many takes of the same portion of music that need to be decided upon and that is all dependent on artistic choice and collaboration. Something I hope to learn in the future is how those decisions are made and what guides producers and musicians to make those choices based on artistic preference.
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