By chance, I happened to be listening to the "Rainforest
Soundwalks,..." earlier this week. I was reminded of when I talked
with Steven about this CD a few years ago and the use of Atmosphere,"
a Spectrasonic plug. Perhaps someone in the group has experience with
Atmosphere and can lend a critique. I assume it uses granulation
synthesis with traditional synthesis and delays to thicken the
spatial cues of lower-mid registers. Such effects in "Rainforest
Soundwalks,..." don't seem as over-powering to me as the use of
reverb in a couple of the pieces. As Bernie says, Steven did
mentioned Mickey Hart's influence/interest in producing more CD's of
carefully recorded indigenous performances. If I was a musicologist
and field recordist, the ability to enhance the depth of a singer's
voice, for example, would create some options I would want to address
and resolve. No two mixers would make the same decisions and maybe no
mix could be successfully argued as "right," for any context. There's
no substitute for a "great" field recording but creating 9-12 of
these for a CD is a huge challenge for the best of recordists.
Likewise, doing "nothing" with a recording in post can be a poor
choice if one is trying to faithfully reproduce something. Perhaps
the only good "answer" to this dilemma is being personally engaged in
learning more about the options-- from mics, rigs and positioning--
all the way through post. Rob D.
>For a considerable period in the early 90s, when Feld was doing some
>specatular work with the Kaluli in N. Guinea, he was supported by and
>a fave-rave-of-the-moment of Mickey Hart (the percussionist of
>Grateful Dead fame) who had a fair bit to do with how things were
>produced for Feld's early releases on Rykodisk. That may explain the
>impression of "manipulation" learned at the time. Certainly sounded
>like that to me when I heard it.
>
>Bernie Krause
>
>>--- In "Danny Meltzer"
>><> wrote:
>>>
>>> I have Feld's "Rainforest Soundwalks: Ambiences of Bosavi, Papua
>>New
>>> Guinea" disc...it is amazing. You can tell someone is really
>>thinking
>>> and feeling about what he is presenting. It's one of those discs
>>> that...no matter how good my speakers happen to be at the
>>time...makes
>>> me wish I had better speakers.
>>>
>>> Danny
>>>
>>
>>thanks for the recommendation. this sounds like a disc worth owning.
>>
>>by chance I put on a nature disk the other day that a friend owned.
>>
>>it sounded pretty good, although a bit over produced (in a hyper-
>>real manner), but then it came to the obligatory rainstorm track,
>>and I was left wondering just how close the microphones must have
>>been to the flames to be able to capture the fire in such a
>>realistic fashion! :-)
>>
>>clay
>>
>>ps, hyper-real is perhaps not a word that conveys precisely my
>>intent. is there a more typical word to refer to recordings where it
>>seems as if the sound was manipulated to make it sound better than
> >real, but does not?
>>
|