Thanks, Klas.
I look forward to reading your thoughts.
Keith
On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 5:39 PM, Klas Strandberg <> wrote:
> **
>
>
> Hi Keith,
>
> Thanks for your warmhearted greetings.
>
> I have printed out your mail and will read it in bed tonight.
> And consider as carefully as I am able to.
> And reply.
>
> Klas.
>
> (PS: changed the subject line. I mixed it up in the first place.)
>
> At 23:54 2012-11-07, you wrote:
> >Klas, you're ahead by 5 grandchildren. My first arrived in August :D
> >
> >"Do "we" want that?"
> >I'm not sure the choice is "ours".
> >
> >I've wanted to respond to your recent posts in a fullsome and heartfelt
> >manner, but have struggled to find a way without writing a book. I do fe=
el
> >your angst. While nature recording is new to me (and far more difficult
> >than I'd ever imagined), natural recording is something I've struggled
> with
> >much of my life as a freelance musician. As a player, this struggle firs=
t
> >confronted me in dealing with the fundamental dishonesty of the overdub.
> >It's something that no player wants to do -at least in the sense of fixi=
ng
> >something - but it also has tremendous creative potential.
> >
> >What to do? Even in the event of fixing a flawed improv idea or a bad
> >performance, the end result is still something that I created/performed
> >(and is thus, bona fide?). I might add that the problem is worse when yo=
ur
> >rotten note is the only wart on a performance that included several othe=
r
> >players who just gave the performance of a lifetime;)
> >
> >As I've grown older, I've been apt to take a more existential attitude
> >toward problems like this:
> >Who am I here to serve? Hopefully, in my case it's the Muse. Can I make =
a
> >musical point clearer with an overdub? Perhaps. Do I need to redo the
> whole
> >piece from scratch, just to prove that I can? Hmm. Wouldn't that just be
> >serving my ego? Does using the technique lessen the musical value of the
> >end product? Not if the listener is unaware, but it still offends my sen=
se
> >of authenticity.
> >
> >Classical music has taken this to insane extremes. A number of years ago
> >there was an album of Paganini's 24 Caprices for Violin by a well known
> >guitarist. A friend of mine was working in the same studio a year or so
> >later and informed me that the whole thing had been expertly pasted up
> from
> >small fragments. I imagine the artist faced the same questions. To clear=
ly
> >mark the album as Heavily Edited would have been suicide, even in an
> >environment where everyone else is doing it too (stories of hundreds of
> >edits per album are legion). Perhaps he should have scrapped the project=
.
> >If he had, he would have denied all of us the chance to experience what
> was
> >really a very fine recording.
> >What to do?
> >
> >Using photography as an analogy is limited, but perhaps useful. Even
> >snapshooters have to contend with offending poles, wires, reflections an=
d
> >what have you. You change viewpoints, 'shop' only the worst of them, use
> >them creatively or give up the shot. But what if the subject is unique o=
r
> >rare; well worth putting up with rest of the 'noise'? How far do we go
> with
> >the editing? This may well change the originally held purpose of the sho=
t.
> >Then, who are we serving? The subject/event, the story, the photo Muse o=
r
> >ourselves? I said 'limited' because the instantaneous visual and the
> serial
> >sound experiences are so fundamentally different. Choosing a viewpoint t=
o
> >avoid a wire seems trivial compared to dealing with an unexpected ATV ha=
lf
> >a mile behind you while trying to get 30 minutes of near silence.
> >
> >Getting back to Nature Recording, doesn't the Purpose and the Fitness fo=
r
> >Purpose really tell it all? A relaxation recording might be 30 minutes o=
f
> >pristinely recorded wilderness bliss or a 20 mintue loop of Alan Ginsber=
g
> >going "Ommm" (if that works for anyone --I bet it would sell better).
> Using
> >Rx might allow an Ornithologist a 'green-screened' version of a bird cal=
l
> >in the very near future, if not today. The 5 minutes of a Pileated
> >Woodpecker working a tree stump that I recorded a couple of weeks ago
> won't
> >be submitted here. It's full of city traffic, airplanes and my creeping
> >along a gravel path to get closer, but it's a thrill for me as a persona=
l
> >first. It suits my purpose as a lesson on what not to do, next time.
> >
> >I'm not trying to make the call, here. It just seems that, the way we're
> >going, the future arbiters of what's good, bad, interesting, or boring
> >(both your grandkids and mine) are going to care a lot less about how
> >something was done (except to copy the technique) than they will about t=
he
> >information on the bottom line.
> >
> >This leaves us free to serve a scene, a species of wildlife, an ambience=
,
> >an idea. It doesn't stop us from simply labeling our work as Not Edited,
> >Denoised Only, something to that effect. Perhaps something like a SPARS
> >code as used on CDs might be adopted to delineate techniques used or
> >avoided?
> >
> >Just my 2 cents, with all empathy and best wishes,
> >k
> >
> >
> >
> >On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 8:20 AM, Klas Strandberg <>
> wrote:
> >
> > > **
> > >
> > >
> > > My son Jon had a boy a month ago, my sixth grandchild!
> > > (Congrats most welcome! Thank you!)
> > >
> > > Do I want that boy to sit here in 20 years from now, listening to my
> > > old DAT-tapes saying "Come on, this kind of silence wasn't ever
> > > possible around here, grand dad must have photoshopped all noise away=
."
> > > Because such a thinking is totally natural to him?
> > >
> > > Do "we" want that?
> > >
> > > Klas.
> > >
> > > Telinga Microphones, Botarbo,
> > > S-748 96 Tobo, Sweden.
> > > Phone & fax int + 295 310 01
> > > email:
> > > website: www.telinga.com
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >--
> >Keith Smith
> >
> >Keith Smith Trio, Northern Lights =AD Altai Khangai - www.keithsmith.ca
> >Photography - www.mymountains.ca
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >------------------------------------
> >
> >"While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
> >sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause=
.
> >
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> Telinga Microphones, Botarbo,
> S-748 96 Tobo, Sweden.
> Phone & fax int + 295 310 01
> email:
> website: www.telinga.com
>
>
>
>
>
|