this was a new one for me - I went to a group lesson tonight where one of the students plunked a giant mic stand and microphone right in the middle of the group pointed (eye level) at the leader, then proceeded to pull various patch cords and a minidisc recorder out of a bag, and then spent a few minutes hunting for a wall plug to complete the distraction. It was astounding. I dare you to top that for the group lesson category
Assuming that this bunch of students wasn't known to the regular session members and didn't have permission to set up this recording kit, I think the best plan would have been to refuse to play until it was disconnected and removed.
My view is that recorded music is the enemy of live music!
They did not ask permission but the leader did say she was used to having all kinds of recording equipment shoved in her face. I'm not used to having to look over a huge studio mic to see the person who's talking to me though, and I nearly felt compelled to ask the owner to move it out of the way. I decided it would be kinder to wait and ask her in private (which I haven't done yet). But yes, "cheeky" or maybe just clueless...
I'd tend to agree - even if you're doing a recording for private purposes, having a recorder there changes everything - certainly if it's intrusive. Most people don't mind if it's something that's inconspicuous but it's still important to ask!
I ran a session in a large business school where I'd actually said that there would be no cameras, only to have a video crew come in and film us. They were filming all the sessions, and apparently the students were all cool with that, but no-one had thought to ask me.
If it was a session I'd have done my usual routine of belching the alphabet (just kidding - although I've always wished I could do that). Nope, this was just a really nice group of beginning/intermediate student and no one commented on that peculiar piece of personal recording equipment.
Don'tcha just love it. One used to see the child's karioke tape deck, you know the one, each big plastic part is a different colour with the big mic on the side plonked in the middle of the table seriously taking up pint room with no consideration whatsoever for the social habits of the others sitting around the same.
PK
I believe i've seen the dreaded Karioke deck which made its appearance in several workshops I attended herabouts. Which is partly why I don't attend those workshops anymore. memories of the mic with its giant curly cord stretched across the room...the fiddling [with it, not the instruments]...the monstrous buttons wihich made a huge CLUNK each time they were pressed. The constant queries from its owner as to which tune that was etc etc etc. Good god.
I'd wager cluelessness is the culprit. A shame the teacher didn't pipe up, sounds like they kind of went with the flow.
I would say "That's great that you want to record the tunes so you can practice from ear at home! Now, let's figure out how we do this without obstructing the entire freaking lesson!"
Should Irish music shun the clueless? Do the clueless remain clueless forever? Time for some skillful diplomacy. (Just for one evening, I would gladly trade the intrusion of a honking-big microphone for a few fiddlers playing anywhere from a quarter, to a half step out of tune; this being the more common afliction in these parts. No amount of diplomacy can alter this.)
Ah, Atahualpa, but do you not know that the technology can now record smells? It's true! Not just 8-bit, compressed smells, which rather crudely register 256 different smells such as "perfumed" and "nasty" but to 24-bit depth, you can now faithfully record and recreate 16,777,216 different levels of smell including such subtleties as "Chicken Tikka Masala sweat - 2 weeks old" and "burnt matress with ingrained goat droppings". That's how good the technology is nowadays. Frightening!!
It was a fake giant microphone. The giant banjo I wheeled in was not fake—as you all soon discovered—nor was the tiny harp I pulled out of my pocket. (That very harp was played for the pleasure of the High Kings of Tara, usually by this dude named Dave. But I own it now and I only play it for a gag.)
Ah, the giant Elizabethan collar. I endure no end of ridicule for sporting that, but when yuh gots a jones for the Virgin Queen, well... As to how I play wearing that, in Elizabethan times a musician's collar had a 'lute notch' which I've simply widened into a 'giant banjo notch' (not a town name in Kentucky).
I lied when I said the tiny harp was pulled from my pocket. I actually pull that from thin air every time.
the giant microphone
the giant microphone
this was a new one for me - I went to a group lesson tonight where one of the students plunked a giant mic stand and microphone right in the middle of the group pointed (eye level) at the leader, then proceeded to pull various patch cords and a minidisc recorder out of a bag, and then spent a few minutes hunting for a wall plug to complete the distraction. It was astounding. I dare you to top that for the group lesson category
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by airport
Re: the giant microphone
Sheesh. Did they ask permission - of the leader? Of the group? What you describe sounds plain cheeky!!
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: the giant microphone
Assuming that this bunch of students wasn't known to the regular session members and didn't have permission to set up this recording kit, I think the best plan would have been to refuse to play until it was disconnected and removed.
My view is that recorded music is the enemy of live music!
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: the giant microphone
They did not ask permission but the leader did say she was used to having all kinds of recording equipment shoved in her face. I'm not used to having to look over a huge studio mic to see the person who's talking to me though, and I nearly felt compelled to ask the owner to move it out of the way. I decided it would be kinder to wait and ask her in private (which I haven't done yet). But yes, "cheeky" or maybe just clueless...
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by airport
Re: the giant microphone
I'd tend to agree - even if you're doing a recording for private purposes, having a recorder there changes everything - certainly if it's intrusive. Most people don't mind if it's something that's inconspicuous but it's still important to ask!
I ran a session in a large business school where I'd actually said that there would be no cameras, only to have a video crew come in and film us. They were filming all the sessions, and apparently the students were all cool with that, but no-one had thought to ask me.
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: the giant microphone
If it was a session I'd have done my usual routine of belching the alphabet (just kidding - although I've always wished I could do that). Nope, this was just a really nice group of beginning/intermediate student and no one commented on that peculiar piece of personal recording equipment.
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by airport
Re: the giant microphone
hmm, a video crew does change the dynamics slightly!
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by airport
Re: the giant microphone
Don'tcha just love it. One used to see the child's karioke tape deck, you know the one, each big plastic part is a different colour with the big mic on the side plonked in the middle of the table seriously taking up pint room with no consideration whatsoever for the social habits of the others sitting around the same.
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by Patkiwi
Re: the giant microphone
PK
I believe i've seen the dreaded Karioke deck which made its appearance in several workshops I attended herabouts. Which is partly why I don't attend those workshops anymore. memories of the mic with its giant curly cord stretched across the room...the fiddling [with it, not the instruments]...the monstrous buttons wihich made a huge CLUNK each time they were pressed. The constant queries from its owner as to which tune that was etc etc etc. Good god.
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: the giant microphone
I'd wager cluelessness is the culprit. A shame the teacher didn't pipe up, sounds like they kind of went with the flow.
I would say "That's great that you want to record the tunes so you can practice from ear at home! Now, let's figure out how we do this without obstructing the entire freaking lesson!"
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: the giant microphone
Should Irish music shun the clueless? Do the clueless remain clueless forever? Time for some skillful diplomacy. (Just for one evening, I would gladly trade the intrusion of a honking-big microphone for a few fiddlers playing anywhere from a quarter, to a half step out of tune; this being the more common afliction in these parts. No amount of diplomacy can alter this.)
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: the giant microphone
I get my own back on them by going longer and longer between baths.
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: the giant microphone
Ah, Atahualpa, but do you not know that the technology can now record smells? It's true! Not just 8-bit, compressed smells, which rather crudely register 256 different smells such as "perfumed" and "nasty" but to 24-bit depth, you can now faithfully record and recreate 16,777,216 different levels of smell including such subtleties as "Chicken Tikka Masala sweat - 2 weeks old" and "burnt matress with ingrained goat droppings". That's how good the technology is nowadays. Frightening!!
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: the giant microphone
I was the one who brought the giant microphone.
It was a fake giant microphone. The giant banjo I wheeled in was not fake—as you all soon discovered—nor was the tiny harp I pulled out of my pocket. (That very harp was played for the pleasure of the High Kings of Tara, usually by this dude named Dave. But I own it now and I only play it for a gag.)
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: the giant microphone
the tiny harp was nice - what amazed me most about the giant banjo was how you managed to play it while wearing that giant elizabethan collar!
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by airport
Re: the giant microphone
Ah, the giant Elizabethan collar. I endure no end of ridicule for sporting that, but when yuh gots a jones for the Virgin Queen, well... As to how I play wearing that, in Elizabethan times a musician's collar had a 'lute notch' which I've simply widened into a 'giant banjo notch' (not a town name in Kentucky).
I lied when I said the tiny harp was pulled from my pocket. I actually pull that from thin air every time.
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil