Life in the age of Social Distancing - what are you up to?

Archibald wrote in post #19053895
I really don't know if anyone is interested, but one thing I'm up to during the coronavirus restrictions is music. I am spending time seeing if it is practical to play trombone quartets by doing multitrack recording. The playing would be done live and recorded by four different people in their own homes, at different times. The sound tracks would then be mailed around and combined.

I've found it is definitely possible. It might be fun to do once we get past the technicalities. I'm just not sure yet whether the quality of the product we are likely to get will be worth the effort.

Cool. I'd like to hear that if you ever do it. I played trombone in the high school band from grades 7 to 9. I really liked it.

Archibald wrote in post #19053895
I really don't know if anyone is interested, but one thing I'm up to during the coronavirus restrictions is music. I am spending time seeing if it is practical to play trombone quartets by doing multitrack recording. The playing would be done live and recorded by four different people in their own homes, at different times. The sound tracks would then be mailed around and combined.

I've found it is definitely possible. It might be fun to do once we get past the technicalities. I'm just not sure yet whether the quality of the product we are likely to get will be worth the effort.

A friend of mine sings with the Providence Singers, a choral singers group. They put together something like this. 20 singers given a piece to sing in their homes and then someone put it all together and published it. Here is a link to it,

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=PO_YlkgB8N0


if that does not work you can access it directly from the providence singers website, http://www.providences​ingers.org/

Look for "Choral performance at a safe social distance"

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19053888
That's like rubbing salt in a wound!

I've actually slowed down both my TV and 'net time a bit, been organizing the shop in the basement, and doing some home fixer upper stuff around the house.

at least i'm not missing out on any sports yeah, i've tried to get some stuff done all around, back working part time, and we just found out we're still in SIP until end of may...so the TV will be a welcome arrival

RhodyPhotos wrote in post #19053913
A friend of mine sings with the Providence Singers, a choral singers group. They put together something like this. 20 singers given a piece to sing in their homes and then someone put it all together and published it. Here is a link to it,

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=PO_YlkgB8N0

if that does not work you can access it directly from the providence singers website, http://www.providences​ingers.org/

Look for "Choral performance at a safe social distance"

The link works! That is really neat. And with video. I noticed they had piano accompaniment, which would keep them in time and in tune.

I have started a couple of groups on Meetup.com with the challenge to take at least one photo every day. We just completed the first round with almost 200 image from members during our 4-week lockdown. I have started a new one for the next period of increased economic activity that is planned to last 2 weeks - all being well.

It's a focus to find something every day when one is mostly confined to one's home and garden - although we could go our for local walks as well.

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Photo from Tronhard's gallery.

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DreDaze wrote in post #19053928
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at least i'm not missing out on any sports
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Yeah, I am a huge fan of NFL football, and think that the timing of all of this has been very fortuitous for those addicted to the sport.

The NFL Draft occurred right on schedule, last Thursday thru Saturday. . It had to be done "virtually", via the internet and the telephone, instead of being the huge live event that it was supposed to be in Las Vegas this year. . But it happened right on cue, nonetheless. . Over the past two weeks, I spent a lot of my isolation time doing research on many of the college prospects, as well as on each NFL team's needs, priorities, and draft tendencies.

Then of course starting on Thursday evening, I watched every minute of the first round, followed by watching every minute of the second and third rounds on Friday, and capped off by spending the entirety of Saturday watching the remaining rounds.

And of course now I am watching and reading everything I can get my eyes on that analyzes the players that were drafted and how they project to be used by the teams that drafted them. . I have even started a playlist on YouTube entitled, "2020 NFL Draft Research and Analysis", which I save many insightful videos to. . I have done so for drafts in previous years, and it is enjoyable to go back and watch the videos years later, with the advantage of hindsight.

I have an insatiable appetite for NFL analysis and coverage, and this "Stay at Home" stuff is just giving me a better opportunity to spend even more time watching this stuff than I would normally have.


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Tom Reichner wrote in post #19053967
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Yeah, I am a huge fan of NFL football, and think that the timing of all of this has been very fortuitous for those addicted to the sport.

The NFL Draft occurred right on schedule, last Thursday thru Saturday. . It had to be done "virtually", via the internet and the telephone, instead of being the huge live event that it was supposed to be in Las Vegas this year. . But it happened right on cue, nonetheless. . Over the past two weeks, I spent a lot of my isolation time doing research on many of the college prospects, as well as on each NFL team's needs, priorities, and draft tendencies.

Then of course starting on Thursday evening, I watched every minute of the first round, followed by watching every minute of the second and third rounds on Friday, and capped off by spending the entirety of Saturday watching the remaining rounds.

And of course now I am watching and reading everything I can get my eyes on that analyzes the players that were drafted and how they project to be used by the teams that drafted them. . I have even started a playlist on YouTube entitled, "2020 NFL Draft Research and Analysis", which I save many insightful videos to. . I have done so for drafts in previous years, and it is enjoyable to go back and watch the videos years later, with the advantage of hindsight.

I have an insatiable appetite for NFL analysis and coverage, and this "Stay at Home" stuff is just giving me a better opportunity to spend even more time watching this stuff than I would normally have.

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nice, yeah i've been a niner fan my whole life, so after last year i was definitely looking forward to the next season. We didn't have too many picks, there were 128 picks between our 2nd pick and 3rd pick...but I still had it on, just in case of a trade...it's probably what killed the TV

Got a little more work done on the she shed. Subfloor is down and the back wall is sort of up. Was only able to spend about 3 hours on it today. Tomorrow I should have a little more time.

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Archibald wrote in post #19053946
The link works! That is really neat. And with video. I noticed they had piano accompaniment, which would keep them in time and in tune.

I believe all the singers had the sheet music from the rehearsals that were happening before the shutdown. They were given a recording of the piano - which was going to be the accompaniment. And then they made a video of themselves singing while listening to the piano over a headphone - so the piano wasn't being recorded with them singing. Then someone took the pains to bring it all together - the singers and the piano. I wish the pianist had also recorded himself or herself It must have been a fun project.

Anyways, my point was, maybe you can try doing something similar? I'm sure it will sound great!

RhodyPhotos wrote in post #19054055
I believe all the singers had the sheet music from the rehearsals that were happening before the shutdown. They were given a recording of the piano - which was going to be the accompaniment. And then they made a video of themselves singing while listening to the piano over a headphone - so the piano wasn't being recorded with them singing. Then someone took the pains to bring it all together - the singers and the piano. I wish the pianist had also recorded himself or herself It must have been a fun project.

Anyways, my point was, maybe you can try doing something similar? I'm sure it will sound great!

Yes, that is what I want to do. For now I think I will just use a metronome app on a phone and monitor it on headphones. That will work for music that has no tempo changes. Later we can deal with more complicated stuff.

Archibald wrote in post #19053895
I really don't know if anyone is interested, but one thing I'm up to during the coronavirus restrictions is music. I am spending time seeing if it is practical to play trombone quartets by doing multitrack recording. The playing would be done live and recorded by four different people in their own homes, at different times. The sound tracks would then be mailed around and combined.

I've found it is definitely possible. It might be fun to do once we get past the technicalities. I'm just not sure yet whether the quality of the product we are likely to get will be worth the effort.

Any latency in such a method is workable, as you can make most multitrack software fix the offsets, either intelligently with known equipment latency, or by just shifting the tracks as necessary after recording (as my sister used to do with software with no internal compensation). Latency is only problematic in a deep way when you all try to play together, because it is confusing to hear the latency separate what you're doing from what you're hearing.

One approach that you might try if people feel awkward about playing the first line or two without the rest of the parts is to start with 3 tracks of computer-generated versions, and then the first person puts in their human part, and then as each adds their part, they mute out the filler part. The first 3 could actually mute out their own parts, and try again, now hearing 3 human parts and no computer parts. Of course, the computer-generated version's timing will still be there, though, so any human tempo modulations will not be possible.

RhodyPhotos wrote in post #19053913
A friend of mine sings with the Providence Singers, a choral singers group. They put together something like this. 20 singers given a piece to sing in their homes and then someone put it all together and published it. Here is a link to it,

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=PO_YlkgB8N0

if that does not work you can access it directly from the providence singers website, http://www.providences​ingers.org/

Look for "Choral performance at a safe social distance"

I love the Providence Singers. They were regulars when I worked at Veteran's Memorial Auditorium, I worked with conductors Julian Wachner and Andrew Clark as well as E.D. Alli McMillan. Julian and Alli together really made the Singers a force to be reckoned with, such a great chorus!

DreDaze wrote in post #19053928
at least i'm not missing out on any sports yeah, i've tried to get some stuff done all around, back working part time, and we just found out we're still in SIP until end of may...so the TV will be a welcome arrival

If you missing sports, look into Jells marble races on FB and Youtube

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19054393
If you missing sports, look into Jells marble races on FB and Youtube

Been a fan of the marble races for quite some time. More interesting the MLB for sure.

John Sheehy wrote in post #19054133
Any latency in such a method is workable, as you can make most multitrack software fix the offsets, either intelligently with known equipment latency, or by just shifting the tracks as necessary after recording (as my sister used to do with software with no internal compensation). Latency is only problematic in a deep way when you all try to play together, because it is confusing to hear the latency separate what you're doing from what you're hearing.

One approach that you might try if people feel awkward about playing the first line or two without the rest of the parts is to start with 3 tracks of computer-generated versions, and then the first person puts in their human part, and then as each adds their part, they mute out the filler part. The first 3 could actually mute out their own parts, and try again, now hearing 3 human parts and no computer parts. Of course, the computer-generated version's timing will still be there, though, so any human tempo modulations will not be possible.

Latency won't be an issue. I will be using Audacity to combine the recorded tracks, and I will be able to shift time around. There could still be problems with lining the music up vertically.

There are lots of ways of creating the tracks. For pieces with tempo changes (which is actually most pieces out there), I could create a rhythm track in the scoring software and then output it to MP3 while muting the other parts. Then each player would record their part monitoring the rhythm on headphones. There could be issues, though. Some folks can't or don't want to play to a metronome, and pitch could be a problem if a player can't hear the other notes. We will just have to try it, and who knows, it might be fine.

As you say, I could output the whole piece as machine music with one part missing, to be filled by a player. Heck, I could just include all the parts. The problem here is that the computer output might sound a lot better than we players!