lifeisacabaret Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 Well I can only assume you are in the minority, because everyone else on this thread has been exceedingly helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Langfeld Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 I'm sorry, but in no way does that make any sense at all. The minority? How so? Don't be so bloody ungrateful. You should think yourself lucky anyone's taken the time to respond to your questions, not dismiss someone's suggestions as being unhelpful or "narky". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeisacabaret Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 Well, to be honest, this thread has served its purpose and I have got (and am very grateful for) the help I needed. Theres no point in this becoming a discussion on the use of recorded music in musical theatre- I HATE this and firmly believe that there is a very definate perciptable difference between a recorded band and a live band. I would rather cancel the production and do something else than have to have a pre-recorded band. The use of live musicians really adds (in my opinion) to the feel of the piece, and I am not prepared (I am director and producer) to sacrifice the artistic integrity of a live band, for the semi-convenience, of a pre-recorded band. If a pre-recorded band works in some situations, thats fine, but I do not believe that it will work (or will indeed be at all practicable) for my situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Theres no point in this becoming a discussion on the use of recorded music in musical theatre...Spoilsport :) I HATE this and firmly believe that there is a very definate perciptable difference between a recorded band and a live band. The use of live musicians really adds (in my opinion) to the feel of the piece,Without wishing to disagree with you, the answer here is a definite maybe. I have some observations. Firstly, having recently done a show with an amateur twenty-something piece orchestra, despite a great MD and mostly very good players, every night was an adventure. On the other hand, when you get a great pit orchestra, they are perfect on a nightly basis. There is extraordinarily little night-to-night variation. When we noize boize are really lucky, we get to put the band (and for brevity, band includes orchestra) in a space outside the performance space, so the only music one hears comes from the PA. Then the band has a "recorded" sound to it. You get a great mix, the band can't overpower the singers, but it comes at a tonal and spatial cost. However when we get opportunities to hide the band away, every sound engineer jumps at the chance. We chose mix and convenience over tone and spatial information. Finally, the audience mostly only gets to see the show once. If you're working crew, then you get to see it every night. Thus what variation there is is lost on the typical audience member. Does this mean I'm against live theatre music - absolutely not. But I'm not going to let an issue like no live band get in the way of putting together a show that the audience will enjoy, because, as time has shown, only a tiny fraction of an audience will notice, know or care. It would be ... erm ... non-traditional to do something like Return to the Forbidden Planet or Buddy without a musically accomplished and equipped cast, but for many shows it would make absolutely zero difference. Its the same arguments about replacing some (or in some cases all) of the brass, woods, violins etc with keyboards. A keboard never sounds quite like a violin, but its good enough in almost all theatrical circumstances. Final notes - check out The Sinfonia for a tool that is sadly making musicians at the highest level redundant. I'm hopeful that someday this will trickle down so we'll all have access to this technology to make low budget amateur shows better, rather than making producers richer. Some folks have the band on tape or sequencer (or both) and do a live mix so that what you hear in the mix varies night by night. This kinda implies that its the sound engineer rather than the band that contribute more to the "live" feel... Missing a conductor - you can have your conductor on video tape and timecode lock him/her to your sequencer or tape, and thus your cast dont feel abandoned. This is only necessary if you have gaps and the cast need to be cued. I used to have a sticker in my car, which came free with Melody Maker in 1970-something, a Muscians Union "Keep Music Live" sticker. It's gone, along with the car, and maybe with a bit of my integrity and social justice too, but I don't believe I sacrifice shows from the audience perspective by being willing to have the music canned. I'm in the business of putting on the best show possible, and sometimes (in fact every time) I dont get everything I want. ... and I am not prepared (I am director and producer) to sacrifice the artistic integrity of a live band, for the semi-convenience, of a pre-recorded band.Good for you, but just be certain your motives are sound, the show isn't for your benefit, it's for the audience. Money in theatre is always in short supply, spend your money on things that improve the show from the audiences perspective, not yours. I'm not saying this is or isn't in this particular case, it's just a general note. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeisacabaret Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 Well, I can get a band and I almost certainly wont have to pay, and in those circumstances, live is always the best solution. Therefore, I'll go for live thanks. Im well aware of the Sinfonia, but even that has a live element to it- its tempo is guided by a real person, and its used in conjunction with a real orchestra (Saigon UK Tour, Miserable Dykes in London). Completely recorded music might be fine for a provincial panto, but is not acceptable in the West End (look how badly Notre Dame fared), and I am aiming for the best for my production (who knows how much of this standard I will achieve- but im going for it nonetheless), so Ill go for live musicians. Plus, in my situation its likely to be far less hassle than a recorded orchestra. Bat Boy is too dynamic for a pre-recorded orchestra. Anyway, back to the TOPIC. The O1V96v2. Whats it like to actually operate in a live musical situation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Well, it just occurred to me that, if you haven't already read through it, lamplighter's thread about digital channel allocation would be worthwhile reading for you. One of the things to get your head around is mixing when you have layers to contend with and THIS THREAD might give you some ideas for when you're planning your channel allocations. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeisacabaret Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 Thanks very much- bedtime reading with the remainder of this Shiraz! ** laughs out loud ** JG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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