Fun listening exercise

[nicholash]

Hi,

Here is a what is meant to be a fun listening exercise:

The following 3 minute 45 second (3.5 MB, 128 kbps) mp3 contains an edited live performance recording of an unusual band playing excerpts from various pieces of music: http://www.btinternet.com/~veridical.sounds/band1.mp3 (\"http://www.btinternet.com/~veridical.sounds/band1.mp3\")

Absolutely no sequencing has been used in this performance: It is all live.

When this recording was made, roughly 10 years ago, one of the musicians was approximately 67 years old. He certainly had plenty of energy and was probably much fitter than me!

For this \'exercise\', I would like you to respond with:

1) How many musicians you think are in this band?

2) Which instruments are NOT sampled?

Please have a go and respond: It really doesn\'t matter if you get the answers wrong. I think some of you will be surprised when I reveal the answers.

Best regards
Nicholas

p.s. Sorry about the relatively poor sound quality of the recording: If I remember correctly, the mics were at least 30 feet away from the musicians, and I am using a second or third generation cassette recording from which to produce the mp3.

[nicholash]

Hi,

Since I have received no responses at all for this listening exercise so far, I will keep the mp3 available for one more day.

After that, I will remove the file from my web space.

Nicholas

[Munsie]

Please ignore my previous moment of being an . http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Munsie (edited 09-20-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Munsie (edited 09-20-2001).]

[Damon]

Hey Nicholas,
That is the strangest rendition of a Superman medley I have ever heard http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/cool.gif! It\'s hard for me to tell how many players there are because there\'s so much percussion and other things-I couldn\'t really keep up.
As for the instruments, these are my guesses:

1. Brass in the very beginning sounds sampled, alot of the rest sounds real. Not quite sure.

2. Percussion and drums sound real, maybe the bells might be sampled. Very good samples if they are.

3. At 2:10, the strings sound fake to me.

4. The piano sounds sampled as well.

Very interesting piece of music Nicholas!

[nicholash]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Munsie:
Not trying to piss you off or anything, just my two cents worth. Why not put up a web page with surveys or voting scripts, etc. And place ALL of your questions on one page, and just tell us where this page is so those that want to participate can, and the rest of us don\'t have to constantly see your sample tests/questions in the most recent topics of this forum all the time. Be gentle, I meant no dis-respect... http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The \'listening exercises\' are not meant to be some sort of \'test\' requiring simple yes/no/real/sampled type answers. They are meant to stimulate discussion about sampling and recording techniques in a hopefully fun and interactive way. If you care to read my posts, you should clearly be able to tell that I am asking for descriptive reasons for any choices (and not just yes/no or real/sampled type answers). With a voting type script you don\'t get the descriptive reasons and you don\'t get discussion going.

I think the exercises are relevant to a sampling discussion forum. Why does it bother you so much that the \'listening exercise\' threads often appear in the recent topics of this forum?

Nicholas

[nicholash]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Damon:
Hey Nicholas,
That is the strangest rendition of a Superman medley I have ever heard http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/cool.gif! It\'s hard for me to tell how many players there are because there\'s so much percussion and other things-I couldn\'t really keep up.
As for the instruments, these are my guesses:

1. Brass in the very beginning sounds sampled, alot of the rest sounds real. Not quite sure.

2. Percussion and drums sound real, maybe the bells might be sampled. Very good samples if they are.

3. At 2:10, the strings sound fake to me.

4. The piano sounds sampled as well.

Very interesting piece of music Nicholas!

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks very much Damon.

I\'ll probably reveal the answers tomorrow, so that Munsie doesn\'t have to keep seeing this thread in the most recent threads list for this forum!

Best regards
Nicholas

[Z6]

Hey Nicolas, keep \'em coming. Thank god someone is doing something enjoyable here. I\'m just about ready to throw the towel in, and although I don\'t respond to all of your \'tests\' I enjoy them very much.

I\'m sick to death of smart arse comments and bitching. You can hardly post anything without some superior git flapping his lips or rolling his eyes. (This is not directed at all at you, Munsie. But this guy takes a lot of time over this, and it hurts nobody).

I thought this group might be fun but it\'s turning into the usual elitist bitching session (again, not you Munsie). If only, instead of stupid smiley faces, we could program a lump of ****e to spring out of the screen, or we could smack people upside the head, they might find better manners. The internet allows a lot of sad people to get away with things they wouldn\'t dare, face to face (not you Munsie - is this boring yet?) If anyone does decide to flame me, then you can have this group, leave it to the \'experts\'. I\'m beginning to think Endicott was on to something.

Please let people just post what the hell they want - if you don\'t like it, don\'t read it (which, I\'m on the verge of doing myself).

And thanks, Nicolas, for the light relief.

[nicholash]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Z6:
Hey Nicolas, keep \'em coming. Thank god someone is doing something enjoyable here. I\'m just about ready to throw the towel in, and although I don\'t respond to all of your \'tests\' I enjoy them very much.

I\'m sick to death of smart arse comments and bitching. You can hardly post anything without some superior git flapping his lips or rolling his eyes. (This is not directed at all at you, Munsie. But this guy takes a lot of time over this, and it hurts nobody).

I thought this group might be fun but it\'s turning into the usual elitist bitching session (again, not you Munsie). If only, instead of stupid smiley faces, we could program a lump of ****e to spring out of the screen, or we could smack people upside the head, they might find better manners. The internet allows a lot of sad people to get away with things they wouldn\'t dare, face to face (not you Munsie - is this boring yet?) If anyone does decide to flame me, then you can have this group, leave it to the \'experts\'. I\'m beginning to think Endicott was on to something.

Please let people just post what the hell they want - if you don\'t like it, don\'t read it (which, I\'m on the verge of doing myself).

And thanks, Nicolas, for the light relief.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Z6,

Thank you very much for your kind words.

I really like this forum because it is so alive, active and full of interesting discussions (often including some mp3 demos to support them).

Thanks
Nicholas
p.s. I didn\'t mind Endicott\'s posts at all because they certainly stimulated interesting discussion, which I always looked forward to reading.

[esperlad]

most of it sounded very real.

only a couple places here and there sound artificial.

flight of the bumble bee did not sound too real.

[nicholash]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by esperlad:
most of it sounded very real.

only a couple places here and there sound artificial.

flight of the bumble bee did not sound too real.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks esperlad.

Maybe the \"flight of the bumble bee\" didn\'t sound too real because it wasn\'t played? http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

Best regards
Nicholas
p.s. Anyone want to guess how many musicians are in the band?

[mschiff]

My guess is that it is a one man band.

-- Martin

[Chadwick]

We had a local organ player who did a lot of this - he played trumpet with one hand and comped on the organ with his left, his feet, and full blast auto accompaniment doing totally over the top arpeggios etc., He loved to play all the hero anthems.

But the drums sound real - so maybe it\'s two or three guys?

[nicholash]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Thomas_J:
Hi Nicolash, just listened to your mp3 and I really enjoyed the arrangement! Too bad I didn\'t get it at first or I would have participated in this discussion! Very good! question: where do you come in here? did you perform any of the instruments?

Thomas<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Many thanks for your kind comments, Thomas.

On some of the other \'listening exercises\' I have been one of the performers in some of the excerpts. In some of those cases, that is how I actually have the recordings in the first place. (None of the recordings used for any of the excerpts are actually commercially available).

I\'m hoping that the \'listening exercises\' may be a powerful and interesting (but hopefully fun rather than uncomfortable) way of encouraging people to review their assumptions about various aspects of sampling and recording. When people are surpised at some of the answers to the exercises, it is hopefully an effective way of encouraging discussion and active thinking.

Best regards
Nicholas

[nicholash]

Hi,

Here are the answers:

There are four musicians in the band:
1) Keyboard player
2) Trumpet player
3) Sax player (who doubles on flute)
4) Drums/percussion player (approx. 67 years old at the time of the recording).

This quartet used to play music for dancing to, but don\'t request them to play a slow waltz! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

The real instruments in the recording were:
Solo Trumpet, solo Sax, solo Flute, All drums and all percussion (except the piano).

Best regards
Nicholas
p.s. I will shortly remove the mp3 from my web space.

[Thomas_J]

Hi Nicolash, just listened to your mp3 and I really enjoyed the arrangement! Too bad I didn\'t get it at first or I would have participated in this discussion! Very good! question: where do you come in here? did you perform any of the instruments?

Thomas