A Musical Time
My wife and I have played music together for 30 years. During that period folks have shared videos they've taken, but it seems the audio quality was always lacking. That's not the fault of the person doing the "filming", it's simply that basic hand held devices most often produce sound quality that is less than stellar. I have always appreciated the folks who have been kind enough to pass their videos along to us, but we've wanted something a bit more top shelf. When we went into the studio last fall, and recorded a few of our old time tunes, we knew that was the opportunity to combine good audio, with good video, and come away with a very useable product.
We have a friend here semi-locally who does great video work, so we got her involved with the project from the start. She's actually the one who set up the recording session, and she was there during the recording, filming as we went. I'll say here, the recording session was intense. Under normal circumstances you'd lay down tracks one at a time. That way you could start/stop each individual track, and do as many takes as needed to get that particular piece of the puzzle correct. We wanted more of a "live" sound, so we had multiple mics set up, and we did as many takes of the entire song as was necessary to get it right. If we made a mistake somewhere in the song, we had to stop, reset, and start all over again. That's hard enough, but add to that someone with a video camera moving all around you while you're playing, and it becomes a real challenge.
We got through the recording session just fine, and ended up getting keeper versions of four songs in under three hours, which is actually pretty good. With the recording studio video done then, we still needed live video at a historical site, and last Sunday afternoon we made that happen at an outdoor museum in a town about an hour and a half south of us.
Yes, this was all a lot of work, and yes, it cost real dollars to make it happen, but we ended up with a video that not only can we use to show prospective employers, but one that we can have available for our kids/grandkids long after we're gone. So, I'll go ahead and post that video here for you, and we hope you enjoy it.
The Old Cane Press
Well Gene, that was a real TREAT! Wow! Was that you and your wife? VERY TALENTED, the both of you. And gardeners, too. Holy smokers. I play the banjo, too, but not very well. I would love to take more lessons. Sadly, the man who taught me how to play at all has gone to the other side and there are no other banjo teachers I know of around here. Anyway, I had never heard that song and I think it is just delightful. Thanks for sharing! As for fixing up the grounds of the home where you and your wife now live, be sure to plant some "daffodillies." Susan
ReplyDeleteWow Gene, the pair of you have tremendous talent. Beautiful song in this video, I really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteYou two sound great, and like you said it will be nice for future family to see you performing. I would love if I could see video of my grandparents they passed before I was born.
ReplyDeleteThank you all. Yes that is my wife and I. Next December we'll have been married for 45 years, and we've played music together for 30+ years. And, just for Susan, we will plant some "daffodillies".
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