<p>Rigaudon: To answer your question about separate tracks – the answer is yes – the pieces can be saved as separate tracks – at least that was our experience in a professional recording studio. This would be especially necessary if different schools have different requirements and a different order in which the pieces had to be stored on the media.</p>
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<p>ImperialZeppelin and all,</p>
<p>Agreed in principle, but as noted on YouTube itself, the topic of ‘fair use’ needs to be considered for any work, copyright or not. If someone is not making money out of the project, if product is for demo only, and perhaps original copyright holder can benefit through promotion - then why not?</p>
<p>Some copyright restrictions go too far. I spent a good part of my working life commissioning heavy power plant that makes lotsa money for the owners. But I only got compensation for much creative work via a salary. But artists expect lifetime payment for their work. I agree with main protection and rights, but a flexible ‘fair use’ of artists work should be allowed. After all, the artist has ‘borrowed’ much from the past to help create his work. :)</p>
<p>Anyways. To be really fair and safe, S has emailed a couple of film companies to ask permission. Will be surprised if he gets an answer, but you never know.</p>
<p>Richard: I’m in 100% agreement on “fair use,” but that’s a murky area. Sending a letter is a good idea, but I too am skeptical to see if you get a response. </p>
<p>Unfortunately that’s not much haze on the subject of decrypting DVDs and BDs which, at least in the US, is still considered verboten. And, funny enough, it’s not just the movie studies that are fighting the decryption battle, but also the vendors of the encryption schemes. DVD Decrypter, the best free decryption program of its time was not brought down by Sony, the Lord Vader of DRM, but by Macrovision who was tired of seeing their “foolproof” decryption algorithms hacked. Ah but there are still those out there fighting the good fight. It only took the rabble 4 months to crack the latest Blu-Ray encryption algorithm which was touted by Sony as being good for at least 10 - 20 years…</p>
<p>Since very few CDs are encrypted, we didn’t have this battle before…</p>
<p>Rigaudon, The repertoire you describe is the complete audition requirement for a live audition at the top conservatories (I remember it well!). Unless things have changed (and I only checked one school, where it was still the same as it was two years ago), the pre-screen requires a much smaller sampling of work: a single movement from a sonata, and an etude, for example. My understanding then and now was that the full repertoire CD/DVD was only required for students who would not be doing live auditions, and that the smaller sampling is required in order to be invited to audition live.</p>
<p>In terms of the second part of your question, for DVD submissions (NFAA, etc) my S recorded in two sessions, but did the whole sonata, the whole 20th C piece, etc. in one sitting. He did not break up recording the sonata by movements, and I would imagine, although I don’t know this for a fact, that this would be preferable. In the real world, sonatas are not played in pieces, but in their entirety, and I would suspect that the adjudicators want to watch clean (not tracks) transitions from movement to movement. I could be wrong on this, but that was my impression, and that was what we did, and it is certainly what I would recommend. His prescreens were all CDs, with the shorter samplings, as mentioned above.</p>
<p>I am a member of a performing arts group that sells small quantities (typically 100-200 copies) of recordings of three or four different performances per year. These are mainly sold to the performers themselves and audience members at future concerts. I am also the one who has the task of obtaining the mechanical licenses for these recordings where applicable. I have found most of the rights holders to be quite accommodating when contacted, even when I frequently occupy much more of their time than is warranted by the $9 payment I am attempting to make. There have been a few right b<em>st</em>rds over the years, but they are few and far between and I usually only need to deal with them once. I would not be surprised at all if Richard’s son gets a response, although it may well happen long after his applications are due.</p>
<p>I have also learned that “fair use” is a very murky concept from a couple of lawyers that have been on our board of directors over the years. Aside from a few areas where a lot of precedents have been set (academic use,critical reviews and satires come to mind), things tend to get resolved after the fact through lawsuits if they are resolved at all. The sorts of issues Richard brings up would certainly be considered were a lawsuit to ensue, but I would not want to rely on them as being sufficient grounds to establish “fair use”. I think he is wise to tell his son not to post them to YouTube without an explicit agreement with the rights holder that permits such use. A physical disk, properly attributed and sent directly to an academic institution as part of an application, would be far less risky in the long run.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: Although I have spent far too much time speaking with lawyers about these issues, I myself am not a lawyer. Do not consider anything I say as legal advice.</p>
<p>Side-tracking for a moment about copyrights / patents.
RichardHK -
I am a writer, my S is a composer, and my H is an engineer, so I have a fair amount of experience with different aspects of creativity and “ownership”.</p>
<p>As I writer, I can offer “all rights” to a publisher, or a variety of other - “first time”, “one time”, “serial”, “international,” etc. It depends upon how badly I want to be published, or how many times I think the item is printable / sellable, or how much they’re offering.</p>
<p>If I were to accept a position with a small-town newspaper, chances are good as a staff reporter that I would be handing over all rights to the newspaper in exchange for a salary.</p>
<p>One wall of my office is plastered with plaques commemoratiing patent awards my H earned. His company does give a small, one-time monetary award for each patent he gets, but he does not continue to earn on these. The company has contracted for his creativity. They took the risk, not knowing whether he would produce or not. He certainly had the option of going alone and trying to create and sell his ideas – Bill Gates did it, and still has the rights to his products. Sometimes I daydream about how much money we could get if my H put his efforts into privately creating the new paper clip or whatever. However, he has chosen to sell “all rights” by accepting employment with the company.</p>
<p>It’s fair, as all parties agreed to it.</p>
<p>My S, the composer, has yet to earn anything for any of his compositions. At this point, it is still a supreme honor for him to have someone request to perform something. Hornplayer David Jolley commissioned a piece last year - 20 minutes, 4 movements. It remains a highlight for S, even though he earned nothing from it. His “payment” was via exposure by a big name. It is still copyrighted, and anyone wishing to perform it needs his permission. This is fair; it offers control - that it is properly attributed, that his name is spelled right, etc. Someday I hope that he will begin to earn money from his work. When he does, it will take a long time to recoup the hours he spent unpaid. That artists like the Beatles make millions on their copyrights is not the norm.</p>
<p>Thanks KeyofH and Allmusic. Just a comment in response to Allmusic’s reply. I just did a quick review of various undergrad piano performance programs about prescreening, and there is tremendous variation in what is expected. One school may specify a smaller sample of pieces required for the prescreening, another may specify a particular length (e.g., 30 minutes) for the prescreening recording and another may say that the audition repertoire for prescreening must be the same as what is required for the live audition. And to make things more complicated, a couple of schools we saw state that they are changing the prescreening requirements for this year and may not have the new requirements posted until September. Another school has not had prescreenings, but is going to start having them this year, with announcement to come in September. I agree Allmusic that the list I wrote would be the most demanding/comprehensive, but there also music schools in universities as well as conservatories that require similar repertoire for piano performance applicants. </p>
<p>I can see it is really important to read the instructions carefully, since they are so individualized by program and subject to change.</p>
<p>Hi, I am following all of this with interest but am getting overwhelmed. I just have a simple question for Richard HK and N8, I did view Richard’s son Matt on Youtube (very talented!) and was impressed by the quality of sound and clarity of video. Did you record this on a home video recorder, and if so which one? And N8, obviously not being able to speak for all institutions, is this quality of recording something that would be acceptable to Bard? We will need to record D soon for camp next year and I was wondering about spending large money professionally or just do the home video thing.</p>
<p>Glad you asked the question – I would love to hear suggestions for nonprofessional level camcorders that provide adequate audio quality (without or without an external mic) and are easy-to-use. Suggestions concerning video editing programs that are also easy-to-use and understand for the uninitiated would also be very much appreciated.</p>
<p>Look for past posts by both BassDad and Imperial Zeppelin (recording, supplements, or similar keywords) for background. I’m sure the tech savvy will be glad to help.</p>
<p>Key is external microphone. Sony makes a nice stereo one. If you pair that up with any HD camcorder or a higher end digital, non-HD, camera, you should be fine. DO NOT use video on digital camera or cell phones… </p>
<p>Don’t forget to get the microphone in the proper location, you may want to play a few times prior to really recording. I used the Sony microphone to record D’s HS senior recital and found the sound I got when I recorded up in the balcony better than the sound from the on stage multi-microphone setup that the school used.</p>
<p>For simple editing, Windows built-in Movie Maker is fine. Apple has a good video editor also embedded in the OS. If you want something pretty intuitive on the PC side, with lots of features but a short learning curve and a decent price, go for Avid Studio Ultimate. And if you’re a real glutton for a punishing learning curve and price, but want the best, both for PC and Mac, go for Adobe Premiere.</p>
<p>Not directly related to editing videos for musicians & college apps, but we had to do something similiar for my D’s Common App Arts Supplement for her ballet performances.</p>
<p>I ended up using an easy-to-use video editor called Nero. It allowed me to take video clips from our video camera, as well as clips recorded on various DVDs, put it all together with a pre-designed video menu, so that people can click on various video clips from the menu and play them.</p>
<p>Nero also allowed me to edit each specific video clip (cut it shorter, fade into another clip, etc.) and even annotate them (e.g., add an arrow, text or other symbols within a specific start/end frame of the clip.</p>
<p>[Nero</a> - leading digital media solutions, CD burning software, DVD burning software - Official Site](<a href=“http://www.nero.com%5DNero”>http://www.nero.com)</p>
<p>In my opinion, DVD auditions are very successful method of getting accepted to music schools and are cost effective, if sending them eliminates some of the air travel, hotels, etc required to investigate out of state schools and “long shot” applications.
I would advise using the best possible sound recording - and to retain the services of a audio pro or use a local sound studio. You need to sound great on your audition and a cheap A/V microphone won’t suffice. Wind, brass and string players should be recorded with high end, studio condenser microphones. With piano, mallet percussion and drum set, multiple microphone set ups and some degree of mixing are critical. Most professional recording studios have well maintained (and tuned) grand piano, in a “acoustically designed” environment as well as experience with microphone placement. You also don’t need to worry about extraneous noise (dogs barking, car alarms, leaf blowers) creating problems when using professional sound studios. A few studios, at least in the SF Bay area, have special rates for music student auditions - so you should always ask!
The visual part of the DVD is probably best if not overly professional. It must be an unedited, single angle shot, close enough to see some of the visible clues of proficiency… but nothing fancy. Edited pieces are real “negatives” for auditioning students. Each performance must be captured in “one take”.
If you have great audio, up front, any consumer camcorder, desktop video editing program and DVD authoring software will get you there.</p>
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<p>Hi CLR8MOM and all,</p>
<p>Thanks for kind comments on Matt’s performance. He is very chuffed as they say back in Blighty. On the sound and video quality, well that’s Dad’s domain, so here are some comments. (In addition to many good points made by others already.)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>My camera is a semi-pro handycam. A Sony A1 HDV with single CMOS chip. As noted above, just about any current camcorder will give you excellent performance. HDV or equivalent high-definition is best, as YouTube accepts HD content now. All shooting in HDV widescreen format.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes overwhelmingly to using a good external microphone, so be sure the camcorder can accept this Ok. Experiment for best position out of shot. (See separate audio comment below). I am a Sony man, so any stereo separate microphone designed to work with one of their camcorders would be good. Not expensive. Using any cameras in-built microphone will never work well. Poor quality sounds from all around camcorder!</p></li>
<li><p>Video editing software. Like PC vs Mac, a contentious area perhaps, but you do not need a full-blown software. On PC, MS Movie Maker can do job Ok (but, to follow). And on Mac the included iMovie is fine. But on PC, I would strongly recommend “Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum”. And not cos it’s Sony! I have used Vegas since it was Sonic Foundry on v3 at which point Sony bought them out for good reason. Vegas is top class quality, cheap, and includes everything you need for HDV projects and DVDs within minor limits of video tracks. Vegas also outputs in YouTube format so you are ready to go as soon as complete!</p></li>
<li><p>On video quality with your cheap/good camcorder, main need is for lots of natural light (preferably). Use a white board/similar to reflect light if needed to even up picture. I used a silver screen behind Matt on all videos to light the rear wall. His Clavinova is stuck in a corner of the room and lighting not great.</p></li>
<li><p>Use a tripod for camcorder. And experiment with different angles as I have. Last upload (Pine Apple Rag) had an extreme angle to maximise keyboard/hands and looks quite good (we think!). You may need a cheap ball adaptor and high tripod reach to get that.</p></li>
<li><p>On audio quality, our first upload (Maple Leaf Rag) used a separate good microphone and you can hear performance noises on the keys and seat. I was not too happy with this, as well as fact I needed to turn air conditioner off, and all other nearby appliances and phones, to get a good sound. Over 30 degrees most days at present in Hong Kong.</p></li>
<li><p>As Matt uses an electronic Clavinova piano, remainder of uploads used a separate audio recorder direct from piano. Absolutely clean and you can run the air con, answer the phone, and anything else while S or D is playing! On completion, you transfer recorded sound (WAV or high-quality MP3) to PC (Mac) after shoot finished to replace camcorder microphone sound. Easy to do if you have a good quality recorder, and you can synchronise easily by matching the two audio waveforms. Delete or mute the camera sound when ready to make your final video.</p></li>
<li><p>Final quality touch inside Vegas for sound is to add a little compression through the included audio effects presets, and a little bit of reverb if needed, again through a preset. Not too difficult and trust your ears.</p></li>
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<p>Let me know if you need anymore help. I do think most folks could really enjoy doing this rather than hiring a pro/whatever. And with Vegas/similar software, you also get to compile that DVD of all pieces of course.</p>
<p>RichardHK - thought I’d better listen quick before the mods remove the link (YouTube links aren’t allowed, but mods don’t monitor this part of CC very much, so maybe they won’t notice!)</p>
<p>I just wanted to say Matt is wonderful - and adorable to boot! I love his little smile at the end - triumphant to have met his goal. I totally enjoyed his performance.</p>
<p>RichardHK, just to tack on to what binx wrote above, the PPS in your post #15 was an acceptable alternative to a direct posting of a link. </p>
<p>On the other other hand, many are reluctant to reveal detail that is “personal” in nature on an “open” forum, and will add the tag “PM me for a link”.</p>
<p>Just food for thought, and something for all to consider.</p>
<p>Richard, please do not take this as a slight at all (since your son is clearly talented), but does Matt play and or record on an acoustic piano too? Digital sound can never completely replicate real acoustic sound, and the nuance and tonal “color” of acoustic is lost, or minimized with digital. Even the Graded Hammer Effect on the Clavinovas are still simulations of “real” action, or the real touch and feel of an acoustic grand. </p>
<p>I would try to record audition CDs or DVDs on an acoustic, if you have access to one (piano teacher, local music school?) if at all possible. </p>
<p>Just my $.02, for what it is worth! :)</p>
<p>That’s a good point, Allmusic. </p>
<p>According to the info on his page, he is interested in video and movie music. I’m not sure he’s even interested in auditioning for “typical” piano programs. Under favorite music, he doesn’t even list classical. (Which struck me as interesting, since his recorded music includes classical stuff.) If I’m wrong, and he does want to study piano performance, then I would encourage him to include some suggestion of liking the kind of music performance majors spend most of their time on, just in case teachers see his site and are concerned by that. ;)</p>
<p>But Allmusic is right about the need to be familiar with acoustic pianos. I have a new student who came to me after a couple years of lessons elsewhere. (Long story - she has some major problems to overcome.) Yesterday, one issue that came up was that she had no idea how to change dynamics. Her other teacher would tell her to play something louder, and she’d just turn up the volume on her keyboard. (A thousand dollar touch-sensitive keyboard, and she had no idea she could make it louder by pressing harder.) At another point, she had a bass whole note that was tied for several measures. She replayed it after 8 beats or so, and I pointed out that it should just be held. “But it quit making sound,” she said, used to her keyboard’s continuous sound. So we had a quick lesson in overtones caused by the vibration of strings.</p>
<p>Sorry for the side-track of the recording thread!</p>
<p>“multiple microphone set ups and some degree of mixing are critical”</p>
<p>“add a little compression through the included audio effects presets, and a little bit of reverb if needed”</p>
<p>I have no idea what mixing, compression, or reverb mean in the context of making an audition dvd, but I got the impression that these things are done to improve the quality of the sound. Is there any point at which this could go from improving less than optimal sound recording quality to enhancing the sound in a way that would give one applicant any unfair advantage? For example, I was wondering if this technology can be used in any way that could correct or obscure a mistake (e.g., playing too loudly or harshly at any point, or too heavy-handed bass on piano). I certainly do not mean to insult anyone who has given useful (but sometimes difficult to understand) advice. Thanks, and my apologies in advance if this was a silly question.</p>
<p>Rigadaun, no editing, enhancing or “manipulation” is allowed at all, on any audition tape, as far as I know. I think all of the conservatories are very clear about that, but I remember conversations on CC in the past, where students have thought that this requirement was “no big deal” and basically edited anyway. Good sound editors may be able to get away with it, but it is still dishonest, and against the rules and regulations set forth by the adjudicators.</p>
<p>One can edit between pieces (if there is noise, chairs moving, throat clearing, etc), but not during, and certainly not by adding reverb etc. Again, this is my understanding, and others could correct me if their understanding is different!</p>