<p>No auto tune and absolutely no editing inside the piece. As far as running a parallel audio recording, I second the opinion that it shouldn’t be done. I’ve done a bit of location recording for film and had access to the gear but found that it sounded too dry and clinical and flat compared to the camera. With high school students in your home you want a little less inaccuracy and a lot more energy. Of course one of the problems with a camera mic is that you have to get the mic the right distance from the performer and then just have to accept the visual, so your room can’t be too ambient. Forget the syncing audio thing. Even when you know what you are doing and have the editing software ( I use an Avid system at home ) it’s a complete pain and sometimes it doesn’t “look” quite right even though it is. And then there’s all this conversion stuff to deal with, where the syncing can get off again. </p>
<p>A few more suggestions: </p>
<p>While trying different recording set ups you might have your kid play a similar piece and not the one they are going to record so that a) they don’t get burned out on it and b) they don’t play THE take while you are screwing around with the recording settings. The latter really sucks; you don’t want to keep hearing about the “take take that got away”. </p>
<p>I know this one is hard to do and doesn’t work if you involve outside people or have other, younger children around, but if you can set up and go through all the technical stuff the day before it really helps. Who’s going to feel inspired after dad or mom has been trying to figure out how to run stuff for three hours. This kills things for adult professional musicians in recording studios and for a high school kid…?</p>
<p>ALWAYS review the final videos before they go out. Somehow the audio got out of sync with the video on one of ours and it looked like a total cheat, which it wasn’t. Strange things can happen. It’s like proof reading a term paper. </p>
<p>And lastly, I’m not going to add the confusion about compression, but just know that their are two schools of thought about its use and both have merits. I ended up using the “normal” setting for compression on my camera because it sounded so good. In our case it added some life to the recording. When I recorded my girl with a pianist the compression helped because I had her stand a couple of feet in front of the piano and the compressor made her instrument always sound on top. Like I said before, whatever sounds best. </p>
<p>We definitely won’t get in the day before to practice, but maybe we can show up a little earlier. The pianist comes about 1/2 hour after we were to start since ds will record unaccompanied songs, but maybe we’ll come even earlier. I’ll contact the person helping us. Fortunately, he’s a pro and knows what he’s doing, so that really helps. I’ll see what he says about compression, etc. In fact, I think I’ll email him my son’s first videos so he can see what I’m talking about when I say “flat”.</p>
<p>Thanks again. Really appreciate all the help! Funny thing is that I’m sure my son won’t get into these colleges that the supplement is for, but it’s worth a shot anyways. And we’ll have some great keeper videos hopefully. I’m actually enjoying the ones we already have, but am hopeful for even better ones.</p>
<p>(And am I the only sentimental mom that watches their kids Youtube videos over and over? LOL!)</p>
<p>@sbjdorlo I think the suggestion was to get in the day before to set up the video and audio recording equipment, so that the time spent on recording day can be about the recording, rather than about making an already-nervous kid wait while parents/videographer mess around with setup. You can have someone stand in for musician, just for positioning.</p>
<p>This is exactly the approach I’m promoting! And yes, sbjdorlo I love my audition videos as they are sort of an extension of filming the kid at a concert or recital. </p>
<p>sbjdorlo, wait until they are off to college and you don’t hear the music in the house anymore…those YouTube videos will be watched again and again and will help a little when you start missing them a lot…</p>
<p>Yes, that’s what I do now since my oldest is a junior in college! But my favorites are of my boys playing duets (cello and violin) and a particular trio they performed with a violist. Almost always makes me cry. Isn’t it a blessing to have children that play music? As a non-musician, I feel particularly fortunate.</p>
<p>Speaking of my cellist-</p>
<p>He rerecorded yesterday. I, the pianist and my sister who was in town, thought his concerto sounded really good and better than the original, but now he’s saying he felt it was weaker, so we are currently at odds. We are waiting for the final version to get to us. I used my little recorder, but the person who helped us did only audio-and it was awesome audio-so he says he’s going to sync them together. The video quality is, of course, not as good as the original, but I am hopeful that with his audio, my son will realize he sounded awesome. He can be so hard on himself when he’s tired or not in a good mood. He did like one of the unaccompanied cello suites better this time around, so we’ll definitely use that.</p>
<p>I didn’t want to say, “I told you so”, but part of the issue was that he didn’t get going in time to do a couple of takes to see what distance the recorder worked best at, and I have a feeling he was responding to the fact that the original was louder (but less nuanced). </p>
<p>Well, live and learn! I think there’s enough good stuff to communicate his finesse and abilities.</p>
<p>I have a confession to make - I have audio files of my D practicing, and have been known to turn them on loud and then go into the kitchen to make dinner. It feels like she is just around the corner. It has been a long semester!</p>
<p>The thing I miss the most is making dinner while hearing my daughter practicing in her room. The first year she was gone I found myself listening to viola music while making dinner. </p>
<p>Never mind the video quality if your kid likes a certain take: that’s enough ! It’s funny but I’ve been sticking microphones in front of musicians for forty years but there is nothing so difficult as recording your own child. Best of luck to all of you. Best of luck to me too, as my daughter will be recording at home some of her pieces for summer camps and I’ll be back behind the mic again. Sometimes it’s the easiest gig all year. </p>
<p>So we are down to the wire on deciding which video to use. After listening to both versions, my son is torn. Maybe you can offer advice.</p>
<p>The first one-the more flat recording-is solid all the way through, with little mistakes, but nothing terrible. That was the one my son sent to one of his schools and the orchestra director gave him positive feedback.</p>
<p>The second one is better overall in terms of dynamics, tempo, and sound quality…but at the very end of the cadenza, he does a run and makes two intonation mistakes. They’re not horrible, but it’s right at the end of the song. </p>
<p>He can’t decide which to use.</p>
<p>Any thoughts?? December 1st is approaching.</p>
<p>Oh, and his beloved teacher <em>still</em> hasn’t uploaded his letter of recommendation. Oy vey!</p>
<p>That’s impossible to decide without hearing them and knowing your student. I always go with my instinct, but it’s an instinct refined by years of producing music. I don’t usually choose safe, but that’s me and it has to be right with you guys. However,all disclaimers aside, I think by the time the screeners get to the end, where the intonation problems are, they will have already decided if they like this performance or not. It’s better to mess up at the end than to mess up at the beginning. The nature of the mistakes don’t sound ( without hearing ) too bad, though. Everyone makes intonation mistakes once in a while. Fixing intonation is part of what they are going to music school for and the teachers know that. </p>
<p>We had the same problem with our beloved teacher too. </p>
<p>This is what I have heard also, that the beginning of a piece is more important in a prescreening recording than the end. However, if the cadenza is an important spot that the listener might fast-forward to, that is something to consider.</p>
<p>Thank you, both. I am leaning towards the new recording. I just love the dynamics. Most of the cadenza is spot on. It literally is the last two second run that he blows. My son is a perfectionist and doesn’t often like what he hears, but he was definitely reconsidering after his initial displeasure.</p>
<p>I have truly appreciated your feedback and experience more than I can say!!</p>
<p>Thanks, compmom! My son’s teacher concurred that the new recording was better and my son now sees that the new recordings are definitely better, so that’s what he used. Feels good to be done and satisfied with the recordings!</p>