It seems that our story poll went lost.
So here you have the two missing stories:
The ladder story:
Again the Philharmonic Tubulars.
Happy when they arrived in our studio, we had 14 hours to record them (they had to be back when the opera closed this evening).
And wow, the deep bells are long – nearly 2.5 meters.
Our percussionist (he is not very tall) told me that the tubulars had to be stroken at their top end, hm.
In the opera they have a special ladder to reach the top.
Ok, we need a chair – hm, not high enough.
I called the tennis court and asked for the high jury chairs:
No chance, because they are locked with big screws.
So we took a 2 meter ladder. I asked the musician, sitting on the top of the ladder, if it is possible for him to play. He nodded.
First we checked out how long the tubulars were sounding. First stroke – 5 minutes later – the tubular still ringing.
I said: “stop it, we can’t record such long sustains, we’ll need more than 30 hours for all mallets and dynamics.
What can we do? I hate the software fade outs.”
The musician (becoming a real hero) showed me his damping technique: moving his flat hand slowly down to the top end of the tubular,
so he reduced the oscillation of the air.
An absolut real sounding fade out.
“OK, let the tubular ring for one and a half minute then make your hand fade out – a superslow movement with the hand over more than 40 seconds.
If everything works right we get the stuff recorded in 14 hours – but you cannot make any pauses, OK?”
“OK” (a real hero).
Next we checked how low we can record the pp. The musician played ppp: what a wonderful sound!
I asked the recording engineer, if it is possible.
Possible but we are boosting the preamp for more than 60 dB.
I looked to the musician: “Do you know what that means?”
How should he know. “OK you must not breath during recording, we test how long you could hold your breath.”
Oh, only 40 seconds. “Try breathing through your nose … forget it. Breath very slowly for a long period, 5 seconds in 5 seconds out. Ok, that works.”
Asking the technician if this is OK. He hears no breathing, but is not sure if he hears heartbeats…
“OK, lets test how long you can stop your heartbeat….”
The technician interrupted me and said that he was just kidding.
Very funny!
We started recording, our musician breathing flatly, not allowed to activate any muscle (the ladder would creak), moving his hand 40 seconds over a distance of 30 centimeters.
Over and over again.
Everything worked perfect, I had associations: Armstrong on the moon, Reinhold Messner alone on Mount Everest without oxygen.
Incredible what human beings can bear.
We were good in time, and the musician asked if it is possible to make a little break, his legs were hurting. Of course you can. The telephone rings, and I was told that the programm in the opera has been changed and they need the tubulars. They will come and collect them. Oh no.
Our hero told me, they would need only 4 tubulars, 2 of them were already finished.
“We’ll make the other two, no problem, we will finish these two before they arrive.. “
We finished the two tubulars. And I asked the musician, if he wanted to make the break now.
He disagreed, because he didn’t have any feeling in his legs any more. He was not sure if he could climb up the ladder again.
So what should we do? We continued recording.
The pursuit:
The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, specialized on music of the 20th century, has one of the biggest percussion collections I’ve ever seen (or will ever see).
One highlight is their gong collection. Tonal range over 3 and a half octave (semitones of course). The biggest one is tuned to C2, probably one of the deepest gongs of the world.
We got the permission to record their incredible collection – but the really rare instruments had to be recorded on their own stages.
The stages of the Vienna Radio station are great, really big halls. But one problem with such deep and powerfull sounding instruments like a gong are the oszillations in the room. Everything which is not fixed 100% begins to shatter. It was obvious that we had to prepare the recording stage before. First we had to find out which stage is best. So I took the large C Gong and the biggest mallet I found and went to the first stage. A string quartett just wanted to start a rehearsel. I apologized and said, that I only need a few minutes to check something out for our recordings the next day.
I placed the Gong in the middle of the stage and made the strongest hit I was able to do on the instrument, afterwards carefully listening if I hear noises or crackles during the gong sounding. I checked every direction turning the Gong in 30 degree steps like a canon. After the 3rd turn the Gong pointed directly to the four musicians. They didn’t look happy - immediateley packed their instruments an left the room.
“Sorry, guys!”
“No problem, we’ll find another place.”
I finished my testing and went to the second stage. Again the four musicians inside just wanted to start their rehearsal.
They stared at me with open mouths when I prepared my first stroke.
“Wait a moment, we are leaving, we are leaving…”
“Really only one minute, I’m so sorry”, but they already ran towards the door.
The Gong seemed to be really loud.
I finished my testing, the room was better than the first one. Only 3-4 problems inside.
But I wanted to test the third stage (the biggest one) as well.
Guess what - the string quartet inside. This time with resignated faces.
“You are kidding?” they asked.
“Only one beat please, I’m sure this room is no option for us, I just want to check out.”
One hard beat, and I heard that I was right. Spots were installed on the stage ceiling, it was clear that their screws would crackle.
I apologized again, but they decided to make their lunch break – they were not able to tune their instruments at the moment, I was told.
So here you have the two missing stories:
The ladder story:
Again the Philharmonic Tubulars.
Happy when they arrived in our studio, we had 14 hours to record them (they had to be back when the opera closed this evening).
And wow, the deep bells are long – nearly 2.5 meters.
Our percussionist (he is not very tall) told me that the tubulars had to be stroken at their top end, hm.
In the opera they have a special ladder to reach the top.
Ok, we need a chair – hm, not high enough.
I called the tennis court and asked for the high jury chairs:
No chance, because they are locked with big screws.
So we took a 2 meter ladder. I asked the musician, sitting on the top of the ladder, if it is possible for him to play. He nodded.
First we checked out how long the tubulars were sounding. First stroke – 5 minutes later – the tubular still ringing.
I said: “stop it, we can’t record such long sustains, we’ll need more than 30 hours for all mallets and dynamics.
What can we do? I hate the software fade outs.”
The musician (becoming a real hero) showed me his damping technique: moving his flat hand slowly down to the top end of the tubular,
so he reduced the oscillation of the air.
An absolut real sounding fade out.
“OK, let the tubular ring for one and a half minute then make your hand fade out – a superslow movement with the hand over more than 40 seconds.
If everything works right we get the stuff recorded in 14 hours – but you cannot make any pauses, OK?”
“OK” (a real hero).
Next we checked how low we can record the pp. The musician played ppp: what a wonderful sound!
I asked the recording engineer, if it is possible.
Possible but we are boosting the preamp for more than 60 dB.
I looked to the musician: “Do you know what that means?”
How should he know. “OK you must not breath during recording, we test how long you could hold your breath.”
Oh, only 40 seconds. “Try breathing through your nose … forget it. Breath very slowly for a long period, 5 seconds in 5 seconds out. Ok, that works.”
Asking the technician if this is OK. He hears no breathing, but is not sure if he hears heartbeats…
“OK, lets test how long you can stop your heartbeat….”
The technician interrupted me and said that he was just kidding.
Very funny!
We started recording, our musician breathing flatly, not allowed to activate any muscle (the ladder would creak), moving his hand 40 seconds over a distance of 30 centimeters.
Over and over again.
Everything worked perfect, I had associations: Armstrong on the moon, Reinhold Messner alone on Mount Everest without oxygen.
Incredible what human beings can bear.
We were good in time, and the musician asked if it is possible to make a little break, his legs were hurting. Of course you can. The telephone rings, and I was told that the programm in the opera has been changed and they need the tubulars. They will come and collect them. Oh no.
Our hero told me, they would need only 4 tubulars, 2 of them were already finished.
“We’ll make the other two, no problem, we will finish these two before they arrive.. “
We finished the two tubulars. And I asked the musician, if he wanted to make the break now.
He disagreed, because he didn’t have any feeling in his legs any more. He was not sure if he could climb up the ladder again.
So what should we do? We continued recording.
The pursuit:
The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, specialized on music of the 20th century, has one of the biggest percussion collections I’ve ever seen (or will ever see).
One highlight is their gong collection. Tonal range over 3 and a half octave (semitones of course). The biggest one is tuned to C2, probably one of the deepest gongs of the world.
We got the permission to record their incredible collection – but the really rare instruments had to be recorded on their own stages.
The stages of the Vienna Radio station are great, really big halls. But one problem with such deep and powerfull sounding instruments like a gong are the oszillations in the room. Everything which is not fixed 100% begins to shatter. It was obvious that we had to prepare the recording stage before. First we had to find out which stage is best. So I took the large C Gong and the biggest mallet I found and went to the first stage. A string quartett just wanted to start a rehearsel. I apologized and said, that I only need a few minutes to check something out for our recordings the next day.
I placed the Gong in the middle of the stage and made the strongest hit I was able to do on the instrument, afterwards carefully listening if I hear noises or crackles during the gong sounding. I checked every direction turning the Gong in 30 degree steps like a canon. After the 3rd turn the Gong pointed directly to the four musicians. They didn’t look happy - immediateley packed their instruments an left the room.
“Sorry, guys!”
“No problem, we’ll find another place.”
I finished my testing and went to the second stage. Again the four musicians inside just wanted to start their rehearsal.
They stared at me with open mouths when I prepared my first stroke.
“Wait a moment, we are leaving, we are leaving…”
“Really only one minute, I’m so sorry”, but they already ran towards the door.
The Gong seemed to be really loud.
I finished my testing, the room was better than the first one. Only 3-4 problems inside.
But I wanted to test the third stage (the biggest one) as well.
Guess what - the string quartet inside. This time with resignated faces.
“You are kidding?” they asked.
“Only one beat please, I’m sure this room is no option for us, I just want to check out.”
One hard beat, and I heard that I was right. Spots were installed on the stage ceiling, it was clear that their screws would crackle.
I apologized again, but they decided to make their lunch break – they were not able to tune their instruments at the moment, I was told.