songblog

120 Ways Take 13

Some thoughts on how timing affects just about everything .....

Last night I did a bit more critical listening. I had spent some time listening to the transistion between the second refrain and the bridge. Specifically it seemed to me that somehow the trumpet solo on the bridge just didn't match.
One of the great and terrible things about being able to edit audio digitally is the ablility to really mess with timing post recording. This can make you sound like you have the best timing on the planet, even if your timing sucks.
In this case, the end of the trumpet lick on the refrain was being followed almost instantly by the bridge trumpet section. It just didn't make sense, since while it may have been possible to play thru these sections, I don't have the lungs to do it. This made the entire bridge trumpet solo sound off. I tried to just snip the first riff and move it back a bit, but that wasn't the real case.
Finally I found the real answer: move the entire bridge back a 1/32nd note or so. Now it all lines up, plus the little extra space at the end of the refrain gives the piece just a slight breath, making it all sound much more natural and not forced.
One thing it reminds me of in classical trumpet literature, is when you sometimes see a ' between two notes - this is the symbol for breath, not really a rest or pause per se but just that millisecond when you intake air. In my mind this always indicated a sort of micro-rallentando - and here let me quote Websters 1913 dictionary:
Definition:
\Ral"len*tan"do\, a. [It.] (Mus.)
Slackening; -- a direction to perform a passage with a
gradual decrease in time and force; ritardando.
-but again, a micro version, so you are not really slowing down as in a regular rallentando, but more of a feeling thing. I am reminded that my best guitar teacher told me once that all instruments are derived from the human voice, and of course we have to breathe when we sing, so in my mind at least, it all makes sense. Its all about flow......
And now I have decided that this piece is finally ready to record. I recorded all the bass drum parts last night before I fell asleep, so its on to tomorrow. I don't how other people do this, but I don't try and save disk space by just recording one section if I have a repeating series of sections - I just hit record and let go. I think it sounds better. And it is always interesting to me to hear just one part playing for the entire song, cause its that last chance to catch a mistake.
I hope to finish this song up by the weekend, unless life gets in the way and throws a rallentando at me.