I'm a little late on this one, but that's because starting a my Senior year at SUU has been super crazy so far. On to top of 9 classes this semester, I'll be running a brand new Commercial Music Club so I can qualify for a scholarship I got, recording every instrument I can't play for my the school's Sample Library I'm putting together (i.e. everything but piano and some percussion, lol), preparing for my Junior and Senior recitals, working part time on my own business and a position I was offered at the SUU Music Tech Center and lastly, doing research and preparations to execute my Honors Capstone project in the Spring.
But over the summer I spent a lot of time recording piano samples for the Sample Library and I'm now in the process of quantizing it all and cleaning up any undetected hiccups in the audio, and let me tell you, that process is super tedious.
I talked a little about some of the little things that I didn't expect to come up in my recent audio editing here. Something I have been reminded of is what Clive Romney told me when I was interning with him up in the Salt Lake City area, “the metronome is a cruel master.” He said this to me on a day when we were recording something that was super simple, something I could have played in a live performance setting with absolutely zero practice when I was in my early teens. When we were recording it, he set the metronome at the correct speed and I found myself getting a little irritated that I couldn't play it with as perfect timing as he needed it the very first time through, or even the second or 3rd time. This was crazy easy music, a few 8th notes scattered throughout, mostly quarter, half and whole notes, but he asked me to keep repeating certain sections and doing some cross fading between clips until the timing was completely and totally perfect. And for perspective, I'm performing Beethoven's Waldstein next spring for my Senior Recital (!) and already have it memorized and well on it's way to a clean performance. Yes, sometimes a metronome can mess you up that badly, which is why it's a good thing to practice one every so often, so you can get a good feel for how a piece is “supposed” to feel with timing and adjust for artistry from there.
When I told Clive I was “so sorry” and that knew I could play way better than that. He reminded me that no one ever gets “used to” playing with a metronome and most people hate doing it even in regular practice with no recording going on whatsoever. He was very kind and this experience I've had this summer in my recording at SUU has been another reminder of just how much perfect, metronomic recording can be a cruel master. I've had so many occasions at this point in recording with other artists in my studio where they've also become frustrated at not being able to get something sung perfectly right even in the first 3 or 4 tries. So I remind them that almost no one ever gets it perfect the first time. I know there are exceptions to this, like when Israel Kamakawiwo Ole went into the studio and recorded his medley of Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World and according to the video I saw with the producer who did that recording, Israel just came in and got a professional result in the very first take.
No, this does not happen very often. So the next time you professional musicians or vocalists are in a studio and don't get it “just perfect” the first time, don't freak out.
Now, obviously this does not mean that having to try several times to record something is a good thing. The highest paid sight-readers and instrumentalists who perform for movie soundtracks, video game music, etc. usually can come into the studio and play it perfectly the first time around, but those people can make 6 figures annually just by playing and recording music. They're that good! So being able to do that isn't unheard of, but don't be too hard on yourself if it takes you several tries to record something perfectly in a studio. There's a reason that producers are extensively trained and get tons of practice working out kinks in recording, mixing and comping out trouble spots in each clip, because most of them don't expect any vocalist or other musician to perform it perfectly every time.
If creating this Sample Library has taught me anything so far, it's that while I've come a really long way in my audio editing and piano skills, I still have room to improve in both in the production process.
And really, that's part of the fun of being a musician or songwriter, it's impossible to say you've perfected your craft. If you love the discipline enough, you'll never get bored and always have something new you can learn or improve upon. I'm positive even people like Lang Lang, Yuja Wong or Daniel Barenboim would say the same.