Category Archives: CD

Baronial Bard!

CD

Last weekend was the Barony-Marche of the Debatable Lands’ 12th night celebration where several baronial champions were to be selected. The prior weekend was Æthelmearc’s Kingdom 12th night and the Sylvan Bard competition, and while I would have dearly loved to attend and compete, a 3-hour drive and two nights in a hotel combined with a very large group of indoor people in the middle of flu season was more than I wanted to attempt with a 1 week old infant. However, a half hour drive to a local event that I could day-trip with a 2 week old infant? Sure, why not!

I’d thought to perform Heather Dale’s “Mordred’s Lullaby” because how often does one get to perform a well known and well loved lullaby with a live newborn as a prop? I’d rehearsed it with the bairn, and he actually fell asleep during one rehearsal. I was a tad concerned about the potential for spit-up (as he is very prone to do) and the adage, “Never perform with animals or children” because they’re unpredictable and likely to upstage you. Ultimately, it was the space acoustics that led me to choose an alternative. Large, echoey, and with a fair bit of background noise from adjoining rooms, the creepy nuances of the lullaby would’ve been lost. So instead, I launched into “Weight of the Chain” by Aneleda Falconbridge. I love that piece, and there will be another post devoted entirely to it when I get around to making that recording I want to do. About halfway through, the most adorable twin boys in matching late-period garb who couldn’t have been much older than 2 and a half were scampering in and out of the audience. I couldn’t help but grin while performing as I realized I was on the verge of being upstaged by children despite not actually bringing my own up on stage, and then renewed my efforts to recapture the audience. Fortunately their mother managed to corral them soon after (she was doing a lovely job with them; controlling toddler twins is a difficult task for anyone) and I got my audience back for the end of the song. The competitors were gathered by the baron and told/reminded of the Seven Pearls tournament at Pennsic in which all the baronial bardic champions compete for possession for a year of the GOB, a fabulously oversized goblet. BMDL hasn’t held the GOB in many years, and Baron Liam informed the competitors that he really wants this to be the year we get it back. Then in court during the announcement of me as the new champion, the populace was informed that this will be the year that the GOB will be returned to the Debatable Lands. No pressure.

It’s not exactly a high responsibility position or a large time commitment, but I’m looking forward to feeling like I’m at least being more active musically speaking. My hope is that while taking my maternity leave, I’ll carve out some time to pursue more of my musical interests and start more serious work on that CD. After some conversations with Aneleda about the creation of her CD, I’m more inclined to bite the bullet and buy some professional studio time and mixing/mastering. Her biggest piece of advice was to come in with as much organization and planned accompaniment as possible, so my revised plan going forward is to do as much scratch work at home but not get as hung up about having a perfect recording space at the house.

Pregnancy and singing

CD, Vocal technique

I just read an article on the effects of pregnancy on the singing voice which was spot-on. I’m officially 32 weeks as of today, well into my third trimester, and a couple weeks ago, the third-trimester effects started becoming a lot more noticeable. I’d stopped wearing my wedding rings months ago in favor of a larger substitute ring, and I finally took that one off as well as it was becoming more and more difficult to take off with my hands being swollen every morning. Each pound gained is reflected much more in my face than it was in the first two trimesters. The hormone relaxin, intended to relax tendons and widen the pelvis in preparation for giving birth, affects every muscle in the body and creates weird aches and pains as muscles stretch in ways they aren’t really supposed to. And, of course, the fetus itself is just under 4 pounds and 16″ long, creating a fair bit of baby bump in addition to forcing the mother’s internal organs to squish around and cram in anywhere they can.

What does this mean for singing? Swelling and weight gain mean thicker vocal chords, and my blood volume is much higher than normal, leaving the vocal chords not only swollen but more sensitive to damage. The relaxin affects vocal chords as well, giving me a lower, huskier speaking voice than usual. And the lung capacity is obviously diminished. I’ve noticed my range going lower more easily, but last week was the first where I started feeling my voice get really tired after only a few songs. It’s a unique time to record since I’ll have the low range and a very throaty quality, but I won’t make it through a dozen takes. Add on a bit of a cold and I’m lucky to make it through 3. So, instead of working on my own CD, what am I motivated to do? A cover of Analeda’s “Weight of the Chain” that’s not even going on my album. It’s been an earworm ever since I heard it at KWCB, and her voice is notably lower pitched than mine. Maybe this will be one of the few recordings of myself that I don’t hate listening to.

Bardic IKA addendum

CD

At War of the Wings this past weekend, the point was driven home even more the value and uniqueness of performance as a skill. A bard who I respect highly and whose guitar skills are superb, who was chosen as a bardic champion for Sacred Stone in the war point competition [I was a "pinch hitter" for Byrum's side], said he has always admired my ability to bring a song alive, that I don’t just sing a song, I *perform* a song. He said the only other person he knows who does what I do is Dervila, which I took as an immense compliment. Dervila was an early influence, and perhaps I picked up more than I realized. It was flattering, but it also really highlighted the importance of performance, that what I consider a standard tactic is that noteworthy.

It also would explain why I’m not fond of much that I’ve recorded. If so much of the value of my performing is in the gestures and facial expression, how do I get that emotion into an audio-only recording? Amp up the vocal acting perhaps. Dervila is attempting to record her stories and is rather wary that they’ll have any of the same effect. Perhaps I should research more voice acting techniques.

Recording discussion

CD, Pennsic

There are tons of good resources out there on recording. I’m going to audio-techno-geek for a bit in a couple blog posts and eventually write up a proper page under the Music heading on my full kit and process, but I’m still learning, fixing, and figuring things out for now.

I attended Master Philip’s Home Recording for Bards at Pennsic 43. One of the most valuable things he pointed out was that it’s very easy and not too expensive to get decent sound into your computer. However, it’s rather tricky to get a professional-sounding recording produced.  I have the right equipment to get a good recording, for the most part, but that’s only part of the puzzle. Here’s the equipment I’m using for my current recording dabblings:

  • Condenser Mic: Rode NT1-A
  • Dynamic Mic: Shure SM57
  • Preamp: PreSonus Firebox 6×10 (soon to be swapped out)
  • Software: REAPER
  • Headphones: Sony MDR-V600
  • Computer: MacBookPro Retina with SSD

I wouldn’t use this as a shopping list for a beginner. This is equipment I’ve collected over the past 6 years, and the headphones are closer to 15 years old.

Now, connecting all these things together gets a little more tricky, and here’s where I ramble a bit about technical specifications that 95% of people reading this won’t really care about. When I bought the Firebox, I was working off a Mac Pro tower which had Firewire input. Firewire is preferable to USB (at least USB 1.1 and USB 2.0) for two reasons: speed and isochronous transfer. The latter as best as I understand it means less potential corruption of data, particularly during periods of high data transfer. In theory USB supports it, but I’m a bit fuzzy on the details and am given to understand that Firewire does it better. The problem is that my laptop doesn’t have a Firewire port. It has USB 3.0 and it has Thunderbolt. There are dongles to plug Firewire into Thunderbolt, but I’ve had 3 die on me in the past year because they’re cheap plastic pieces of poop. I have a Belkin thunderbolt dock with Firewire input, but the point of the dock is to let me plug in all my peripherals and not have to keep plugging and unplugging, and my office (with said peripherals) isn’t a good place to do recording. One option I considered was getting an analog audio-to-USB converter, but the only option I could find was only 16-bit, and industry-standard is 24-bit. Especially given that I’m going to want these tracks professionally mastered, having proper audio resolution is important.

The other option is to buy a new preamp that’ll plug directly into my computer. Thunderbolt is a new enough standard that the only thunderbolt compatible preamps are mucho pricey, and all the USB preamps seem to be 2.0. I have one expert telling me that USB 2.0 can wonk up timing synchronization, but that’s a networking expert, not an audio expert. There are two audio experts, though, who approve of the preamp I just bought and should be arriving any minute now, the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. (Said experts are Ken Theriot and Ben Dechamps, both who produce superb quality recordings.) Even though the Scarlett 2i2 is USB 2.0, I’m only using it for two inputs at 24-bit, 44.1 kHz recording, so the USB 2.0 should be plenty. The things I like about the Scarlett 2i2: two XLR inputs, on-board monitor jack, phantom power supply, and it’s bus-powered so I don’t need to plug it into the wall.  [Feel free to contact me for more explanation on those terms.]

Now that I have the proper gear that will make recording more convenient and a bit more portable, I can start focusing on, you know, the actual *content*. Garbage in, garbage out, after all. No amount of gear can make a mediocre performance sound good.

Pennsic recap

CD, Pennsic

I’m rather happy with how Pennsic went this year.  Arrived on site first Friday, too tired to get out of camp though. Saturday, unpacking and some practice. Then the bardic activities got going.

Sunday was Opening Ceremonies, which went decently for the first time AEthelmearc has sung in a few years. Gwen, Alianora (Sylvan Bard), Orlando (current Dean of AEthelmearc Bardic College) and myself were planted at the door of the barn and singing our little hearts out. Next year, maybe we’ll get larger songbooks out, but at least the populace had the lyrics to Scarlet. (Note to self, Lorelei has kingdom songs for every kingdom, and I want to get my hands on those for welcoming in the royalty of every other kingdom next year because as hosts, we’re on the field first.) I’m told the back of the line still didn’t know when or what they were singing, so again, note for next year, better and earlier organization. That night, Efenwealt’s concert was a hit. I got 3 pieces in, one of which was Efenwealt’s own Misha. So nice to do that piece for an audience that already knows the audience participation bits. :) Bonus, got some positive feedback on my rendition of Eleanor Fairchild’s Twilight Ride despite the lack of bodhrán.

Monday, Bardic Expo, I ended up doing Warrior’s Wyrd. I need to remember that the restriction to having those lyrics written down has been lifted, but it’s ingrained habit to say it’s not to be recorded and must be passed on by oral tradition. I still twitch seeing the lyrics to that and “Born On The Listfield” (both being by Ivar Battleskald) written out. Overall, I was quite pleased with the quality of the Bardic Expo. Lots of great performances. Monday night, the kiddo (3 and a half) and I hit up the Ramshaven Bardic for an hour or so before his bedtime. Excellent performers and excellent hospitality (which included high tolerance of my little one and chocolate chai latte courtesy of Her Excellency Sibylla, omnomnom).

Tuesday, the Upping Your Game collegium panel was beneficial. Turned into a fair bit of roundtable “Here’s what I did most recently to up my game.” Hit up an hour of Ken and Lisa Theriot’s concert that night (love them), then off to the Atlantian bardic at which this happened. A little history: at my first ever bardic circle (at someone’s house), I heard Efenwealt sing Fair Lady Atlantia, and it was enjoyably stuck in my head for days. I knew I wanted to get to know this person better. At my first event, during the evening’s bardic circle in the post-sunset twilight under an open-sided pavilion, I heard him sing “Heloise and Abelard” and I was entranced. I knew then that I wanted to study with him, and a few months later, he took me on as a student, later as his apprentice after his elevation. We rarely get to sing it as a duet together due to being in separate kingdoms and both having kids, so that link is the only recording I have of us performing that song together in over 15 years of apprenticeship. It’s just from my iPhone sitting on the bench next to us as we sang, but I still treasure every performance we get together. </sappiness>

Wednesday, Home Recording for Bards with Master Philip. Quite enjoyable. I already knew all the technical stuff he had to share, but it was good to hear how easy it is to get *a* recording versus how difficult it is to get a *good* recording. There was also a lot of discussion on potential pitfalls of producing a CD, including copyright issues and the difficulties of mastering. That night, Heather Dale concert, at which Quyn, Heather and I sang a trio arrangement of “The Parting Glass” as performed by the Wailin’ Jennys. It was pretty amazing. There was someone in the front doing video and somewhere there’s an audio recording of it, and once I have either of those, I’ll share them here.

Thursday, took it a bit easy, entertained a bit at the Children’s Party at AEthelmearc Royal (in which half of the entertainment I provided was in letting children touch my harp). Tracked down a gentle at War who gave me permission to include one of his pieces on my CD, and I’m glad I found him in person instead of online as it seems I’m performing it differently than I heard it so many years ago. Meant to hit up the AEthelmearc Bardic circle, but I got too sidetracked after the Commedia All-Stars performance. Cheap plug, they were amazing, highly recommended if they do it again next year.

Friday was mostly packing down camp, but as I didn’t leave until Saturday, there was some song-and-story time (intermingled with social chatter) at the next-door camp. Casual bardic circles like that can be so relaxing.

Now, I have a few bards to track down online, some songs to trade back and forth, and a whole lot of recording to do! Mistress Zsof made the most generous offer to any SCAdian at the Home Recording class to give her professional-caliber feedback on recordings. Mundanely she works for a radio station and her full time job is to listen and evaluate albums for technical quality and content flow. Fantastic resource to have found, and I fully intend to take her up on the offer once I have my tracks mastered.

Projects, projects

CD, Pennsic, Website

Current projects:

  • Website: doesn’t have to be flashy, but I at least need to get it to a place where I don’t mind sharing it around, and as of this writing, it’s not there yet. I’m only just getting started learning WordPress. Self-hosting has its advantages, but a distinct disadvantage of having your sysadmin working 60-80 hour weeks at his real job is lack of tech support being a priority, even when you’re married to him.
  • Recording: I find myself trying to figure out just how far to go with my home setup. There’s a lot that can be done on a budget, but a bigger investment gets a better sound.  I’m still trying to find the sweet spot of return on investment. I strive to Ken Theriot’s quality of recording, and he specializes in home recording, but he’s been encouraging me in a different direction acoustically than I was expecting to go, so I’m wrapping my head around the differences.
  • Pennsic prep: Need to make more garb that’ll fit. Need to repair a tent and a tent floor. Want to make banners for my tent to make it look prettier. Probably should take my sewing machine in for a tune up before starting any of that. Also, a handful of songs I want to have solidly added to my repertoire for this Pennsic.  “Where do we get ‘em” (Truly Carmichael), “Wind on the Sea” (Gwendolyn the Graceful), “Gray Pewter Mug” (Wistric Oftun), and I want to get Ja Nus Hons Pris back in active rotation. Also, “Tell my Story” (myself and Kasia/SarahScott), a piece that’s never gotten the exposure it deserves.

I might be doing some pieces for Efenwealt’s concert intermission this year again. It’d be nice to be back up on the Pennsic stage since I haven’t done it in a few years.

Sounds of Silence – Update 1

CD

I believe I’d been in the SCA for less than 6 months when I first got the question, “So, when is your CD coming out?”  Next May will (if I have my dates correct) be 20 years since my first event. It’s high time for me to do that CD. It’s been in the planning stages for years, but I’m setting a goal of having it ready by Gulf Wars 2015.

Progress so far: I have a title! “Sounds of Silence”, as guessable from the title of this post. Most of the track list is established, and I’ve done test recordings of a few pieces. Still want to get permission from a couple other SCAdians to use their pieces. Instrumentation is sketched out and still needs to be finalized. (Most pieces are either a cappella or voice+guitar, but I also have harp, recorder, and bodhran at my disposal.) I need to scrub a bit of rust off with daily practice for a week or two, but my voice is in good shape and the songs are pretty solid. I’d like to have the initial recording done by Pennsic so I can spend the fall mixing, mastering, and re-recording as needed. January 2015 will be album cover art, layout and design, and picking a manufacturer. (Note to self, try to get a good portrait done at Pennsic to go on the cover.) Then send them into production for delivery by March 2015! If all goes according to plan (knock on wood) they’ll be available for sale at Truly’s hat shop at Gulf Wars.