Inauguration Audio

[FFTT]

When the Beatles did their rooftop concert, did they fake it running a studio recording
through the PA?

It's too late now, but given the chance, They could have broadcast a live performance
from the Presidential parade viewing booth or just a video feed from somewhere else.

[sonare]

If anyone really cares what the players thought about it, check out the interview with Yo-Yo Ma on "All Things Considered":

Yo-Yo Ma On Recorded Music At Inauguration : NPR Music

Rich

[Remoteness]

Rich,

Thanks a lot for the linkage!

[Ozpeter]

When the Beatles did their rooftop concert, did they fake it running a studio recording through the PA?

Perhaps if they had been attempting to perform pianissimo passages for solo acoustic instruments in such a noisy outdoor location, they would have.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by Ozpeter

Perhaps if they had been attempting to perform pianissimo passages for solo acoustic instruments in such a noisy outdoor location, they would have.

And, don't forget the freezing winter temperature.
People and those instruments should not be in frigid weather -- it's not applicable to a smooth operation by any stretch of the imagination.

[resound]

Originally Posted by squeegybug

Of course this was not a crisis. But I agree with the posters who have pointed out the irony of this artificial performance against an 'open and honest' political promise.

C'mon, now. Let's not connect some event planner's (or the musicians') decision to go with the backup tape with politics. It's just very unlikely anyone holding any policy position in the new administration probably had any role in this situation.

The realism issue is another whole conversation that can engage or ignore politics to equally interesting discourse.

My biggest gripe: why potentially ruin a piano at all by putting it in those conditions if it was not going to be heard?

My second biggest gripe: John Williams.

But, there are too many things to applaud about the situation (exposure for classical music, etc., etc.) to get too rankled over this. And, yes, the White House-stationed Marine Band are musicians par excellence who admirably put a lot into performing in far from ideal conditions. Kudos to them!

[Remoteness]

Yes, but the White House-stationed Marine Band also had a backup pre-recorded track if they felt it was necessary to use.

Kudos to them on that decision!

Originally Posted by VukOnCrack

...And, yes, the White House-stationed Marine Band are musicians par excellence who admirably put a lot into performing in far from ideal conditions. Kudos to them!

[krs]

Originally Posted by VukOnCrack

C'mon, now. Let's not connect some event planner's (or the musicians') decision to go with the backup tape with politics. It's just very unlikely anyone holding any policy position in the new administration probably had any role in this situation.

The realism issue is another whole conversation that can engage or ignore politics to equally interesting discourse.

My biggest gripe: why potentially ruin a piano at all by putting it in those conditions if it was not going to be heard?

My second biggest gripe: John Williams.

But, there are too many things to applaud about the situation (exposure for classical music, etc., etc.) to get too rankled over this. And, yes, the White House-stationed Marine Band are musicians par excellence who admirably put a lot into performing in far from ideal conditions. Kudos to them!

[BrianHanke]

I finally watched the video of the Ma/et al. performance, after strenuously avoiding it for as long as I could.

Several comments:

1. They say they were afraid for their instruments, yet they still brought them out on stage into the cold. And they were clearly making some sort of sounds with them. So why not take a tiny risk and, you know, actually play for the 5 minutes they were up there?

2. In my opinion this is a big black eye for the musicians involved. I've read interviews with both Perlman and Ma and they've done nothing but rationalize, rationalize, rationalize why they played to a backing track. I don’t buy it. This will go down in history as a time when some of the biggest names in classical music reduced themselves to the level of Ashlee Simpson.

3. What did the people sitting right next to the quartet hear? As I said before, they were all making some sort of sound. Did the close-up audience hear both backing track and (supposedly) out-of-tune acoustic performance?

4. Where does it end? Why not have all the speaking pre-recorded as well? I mean, god forbid anybody makes any “mistakes” at all! Just think: if the oath of office had been pre-recorded and lip-synced we could have avoided that whole fiasco too!

Sorry for the rant, but this sort of thing irritates me no end...

[Denny McNerney]

what did the people next to the quartet hear?

well, that is explained in the link to the interview w/ Yo-Yo Ma. they had live monitors playing back the track at their feet, they soaped the bows, they disabled the hammers on the piano.

when i said i thought it was a playback on page one of this thread, immediately people jumped on me for saying it...

but...

it's showbiz.

[BrianHanke]

Ah, I totally missed that info!

This is appalling! They went to so much effort to fake this. The thousands of dollars in mics with cute little windscreens, the swaying and grimacing, the soap and disconnected hammers. What a waste.

I remember reading your post at the beginning of the thread. At the time I hadn't heard the performance (and was actively avoiding it), but I remember thinking: well, they could have faked it, but it's not likely. After all, these are classical musicians. The joke's on me now!

Originally Posted by Denny McNerney

they soaped the bows, they disabled the hammers on the piano.

[Don S]

Originally Posted by squeegybug

I had family members playing in those military bands. With wet lips on freezing brass mouthpieces.

\Steve

They use plastic rims though. It helps a little, but not enough sometimes.

[Don S]

Originally Posted by VukOnCrack

My second biggest gripe: John Williams.

thumbsup
I expected better.

[audio ergo sum]

Originally Posted by Don S

thumbsup
I expected better.

And it should not come as a surprise to John Williams, that in January it can be very cold outside. What was he thinking? Living in SoCal for too long?

[tallsound]

Yes they were really playing, but as has been duly noted by several spectators, the weather conditions weren't even close to "nice" for those instruments, so there was a track playing along with them, and under the circumstances, the track went out over the "air" and the PA. The musicians received a count off in their ear monitors, which they reluctantly agreed to wear. Afterwords, they praised the concept of in ear monitors, so you never know what they'll do next.
It was a Neuman TL 140 on the cello, and a Sennheiser 8000 on both the violin and the clarinet. the Earthworks mic in the shot happened to be for the Herald Trumpets, which played in front of the quartet. (sort of an optical illusion)
The piano mics (DPA's) were struck from the set as the piano was rendered inoperable prior to the performance so that local spectators on the adjacent risers wouldn't be distracted by the acoustic, out of tune piano sounds.
Aretha performed to a track of band and choir, and she had zero voice on both the rehearsal day and the show day. I'm sure she's still got a great set of pipes, but she didn't bring them to this gig. May have been something to do with sitting outside in less than 30 degree weather for her opportunity to perform that had something to do with it. As for the "stage area being protected from the weather" think again. those folks came out to the stage area totally un prepared for the elements. they basically froze their buts off for about 2 hours!!! there were heat vents on the floor of the stage, but they only kept a few people warm.
the shotgun mics on either side of the podium were for the swearing in oaths. It was agreed that the two judges would wear RF lav mics, but both the Pres. and the VP couldn't be lav'd up, so the shotguns were to pick up their parts of the swearing in dialoge, and as you all know by now, one of the participants sort of created his own rhythm to the whole thing. Didn't follow the script. Oh, well.
The Childrens choir performed live, with their own pianist playing along with them on an electric keyboard, and they sounded great! Very poised young folks, and their spoken word parts too were live and well done. the Sea Chanters also performed line and they too sounded great. The Marine Band also performed live, and they too sounded great in spite of their obviously cold hands and instruments! A credit to that military mentality I suppose.
Maryland Sound provided the sound system and crew for the Swearing in Ceremony and all the PA on the Capitol Grounds and off, up to 3rd Street, as well as the entire parade route, and overflow areas in Lafayette Park. Clair Bros. provided all of the delay towers from 4th street on to who know where, I suppose all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. The signal was handed off from MSI to Clair via (now this is where it got messy) the NBC pool truck router to the Senate AV studio to Total RF, who did the actual micro wave transmission down the mall (audio and video together).
So now yo know the rest of the story.....

[Denny McNerney]

really informative first post, tallsound!

welcome...

[BrianHanke]

I don't want to be argumentative, but Yo-Yo Ma himself implied pretty clearly on the NPR interview that the quartet wasn't making any sound. The hammers in the piano were disabled and the violin and cello bows were rendered frictionless. How does that square with the statement that they were "really playing?"

Originally Posted by tallsound

Yes they were really playing, but as has been duly noted by several spectators, the weather conditions weren't even close to "nice" for those instruments, so there was a track playing along with them, and under the circumstances, the track went out over the "air" and the PA.

The piano mics (DPA's) were struck from the set as the piano was rendered inoperable prior to the performance so that local spectators on the adjacent risers wouldn't be distracted by the acoustic, out of tune piano sounds.

[Denny McNerney]

and, because it's showbiz...

why didn't they have John Williams there, conducting the playback??!!

[Plush]

Aretha gave a fine performance as far as I heard. It had emotion and it was real.

The classical music interlude before the swearing*in of the new POTUS was great. I don't care if it was pre-recorded. I knew when I heard it that is was "inside a room" sound, not outside sound. So what?

The Williams composition itself was weak but of the correct and honorable genre.

[Ozpeter]

They were really playing in the sense that their bowing and fingering and normal playing gestures were 99.9% accurate. You really had to watch the replay like a hawk to be reasonably sure that that it wasn't what you were hearing. In my view, as I've said before, it was a great tribute to the professionalism and musicianship of the quartet that, in the face of the situation which others' ill-judgement pitched them into, they carried it off with aplomb and made the very best of it.

What I think is worthy and appropriate to debate particularly here is this - say the Inauguration was fixed for a typical summer day. OK, well, even that could cause issues with the instruments (sun on string instruments, particularly fine old ones, is not ideal, and changes of temperature and humidity for the piano from the point of its installation through to the time of its use would still cause problems). So let's take the weather out of the equation altogether. Would it have been viable to perform that often very quiet work out of doors in a City location with 2,000,000 listeners not necessarily being all that quiet, with other than contact mics? And would any kind of decent sound have been obtained that way both for broadcast and for public address? I have my doubts.

Yes, I realise outdoor classical concerts happen, but I would have thought quartet performances are uncommon, and would typically be given in some kind of 'bowl', semi covered - in other words, not acoustically butt naked like the Inaugration quartet were.

[rackdude]

Now I feel fine using samples in my studio. I kinda like this, it makes the biggies look like phonies so the little man can do just as well

[audio ergo sum]

great panorama which gives a nice impression of the vast space here:
gigapan: President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address by David Bergman
Zooming in on the musicians is fun. You can feel the cold, Pearlman all covered in blankets. Yo-Yo Ma snapping a picture.
Looks easy to build an enclosure and heat it. Hopefully next time...

[Remoteness]

Thanks audio ergo sum -- That panoramic view is simply awesome!

[newyorker42]

Originally Posted by Plush

The Williams composition itself was weak but of the correct and honorable genre.

Everyone here that has commented has expressed a dislike for the arrangement of the so-called "Simple Gifts" hymn. I definitely feel like there should have been a more unique artistic statement made. This is a monumental moment in history, after all. Does a shaker hymn (albeit one that is memorialized in a Copland ballet) really sum up what we should say about this event?

Who would everyone suggest as a better choice for composer? My choice would have been Martin Bresnick for this.

[Denny McNerney]

Originally Posted by newyorker42

Everyone here that has commented has expressed a dislike for the arrangement of the so-called "Simple Gifts" hymn. I definitely feel like there should have been a more unique artistic statement made. This is a monumental moment in history, after all. Does a shaker hymn (albeit one that is memorialized in a Copland ballet) really sum up what we should say about this event?

Who would everyone suggest as a better choice for composer? My choice would have been Martin Bresnick for this.

my suggestion would be john cage's 4'33"

[Don S]

Originally Posted by newyorker42

Who would everyone suggest as a better choice for composer? My choice would have been Martin Bresnick for this.

John Adams... We would still be waiting for the A section!

[loujudson]

Originally Posted by Denny McNerney

scan the CGI'ed faces seated behind Obama....

Gandhi, Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Miles Davis, Pablo Picasso, Jim Morrison, Gumby...

who else have you noticed?

I now see this has already been posted - but the comments from the photog are worth reading...
See if you can find them here - an amazing photo!
gigapan: President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address by David Bergman
photographer's comments here
How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama’s Inaugural Address | David Bergman -- ALL ACCESS -- sports, concert, and music photographer

amazing thing to spend some time exploring...

Lou

[Remoteness]

Thanks Lou!

[thsndgd]

Surprise surprise it was tape. I think a couple of retractions are in order.

[loujudson]

Originally Posted by thsndgd

Surprise surprise it was tape. I think a couple of retractions are in order.

Not to divert, but I have lots of fun with people who talk about "taping" music and audio. I guess it can be considered a generic term, like "dialing" a telephone, but when people from the audience ask if we "taped" that performance, sometimes I say "well, we have 24 tracks of Protools, an MP3 in the computer, and a 24 bit hard drive recorder for the 2mix with flash backup, but no tape!" When they begin to look distressed, I say, but yes, indeed we did record it beautifully. Would you like a disc of it?"

My other wise*ss response is that only people who need pictures along with their audio use tape any more, we sound people are more advanced...

All that aside, I wonder what medium was used - CD? Computer audio? Anyone know?

And, where was the control room for the event? It certainly wasn't up in that tower with all the cameras!

Thamnlks,

Lou