SAUNDERS RECORDERSHere are some short audio tracks in mp3 format.Scroll down for all the information. Performances with no attribution are by John Everingham. Garklein. (Hopf, "Renaissance" model, pearwood, discontinued.) (201KB) Soprano. (Aulos, Model 205A, plastic.) (218KB) Soprano. (Aulos, Haka model, plastic.) (207KB) The next two examples are organised so that you can make a direct comparison easily. Soprano. (Aura, BKS 3B, plastic.) (650KB) Soprano. (Dolmetsch, Nova N 601, plastic.) (650KB) Soprano. (Dolmetsch, 'School' pearwood.) Soprano. (Moeck, Rottenberg, rosewood.) (310KB) Soprano. (Dolmetsch, Stanesby, satinwood.) (244KB) Soprano. Greensleeves to a Ground. (Old A. Dolmetsch, satinwood.) (1,242KB) Soprano. Menuett. (Moeck 'Rondo' 2201, pearwood.) (635Kb) Soprano. Red House. (Moeck 'School' 1212, pearwood.) (741Kb) Soprano. Telemann, Minuet. (Mollenhauer Swing.) (324KB) Soprano. "Ungarische Gavotte" (Mollenhauer Swing.) (205KB) Soprano. "Amarilli Mia Bella" (A. Dolmetsch, boxwood c1958) (Notes & Performance) (3.5MB total) Alto. (Aulos, Haka model, plastic.) (1043KB) Alto. (Moeck, Rottenberg, palisander.) (254KB) Alto. (Mollenhauer, palisander.) (181KB) Alto. (Mollenhauer, boxwood.) (820KB) Alto. (A.Dolmetsch, palisander (rosewood) an old instrument.) (2MB) Alto (Moeck, Rottenburgh about 1960.) (1MB) Alto. (Dolmetsch Stanesby.) (422KB) Renaissance Alto. (Moeck 830, early model, maple.) (201KB) Renaissance Alto. Played by Hans-Martin Linde. (1.2MB) Tenor (baroque). (Zamra VT500B) (272KB) Tenor (baroque). (Kung Studio 1503) (771KB) Renaissance Tenor . (Hopf) (230KB) Fife in C. (Yamaha YRF21) (Two files, 400KB total.) 6 Key Flute, (c.1920) Duet movement by F. Devienne. (2.8MB) Click on your choice. You will be taken to an information page. The recorder examples will play (in your browser) automatically, but not for all browsers.The files only play once through but you can 'escape' by pressing the 'Esc' key or 'back' button at any time. If they don't play, you must make a choice as follows. Click DOWNLOAD to open the file in Media Player or your chosen default application. This may not work either! If it doesn't, read on. Right click DOWNLOAD to save the file and then open it. (The best option for a dial up connection to the internet.) If you have it, 'Open in a new tab' is probably the best option for browsers other than Internet explorer. (This choice enables you to hear the music while continuing the view the page of text.) The options may vary according to the way your computer is set up and your choice of internet browser and player. If you (like me) find the Microsoft Media Player too much of a good thing, try Winamp. It will even administer an iPod. Please be patient. You may monitor progress in your application's window. The files may be saved from the dropdown File Menu, or right clicking. You can navigate with your tool bar arrows or return to the home page by clicking the link buttons. How the sound files were produced. Some of these recordings were produced in my spare bedroom / computer room / recording studio. You may be aware of the whine of a hard drive in the background of the older recordings. Others were made in the shop with a very high quality Sony quartz locked and 'Dolby' featured cassette recorder and played back on the same machine. You may hear a 'real' clock and traffic noises in the background. The pitch of my original recordings is not altered either accidentally or intentionally. The analogue audio is then played via the 'line input' into an audio utility. (I have a microphone pre-amp for direct recording to the computer. The 'mic' input gives mono only.) I prefer the simple functionality of 'LP Recorder'. Later recordings have been 'doctored' with some reverberation, part of the effects available in the 'Wave Editor' that is packaged with 'Nero'. (When editing the recording one must leave a second or two at the end for the decay, and allow sufficient 'headroom' for the additional amplitude resulting from the reverberation.) I have just bought a Zoom H2 digital recorder, and I am very pleased with it. The quality of the recordings I produce should improve! I am now experimenting with direct comparison recordings. I have made the first by changing the instrument in the middle of a 'take'. All the subsequent processing has been done to the complete track. The examples were then edited out and converted to mp3 format. In this way the microphone position and dynamic levels are unchanged. Conversion to mp3 format is done with 'Simple Mp3'. In order to keep the file size down I used heavy compression. With the simple sounds of a recorder I could get away with 48kBs, 'high fi' really needs 128kBs. It took some time to work all this out and there are various rates used in my examples. Because of the now near universal use of broadband internet connections I am now using the 'near hi-fi quality' 128kBs bit rate. |