Microthon tapes and/or CD's?

Speaking of audible sounds, and of people performing actual
compositions, was any recording made of Microthon 2000 this year? If
so, will copies be available for sale to those of us who were not able
to attend?

If a recording was not made, I would offer my humble, VERY humble
services as a recording engineer for next year's performance. I'm sure
someone far better equipped and knowledgable could easily be found,
however!

JdL

--- In tuning@egroups.com, "John A. deLaubenfels" <jdl@a...> wrote:

http://www.egroups.com/message/tuning/16041

> Speaking of audible sounds, and of people performing actual
> compositions, was any recording made of Microthon 2000 this year?
If so, will copies be available for sale to those of us who were not
able to attend?
>
> If a recording was not made, I would offer my humble, VERY humble
> services as a recording engineer for next year's performance. I'm
sure someone far better equipped and knowledgable could easily be
found, however!
>
> JdL

Hi John!

Johnny is out of the country right now, doing research on
Werckmeister in Germany...

Norman Greenspan, quite a competent recording engineer and new music
aficionado recorded the whole thing. Perhaps Johnny can sell you a
copy as a "limited edition."

The whole question of recordings is as problematic for the AFMM as it
is for everybody else. As a physical object, they are incredibly
expensive to manufacture. That's why, of the, literally, THOUSANDS,
of microtonal hours on DAT tapes that Johnny has, there is only ONE
AFMM CD, mostly featuring Joshua Pierce...

Johnny would LOVE to have more recordings out commercially, but it's
of course the "money, money, money" issue, always... And grants are
VERY hard to procure for this, at least in NYC.

Maybe he can "gear up" for more "limited edition" kind of
distribution, like several others on this list do... Perhaps the
"demand" will entice him, so you surely should ask when he gets back.
If he's not going to sell them, I'm sure he would make a special
arrangement so you could get one.... (actually it would probably take
about 7 or 8 CDs if you would like the entire event!!!)

Regarding the recording engineer matter... If this is a real offer
and you are willing to do it for free, I think Johnny would certainly
go for it! You don't live in New York, though (??) There would be
travelling and lodging involved, yes??

Otherwise, Greenspan is VERY inexpensive... although slow to make
copies. He's over 80 years old, but VERY sprightly and his hearing
is excellent, fortunately. He also has a great attitude about
composers and new music, and keeps copies of all the works archived
and catalogued, since he admires the music.

I will mention this to Johnny when he returns, if you don't get
around to it...

Thanks!

Joe
________ ___ __ __ _
Joseph Pehrson, AFMM recording secretary, board officer, general
factotum gopher

Thanks, John, for asking. Since just returning from Europe I called our audio engineer Norman Greenspan to send out a tape, as well as for videographer Joe Bly to set up VHS video for the weekend.

Clearly, it is a big headache to make a commercial presentation. Once I see what's what I'll ask certain participants how they would feel about making their presentations available. For some, like the Lou Harrison premiere, there may be other legalities involved.

More on this as it develops..

Johnny Reinhard

Thanks, John, for asking. Since just returning from Europe I called our
audio engineer Norman Greenspan to send out a tape, as well as for
videographer Joe Bly to set up VHS video for the weekend.

Clearly, it is a big headache to make a commercial presentation. Once I see
what's what I'll ask certain participants how they would feel about making
their presentations available. For some, like the Lou Harrison premiere,
there may be other legalities involved.

More on this as it develops..

Johnny Reinhard

Johnny,

Hello!

Joseph mentioned the hours of music that you have on DAT. I would
like to give caution about something that you might already be aware
of - that any kind of magnetic media such as DAT (especially DAT),
has a relatively short life span. And my experience has been that
when DAT tape goes, it does not go gracefully. One day the music is
there - the next it's gone or corrupted (and there's no fixing a
corrupted DAT). At best, it's probably only going to be a reliable
storage medium for about 10 years, and that's if your lucky. I've
seen DAT tapes corrupt in 5 years. I'm sure you have got a real gold
mine of material there too. It would be a most unfortunate loss if it
were not able to be converted to an optical format (even this will go
some day too), before the unpredictable end of the life of the tape
creeps up one day (my experience firsthand). Nothing like that empty
feeling of not being able to recover those magic moments.

Respectfully,

Jacky Ligon

--- In tuning@egroups.com, Afmmjr@a... wrote:
> Thanks, John, for asking. Since just returning from Europe I
called our
> audio engineer Norman Greenspan to send out a tape, as well as for
> videographer Joe Bly to set up VHS video for the weekend.
>
> Clearly, it is a big headache to make a commercial presentation.
Once I see
> what's what I'll ask certain participants how they would feel about
making
> their presentations available. For some, like the Lou Harrison
premiere,
> there may be other legalities involved.
>
> More on this as it develops..
>
> Johnny Reinhard

> Joseph mentioned the hours of music that you have on DAT. I would
> like to give caution about something that you might already be aware
> of - that any kind of magnetic media such as DAT (especially DAT),
> has a relatively short life span. And my experience has been that
> when DAT tape goes, it does not go gracefully. One day the music is
> there - the next it's gone or corrupted (and there's no fixing a
> corrupted DAT). At best, it's probably only going to be a reliable
> storage medium for about 10 years, and that's if your lucky. I've
> seen DAT tapes corrupt in 5 years. I'm sure you have got a real gold
> mine of material there too. It would be a most unfortunate loss if it
> were not able to be converted to an optical format (even this will go
> some day too), before the unpredictable end of the life of the tape
> creeps up one day (my experience firsthand). Nothing like that empty
> feeling of not being able to recover those magic moments.

Let me second this. In fact, *all* digital recordings need periodic
conversion to the latest and greatest storage format if they are to survive.
I'm sure you've heard stories of people who wanted to analyze the 1960
Census data only to discover there were no working tape drives capable of
reading 7-track half-inch IBM tapes any more. I think someone turned one up
in Mexico finally -- at least that's the version of this urban legend that I
heard. :-) So don't think, for example, that today's ubiquitous CD-ROM will
live forever -- it won't. Sooner or later, the last drive capable of reading
it will croak. :-( So when DVD-RW becomes economically feasible for us poor
folk, make sure you convert your priceless CD-ROMs to DVD.
--
M. Edward Borasky
mailto:znmeb@teleport.com
http://www.borasky-research.com

Cold leftover pizza: it's not just for breakfast any more!