Sigh... a full day of editing amateur singers for a choir production. I'm doing this for the friend of my wife, who conduct a choir and I'm putting together one of the songs after they recorded all the parts individually.
It's difficult thing to perform to a background track at the best of times... you get none of the physical cues that would help you predict the flow and momentum of the music... and as these singers are amateurs, they don't often pick up on the subtle cues within the playing of the music. The ebb and flow of the grammar and the promise of certain motions and harmonies.
Anyway, some of the singers... most... struggle with some basic rhythm and intonation issues, so when it comes to trying to line them up together and with the professional singers who are providing the templates (and the piano from my wife...), it is a bit of a micro-editing nightmare!
Entries are inexact, rhythms are at times a bit lovingly described as creative... or random. There was one particular hilarious track where if I didn't know better I would have thought that they were screwing around with me! All the entries were perfect on time for beginning... but would suddenly progress at a completely different tempo, before switching to a completely different tempo again... and then finish the phrase in the right place! ARRRHGHGHGHGHGHG!!!!
So a good chunk of tempo stretching and squashing to nip and tuck things together.
Then there are the little micro differences in starts... I have the professional templates in the left soundscape and the working track on the right. All else (piano and completed tracks are in the centre). You have to try and detect the differences between the starts of entries... Differences on the order of 0.01 seconds are REALLY noticeable to a trained ear.... and when they are that close together, it is a bit of a mind bending experience to figure out if the left or right ear was first.
Needless to say, after about an hour at a time... I NEED A BREAK! This time, I'm just writing and ranting... last time, I blew up aliens. Who knows what I have planned for the next break! Perhaps my brain will just be mush anyway....
... talking of mush, I don't think I can really string too much coherent together anymore. I started liking the song when I first started on it... but after several days, it is driving me completely nuts! I hear it all the time... no wonder sound engineers turn out to be such weird people!
Thankfully, tomorrow I have some work as a normal musician again. Looking forward to being able to play in real time... not working on this horrible pre-recorded Frankenstein mess that generally passes for music! (NOTE: That wasn't a gripe at the quality of the choir... just the concept of recording music and the industry that has grown up around that idea).
