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Gilded
Serpent presents...
Making
Recorded Music Memorable
by Chandani
Jeff
Johnson, a wonderful music tech, does
all of my music for my shows! Through the years we have come up with ways
to make pre-recorded performance music sound better, work
better and avoid mishaps. Dancers know how important
music is to a successful performance; so it’s imperative
that the recorded music adds quality and substance to the
dance performance and vice versa. Following are some
tips and tricks to recording and arranging memorable music:
One
Track for One Complete Performance
Most
restaurant shows and “Belly-Grams” have about 10 to 20 minutes
duration time and require multiple songs to achieve that time
requirement. Good transitions between songs will often
elicit compliments for performers on their music arrangements. Jeff
knows Belly dance music well enough to make each song transition
well into the next, which adds cohesiveness and flow to a performance. For
instance, adding a 10 second “fade-out” to a fast tempo song
and a “fade-in” to a medium or slow tempo has proved to work
out well for me. The fade technique makes the speed transitions
more pleasant, less shocking, for an audience. However, dancers
wouldn’t want to use this technique for a drum solo number, typically. Often
Jeff will insert one second of silence before the drum solo and
then 2 or 3 seconds of silence after the drum solo to allow me
to make strong ending poses and to accept audience applause before
the next song begins to play. Most importantly, he combines
all of the songs onto one track for the CD musical arrangement. (Therefore,
the CD doesn’t change from track 1 to 2 to 3 for each song segment.) All
the tunes are connected as one continuous segment on one track. This
makes it easier for a DJ, and ensures that the recorded performance
music will support the dancer as intended. (Remember: older
CD players sometimes paused automatically for a standard 3 to
6 seconds between each track.)
The
Sound of Silence
Often,
when dancing in a restaurant, there is someone behind the counter
who throws on the dancer’s music and then returns to his regular
work duties. If the designated worker becomes busy, he
tends to forget about the dancer and isn’t on music detail when
the dance show is near its end. Several times, my music
automatically began to play from the top again after I was finished
performing (and sometimes, I had already left the stage). To
avoid this jarring and awkward moment, Jeff now adds an empty
track that is 2 minutes or more of silence after the complete
performance track. So, if the CD does move into the next track,
no one is expecting you to come dancing out onto the stage once
again for an encore!
Rescue
and Recover Rips
I
once performed a “Belly-Gram” for a local University that
had several of its
staff members each do 2 to 3 minute mini-skit introductions
of themselves before my performance. Each staff member
came dancing out to the song of their choice before taking
a seat—off to the side. As the main entertainment for the
evening, I was introduced by the DJ and came dancing out when
my music started. However, the DJ did not understand that
I was performing a 15-minute set; therefore, he cut off my
music after 3 minutes—as he had for each of the staff members! The
woman-in-charge ran out to the DJ’s booth and instructed him
to turn my music back on because I was hired to perform. He
didn’t know where my music had ended previously; so, he solved
his dilemma by starting the music over again—from the top. After
this embarrassing scenario, Jeff came up with the idea of additional
“safety tracks” on the performance CD. Therefore, in
addition to the complete performance track and the added blank
sound track, we add each individual song as separate tracks
after the blank sound track. Each individual track still has
all the qualities of the complete track with any “fade-ins
or outs”, etc but the cd player can read them separately. These
additional tracks help prevent “DJ oops”, causing me to repeat
dancing an entire set. (The safety tracks also
give you the ability to practice only certain portions of your
performance without having to listen to the entire piece to
find your place.)
This recording
technique also helps if your CD, for whatever reason, starts
to skip or refuses to play, you can skip to the next track—if
need be.
Following
these tips, the tracks on your performance CD will look like
the following example:
Track 1:
Your Complete Performance Set
Track 2: A Blank Track (2 to 3 minutes of silence)
Track 3:
Tune 1 of Your Complete Set.
Track 4: Tune 2 of Your Complete Set.
Track 5: Tune 3 of Your Complete Set, etc.
Adverse
Acoustics
Belly
dancers understand that music is essential to a performance,
but how many of us think about the quality of our
CD and recording? If you perform on a regular basis, then
it’s important to obtain a good set of speakers and a decent
quality sound card. Use good media! Don't just buy
the cheapest blank CDs you can find. The quality of the
blank CD impacts the sound reproduction of your music.
Once you’ve
recorded your performance CD, try it out on a several different
players. (Typically, a computer CD-RW is more forgiving than
your DVD player or your car's CD player.) A different CD player
can catch glitches or imperfections in the recording that the
computer did not (including burn errors). Experiment
with the volume, too. Playing a CD at different volumes
on different players can change the sound of the music as well.
Speaking
of Volume
We
are fortunate to have several generations of recorded Belly dance
music; however, some of it sounds cleaner than others. Sometimes,
one must clean-up the sound of the selection, such as with Mohammed
El-Bakkaar recordings, so that when the resulting CD plays loudly,
it is not distorted. Other CDs were recorded at a lower
input level, such as George Adbo, so when you add that track
to your performance CD, be sure to pump up the input volume so
that your selection will equalize with the other selections.
It is imperative that your musical selections from varied sources
be recorded at about the same volume. It’s always disturbing
to be in the audience enjoying a performance, and suddenly, the
music blares out loudly during a song change.
Typically,
one should raise the volume of each musical selection so that
even a small boom box can get the sound out to everyone. If
a song segment is recorded at a level that is too low, it will
be difficult for both the dancer and the audience to hear.
As with anything
else, it takes practice and time to produce memorable recorded
sets. Don’t wait ‘til the last minute to put your set
together! Start early, and give yourself time to make
any necessary revisions. Start small, and work your way
through the process, becoming more familiar with what is possible
technically. Your dancing is memorable, shouldn’t your music
be as well? Have
a comment? Send us a
letter!
Check the "Letters to the Editor" for
other possible viewpoints!
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for more?
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If
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7-17-08
5-21-08 Saturday Gala
Peformance Part 2 of the International Bellydance Conference
of Canada video and photo report by GS staff
Performers
in Act 2 : Aisha Ali of Southern California, Bozenka of Florida,
Amy Sigil & Kari Vanderzwaag of Unmata from Sacramento, California,
Tito
Seif of Egypt, Aida Nour of Egypt |
