Sarah’s Blog
Hi, I’m Sarah. I absolved the preperatory course ‘Filmscoring and Production’ at Musicube Academy and now I am a first year student for Composition for Film and Theatre. In this blog I’m gonna share my personal experience as a student at ArtEZ in Arnhem.
Any questions: sarahs_blog@yahoo.com
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It’s done!! Matangi (professional string quartet) was here the last two days and the first years and a few film music students of the other years were allowed to record their pieces with them. It was an amazing experience from start to finish!
On Monday we started to set everything up. We build up all the mics and connected everything from the concert hall to the studio. Usually around this time the first years already have a studio license and the permission and knowledge to work alone in the studio but this year because of Madame Corona we didn’t do it yet.
Lennard from the fourth year helped us to do everything right and we also had technical guidance from Rein (ArtEZ Employee) who is super experienced and was happy to tell us everything he knows. We set up a Decca tree, AB, MS, close Mics and surround mics (more for practise than for actual use).
We also build up some lights to make the whole setting look really nice cause we decided to film it also. The next day we were there quite early and still didn’t make to start in time. Even online students can participate but the communication through the online meeting was a little difficult sometimes.
My piece was the fifth one so I could follow the process of a few pieces before that. Every pupil gets 45 minutes and you work on the piece during the recording. Some pieces are recorded in parts because they are too difficult to play in one thing or because you can focus on smaller parts more easily to put together the best versions.
The quartet was really nice and helpful. They brought up some ideas and always tried to bring your piece to the next level. In the end the composer could always decide how he wanted the piece but they were happy to try everything.
For me it was amazing to see how the pieces developed. Some things just sound differently when you hear them live so you have to change them to make it how you imagined it.
First I thought 45 minutes is a long time to record 3 minutes of music. But you always lose some time on the way with talking about what they should change or to try different versions.
I listened to a lot of pieces live in the concert hall but sometimes I went up to the studio. There I could listen to the different mic setups and get a feeling of how it all sounds recorded (huge difference). In the recording you hear it a lot more when someone doesn’t play in tune or the quartet is not together in the matter of timing.
The whole sound changes too because you don’t have the reverb of the room that you hear when you sit in the concert hall. Of course you can change that afterwards when you mix your recording but at first it’s a little unfamiliar.
I was really happy that I had the support of two teachers (Andries live, Rainer online) during the recording. They knew my piece well and suggested changes. Especially when the viola player asked me about some notes I was grateful to have them cause my reading skills in the alto clef are not that good yet 😀
It’s quite a big thing to sit in front of a professional quartet and to tell them what they should play. But it’s a great opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and to grow. This is a good practice for all the future work with musicians cause you have to learn to tell them what you want.
Another really nice thing was that we spend some time with other fellow students from the studies. It’s amazing to get to know them and to listen to all their experiences they made through the years.
All in all I’m really thankful for this experience though I’m really tired today and feel like I need a break from everything right now. I’m really happy about my recording as well even though one of the Decca tree mics somehow received radio so I can’t use it in my mix anymore. It’s a pity but not really a problem cause I still have enough other files I can use 🙂
All the best,
Sarah